Nigel Farage really hates it. So there must be something good
about the deal Theresa May has done to allow the UK to, probably, move on to
the real Brexit negotiations.
Of course, all she has actually done is to kick the can down
the road. As to what trade deal we can get with the EU, what transition arrangement
there will be to stop the UK economy collapsing in March 2019, how the unicorns
can be persuaded to fly in formation so that there is no border at the border
between the EU and the UK in Ireland – all these issues and many more have simply
been deferred.
But at least the head-bangers, the Brexit fanatics, did not
get their heart’s desire of a suicidal, no-deal walk-out. And that probably
represents the first time Theresa May has stood up to them.
People voted for Brexit for many different reasons – a lot of
them contradictory and irreconcilable. Now there is a chance to drive a wedge
into perhaps the most important fault-line – the one that divides the fanatics of
UKIP and the Tory right who couldn’t care less how much Brexit damages the economy
and just want to leave whatever the cost, and the more pragmatic Brexit-ers who
believe, wrongly in my view, that leaving the EU will somehow make us more prosperous.
There is a long way to go, but this is an important setback
for the fanatics.
No comments:
Post a Comment