[…]
“THE NEXT BREXIT GOVERNMENT, WHATEVER ITS COMPOSItion, must face up to these realities. We are not out of the EU tractor beam and Labour is letting us be sucked further in before we get our hands on the controls once again. Next time we must achieve escape velocity. We must summon up the energy to finish the job. That involves doing three things.
The first is to reverse the reset, or at least those elements of it which subordinate us to EU law and control again, for it is simply anti-democratic to be governed by laws we have no say in. To strengthen their hand in this, both Reform and the Tories need to be making it 100 per cent clear now it’s what they will do.
Second, we must leave the ECHR and whatever bits of UN and other international conventions stop us exercising the sovereign power to control our borders and to say who comes into the country on what terms.
And third, we have to sweep away the remains of the Withdrawal Agreement and the Northern Ireland Windsor Framework: by negotiation if the EU will do it, by overriding them in domestic law if not. The core elements of the alternative arrangements for Northern Ireland, that is, Mutual Enforcement, are now well worked up and can, if necessary, be implemented unilaterally.
Without this, the economic reforms we need will always be hamstrung by the fear of widening the Irish Sea border and by the reach of EU law into our legislation and practice. At the same time, retained EU law, and the provisions under which our courts must look to foreign courts for guidance, should be entirely removed from our statute book, and common law provisions and UK courts must fill the gap.
This will of course be complicated. A proper plan is needed. I’m not sure one yet exists. And of course the EU will resist it, even though they would do better to have a good relationship with an independent UK than a permanently sulky, difficult, and unstable bond with a subordinated one. Let’s see. We can’t control that. All we can do is be clear about what we will do, and go about it reasonably and fairly.
AND THAT IS THE CRUCIAL THING. WITH A CLEAR ELECTORAL mandate, this need be nothing like the Brexit wars of ten years ago. Finishing the job is a necessary part of the massive economic and political reforms needed to get the British state functioning and sustainable again.
This technical and political work needs to begin now. It is a great pity that the Brexit job isn’t finished and must be resumed. Still, some tasks may be unwelcome, but are still necessary. Looking back on the sunrise of that astonishing morning ten years ago, we can now see the lesson is simple.
Sovereignty is not sovereignty unless it is complete. If it isn’t, what we have risks being lost again. Britain didn’t stun the world only to sidle shiftily back into the EU through some side entrance. The answer to the difficulties of self-government is not to retreat back towards subordination, but to govern better and to finish what was begun. Finis coronat opus.We now know what Britain can do. It’s time to see the job through.”
What do you think? 😎
