A great analysis of Brexit here given by Fareed Zakaria of CNN. Obviously the view provided is unlikely to sway opinions on either side of the argument because I mentioned previously we’re all feeding off a broken political system. Ever since I started posting on the topic I was never a fan of the binary choices on the extreme end of the spectrum; one calling for EXIT BREXIT while the other essentially calling for EXIT at any cost and the reason is simply this; we are following opposing narratives championed by politicians on both sides in a broken system. What we seemed less focused on in this environment is separating fact from fiction and making judgements based on the merits of the argument. Now that we’re actually beginning to see reality kick in we’re so entrenched in our positions that even a discussion on any topic related to this subject matter is deemed pointless. Though I am a Remainer, my priority has always been for the country to be united tackling this thorny issue of BREXIT so that we all feel that our choices are not based on animosity/getting to the end line at all cost but rather based on facts to reassure ourselves that we’ve made what we believe to the best choice for the country at this point/time irrespective of biases which we all have. However this is NOT where politicians led us – they were primarily focused on scoring political points and we played along to become pawns in this political chess game that is leading us to an unnecessary self-inflected harm; one that is also being propelled by the meddling of foreign adversaries as well as internal special interest groups that are well off and least likely to be affected by the economic woes coming down the pike.
We are where we are and here lies the reality of the situation; if we do BREXIT in this environment we all lose much more than had we gone into it as a united country and fully prepared for the outcome. The problem now is that we have little time and more importantly little in the way of leadership with the skills/creativity to fight this battle; this while politicians are preparing for Phase A/B/C of BREXIT which is this; “passing the end line”. The reason for this singular focus is simple; no one has a clue how respond to the downhill spiral because this is not something one can prepare for. The only thing they should be preparing for – if they have a scintilla of intelligence and that’s a tough call – is for the public to come knocking on their doors once the ???? hits the fan.
Hopefully once we get over this thing called BREXIT and look back at it I suspect we will discover that it was fundamentally a crisis of on 2 levels;
- Crisis of Leadership; The lack of leadership is key part of how we got where we are. The question that we always struggle with when we think of replacing Corbyn or Theresa May is “who else” not because of their even basic leadership skills but rather because of the lack of choices – and what a timing, right! Despite of the fact that we do NOT lack talent in this country we seem to fear change rather than embrace it. The reason we are here – among others – is precisely because we do NOT have the right leadership in neither of the 2 main political parties when it is at moments like this in any nation that true leadership is desperately needed; the kind that is able to project confidence/integrity and able to unite the country while ensuring Democratic principles are protected through transparency, compromise while ensuring political decisions are based on merit/debate not binary choices based on pure narrow ideology or party politics.
- A Flawed Process; Instead of having our Democratic structures/processes resolve this nugget, we opted for a Referendum which was driven mainly by political narratives/narrow ideological biases rather than by facts and/or sensible options.
In other words it is certainly convenient for us to just blame politicians for this mess, but if we’re honest we’re also to blame because we’ve let them play us freely to reach the mess we face today and that’s sure as hell will affect us for generations to come irrespective of the fate of BREXIT. So what we should now keep focus on is the need to make changes not just of our political eco system but in how active we become politically while making sure politicians are held politically & legally accountable for their actions; we won’t be able to fix the past but the future is certainly within our grasp.