Brexit needs courage, not frightened rabbits
ANOTHER day, another absurdly apocalyptic Brexit forecast from Whitehall. This time it’s a nightmarish fantasy of what could happen if we leave the EU without a customs deal.
Critical shortages of fuel, medicines and food, the collapse of port authorities at Dover and the military being drafted in to distribute supplies to hungry multitudes. All that’s missing is a plague of frogs. The Brexit department, which commissioned the study, said the idea that such a scenario could happen was ‘completely false’. Former minister Iain Duncan Smith dismissed the civil servants who drew it up as ‘frightened rabbits’.
But in the absence of an aggressive counter message from Downing Street, this kind of tendentious rubbish is being seized on by Remainers as proof that leaving the EU will be a disaster. So shouldn’t Theresa May be out preaching the virtues of regaining control and becoming an independent trading nation once more?
This is a hugely important month for Brexit. The EU Withdrawal Bill returns to the Commons after the Lords sent it back with no fewer than 15 amendments – all designed to stall, dilute or reverse the referendum result.
They must be defeated. The unelected upper House is stuffed with cronies and party hacks. The idea that it could overturn the wishes of 17.4million voters is an affront to democracy. Even Remainer Lord LloydWebber says his fellow peers are profoundly wrong to defy the will of the people.
But unless Mrs May seizes back the initiative, they may yet succeed in wrecking the Bill. She needs to channel the same strength and resolve she showed in facing down Russia after the Salisbury poison attack and go on the offensive.
She must set out her detailed blueprint for our post-Brexit future and start preparing seriously for the prospect of no deal.
Chief Brussels negotiator Michel Barnier says Britain is living in a ‘fantasy world’ to believe we can have frictionless trade without being in the customs union. He also insists the whole of the EU is united behind him.
This is not only an insult, but also a gross perversion of the truth.
From Italy to Slovenia, Greece to Hungary, Eurosceptic parties are on the march. Many have sympathy with Britain’s position and it may not be long before we are joined in the exit queue.
Mr Barnier is in a far weaker position than he pretends. Mrs May should get tough and call his bluff.