Brexit: Now It’s For Real

The authority for the prime minister to go ahead and trigger Article 50 is now approved by a big parliamentary majority from MPs, most of whom actually campaigned in the referendum for Remain. But the accepted political reality is that although MPs have the right to vote according to their own judgement and not according to the wishes of their constituents and in spite of the fact that the referendum was advisory not mandatory, it would cause a constitutional crisis to go against the wishes of the people. This argument is accepted by this blog with very grave reservations. These include the fact that nobody was able to explain, or even understood, what Brexit would involve at the time of the vote and almost every warning or promise made during the campaign is either since shown to be misplaced or undeliverable. Moreover not everybody voted for Brexit.

Over sixteen million voted against it. This is not a trifling number and their interests must be protected by robust adversarial arguments because that is how our democracy works. There is a voting process and a debating process. To engage in the debating process is not to become an enemy of the people; it is to point out where things may not work as hoped and to offer a different solution. As things now stand we a headed for a hard Brexit. This is beginning to mean that we shall have to get close to Trump and Erdorgan for starters, who are probably the least favoured national leaders by the majority of Brits.

Very different to Auntie Merkel and the bumbling Hollande. Personally I see advantages is strong and assertive national leaders, but I recognise there is much about Trump that frightens even the stout hearted and arresting  multitudes in response to a badly executed coup attempt and having the largest number of journalists in prison in the world are Erdorgan achievements which repel many.  We must hope that everything works out and that those who have for so long wanted to detach from Europe (if we leave the EU that is what we do) will not learn to rue the day they finally achieved their mistaken ambition.

Meanwhile, we live in a parliamentary democracy, the Supreme Court has underscored what this means, which is that parliament is sovereign and it has to approve whatever is coming our way. That will involve both Aye’s to the right and No’s to the left. That is how our country works.