Remoaners must now accept that they have lost
EMBITTERED at the decisive rejection of their cause by the British people, the Remoaners latch on to any tactic which they hope might thwart the Brexit process. In their desperation, they seized this week on the decision of the Supreme Court that the Government must seek the approval of Parliament before triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, the clause that will formally begin Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union.
The Remoaners hope that the legislation to enact Article 50 will be the cue for endless obstruction, aiming to drown Brexit in a quagmire of procedural technicalities and legalistic impediments.
In this mood of defiance, Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry warns that “there will be hand-tohand combat” against the Government, while the Liberal Democrats boast that they will vote against Article 50 if there is no pledge to hold a second EU Referendum. Similarly, the Scottish Nationalists now talk extravagantly of tabling no less than 50 amendments to any Bill on Article 50.
All this anti-Brexit rhetoric smacks of gross hypocrisy. The Remoaners prattle about democratic accountability in the wake of the Supreme Court verdict yet they are seeking to overthrow the democratic will of British voters. Just as offensively, they now pose as the champions of Parliamentary sovereignty, yet they want Britain to remain under the governance of an unelected oligarchy in Brussels.
BUT on top of hypocrisy there is also epic selfdelusion. It is wishful thinking to believe that Brexit will be stopped by these manoeuvres in Parliament. The political reality is that the Supreme Court’s decision will make no difference to the process of Britain’s EU withdrawal.
As the increasingly impressive Brexit Secretary David Davis has pointed out, the official enactment of Article 50 requires only a “straightforward” piece of legislation, which could be just a few concise lines. Such a measure needs neither verbose amendments nor long-winded discussions. For all the fulminations of the Remoaners there is nothing to debate about Article 50. The British people have made their decision and it is the duty of the Government to get on with implementing their wishes. Davis himself said on Tuesday: “There can be no going back. The point of no return was passed on June 23 last year.”
The Government certainly has the numbers in the Commons to achieve this, not just because the Conservatives have an overall majority but because the Opposition is so broken.
For all Thornberry’s bellicose bluster, Labour is panicstricken by Brexit, which has highlighted the chasm between its pro-immigration, pro-EU, affluent metropolitan activists and its disillusioned, patriotic working-class base in the North and the Midlands.
The Lib Dems are of little account, given that their entire Parliamentary party could fit into an eco-friendly people carrier, while the credibility of the Scottish Nationalists is rapidly eroding as their leader Nicola Sturgeon makes her empty parrot cries for another independence referendum.
There might be trouble in the bloated and unaccountable House of Lords. But the Government could deal with that problem by the threat to create sufficient peers to pass an Article 50 Bill. Even if that failed, Theresa May has the ultimate weapon to smash any
THEIR negative campaign has failed. Since June 23, the hope of the pro-EU brigade has been that the mood of the country would turn against Brexit as a result of propaganda about economic catastrophe, international isolation and social disintegration.
But this has not happened. The idea of Bregret is another myth from the Remoaner factory of fantasies. As Britain’s greatest pollster, John Curtice of Strathclyde University, puts it: “Very few minds have been changed. There are few signs of regret.” If anything, support for Remain has declined. One recent poll found 20 per cent of Remain voters have “come to terms” with the result.
Brexit is now widely seen as the settled will of the British people. This mood of acceptance has been helped by a number of factors apart from the Government’s authority.
One is the continuing growth of the British economy, which has confounded all the Remoaner predictions of an instant meltdown. Another is the election of Donald Trump, which has shattered the claims of Britain’s global isolation. Where Obama sneered that Britain would be “at the back of the queue” for any trade deal, Trump is seeking a strengthened relationship.
Meanwhile, the EU continues its decline, brought about by its ideological follies and sclerotic bureaucracy. It is no wonder that the return of British freedom is viewed by the public with mounting enthusiasm.
‘Anti-Brexit rhetoric is gross hypocrisy’