Beware the MP – and Tory leadership contender – who claims there are easy ways out of Britain’s Brexit crisis
In the aftermath of Sunday’s European election results, and as the ranks of Tory leadership contenders swell, every MP should be in a state of alarm about the condition of British democracy. The problem is not that people are denied a voice – millions of opinions have been freely expressed in polling booths – but that parliament looks incapable of satisfying voters’ conflicting demands.
Brexit, as it was sold to the country in 2016, cannot be delivered. The view asserted by Nigel Farage and much of the Conservative party that pro-Europeans are refusing to deliver it is false. It is true that parliament prevented the UK from leaving the EU without a deal, but that outcome would have betrayed promises made by the leave campaign three years ago. The offer of that campaign was an easy glide into a brighter future where Britain would have “taken back control”. But the reality of unilaterally breaking treaty ties with the EU would be a surrender of control. Within weeks, possibly days, the prime minister, whoever that might be, and regardless of their preferred Brexit outcome, would be seeking emergency agreements in Brussels to avert chaos and restore severed links. The balance of power that favoured the EU during article 50 talks would be weighted even more heavily. The UK would be reduced to a supplicant.
Continue reading...from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2KaYsC5
Comments
Post a Comment