No.2 - A Second vote please!
Dear Mr Cartlidge,
Many thanks for your prompt reply to my letter of yesterday in which you set out your reasons for adhering to the current Tory Party line in the Brexit situation.
After last night’s 1922 Committee meeting I am afraid that all I see is more kicking the can down the road. Your party has once again decided to adopt the clothes of unity, yet again putting off the big decision. I understand your dilemma; it must be quite excruciating. Behind the unity front, it is clear that the splits inside your party continue. Sometime soon you will have to decide whether to back the unreasonable ideologues in your party calling for a total break or those who would prefer a ’soft Brexit’. Unfortunately, Mrs May is discovering the hard truth that the ideologues have for ever been dismissing as ‘project fear’. That is that the EU sees much more advantage in maintaining its Single Market and Customer Union intact, than to giving concessions to keep the British happy. When only 7% of total EU exports come to Britain, 48% of our exports go to the EU. Surely the figures speak for themselves? Mrs May and your party have come up against the brick wall of the union which you are trying to leave. What took you so long? If you wish to have your ‘soft Brexit', you will have to pay for that privilege. Surely that is fair because we are leaving the union and the EU will not wish to confer privileges on a third country that might attract others to follow in our wake? In that sense, the Brexiteers in your ranks have taken a more logical stance. A clean break would be pragmatically more logical. In commercial and economic terms however, it would be disastrous and set this country back twenty to thirty years.
Should by any chance Mrs May get a deal with the EU, it will probably mean that we can continue to trade on roughly our present terms but we will lose all influence in EU decision making, not to mention the price we will have to pay for the privilege of being in a custom’s union. The question then, would be, what is the point of the exercise? Just to assuage the post-imperial nostalgia of this country’s older generation? That would not be in the interests of the younger Britain which clearly would prefer to stay in the EU.
Finally can I comment on your views about the Referendum and democracy. Mussolini and Hitler understood the charms of a single referendum. The Swiss, much more used to this democratic device, usually call for a ‘Confirmatory Referendum’ to follow the first referendum. It is to allow people to consider their first vote after time to consider and reflect on all the subsequent debate. The decision made by the British parliament in 2015 lacked the political wisdom of the Swiss. Our traditional democracy has a built-in system of regular adjustments on voting decisions. It is called a general election which is called every 4 years. This allows the nation to change its mind. The Referendum is a one-off decision that attempts to commit the nation to a decision with none of the usual constraints. It is a totally ‘UnBritish’ phenomenon which we must now roll back especially since the margin of the first Referendum was so narrow.
For the sake of our country I truly hope that Mrs May and your Tory Party can find some way to give this country what it needs - sensible, firm government fully connected to our nearest neighbours. The chances however are slim and, in my humble view, if parliament cannot decide for the people, then the people must be allowed to decide for themselves.
Kind regards,
BH - Your Concerned Constituent