Brexit even worse than the Three Blokes feared

Graham Hughes writes:

When we started #3Blokes we thought we could provide a service that nobody else seems to be doing: educating people on what #Brexit really means. I never dreamed we'd end up meeting some of the most important people from some of the world's most powerful organisations, and being educated ourselves. In no uncertain terms. I thought we knew a lot about Brexit. And, to be fair, we do understand more than most. But we've just been scratching the surface.

MAKE NO MISTAKE: Brexit will be worse than anyone who voted for it could possibly imagine. The people we spoke to this week in Geneva and Brussels left us shaken. At one point Jason actually burst into tears.

These people have the data. They have the lawyers. They have the experts. They've done the modelling, worked through every scenario; all possible outcomes. It's bad. It's really really bad. Like, terminal cancer bad. My fellow Brits, please, LISTEN. I know the Brexit vote made you feel good, and you actually got to make a difference for the first time in your life, but this ISN'T A GAME. If we don't stop this there won't be a rematch. It's over. All of it. If you no longer feel that Brexit is a good idea (clue: it isn't), it's time to stand up and be counted. The future of our incredible nation depends on it.

I know I will not persuade those people who believe that the repatriation of the roughly 10% of primary legislation which is mandated by Brussels is worth the economic hardship - hardship which will last for a decade even by the reckoning of some government ministers, and will be suffered by all Britons who are not in the business of financial services. But those who were relatively undecided in 2016 until they were swayed by Boris Johnson's misleading slogan, should check out the latest Three Blokes in a Pub podcast and reexamine their thinking. It is no shame to admit that one made a wrong decision based on lies, as hundreds of MPs did over the Iraq invasion. Even the Daily Mail is shifting its stance on the EU.

I admit that I was doubtful when Edward Heath took us into the European community. Since then, I have been agreeably surprised by the effect that decision has had on employment levels and general prosperity (blame austerity on conservative thinking, not the EU) and of course there has been the bonus of peace in the EU area promised by Heath, Denis Healey, Roy Jenkins and others who saw first-hand the effects of fascist dictatorships. Moreover, the EU has the mass to stand up to giant multinational companies which practically no single European government has the power to do. There are overarching food safety and environmental standards, great joint scientific and technical projects, and cooperation against crime and terrorism.

I would like to see a UK government with the backbone to say: "we now know that we were wrong to invoke Article 50 and we want to withdraw it". The EU27, who would suffer to some extent* on Brexit (some nations more than others), would surely be receptive to such a move.

But at the very least the government should give the people of the UK a chance to pass a verdict on whatever Brexit deal Mrs May can come up with as against remaining in the EU or even crashing out without a deal.


* The EU would lose up to 16% of its external trade. But the effect on the UK would be far worse. Not only do we stand to lose up to 44% of our exports, we would no longer be part of the trade agreements which the EU has with over 35 other nations.