WHAT OTHERS SAY

BREXIT WAS A BLUNDER

After delaying a vote in Parliament on the Brexit agreement she reached with the European Union, British Prime Minister Theresa May met Tuesday with European leaders. Her hope was that they might offer assurances — especially on the deal’s controversial provisions regarding Northern Ireland — that would calm opposition and persuade recalcitrant LAWMAKERS TO VOTE YES. BUT EVEN AS SHE STRUGGLED TO IND SUPPORT (AND worried about a possible challenge to her leadership of the Conservative PARTY), ANOTHER OPTION WAS GAINING INLUENTIAL ADHERENTS: THAT BRITAIN should hold a second referendum in which voters would be given the opportunity to rescind their vote in 2016 to withdraw from the EU. A second referendum is still a long shot, but it would offer the best way to correct what is clear now was an impulsive and ill-considered decision. Many of the voters who supported the “Leave” option in 2016 might have thought withdrawal from the EU would be a simple matter. In reality an abrupt sundering of a long-standing economic and political relationship would be a disaster. It would send shock waves through the British economy and disrupt the lives of Europeans (Britons included) who have become accustomed, among other things, to living and working in other EU countries. Brexit also threatened the peace process in Northern Ireland by raising the possibility of a “hard border” between Northern Ireland, which would remain part of the United Kingdom, and the independent Republic of Ireland. Precisely because Brexit was such a complicated and consequential proposition, May’s government painstakingly negotiated a detailed divorce agreement with the EU that would control the damage.

Los Angeles Times