At the moment there is a lot of talk about ‘Hard Brexit’, ‘Soft Brexit’, confusion as to the terms of the UK leaving the EU, confusion as to who has a say on said terms.
I’m sorry but to me; and excuse me for being simplistic, but if I had joined a club forty years ago I would have first had to accept all of the rules of that club, agreed the annual fees and I would have acted in the best interests of that club. However, if said club had over the past ten years or so started to act in a manner that was not in my best interest I would have wrestled with my conscience and if I felt strongly enough about my mistreatment I would leave.
In doing so I would have severed all relations with that club and would be free to join any other club or institution at my will.
The United Kingdom belonged to a club, a trading club initially but, it soon became apparent that the Officials who ran the club wanted it to be so much more than just a trading bloc. Their indifference to club members and the largesse afforded to certain supporters of the club led to widespread unease and distrust in the management of the club.
Fearing for his position as Prime Minister and also for his chances of winning a General Election, David Cameron gave the British people a referendum on the issue of membership of the EU (club). The questions were simple; ‘Do you want to remain in the EU?’ “Do you want to Leave the EU?”
As I said at the beginning of this blog post, to me the outcome of both questions is quite simple to understand. If the country votes to stay, then it stays as a member of the EU and accepts all rules and conditions associated with being a member. On the other hand, if the country votes to leave the EU then it does so on the understanding that it severs all ties with the EU and must stand on its own in the world.
The British people chose the latter and did so by a one million plus majority. To argue that because the margin between the Leave vote and the Remain vote was only just above 3% and that sixteen million people wanted to stay in the EU and this therefore gives these people a Right to have a say in the Terms of the UK’s departure is ludicrous!
Put simply, there are no ‘terms of leaving’ what is to be discussed are Terms of trade. This is not as big a deal as the anti Democratic Establishment MPs make it out to be. To listen to them one would think that the EU is the only trading bloc in the world and that we have made a drastic mistake in leaving it. This would only be partially true if that were the case.
No, we now have a fantastic opportunity to get back onto the world stage proper. Like a Mandela being released after forty years of false imprisonment. This is the UKs “Rainbow Moment”! Taking the analogy one step further, it does mean that before the rainbow we will have to weather the storm. So far we have been able to do so despite the whinging and whining from the unDemocratic Establishment figures who can see no further than their bloated egos.
We do not need to debate our terms of leaving, we do not need to debate what ‘model’ we adopt. What we do need to do is to get on with it and start the formal process. You cannot leave a club cleanly if the club management do not know of your intentions to do so.
Invoke whatever needs to be invoked, repeal the 1973 European Communities Act, Scrap the Common Agricultural Policy along with the Common Fisheries Policy and lets get on with it. As the they used to say in the old Wild West when starting a cattle drive. “Let’s git, daylight’s a wasting!’
