Vote for Brexit and liberty will at last be within our grasp
THE moment for decision has almost arrived. This week, in one of the most important votes in Parliamentary history, MPs will either proceed with Brexit or plunge the country into further turmoil.
On their verdict depends the future course of our nation. One path ultimately leads to independence. The other drags us further into the mire of chaos and subservience to the EU.
Tomorrow, it is likely that the House of Commons will be asked a third time to approve the Prime Minister’sWithdrawal Agreement, her controversial EU departure plan which critics believe represents too great a compromise with the EU.
At first glance, Theresa May’s cause seems hopeless, since her deal has already been rejected twice, by 230 votes in January and 149 last Tuesday.
Yet since that second defeat, circumstances at Westminster have changed dramatically. Not only have MPs thrown out the option of leaving without a deal, but they have also sup- ported an indefinite extension in the deadline for departure if May’s agreement is rejected. These twin developments have brought a sharp new clarity to the process. The stark choice now facing MPs is between the Prime Minister’s deal, however flawed, and no Brexit at all.
MANY Tories who were previously hostile to May’s policy, such as former Cabinet minister Esther McVey, have woken up to this reality and now intend to back the Government.
Yet a group of Brexiteer ultras, perhaps as many as 40, refuses to budge. They see themselves as the guardians of a pure Brexit. Yet theirs is not a brave charge towards the enemy guns, but an act of epic self-sabotage, which puts the goal of British freedom at risk.
These hardliners still cling to their delusion about the possibility of a No-Deal exit. But that avenue has been comprehensively blocked by Parliament. Indeed, if the Government has to ask the EU for a lengthy delay after the rejection of May’s agreement, then Brussels will almost certainly impose brutal conditions including a second referendum, bigger payments and permanent membership of the customs union.
Some of the ultras argue that this eventuality could be avoided by immediately replacing May with a Brexit true believer, who would call a General Election and sweep the country. But that is just another fantasy, which, if enacted, could easily bring Jeremy Corbyn to power. After all, in the latest opinion poll, Labour are on 39 per cent, well ahead of the Tories on 35 per cent. The dogmatists are holding out for Utopia, when the prize of an escape from EU rule is actually within Britain’s grasp.
May’s deal might be deeply unsatisfactory but it offers a start on the journey back to self-governance. MPs will betray the referendum result if they opt for more paralysis when the chance of liberty beckons.
IF THE Government wins this week, then the current political crisis will be brought to an end. After the Battle of El Alamein in 1942, the Allies’ first decisive victory on land against the Nazi regime, Winston Churchill famously declared: “This is not the beginning of the end, but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
His words are apt for the Brexit process. May’s deal, if implemented, is just the start of our revival as a sovereign nation. The next stage will be the detailed negotiations with Brussels over the shape of our economic relationship with the EU, in which we should press strongly for genuine free trade.
It is too easy to exaggerate the extent of the humiliation inflicted by the squabbling, indecisive politicians. Britain has come through infinitely worse experiences in recent years, such as the Winter of Discontent in the late 1970s.
The country has been exasperated rather than bitterly divided. There has been no Brexit rioting. In fact, it could be argued that our democracy has been invigorated by the intensity of national debates.
Last Tuesday, a BBC TV Brexit special on the votes at Westminster drew more than four million viewers for an early evening news programme. Rumbustious discussion is an indicator of a vibrant political system. Only a totalitarian regime can introduce contentious policies without discord.
Ever since the referendum, the British economy has proved amazingly resilient. Employment is at a record high, earnings are rising at their fastest rate in a decade, and the fiscal deficit is at its lowest since 2003.
We are a great nation, with the capacity to write an exciting new chapter in our island story, if only the MPs will give us the opportunity.
‘To oppose May’s deal would be an act of epic self-sabotage’