Shropshire Star comment: Time to serve Britain's best interests
Brexit Day: A day that many never wanted to see, and a day many others began to fear might never come.
It has been a long and wearying national journey. With passions running high on both sides of the debate, it has not been our finest hour, nor the finest hour for our democratic process, with the political games in Parliament leaving a watching public shaking their heads in despair at times.
Tomorrow the sun will rise on a Britain which looks much the same. Some of the most profound changes happen without any drama. It will be a different Britain. Not, as some have claimed, a Britain going it alone and turning its back on Europe – as this has throughout its history been an outward-looking nation – but a country instead finding a path for itself in the world in a way in which it has not done since it joined what was then called the Common Market in 1973.
There are challenges ahead about which many have been at pains to warn us during the debates over the past few years. In doing so, they have generally been referring to issues of trade and economics.
Brexit is, however, about a lot more than that. It is about how the country sees itself, and how Britons see themselves, and so a key challenge for everybody now is how they react to the new situation.
In the future history books, the chapter on Brexit will tell of how it created national division, and divided friends and families, which is self-evidently true.
The bigger picture
Yet division is not something necessarily to be feared or abhorred. Division is everywhere, from political party allegiance, religious belief, cultural identity, and even down to things as basic as who to support at a football match.
What matters is whether different ways of seeing some things are put in their rightful place when it comes to the bigger picture, and the bigger Brexit picture is that whichever side of the argument people were on, they are all Britons with the best interests of their country at heart.
More opinion:
The best interests of Britain will now be served by leaving Leave behind, and no longer remaining Remain. From 11pm tonight those terms are obsolete.
There is no point in continuing to look over our shoulders, and rehashing the arguments of the past, not least because there will be many new arguments to be had during the transition period.
Prominence
It is early days, but there seems to be already a different and better atmosphere. This has been as a consequence of the matter being democratically decided beyond reasonable doubt in December’s general election in which the ‘Get Brexit Done’ message was the one that resonated with voters.
You get the impression that the public were willing to move on and just get on with it long before the politicians were.
Democratic clarity with a government that actually functions has replaced the chaos, uncertainty, and confusion. Tensions have eased, and for the first time in ages important issues other than Brexit have been given their rightful prominence on the news agendas.
Feelings have sometimes run high over the last four years.
As Brexit becomes reality, it is not a time for gloating, nor for grieving.
It is time for Britons to become friends again.
