20/10/2019
The following is provided as a glimpse of some very sound reasoning by someone who demonstrates a sound understanding of the issues surrounding Brexit, but who cannot share their views publicly because of their professional capacity.
The argument that we have 'had our vote' rather misses some vital points.
The difficulty is that the referendum decided only one thing: the issue of leave or remain, but not how we get there. It’s a bit like agreeing with your husband or wife that the marriage is over, but not agreeing how the marital property is going to be split, with whom the children should live or what the arrangements for contact will be. Image that scenario, and then imagine being the solicitor faced with a client who refuses to engage with these questions, and who instead simply keeps repeating the mantra that “divorce means divorce”. I’m sure you see the problem.
It is not true that the leavers have been clear in what they want, Brexit, whilst the remainers have been shifty. Far from it. At the time of the referendum the leavers were talking about remaining in the customs union and single market, but of leaving the political institutions. They talked of retaining all the benefits of membership. It is only subsequently that Brexit was redefined by the leavers to mean a complete rupture.
Then we have the fact that the leavers made promises at the time of the referendum campaign. We would retain all the benefits of membership, and lose all the obligations. We would be better off, wealthier and altogether in a position of strength. German car manufacturers would ensure that we had the best of everything. None of that was true. It’s now all about getting Brexit done, even though it is clear that will leave us poorer, more isolated, and at risk of losing Scotland and Northern Ireland. Imagine you agreed to buy a car on the basis that the salesperson told you it was a luxury limousine with the latest in technology, fuel efficiency and luxury. It then transpired that the car was a near derelict heap of rust. You would not be thinking you just need to get the deal done! You’d be running a mile on the basis that you’d been misled by the dodgy salesperson!
The claim that the referendum has democratic legitimacy ignores the wider issues of democracy in the UK. Under our constitution, the views of elected MPs are also democratically legitimate. Part of the problem is the tension between direct democracy, in the form of the referendum, with parliamentary democracy.
You should understand that, even if passed, Johnson’s deal does not get Brexit done. It merely sets out the terms on which we leave. What will then follow is years trying to negotiate new trade and other arrangements with the EU. We have to have such arrangements because Britain is, and always will be, physically a part of Europe. At the moment, trade with Europe accounts for nearly half our trade. To forego that would be ruinous. The Brexiteers seem to forget this. They talk of new trade deals with Australia and New Zealand in preference to France and Germany. That is insane. France and Germany are European countries on our doorstep. Australia and New Zealand are Pacific countries on the other side of the world!
In my opinion, and this is back to me, rather than my anonymous contributor, we are hampered by the extreme Brexiteers who claim to have voted for a no-deal Brexit and declare "Leave means Leave". These people approach Brexit with the same sort of disregard for facts and common sense as religious extremists and cult members.
No-one voted for a no-deal Brexit.
None of the leave campaigners pushed the idea that we would leave without a deal. They all said that we would negotiate a great bespoke deal, or at worst have the same as Norway or Switzerland. To suggest you voted for no-deal is, at best, disingenuous.
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