Shropshire Star comment: Rough ride on road to Brexit
Unhappy with the negotiations, increasingly gloomy, and wanting another Brexit referendum.
And there you have it – the voice of Shropshire and Mid Wales, at least as expressed by Shropshire Star readers who responded to our online poll to test public opinion one year on from Article 50 being triggered, and one year before we leave the EU, although the so-called implementation period will mean it’s difficult to see the difference.
The overall impression is that people are heartily fed up with the whole business. Nevertheless, there are new and inventive twists in the saga, such as the suggestions that the Leave vote was somehow manipulated through social media., which would be quite a trick considering one of the other suggestions is that many Leave voters were older white people blinded by nostalgia – not the sort you would normally expect to be wizards on the internet.
For those of you who are indeed sick and tired of Brexit, we struggle to bring you good news. It is for certain that we have months of it to go as the negotiations reach what is going to be their toughest phase. So far they have covered sequencing, how much money Britain is going to have to cough up, and the transition. The actual trading relationship, which is crucial to businesses, hasn’t been touched.
Nothing at all has been agreed. That is because both sides have said repeatedly that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. So the whole edifice of negotiations could yet collapse in a messy heap.
Meaningful
Parliament has been promised a “meaningful vote” on whatever deal is reached. Theresa May’s perilous position, and the opportunities for mischief by anti-Brexit Tories and by a Labour Party sensing the chance to force a general election, make it a real possibility that the deal might be rejected.
Even if it is not, the transition period is a temptation for those who feel the UK is making a historic mistake. If they can make the transition period a permanent state, the UK will not leave the EU at all in any meaningful way.
The arguments are going to rumble on, and on, and on. During the referendum campaign the voices of economists, UK business, international politics, and even of stage and screen, were all resolutely in the Remain camp. Nobody should be surprised that they are not prepared to march meekly to the EU exit door.
As for those youngsters who feel their future has been robbed, they will be somewhat less young when – if – Brexit happens.
