https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/17/theresa-may-britain-prime-minister-speech
Prime minister gives tough speech outlining government’s 12 priorities for Brexit negotiations
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Which ever way you
may have voted in last year's referendum on continued membership of
the European Union, one thing is today, in January of 2017,
abundantly clear. The United Kingdom is in complete and utter chaos
regarding our exit, or even non exit of the EU. There is no doubt
that 17,410,742, (51.89%) of those voting, opted for Brexit, while
16,141,241 (48.11%) voted Remain.
There is also no
doubt that Cameron was completely unprepared for a Leave result, and
quickly scurried off, standing down as first as Prime Minister and
then as the MP for Witney, to do other things outside Parliament. The
departure of Cameron left others to clean up the mess that the lack
of planning and foresight had created, but unfortunately for the
Country, the new Prime Minister and her party had even less notion of
"the next move" than Cameron had. The problem we are facing
today is deep and complex.
Firstly, the
division between the Brexit vote and those voting to remain, varies
not only between geographic locations but also within historic
political affiliations.
For example,
Scotland as a whole, voted to Remain taking 62% of the votes cast and
resulting in the whole country opting to remain as a member of the
European Union. Strangely, this was a major issue in the Scottish
independence referendum, where the government argued that voting to
remain part of the UK, was the only way for Scotland to stay within
the European Union.
Wales on the other
hand, voted to Leave the EU taking 52.5% of the vote, compared to
Northern Ireland where the Remain camp took 55.8% of the vote, with
just 44.2% voting for Brexit and in England, 53.4% opted to leave.
All in all a vote which has split not only the country, but also
created division within families.
After some 6 months
of dithering and confused thought, Theresa May now breaks cover with
her plan for "Brexit", announced not in the chamber of the
House of Commons where she would be, faced with questions from
members, but in the relative "safety" of a Lancaster House
press conference convened specifically for the purpose of unveiling
her 12 point plan. She may as well have continued with the dithering
and confused thought as the plan as presented has more to do with
appeasing her own backbench MP's, than with ensuring that the British
people obtain the best possible agreement, which may be salvaged from
the predicament created by the Cameron government.
In effect, the
Theresa May plan abandons huge elements of European employment
legislation which safeguards workers rights. Health and safety at
work, Agency worker protection, Anti discrimination legislation,
limits on working hours provisions, all these and others are at risk
under the Prime Minister's proposals. She also, probably for the
first time, concedes that the United Kingdom will rule out membership
of the single market and by implication rules out any "relationship"
with the single market, consigning this country to the prospect of
huge tariffs against our goods and services which could result in a
"trade war" with the continent.
Interestingly
enough, she still refuses to concede that Parliament should debate
the issue of triggering Article 50 even before negotiations commence,
(still seeking to bypass Parliament and disregarding what the Supreme
Court may actually rule) relying instead on some vague "promise"
that the House will be able to debate and vote on the "final
terms" of the deal which is of course completely meaningless.
The question arises
of course, that as each layer of lies, distortions and
misrepresentations are peeled away from the arguments and scare
scaremongering tactics employed by the Leave camp during the
referendum campaign, would the result be any different today?
There are already
many indications that a significant number of people feel cheated by
the lies and distortions, which suggests that opinion may well have
shifted in favour of "Remain". The result may still be very
close, but might certainly be very different.
There is still much
water to pass under the bridge before the United Kingdom's
relationship with Europe is eventually finalised, but it is
abundantly clear that Theresa May and her necessity to satisfy her
own MP's is contributing to the problem and not resolving it. There
is clearly a distinct possibility that she could be the Prime
Minister who presided over the fragmentation of the United Kingdom,
in pursuit of Conservative party interests rather than national
interest.
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