I’m only in my mid thirties, and I’m from what until now has been a very stable political and economic power in the world. So it doesn’t mean much when I say that I’ve never seen such a terrible mess as the whole Brexit situation. But even if my comparisons are lacking this is a seriously intractable position we’re in, in the UK just now.
The referendum was not legally binding. However, failing to act decisively on the result is a breach of trust with the electorate, and could risk serious repercussions not just to a political party but to the rule of democracy in the UK. So, point 1, inaction is bad.
Point 2, we have already seen international repercussions from the vote, even though it’s not legally meaningful. By voting to leave, the British electorate has seriously damaged our relationship with the EU, especially. That damages our position for negotiation, both for the exit terms and for re-establishing ourselves in the international community. So, process one of acting has been made more difficult.
Point 3, the UK is made up of regions with devolved self-governance, in a limited manner. Although foriegn policy is reserved to Westminster, Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish First Minister, is absolutely correct when she says that while in England, democracy is served by exitting the EU, in Scotland and Northern Ireland, which voted to remain, such an act goes against the collective wills of their populations. It’s a “democratic deficit”. Even within the UK itself, the correct democratic action is totally unclear.
Rumour has it that the devolved parliaments in the UK had European law tied into the act that gives them their powers, which suggests each region would have to ratify the exit to make it legal. This sounds fair, but given the regional differences in the outcome it poses certain practical challenges to making the exit actually happen.
Point 4, the leave campaign was, um, less than careful with its promises prior to the referendum. This has lead to apparently widespread regret amongst leave voters as the consequences they dismissed as “scaremongering” start to happen after all. As far as I can tell, the Leave campaign had no plan for what to do once they won the referendum; it looks rather as if they are as shocked as the rest of us. So the people in charge of the referendum campaign are not presently showing any leadership or forethought about what happens now.
Point 5. David Cameron resigned, with little more guidance or leadership than “I’m not the right person for this.” However, this is a political action and he is the man in charge. He called the referendum in the first place. It is on him to set the framework for the next steps. If he abdicates this responsibility on the grounds that he was on the other side, then the tangled process has to be led by the leave campaign themselves, none of whom are in the government and none of whom are in any way empowered to act on behalf of the UK. This was a referendum, not an election.
What I would have expected was more along the lines of “I will resign, a new leader will be in place by November, and in the meantime Person X will act as temporary European Secretary. Their role will be to establish a framework by Date X which recommends the route forward given today’s historic vote.”
Instead the leader of the government is silent, and therefore the ministers of the government are also silent, and hence we’re left with journalists interviewing senior campaign figures and establishing that, in essence, it wasn’t their campaign, they can’t deliver their promises, and it’s not up to them to say where we go next.
I cannot say how reassuring Nicola Sturgeon’s voice and visibility have been to those of us in Scotland.
So Westminster can’t not act on the referendum, has lost substantial international goodwill to act, and is likely to trigger substantial regional upset with a concrete risk of the whole United Kingdom disintegrating entirely if it does act on the referendum result. Meantime there seems to be a complete lack of any charismatic and competent leader (Nicola Sturgeon excepted, only because she’s only empowered to speak for Scotland) steering us through, and the charismatic characters who got us here are totally failing to take an interest in what we do now.
Vote of no confidence and a general election, anybody? Can we abolish the current parties, confiscate their election funds and, for one emergency action only, provide campaign funds to smaller parties that are equal to the main parties, to increase the odds we get significant new voices in place?
turnnoffyourmind
pixelskylines
gummygunk
stormborns
dailybridgerton
prguitarman
