Blog 2023 Malcolm Blair-Robinson

Having scattered the ERG to the four winds May looks to be in danger of throwing her advantage away if she refuses to budge on any significant red lines. She will have to give away something in order to achieve a compromise with Labour. Meanwhile there is absolutely no doubt that Britain’s reputation as a leading parliamentary democracy, if not the leading one, is shattered. Almost the whole world looks on in disbelief as our influence and credibility drains away.

Business is now furious, unable to believe that neither government nor parliament has been able to organise a consensus,  with arguments raging at every Westminster level about splitting hairs and massaging futile unrealistic dreams. The ideology of the far right is leaking into the daily rhetoric of ardent Brexiteers, especially the extremists of the ERG.The country has not been so divided in living memory. We are set to crash out of the EU before the end of this week. Still we are not sure what will happen, indeed nobody has any idea.

No longer does anyone who wants to leave set out how the nation will be better off. This is because even they now realize any kind of Brexit from crash to soft will make us worse of economically and socially than being in the EU. Moreover the glow of national independence is dimmed by the realisation that the very existence of the EU as our nearest neighbour and trading partner will make it impossible, even if we are outside, to even tie our shoelaces without having to conform with the de facto power of greatest political union in the world. A power we used to share and help to mould, as probably the most powerful and respected country within the union.

It is May’s job now, not to save the Tory party which has all but destroyed itself tilting at windmills and promising the undeliverable, but to save our country from perhaps the greatest self inflicted disaster in its history. She must reach out to Corbyn, paint over her red lines and fix a deal. The EU will help. It values Britain more than this country presently values itself.