We have to stop sulking ana

THE Union Jack bunting comes down in Parliament Square this morning, Brexiteers nursing hang-overs have reason to be cheerful.

The UK is finally out of the European Union, and with the Remain movement now confined to the history books following Boris Johnson’s stonking election victory, Britain’s post-Brexit future as a global free trade leader appears assured.

Yet having laid down their weapons after winning the referendum in 2016, only to find themselves unarmed against a rebel alliance determined to stop Brexit, Eurosceptics are not waving the white flag quite as enthusiastically as the Government had hoped.

The Prime Minister may have honoured his pledge to “get Brexit done”, but with the negotiations over Britain’s future relationship with Brussels only just beginning, it seems the battle lines are once again being drawn.

The war may have been won, but the question Brexiteers are now asking themselves is who is going to win the peace?

Although a number of Leave-supporting groups may be shutting up shop in light of Mr Johnson’s commitment to the regulatory divergence they have been demanding for the past three and a half years, the Brexit movement will continue – in both pressure group and think tank form.

Nigel Farage has already started talking about the Brexit Party morphing into a “forum for Brexit”, while The Daily Telegraph can reveal that a number of senior Tories have been working with Brexiteers from all parties on well established plans for a think tank devoted to developing a postBrexit policy agenda.

Tentatively named the “Centre for Brexit Studies”, the think tank will work with policy experts, researchers and pro-Leave business figures to focus on identifying key areas where policy should change once Britain has fully left the EU after the transition period ends on Dec 31.

Other Eurosceptic groups that plan to continue campaigning include Stand Up For Brexit, Briefings for Britain and Global Vision, a new organisation being set up by Shanker Singham, a trade expert.

A source close to the new Brexit think tank, which will be launched in the coming weeks, said: “Among Brexiteers, there’s very much a feeling that we can’t down tools. As far as Downing Street is concerned, it never wants to utter the word

On our first day outside the European Union, we know something very important. Democracy in the United Kingdom is resilient, alive and well. After widespread disillusionment with the whole democratic process through an uncertain three years, the events that finally confirmed January 31 as Brexit day showed the strength of our political culture. The electorate settled this argument, and much else besides, with a decisive outcome. The finality and legitimacy of that outcome is important important, for it means Brexit is not the product of a ruse, a procedural trick in Parliament, Par or a clever manoeuvre. Rightly R or wrongly, the British electorate el voted to leave the EU, and have reaffirmed that they meant m it. Many of us who voted vote Remain in 2016 always argued, arg once the referendum outcome was clear, that Brexit had to happen. Many others fought on, in pressure groups and opposition parties. Today is the moment they need to move on from such resistance. The thought of remaining is officially over.

Furthermore, Brexit is not an event that can be reversed in the foreseeable future, even if the British people suddenly changed their minds. At 11pm yesterday, the door closed behind British EU membership and it can never be reopened in the same form. Even if we wanted to step back through it, the terms would be quite different and less advantageous. Whatever the dangers or difficulties in our new world, there is no way back.

So while the 48 per cent who voted Remain should not feel they have to cheer this event, we all have an important choice to make about our attitude.

Are we going to be reluctant, grudging, embittered, and muttering “I told you so” for the next 20 years? Are we going to spend a large part of the 21st century in a giant sulk? Are some political leaders going to pretend that rejoining the EU is a possibility, clinging to past ideas as a substitute for thinking of new ones?

It is obvious there will be many huge challenges as a result of Brexit. New trade deals will be very tough to negotiate. Scottish Nationalists will exploit every problem to try to destroy the UK. Northern Ireland is beset with difficult issues.