Britons must make this journey together
Thursday’s referendum was a surprising revolution – hardly anyone expected it and few could believe it when it happened. We welcome it. The Britons who voted to remain inside a free trade zone in 1975 formed a sizeable proportion of the people who voted to leave an outsized political project in 2016. It was a rational decision and a courageous one. It need not prove tumultuous. Calm and unity should follow.
There is time to take stock. The vote for Brexit was a solid rejection of the status quo – but it also revealed significant divides within the country. Whereas Britain was once politically split between north and south, now we see something more complex – a gulf of cultural understanding that often has much to do with class, region and generation. That said, even if there were dozens of reasons to vote for Brexit the essentials of the debate were universally understood. People rejected the warnings of almost the entire establishment in favour of re-establishing selfgovernance of these islands.
The outcome was bound to pose challenges, especially given its unpredictability. The markets bet on Remain; the adjustment to Brexit was sharp. Businesses like certainty and the questions surrounding future trade arrangements, regulations and freedom of movement are bound to leave them worrying – just as they are sparking conversations among family members the length and breadth of the country. When will Britain leave, they are asking, and what adjustments will have to be made? Some EU leaders favour a swift exit; there are whispers of an example having to be made. Financial institutions will be looking to the Government to fight hard to defend their prized EU passport. And the resignation of Lord Hill, Britain’s EU Commissioner, only adds to the sense of fast-paced change.
It is up to politicians to inspire confidence and exert control. Yes, the referendum was a swipe at the political class. But that only invites them to up their game. Now we need decisive leadership more than ever.
Unfortunately, there have been signs in the last 48 hours that some have learnt little. Nationalists live to push for independence, so it is no surprise that they have demanded referendums in Northern Ireland and Scotland. But Nicola Sturgeon’s announcement that the Scottish Cabinet would not only push for a second referendum but seek a bilateral relationship with the EU was presumptuous. Her opportunism does the United Kingdom no favours.
Nor does the shambles that is Labour’s leadership. They, more than any other party, felt the lash of rebellion: Leave stacked up some of its biggest margins in the North-east. Speaking yesterday about the results, Jeremy Corbyn did acknowledge the anger in the regions but also patronisingly suggested that these voters don’t appreciate the benefits of diversity. While Labour ought to be offering its vision for how the country moves on, it continues to wallow in irrelevancies, anti-Tory rhetoric and infighting. It often feels as if Britain has no official opposition at all.
What it needs most, of course, is good government. David Cameron’s decision to timetable his resignation was an example of that. The dignity of his speech was a testament to his leadership abilities: Mr Cameron is a man of principle and enormous talents with a record of fine accomplishments behind him. The EU referendum was a gamble too far – although democracy is forever in his debt for having taken it. And we are sure that he will work to produce a smooth transition to power and the beginning of negotiations for Brexit.
What cannot help, however, is the spectre of a long and grisly Tory fight. This is not the time for
melodrama. Yet, as we report, recriminations are flowing and camps are briefing against one another. Of course politics carries on as normal and, yes, part of that is jockeying for control of Number 10. But the country faces profound changes that need to be managed very carefully indeed. And whoever does emerge from the coming scrum has to be a leader with both a commitment to fulfil the promise of the referendum and the ability to reunite the country.
For 48 per cent of people did not vote to leave the EU last week. Their opinion must be respected, too. And no one would want the next few years to be clouded by the fallout from this referendum – with constant bickering over what went right or wrong and endless battles over who to laud or blame. The truth of the matter is that the people have spoken and have charged Parliament with leading us out of the EU and into the wider world. We must make that journey together. In his speech outside Number 10, Mr Cameron nodded towards his beloved vision of a One Nation Britain. That is what we must work to construct in the coming months.
Mr Cameron is a man of principle and enormous talents. Democracy is forever in his debt Nicola Sturgeon’s opportunism over a second referendum does the United Kingdom no favours