Swallow your pride, Tories, and bin Brexit

IT would be nice to wake up one morning to find that the whole Brexit fiasco was just a bad dream.

Sadly, it is reality. Cameron’s fear of the Ukip threat led him to call a referendum which gave a majority to the Leavers – 52% against 48% for the Remainers. This led Theresa May to say “Brexit means Brexit – the British people have spoken”.

True, there was a majority in favour of leaving, but as we now know, this was a gross over-simplification. Many voted to leave on the basis of a promise by Boris and Gove – that the NHS would be £350m better off. This was a blatant lie. Sadly, but understandably, a lot fell for it and voted accordingly.

This is a good enough reason to question the validity of the result.

Reduced to a rugby score we can see, despite people voting on the basis of a lie, that the result was still very close. Remainers 12 points (sorry, two tries and a successful conversion), Leavers 13 points (two tries and a successful penalty kick).

On the basis of that result Britain is in turmoil.

A further worrying point is that an analysis of the figures shows clearly that the vast majority of the over-60s voted in favour of leaving while the

vast majority of the 18-30 group voted to remain. The future of this country could be decided by the over-60s, and being uncomfortably close to my 80th birthday, I am one of them. This is the section of the electorate which faces a very limited future – while those with the longest future ahead of them are in the 18-30 group.

Unlike the Scottish referendum on independence, the group with the longest future of all – the 16- 18-yearolds – were denied a say in the result altogether.

I am a democrat but democracy will not always reflect common sense.

Still dreaming, I wake up one morning to find that the Tories have come to their senses, seen the futility of Brexit and asked the EU for permission to withdraw the application to leave. Yes, this would leave Britain with a lot of egg on its face – traces of which would remain for decades – but this would be infinitely better than leading the British people to commit political and economic suicide. This would of course require an immediate and sincere apology to the countries of the EU for wasting time and resources.

An apology should also be offered to British and some European businesses for creating an excruciatingly long period of uncertainty. Manufacturers, farmers and the service sector found difficulty in deciding whether to invest, how much to invest and, indeed, what country to invest in.

For a similar reason the British workforce deserves an apology for the worry regarding jobs, wages and workers’ rights that Brexit created.

Perhaps the biggest sorry of all should be offered to the vast number of EU citizens working in and contributing to much of the British economy. I am thinking in particular of the NHS. This hugely important service would collapse were it not for the contribution of EU workers. As a cancer patient since 2008 I owe my life to some of these immigrants.

Come on, Tories, admit the mess you have created and grasp the only way out – bin Brexit! DD Jones Carmarthen