No.18 - 'Brexit Paralysis': From Farce to Tragedy
Dear James,
The current Brexit situation is quickly moving from farce to tragedy. This morning Jeremy Hunt introduced us to the latest neologism in the Brexit lexicon - ‘Brexit Paralysis’. It is perhaps a last attempt to cover up the fact that Theresa May’s deal has been dead in the water for the last couple of months and probably much longer than that. Mr Hunt seems to have replaced her famous ‘no deal’ with this new idea of ‘stasis’ or ‘nowhere else to go’. It was almost embarrassing to hear him wriggling in this ever tightening circle of contradictions. Of course there is somewhere else to go! It is back to the people! The other tired phrase that Mr Hunt used this morning was ‘we need to come together’. This verges on the insulting since from the the start of Mrs May’s premiership this was the last thing she has done. I have said it before but her major strategic mistake was made when, right from the start, she adopted the stance of her Brexiteer Ultras. Like the rest of her party she was scared into this situation by the ‘continuous noise’ of these anti-Europeans. Now, yesterday, we hear she has actually ‘reached out’ to Len McClusky of all people to help get her deal through!. If that does not smack of sheer desperation, I don’t know what does. I am afraid that Mrs May’s strategy is almost at its end as may her time as PM. Next Tuesday I shall be in Germany watching the vote from a position of a relatively, calm and rational country which is bewildered by the harm that our country is doing to itself.
As our national crisis develops it is clear that at some time in the near future the nation does indeed need to come together. Mrs May’s Brexiteers ran out of arguments a long while ago. They are a busted flush. Alternatively, Mr Corbyn’s claim that an election will deliver us into his hands to ‘renegotiate’ the deal with the EU is pure, cloud cookoo land. Our country is in desperate need of a leadership that is both outward looking and pragmatically radical. It will not get this from the current Tory or Labour Parties. The Tory Party would have to relinquish its ‘public schoolboy’ vision of earlier greatness The Labour Party will have to give up its equally emotional attachment to twentieth century socialist utopias.Before this new regime emerges, we need to understand what is wrong with our country. Whoever wins the current Brexit debate, they cannot return us to the status quo ante. We have to address the many genuine grievances of those who voted for Brexit and to do this we need either some form of National Enquiry or a new Party that will return Britain to a radically updated version of the common sense path which we were all once proud of. A National Commission of Enquiry should spend a long time talking to everyone and on the basis of the results of the enquiry and should, for example, address constitutional questions e.g the first-past-the-post system which blinded our parties to the current national anger.
From your recent response to our e-mails, I cannot believe that you are still entertaining the idea that the EU will be willing to give any further concessions at this late stage. It is time to face the facts James. Mrs May has been wrong all along in refusing to see that 2016 was a very close vote that required her to negotiate from a middle position. She is now in a dead end those of you who have supported her will very soon have a very difficult decision to make. The time will soon have come to vote for a Second Referendum. I hope that you will be able to do this James.
Kind regards,
BH - Your Concerned Constituent