David Robertson on Brexit

'That was some week for the Prime Minister. At the beginning of the week she was dead in the water and a complete flop. At the end she is superwoman – having faced down the might of the EU and taken the Brexit negotiation on to another level. Her job is now safe (until after Christmas) and almost everyone is satisfied. Those who want Brexit are saying that we are on our way – out of the ECJ, out of the Single Market and Customs Union – and into a bright new world of free trade alliances and freedom.   Those who want the EU are saying that we are on our way to staying in the SM and CU so whats the point of Brexit anyway?   (Its ironic that they do not see that claiming the British people did not vote to leave the SM doesn’t quite square with s'taying in the SM is basically the same as staying in the EU').   It all depends what paper you read and whose Twitter feeds or Facebook page you follow.

As regards Mrs May it is possible that as Juncker and Barnier declared, she is a brilliant leader and negotiator who has compelled the EU to back down and compromise. She could be the first Tory Premier in living memory who has either been deceived by the EU or deceived the British people.  Where Margaret Thatcher failed, she will succeed.

Or it could be that she is just the same as the rest. Living in a fantasy world, thinking that the EU will compromise and give her what she wants. When Juncker and Barnier are putting their arms around you and telling you ‘welcome to the club’, you know there is something wrong! When the arch-europhile Ken Clark congratulates the Prime Minister on her negotiations one wonders what is going on.   Perhaps rather than being Thatcher, she is like Chamberlain, returning from Brussells with a piece of paper saying ‘Brexit in our time’!

But there is a third option.   My fear is not that the Prime Minister is being fooled but that she knows exactly what is going on, and that she will get exactly what she wants.   Remember she did vote to remain. Britain will in effect remain in the EU – if not in name- at least in practice.   The EU will use the excuse of the Irish border to ensure that the UK stays regulated and controlled by the EU. Then they will have the best of all worlds – a Britain unable to trade freely with the rest of the world and a Europe unhindered by British politicians who don’t buy into the federalist dream of Schulz et al. 

It is the latter case that seems to me the most likely.   The political class are as a whole, thoroughly wedded to the EU. Most of the Tories, the Nationalists (whether Irish, Scottish or Welsh), the Lib-Dems and the Blairite Labourites will go along with this vision/nightmare. A sign of this establishment unity is indicated by a grand banquet which was held in London recently. The guest speakers were strongly anti-Brexit; Chuka Umunna, Anna Soubry and Nick Clegg.  The dinner cost £2,000 a head so it is no surprise that it was the elites city fat cats, the bankers and politicians, all determined to overturn Brexit. In that sense I do not see much difference between most of the political parties. Brown/Blair/Campbell/Osbourn/May/Hammond/Starmer/Sturgeon/Lucas/Cable are all basically of the same ilk.   Its strange to say but probably the only hope for those who want Britain out of the EU is Corbyn, who if he remains consistent to his life time political philosophy is Bennite in his rejection of the centralized Thatcherite Single Market.

One of the many ironies of this is that the DUP will end up giving up the independence of the UK, in order to keep Northern Ireland in the UK. But the question then arises – if the UK is subject to the EU does it really matter whether Northern Ireland is subject to the EU, in or out of the UK?

“We’d go from being a member of the internal market to being a subject of it. We’d check out but never leave.” - Spiked'