Last chance to halt the Brexit bulldozer

As the United Kingdom’s Brexit process stumbles on, Prime Minister Theresa May is increasingly falling back on Trump-style nationalist rhetoric in support of the deal she has negotiated to take her country out of the European Union.

The arrangement will “strengthen the borders”; “give us back our laws and control over our finances” and “end free movement, once and for all”.

Her explosive reference to EU nationals, lawfully and productively in the UK, as “queue jumpers” was too much for some, with Scottish Chief Minister, Nicola Sturgeon describing the reference as “offensive and disgraceful”.

There is no doubt that nothing short of her removal will sway the Prime Minister from her course. May is blind to everything other than her place in history as the Prime Minister who led her nation out of European entanglements.

Whether she believes this is best for the nation is irrelevant. To quote her: “The people have spoken in the 2016 referendum and we must deliver the verdict of the people.”

She, along with all the other dogged Brexiteers, endlessly quote that referendum where the vote was 51.9 per cent against 48.1 per cent in favour of leaving. Those raw figures are the only things they care to remember about the process.

Not the lies (the promise that £350 million will return to the National Health Service after Brexit — not a penny will come to the NHS as a result of leaving the EU).

Not the misrepresentations (the anonymous United Kingdom Independence Party official who tweeted: “We just have to send a resignation letter to Brussels and we will be out in a week”).

Not the allegations of misuse of data and other cheating that could well have skewed the result (Cambridge Analytica).

Not the allegations of funding violations by various Leave campaign organisations, including mysterious donations that had their origins overseas.

With opinion polls showing a swing in favour of remaining in the EU, the Brexiteers cling to the 2016 result like a drowning man clutching at a straw, yet that referendum has proved to be rotten to its core — a victory only for tricksters and manipulators.

Even if the result were not flawed, there would still be a case for a second vote, given the thinness of the majority and the fact that so many of the dire consequences of leaving (dismissed in 2016 as ‘Project Fear’) are now there for all to see.

In the face of this the Brexit camp has resorted to the lowest form of bully-boy intimidation, threatening “blood in the streets” if its aims are thwarted.   

Finally, if Brexit is bulldozed through who will lead the United Kingdom into the Promised Land? Opportunist May? Boris Johnson? David Davis? Or will it be Jeremy Corbyn’s version of a workers paradise?

Or the worst nightmare of all, the Latin quoting Minister for the 18^th Century, Jacob Rees-Mogg.

It is late in the day for some mature refection, but not too late. The United Kingdom remains a parliamentary democracy and it is time for parliamentarians to put aside party loyalties and allow the people a final and decisive vote.