Time to face down the Brexit fanatics
THE aggressive stance adopted by Theresa May towards the EU during her speech in Belfast was once again a case of playing to the gallery.
Having lost her majority last year, the Prime Minister is beholden to her helpers in the Democratic Unionist Party, whose intransigence in opposing any proposed solution to the Irish border problem is one of the reasons why Brexit negotiations have become such a mess.
Mrs May got the short-term plaudits she was seeking from her allies, but her comments made a difficult relationship with the EU even worse.
By telling the EU that time was running out and that they needed to be more flexible in their response, she was stealing a line from the script Michel Barnier has been using for more than a year.
The time will surely have to come when Mrs May realises that she has no cards up her sleeve. The UK’s negotiating position was weak from the outset, but the lack of coherence and the chaotic tweaking of the Chequers agreement to appease Jacob Rees-Mogg and his band of Brexiteer ultras have taken us to a new nadir of national ignominy.
Meanwhile Mr Barnier, the EU’s wily chief negotiator, delivered a scathing assessment of the White Paper that followed on from the Chequers “agreement”. Hailed in some quarters as the document that would lead to a historic compromise, he dismissed its contents as unworkable and unacceptable.
It should have been clear to any sensible observer that the UK’s proposals amounted to another example of having one’s cake and eating it, but sadly good sense is an ever-diminishing phenomenon in our current Brexit plight.
Regrettably, we also have a main opposition party at Westminster which is unable or unwilling to take a lead. The Labour Party is terrified of losing support in constituencies it holds that voted Leave. It should take a longer view and understand that the electorate will punish politicians whose wilful stupidity leads to a “cliff edge” Brexit where the economy is wrecked, food shortages abound and we are all poorer.
If this appalling scenario comes to pass, the disenchantment with our political system will far exceed anything we have seen so far and people will turn to the extremes. We cannot afford to indulge the hard Brexiteers for much longer. If Mrs May is not prepared to face them down, she should make way for someone who is.