Sunday 8 July 2018

Broken words on Brexit

I predicted in a pre-general election interview in 2017 that the result of the Brexit negotiations would be a compromise along Norwegian lines, and so it has come to pass - except that the May scheme gives the UK even less control than Norway has. Even this assumes that the 27 will accept Mrs May's blueprint as the basis of the final agreement between the isolated UK and the diminished EU.  The deal satisfies nobody except the DUP and a limited number of businesses. It binds the cabinet together*, but rather loosely judging by the noises which are already being made.

What Leavers wanted in June 2016 was for the UK to stop sending money to Brussels immediately, and on day 2 to pass a short Bill repealing all the EU-orientated legislation. This is in almost so many words what David Cameron promised but instead he abrogated his responsibility. He headed for the hills (or rather his writing shed) leaving his party and the country to sort out the mess. We did not even have the immediate general election the situation otherwise called for.

What Remainers wanted was for the government to say that one could not take such a drastic step on the basis of a majority which a statistician would not regard as significant. Government should have told the electorate that they had got the message about immigration, and taken action (which EU rules permit) accordingly. Then there should have been thorough education about what the EU gives us, and how democratic it is.

I hate to think how much money has been spent on additional civil servants since the referendum, money which seems largely to have been wasted.

* correction: it did bind the cabinet together, but just after I first posted this message, I learned that David Davis, the government's nominal chief negotiator, has resigned. Was he upset at being by-passed by Mrs May and Stephen Parkinson?


1 comment:

Frank Little said...

David Davis has been followed out of the door by two of his parliamentary under-secretaries, Steve Baker and Suella Braverman. So far, no other cabinet minister has gone, but Braverman represents the sort of dry economic liberalism which is prevalent on the Conservative back benches, large enough to outvote the DUP MPs. So the signs are not good for this ephemeral government.