Well “March On” I would say, “but remember you’re going in the wrong direction!” Yet again we see a confused message from the Liberal Democrats leader in this article – link below. Why, well 3 reasons come to mind;
- A confused message of supporting a call for Exit BREXIT which implies exiting the process completely while also supporting a Referendum on the final deal. As a Liberal politicians it is no short of scandal to support Exit BREXIT which in effect means suppressing other’s view on this vital issue. This is NOT Liberalism my friend but rather the old divisive politics we as Liberals should be standing up against. At the very least you are confusing the message of what Liberals stand for – or at least should stand for, and exacerbating the division we see in the country. The message should be about unity for vision and inclusive process pure and simple.
- The idea of supporting a Referendum on a final deal is also futile because as I mention in this post it (point 4); “BREXIT team is keen to embed hard BREXIT tactics to sever ties with the EU at this early stage of the negotiation to ensure these actions are irreversible by the end of the process. It follows that any decisions taken by parliament or through another referendum at the end of the process to reverse some of these actions will be highly unlikely or quite complicated/costly to achieve”
- The other equally important element people sometimes miss is that the longer we are in this limbo land the worse it will for us economically, in our relationship with the EU and overall our reputation internationally will suffer on all fronts – and good luck when negotiating new deals/finding someone to deal with in the first place. So in my view this idea of Referendum on the final deal is a non-starter.
So all in all quite a sad state for Liberalism in this country when we see Liberal leaders going off track at moments like this where a political challenge can be transformed into an opportunity for the Liberal vision to shine. Unfortunately no vision but plenty of tweeting and leading from behind, literally. Reminds me of a quote from Minister James Hacker of Yes Minister; “It’s the people’s will. I am their leader. I must follow them”. Turns out that Yes Minister/Prime Minister is NOT a comedy but rather a documentary.