There is no plan!

Friday, 24 June will remain forever a watershed moment for British politics.

For a very long time, the United Kingdom has been respected and revered for a sedate and composed style of politics. This time, British politicians have thrown caution to the wind with Brexit, leaving millions gobsmacked with a resolute ‘leave’ vote from the European Union project.

Clearly an internal problem within the Conservative Party has led to what many believe was a truly uncalled for referendum. Rightly or wrongly, David Cameron is being accused of having placed his short-term partisan interests before the greater interests of the nation with the attendant consequences of Friday week’s vote. What was an internal party dispute has ballooned into a major European and global crunch.

The end result has now unleashed a crisis not only for Britain, as it faces a seriously uncertain future, it has rocked the British political establishment as the main parties who have enjoyed hegemonic status for decades face internecine bloodletting which seems to be getting worse by the day. The accusations are coming thick and fast and the British electorate suddenly realises that behind Brexit there was no real effective plan.

The main players behind the Brexit front, Michael Gove and Boris Johnson, have been astoundingly suave in stating that they have no plan to deal with the result for which they so assiduously worked during the last few months. No plan! The Brexiteers have even had the gall to accuse 10 Downing Street of not having a contingency plan they could comfortably call their own!

It is simply amazing that experienced and seasoned politicians would gamble the fate of their country simply to assuage their personal political interests. Clearly the consequences of a Brexit vote have yet to be digested. A week in politics is truly a long time but dealing with the aftermath of this result will take months and years. Extricating the UK from this quandary will take ages as it grapples with a multitude of issues attempting to re-invent itself as a new outsider on the global stage.

Two important issues remain sore sticking points. The first is the callousness many politicians adopt nowadays in the quest for ultimate power – crafty and strategic campaigning that plays beautifully on the senti- ments of a sometimes unsuspecting electorate and making promises with an innate understanding that most of what’s on offer is simple rhetoric and media swashbuckling. When push comes to shove, reality becomes a very, very cold dish indeed! It is simply shameful for would be leaders to speculate and gamble with peoples’ lives and futures simply to obtain their ultimate prize. It is Syriza and Tsipras all over again!

The question now is where does the EU go from here? As I listened to politicians from around Europe this week it is clear that there is still a major disconnect between what member states feed their electorate and what they conjure up in Brussels. Leaders must stop blaming the EU for their own internal failings. The image of Brussels has become the favourite whipping boy of aspiring and actual incumbents who use the EU as a sort of safety valve to atone for their political sins. The EU is – in the end – a product of the member states, there are no two ways about it. This strategy has continued to disaffect many electorates around Europe, and Brexit is one such consequence.

Only time will tell if Lord Heseltine was right when he stated last week that Gove, Farage and Johnson have sold ‘a fool’s paradise’ to the British public!