This was the most important political speech in decades
DURING my 52 years on this planet I’ve seen nine prime ministers in Downing Street. I’ve lived through good times, bad times, hope, fear and – last but not least – two referendums on Europe. But yesterday’s speech by Theresa May has to rank as the most important single speech by any British politician in my lifetime.
Because in serious, sober and sensible language the Prime Minister set out the key principles that will guide the Government as it negotiates our departure from the EU.
One thing that Remainers and Leavers can agree on is that Brexit will shape all our destinies. It will change the country. Which is why Mrs May’s speech was so important and its message so vital.
I want us to be a self-governing nation again, free from the EU. Last June, the British people made clear they shared that wish and voted to leave the EU. That should have settled the matter.
Certainly many Remainers – such as the Prime Minister herself – came to terms with the result the day after. Mrs May has been admirable in her determination to deliver the wishes of the electorate, despite campaigning for a different outcome.
SHE straight away grasped a fundamental message of the result – that the disconnect between the EU elite and voters was a dangerous threat to stability and democracy.
But the Remoaners have never accepted the referendum result and have come up with ever more convoluted arguments as to why we should not leave. They either don’t realise or don’t care how dangerous that approach is – that if they show contempt for voters and for democracy, voters will draw their own lesson about politics and democracy.
The six-month vacuum between the referendum result and yesterday’s speech, with the Government unwilling to spell out any specifics as to what Brexit would look like, gave the opportunity for all sorts of mad theories to be floated by the Remoaners. They said we could stay in the single market and that we could have some sort of associate