If the Labour Party conference last week wasn’t bad enough, then this week we have the Tory Party conference. Whilst Labour at their conference makes a token effort at making it appear democracy is at work, albeit under control of the conference arrangements committee who ensure no important decisions are made, the Tories make no such pretence. Tightly controlled, the Tories don’t debate anything at all. A few delegates speak and then everyone applauds the key speaker, even if it’s Theresa May.
May started her week on the Andrew Marr show with yet another display of slippery evasion. Five times she refused to say whether she would make any further concessions to the EU during Brexit negotiations but that was just a small part of yet another pitiful performance. She also emphasised the point that in voting to leave the EU, “the British people voted for an end to free movement”, meaning for themselves, too. I think she is on to something here.
I have found myself unfriended both on social networks and in real life when I was critical of mainly older people who voted to leave the EU because of the negative impact it would have on the future lives of their own children. I said that by voting to end freedom of movement, they would deny their children the same rights and freedoms they had enjoyed, the rights and freedoms to live and love in any of the EU 28 countries, to travel freely across borders, to study in any of the EU 28 countries and to work in any of the EU 28 countries. Some people got very animated and angry at my comments, but they remain true. Today, Theresa May has confirmed precisely this.
I realise that I may have underestimated the strong feelings of many people about the issue of migration. We all know that for large numbers of people, the ability of EU citizens to work and live in our country was a major issue. Indeed, much of the EU referendum campaign was concerned with stopping migration. The UK needed to “take back control” of its borders. I am not going to patronise people by suggesting that they didn’t know the end of free movement would be a two-way street. They must have done, even those who looked forward to returning to, say, Spain, at the end of their working life will have understood that unless free movement remains, they won’t now be able to do so.
I was wrong to accuse some people of ignorance about what Brexit would mean for them. I learned this by speaking with people, face-to-face or on social networks. I spoke to one man who held the sincere view that it would be well worth having foreign holidays that cost far more if it meant Britain “taking back control”. Others, some of whom live in EU countries, do not believe that UK government will “abandon” them and will ensure they can continue to live abroad, drawing their pensions as before. Now, I can argue until the cows come home that these scenarios are unlikely, but I admit I come from a pro-EU, pro free movement standpoint. The idea of maintaining the rights and freedoms we enjoy today did not convince enough people in the referendum of 2016. Call it what you like but we are an island state and soon it will begin to feel far much more like one as we pull up the drawbridge to Europe.
We know that Theresa May is hopelessly out of her depth as PM and has made an absolute Horlicks of the Brexit negotiations, as she concentrates on internal party politics instead of what benefits the British people. However, on one issue alone she has at least been honest. Unless there are compromises from the UK government, we will lose the rights to live, love, study, work and travel freely around the EU. I’m not sure it’s the will of all of the people but in the tainted, law-breaking, dishonest referendum of 2016 enough people decided that the end of all freedom of movement was their preference. And unless something dramatic occurs, the future will be one of visas, of endless bureaucracy, more and slower border and customs checks. At least we will have got out country back, whatever that means.
