A matter of a few weeks after the referendum decision to leave the EU, a petition was launched calling for a second referendum. Many of my pro EU friends signed it. I didn’t. The only reason why a remainer would call for another referendum was because they thought voters had got it wrong. But they hadn’t got it wrong and it would be extremely patronising for me to suggest otherwise.
To be honest, I am tired of the whole wretched debate now. It’s been going on for far too long. It was the most divisive national ballot of my lifetime, as binary decisions will always be, and while the initial dust has settled, the consequences are yet to hit us. Whatever the consequences are both sides of the debate will have to live with them, not call for further ballots until the public vote the “right” way.
Before, during and after the vote itself, politicians were at their very worst. Because of the apathy and ineptitude of Jeremy Corbyn, the entire campaign turned into an argument between David Cameron and Messrs Johnson, Gove, Duncan Smith and all the other outers. There were simple black lies (“the NHS would get an extra £350m a week if we left”) and there was wild exaggeration from the remainers as to the consequences of leaving. We all know that, in the end, it all came down to immigration, not a concern of everyone, I admit, but to enough people to swing the vote. The politicians are no better now.
The blindingly obvious situation now though is that no one has a clue what to do. “Brexit means Brexit”, parroted Theresa May all summer long, never once saying what on earth Brexit meant. And today she sent out key Brexiteer David Davis to say precisely nothing about what Brexit means. I saw part of the debate, such as it was. Davis and her Labour opposite might as well have thrown custard pies at each other for all the difference it made. The point is that we, the electorate, have voted for something that none of our politicians really understand. They now have to find out what Brexit means, explain it to us and get on with bringing it about.
May will not get away with empty words like “making a success out of Brexit” for much longer. Granted, she was not herself a Brexiteer (she kept her head down throughout the campaign, cynically or because she had nothing to say?) but many of her senior ministers were.
No more petitions, please, and less of the spin and crap. Let us know what you want Brexit to be, Mrs May, and once you have done that, trigger article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and take us out of the EU. I don’t want to leave the EU but 52% of the public did and that’s enough for me.
