Sometimes I idly wonder what life might have been like had the UK voted to remain in the EU in 2016. I also wonder what might have happened had those people in power and their minions who preached the litany of Leave had actually been truthful about the implications of that decision over two years ago.
Either way we (the UK) seem to be plunging headlong into a catastrophic political and economic abyss with no one with any common sense at the tiller.
The fact now is that in essence, as I type in mid January 2019 the UK has no workable government. Nor a viable alternative to the shambles that is currently 'in power' in Westminster. If one watches any news program, the discussion of British politics has almost stopped unless there is some kind of cock up (Windrush, Grenfell, Loss of 5,000 jobs at LandRover, Collapse of Universal Credit etc.) and all that remains is Brexit.
Following the defeat of the government on various votes in the lead up to the eventually pulled 'meaningful' vote before Christmas 2018 and the same pending vote, scheduled for next Tuesday we seem to have no coherent thought leadership from any political viewpoint.
The right wing of the Tory party seem to want to force a hard Brexit with no deal in place with the EU. The left wing of that same party are working actively with Labour to undercut the deal Prime Minister has negotiated with the EU and the Euro Sceptic centrists, largely the PM, cabinet ministers and their juniors, vastly in the minority of the Parliamentary Conservatory Party are becoming very boring repeating the same mantra about the best and only deal available.
Meanwhile, Labour seem to have no position other than to be against everything Tory and demanding a general election which, on todays opinion polls (and depending on who offers a second referendum one suspects) no one would win outright and plunge us into an even deeper crisis potentially. My question to Labour would be - what the hell is your position other than wanting an election.
The frustration is of course, now that the truth is out and everything about a post Brexit arrangement, regardless of the type of Brexit : soft, hard or evenly fried is worse it seems than being in the EU. It is difficult to imagine any final result which won't continue political, economic and social upheaval for a generation to come. We are a nation of shopkeepers lead by a generation of the politically naive for whom Brexit has become an exercise in intransigent ego stroking.
Yes, 52% of the voters (who could be bothered voting) in 2016 asked to leave but one suspects that for those same people asked now the answer might be very different. Whoever 'wins' the forthcoming events in the next few months and years the British population will ultimately be the losers and the political landscape will inevitably be l littered with the careers of both Remainers and Brexiteers whose misjudged policies have lead us into a national morass.
