Shropshire Star

Political column

Fast forward 18 months or so, and I bring you an uplifting vision of a divided Britain united once more over the issue of Brexit.

Published

Here is the scenario. The negotiations with the EU have been tough and the calls for a referendum to allow British people to vote on the terms of the deal have become irresistible.

The deal will see Britain remaining in the single market and customs union for an indefinite period, and continuing to pay in substantial sums to EU coffers.

And here is the result of that referendum. It is overwhelming. Over 90 per cent of Britons have rejected the deal. It is a stunning display of national unity.

Over on the BBC, Sir Vince Cable makes a statement.

"This is a victory for the British people," he declares.

"Brexit is dead. Long live the EU!"

But what's this? Over on ITN, Nigel Farage is on screen.

"This is a victory for the British people," declares Nigel.

"Brexit means Brexit. No deal is better than a bad deal. And this is a bad deal."

In the House of Commons, MPs hold their own vote. Tory rebels and Labour MPs reject the deal.

As both Remain and Leave camps take to the streets in celebration, hurling rocks at each other in a friendly, unified manner, the nation as a whole finds itself up the creek without a paddle.

Everyone's a winner. And nobody knows what happens next, and nobody can agree what the votes actually signify.

Of course, a second referendum may not happen, but a vote in the Commons will, and so will the EU vote on the issue, and the possibility that any deal will be rejected is a real one.

As if Britons have not lived through enough interesting times, there will be some more interesting times to live through.

Already the slogan which carried the day for Brexiteers in June of last year, Take Back Control, has an ironic feel to it.

The vote itself was considered by the Establishment, for want of a better word to describe the various forces within Britain who determine the future of the country without the need to consult the people, as a reckless ceding of control to voters of such an important issue.

Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's spinmeister, described allowing people to vote in a referendum on Europe as "dangerous."

The process of taking back control, slow at first, has gathered pace relentlessly.

After the initial shock they have formed a wagon circle around the M25 and are discussing the awkward state of affairs among themselves within Bubbleville and are finding there is much on which they can agree.

The referendum result revealed some things which are not specifically related to Brexit, but more to the make-up and governance of modern Britain.

London is seriously out of touch with the nation as a whole, and any view expressed in London should not be assumed to be at all representative of anywhere but London.

And they do not get out much, so the group-think of politicians and media who live and work there is deeply ingrained.

Part of the process of taking back control has been taking back control of the framing of the post-referendum debate. It is almost entirely concentrated on the economic merits of EU membership - and if the Common Market, the European Economic Community, has nothing going for it from an economic perspective, then gawd help it.

What's important? The economy, stupid?

However, the economic argument was not a trump card in the referendum. Voters clearly weighed up all the cards in the pack, including immigration, democracy, and self-determination, the things the politicians thought indecent to talk about.

Indeed, if you believe Emily Thornberry, Labour's shadow foreign secretary, people who voted to leave the EU were quite happy for it to be at the cost of lost jobs and economic damage. She said that those who voted Brexit voted to destroy the jobs of their neighbours.

Obviously they did not see it like that, but it does make the point inadvertently that the business voice which is now king was not king in the minds of 17 million Leave voters.

Theresa May, in her Florence speech in which she stopped being beastly to foreigners, outlined plans for an implementation period in which Britain will in effect remain in, and pay substantial sums into, the EU, even after it has technically left.

That's our idea, says Labour, although Jeremy Corbyn - he's the party leader, so we have to assume his view counts for something - says that this transition period will be "as long as necessary," which could mean forever.

Labour incidentally does have a particular difficulty in that continued membership of the EU is incompatible with the party's nationalisation proposals.

So politically, there are the makings of a consensus.

To put it another way, using another slogan, we are all in it together. Which isn't necessarily reassuring.