For the first time in a very long time I found myself agreeing with Tony Blair on Brexit when he was talking on Radio 4 a few days ago. Suddenly he sounded like the only voice of reason amongst a vast array of politicians who are giving us no confidence about what is going to happen. What he pointed out was that nobody knows what Brexit will mean and as the landscape shifts and evolves, then surely we should be allowed to take another look at the situation and decide whether leaving the EU is going to be the right answer after all. “We can change our mind” he says, which I agree with on the basis that it depends what Brexit is going to look like. We don’t know that yet.
He has called for a new movement to be formed of the 48% of us who voted to remain in – not formed to ignore the will of the people, but formed to examine whether, as information becomes available and the facts finally begin to emerge, the “will” of the people has shifted. “Surely we are entitled to try to persuade, to make the argument and not be whipped into line to support a decision we genuinely believe is a catastrophe for the country we love.” There should be some way of letting everyone express their views, if when the time comes, the deal is not what even the leavers wanted.
I agree with that – I think it’s a great idea to keep our options open and look at the situation as it develops from every single angle and keep trying to find a way to ensure that the decision made is the right one. There is, as he says, nothing wrong with a change of mind and as we all know, we are still no clearer about how this is all going to play out.
M
November 1, 2016I heard this interview too and found myself , oh, for the first time in about 100 years, agreeing with the basis on what Tony Blair was saying! His point was that it was OK to change ones mind, especially as new evidence and information and details come to light…. I think the point he was also trying to make was that once one has made a decision on something, we tend to chastise both individuals and politicians (as politicians, not individuals) if, they then change their minds…in fact, it is of course quite right and proper to change ones mind and not to be embarrassed by it, if circumstances change. There was a letter in a mainstream broadsheet last week from a person who was recently one of six around a dinner table. All voted to leave in June, however, four of those six have now changed their minds and if the vote was taken tomorrow, they would vote to remain…Once there is a clear picture of what the UK will look like once (if) we Brexit, and the details are ‘writ large’, we have to have a further vote on whether we want to ‘pull the plug’ or not…whether that means another Referendum, or a General election or some other means of asking the Uk citizens “is this what you really really want?” The Leave campaigners are saying that a further vote would be undemocratic…I would argue very strongly that it would be very undemocratic to carry on without a further check, once we really know what ‘Brexit’ means and the new order is detailed.
Expat Mum
November 3, 2016That’s actually a great idea. Formulate a plan, present it to the people and let them decide. I think everyone can at least agree that the decision was made with very little in the way of details.