Brexit plan that just has to work
IT IS far from perfect. In fact, it is about as far from perfect as I am from playing the male lead in the English National Ballet’s production of the Nutcracker this Christmas. But when you pause, consider all the facts and try to ignore the screeching siren voices on both sides of the debate, this Brexit deal is probably the solution to a crisis that has sucked the life out of the Government and left it unable to deal with any other issue.
Before you use this column to light the fire or line the budgie’s cage, kindly give me a few moments to explain my position in full.
Like so many of you, this is not the Brexit I voted for. However, for me leaving the EU was not akin to a religion, nor did I wake up most mornings consumed with anger towards the European Union, Brussels and everything it stood for.
That said, this was the opportunity to break away from a cumbersome, dictatorial, largely unaccountable bunch of self-serving politicians intent on the “European project” that seemingly knew no borders.
What was sold to us in 1975 (when I was too young to vote) as being of crucial economic importance had grown into a multiheaded, avaricious beast, complete with two parliamentary buildings, an anthem, flag, embassies, currency, bloated bureaucracy and, possibly, its own army!
It was no longer just about trade and kinship. It had morphed into brazen empire building and the irony that as one federation, the USSR, was crumbling they were flat-out assembling another should have been lost on no one.
The tactics could, again, have been borrowed from the Soviet Union play book. They bullied like the best of them, ignored pleas for help and if any member of the “federation” was foolish enough to try to escape under the wire with a referendum on their membership, they were instructed to have another vote until they got the answer they required.
Given this – and the rather ugly, intolerant way much of mainland and in particular Eastern Europe seems to be currently headed – the chance to declare “We’re a sovereign nation... get us out of here!” seemed too good to pass up.
Regrettably, the referendum was flawed from the start. While many of the arguments Remainers mount are baseless, the suggestion that a greater slice of the vote should have been stipulated to bring about such a seismic shift does have merit.
To allow such a monumental constitutional decision to be determined by 52 per cent against 48 was a fundamental error by David Cameron. Even a 10 percentage point difference, 55 to 45, would have helped enormously. As it is, the closeness of the outcome fuels the Remainers’ and others’ insane desire to bring about a People’s Vote.
This, of course, ignores that it was in truth the people who voted last time and when any of these campaigners are pressed as to what might happen if it was an equally narrow vote in their favour the next time, they have no answers.
It’s as if they want to go for a best of three. Another vote risks stirring up destructive forces, on both sides, and could be dangerously divisive. Once the referendum was called, the campaigning began and again this was of poor quality. On one side, the pitch seemed to be vague promises of sunny uplands and cash pouring across the Channel from Brussels. On the other, bullying was again deployed as we were told the birds would fall from the sky, there’d be riots in the streets and terrorists would roam unchecked.
Vital issues such as Northern Ireland, Gibraltar and the details of subsequent trading arrangements were sidelined, and that is why we find ourselves in this position.
What the deal allows for is for Britain to exit the EU and enter a transition period to finalise details. The anguish from the extreme Brexiters is understandable but do they imagine the EU was going to agree to a deal that made non-membership preferable to membership?
Their demand that we slam the table and walk away is unrealistic. While the gloomy Bank of England forecasts of the perilous consequences of a “no deal” are (again!) ludicrously over-stated, there is no need to run this level of risk.
This deal allows the UK to control immigration, stop the flow of incoming EU legislation and eventually stops us writing cheques of eyewatering value to pay for the set-up.
The other positive reason to vote for the deal is, in truth, a negative one: a rejection could lead to a second referendum, a no deal, a government collapse, even Jeremy Corbyn as PM. If for no other reason, that’s why this has to be a done deal.
‘A rejection could even see Corbyn as PM’