There’s no mandate whatsoever for a No Deal Brexit[1]. None. Having the false assertion out there, and so widespread that this is a great danger to our democracy. Pushing forward with a policy based on a lie, that everyone can see is normally the preserve of dictatorships and communist regimes.
The new British Foreign Secretary Mr Raab has been speaking falsely. The new UK Government has no mandate for a No Deal Brexit. In fact, there would be no need to blame the European Union (EU), as Mr Raab has started to do if there was a true mandate for a No Deal Brexit.
Before the 2016 EU referendum, the lead Leave vote campaigners were saying that the UK would be mad to leave the European Single Market. That European market that Britain had fought so hard to establish. They were explicitly proposing a Norway-type deal and stating that getting such a deal would be quick and easy. Leave vote campaigners sold Brexit on the basis that there was little risk as we held all the cards in any negotiations. It doesn’t take long to survey the archives of British media from 2016 to understand just how far we have drifted from reality. There’s an abundance of recorded evidence. There’s no mandate for a No Deal Brexit.
If we move to the UK General Election of 2017, I don’t recall a No Deal Brexit being part of the last Conservative Party manifesto. Yes, there was a commitment to negotiate a Brexit deal but not to give-up and walk away.
Now, I can hear a Brexiter saying but it’s the “default” position. This word “default” is somehow used to justify what is in truth an active policy choice. The UK Government has the power to stop a No Deal Brexit right up to the moment before it happens. Unfortunately, at the moment, Johnson’s new Government does not have the will or the common sense to do so.
The lie that there is a mandate is likely to be sustained by the Johnson Government because it’s the only way they can justify “turbocharging” the preparation for No Deal Brexit planning. Essentially that means throwing billions of taxpayers’ money at something they can’t define, and most people don’t want.
This morning the British Foreign Secretary told the big fib on BBC Radio 4. It’s recorded and the rest of the world listening knows it’s a fib. So, why would anyone take talk of any future negotiations seriously having heard his radio interview?
Also, let’s remember that the British Foreign Secretary who says the UK will do a No Deal Brexit on 31 October 2019 if the “undemocratic backstop” isn’t scrapped, is the same Mr Raab who was a Brexit Secretary. Whatever happened to the The Ministerial Code?
Our sad state of affairs will leave us wandering in the wilderness for many years to come. There’s an alternative. Stop Brexit by a simple act of revoking Article 50[2]. Eat the humble pie and save Britain. Action now.
[1] #NoDealBrexit
[2] #RevokeA50
John Vincent 