Revoke Article 50 debate

The government is fulfilling its duty to hold a debate in response to the petition which passed the threshold shorly after it was promulgated. Wits on Facebook have already pointed to the significance of the date of the event: All Fools' Day. More to the point, the debate will be on a Monday, usually a short day as MPs from outside the London travel-to-work region return from weekend constituency duty. Many may feel it expedient to delay their journey to avoid being seen to take part.

The government of course will field the most junior of junior ministers (if they have any left) and will no doubt fall back on their final redoubt, that there was a "clear" majority in "the" referendum on the subject and that because a former prime minister promised to honour that verdict, to deviate from the path of withdrawal now would lead to a loss of faith in democracy (implying bloody insurrection). He or she will add that all the MPs who matter were elected on a manifesto of withdrawal - another fruit of the cunning 2017 general election, called at a time when Labour (and, incidentally, Plaid Cymru) had a policy of accepting the verdict of the referendum. It is depressing that the only defence left to Mrs May is a narrow majority in a vote which has increasingly been revealed to be swung by a slew of corrupted campaigns. She has had to abandon the sanguine pre-referendum tone as it has become clear that we will be no better off, and probably decline economically in the short and medium term, under any form of Brexit while we will be no worse off by remaining, and will possibly be better off.

Labour will cover up their lack of an agreed distinct policy on Article 50 by concentrating on the governmental musical chairs together with Mrs May's failure to devise a withdrawal deal which would satisfy both the EU27 and her own party. They will no doubt throw in austerity, tax give-aways and the incompetence of certain ministers.  All too easy targets, unfortunately offering nothing positive, even where relevant. The SNP will offer only a reiteration of their demand for independence.

Project Hope, not Project Fear

Liberal Democrats, the Independent Group and Caroline Lucas for the Greens have the opportunity to rise above the party name-calling to make a positive case for remaining.  They can emphasise the opportunities the EU offers to young people in terms of travel and education - those young people who were denied a voice in the 2016 referendum. They can stress the positive aspects of freedom of movement: not only the benefits to the NHS and social services in all the home nations, but also the ability of our people to work across borders. (Four-fifths of UK citizens resident in the rest of the EU are there to work.) Music and the arts have been enriched by free movement.  We have also welcomed entrepreneurs from less business-minded nations who increase employment here as well as the tax take. The EU can raise standards - environmental, social, governmental and financial - which individual nations find difficult to maintain in the face of pressure from superstates and mega-corporations. We benefit from trade agreements with 61 other nations and from the expertise of the people who negotiated them built up over a generation. 

There must be more and I trust Lib Dem MPs, who have greater knowledge of the workings of the EU than I, will proclaim it.