Brexitwatch: the speech he never made

It is almost three years since the Brexit referendum. The man who called it, then Prime Minister David Cameron, promised that whatever the result, he would stay on as PM, but he broke that promise, resigning within hours. Just imagine if he had kept it. How much heartache and division, how many job losses he could have spared us from, and how much money he could have saved us.

All he needed to do was make this speech:

'Good morning. I am surprised and disappointed at the result of the referendum, but I promised that whatever the result I would stay on as your prime minister, and I will keep that promise.

I congratulate the Leave Campaign on their victory. Those who campaigned for the UK to leave the EU must clearly have had a credible plan for how this could be achieved without damaging our country, because without such a plan, no responsible politician could have advocated such a course of action.

So I am convening all those MPs who campaigned for Leave into a grand committee to come to an agreement on what they suggest as the way forward. Their plan will then be put to parliament as a whole.

In the meantime, there are many other tasks that our country requires its prime minister to perform in many other fields of policy, and I am now going back into 10 Downing Street to carry on with that work. Thank you.'

Would that really have been so hard?

Brexitwatch: Free speech for Jeremy Corbyn (and every other MP)

Over the next two days, the UK's Parliament is debating the government's triggering of Article 50 to give notice we are leaving the EU. The EU referendum, of course, was advisory only, so no MP is required to obey its result, but Jeremy Corbyn and most others are choosing to pretend they are, so let's indulge them.

Most MPs know leaving the EU will severely damage our country, so here is the speech that every MP should be making: 

"I have no wish to frustrate the wishes of the British people as demonstrated in last June's referendum. But if we leave the EU on unsatisfactory terms, that will do terrible damage to our country.

After pressure from Parliament, the Prime Minister has finally agreed that she will produce a White Paper setting out how the government intends to secure a satisfactory agreement with our EU partners.

It is clearly premature to trigger Article 50 before Parliament has had a proper opportunity to examine those plans so I will be voting against triggering Article 50 until the government has demonstrated that it has a credible plan for life outside the EU."

Why is it so hard to say that?