It is not ‘time to move on’ over Brexit: it’s time to fight

[Denzil_DC]

William Keegan

Shortly before the fateful referendum, Lord Carrington, the Tory party’s most distinguished elder statesman, was at a Sunday lunch in the country, listening patiently to the younger element discussing the merits or otherwise of one Alexander (Boris) Johnson. When they eventually paused for breath, the great man spoke, and brought the conversation to a halt with the simple remark: “Anyway, he won’t do.”

I recalled this episode last week when Ken Clarke, one of my favourite Tories of the generation after Carrington, and now in turn very much an elder statesman in his own right, was reported as saying something that could be paraphrased as “anyway, the referendum won’t do”.

What Ken apparently wrote in an email to a constituent was that most politicians “paid lip-service to the supposedly democratic nature of the [referendum] exercise”, but he would do his best “to contribute to mitigating the disaster that this decision on 23 June might otherwise cause”.

He said he would probably vote against any move to trigger, via the infamous article 50, the Brexit process, and noted the shambles the government has already got itself into over trying to square the circle of remaining in the single market and customs union while satisfying the anti-immigration lobby.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/sep/17/brexit-not-time-to-move-on-time-to-fight-eu-referendum?CMP=share_btn_tw

[al bupp]

2. I predict the Brexit will never happen

It will prove so daunting, complex, painful, and expensive that the current UK government will find endless ways to dawdle and prevaricate about the shrubbery. There will obviously have to be an election, since the Tories are split on the matter (much as the Republicans in the US are regarding Trump) and cannot be expected to actually bring the dissolution to completion. However, I do not see the Brexiteers winning a clear majority in parliament, and I think the most likely outcome will be years of more or less fruitless wrangling that only results in stalemate and defacto status quo.

[LeftishBrit]

3. I think this more-or-less sums up the situation:

https://musealoudblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/18/bob-consultant-brexit/

There’s a surprise. So you’re choosing the “hard” plan partly because people think you promised, even you didn’t, to solve a problem that doesn’t actually exist, which you helped create? Well, you’re in a bit of a pickle – I’d advise that you take it back to the board.

Oh we can’t do that, they’ve voted, we have to respect the vote.

But they didn’t vote on anything that made sense?

I know, it’s very tricky, but those are the rules, the board’s vote is final.

Hmm, OK, so how do you plan to proceed?

Well we’re not sure. It’s a bit of a minefield to be honest.

Can’t you just follow industry best practices?

There aren’t any, no-ones done this before.

No-one?

No, its very exciting. We’re at the bleeding edge....