Don’t Stop Moving

The latest You Gov poll revealed a few interesting statistics. One is that Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party has taken a 14% lead, putting it on 42%. Translating into actual votes, I’d imagine this would give Johnson a handsome House of Commons majority in order to implement the hardest possible Brexit on the country. Another is this interesting – perhaps quite startling – section that suggests 67%, almost exactly two thirds of the electorate, would want to retain free movement for EU and British citizens. Only 15% want to end it. As Loyd Grossman would say, let’s look at the evidence:

My feeling is that few minds have been changed since the 2016 EU referendum. We can argue all we like about the reasons why people voted the way they did, we can speculate that many people didn’t really know what they were voting for and we can say, with absolute conviction, that they were lied to by the leavers but as a country, we are still hopelessly divided right down the middle. What does this tell us about the way forward?

I have always supported a Norway Plus Plus deal to leave the EU, with a view to offering people the opportunity to rejoin Europe at a later date. Whilst even Norway Plus Plus will damage Britain, it will not wreck it as a hard Brexit surely will. I have sympathy with the second referendum idea but I am still not there yet. The result of this poll is significant. Here’s why.

You Gov shows that most people want to retain free movement. I suspect they’d support staying in the single market and customs union, too, although the poll doesn’t appear to ask that. It would be a logical conclusion. We’d leave the EU, which would satisfy many leavers and we’d maintain many of the benefits of the EU. Hardline remainers and hardline leavers would be upset but at least we’d be able to get on with life as it used to be before Cameron’s disastrous referendum.

If only 15% of people support a complete rupture with Europe, there must be some hope for us all, even if it does mean leaving the EU. I don’t respect the result of the 2016 referendum but I do respect the reasons why many people voted to leave (though obviously not those who wanted to stop European citizens coming to work here and our citizens being stopped from being able to work in Europe). My suggestion is far more of a compromise on my part. I’d be willing to leave the EU if we maintained close ties with Europe. Anyway, that’s what the liars and shysters were telling us pre 2016, that we’d never leave the single market or customs union.

My way forward will never happen. Johnson wins and the country goes off a cliff. Labour win and it becomes immediately clear that Corbyn was a leaver all along. If the public still want Brexit, then they also want to retain many of the rights and freedoms Johnson and co want to get rid of. The trouble is, politics is politics and it’s very dirty. Johnson and his top team are the dirtiest of them all and we will all pay a heavy price if Johnson wins this election.