The opening has been raised that UK’s Labour party may be willing to push for a new public Brexit vote, given that the May government seems to be staggering, uncontrollably, to a “hard exit” Brexit where everything is going to be a hot, swirling, exploding mess.
Personally, I always considered Brexit a horrible mistake — while the EU is far from perfect, and UK membership brought some distinct problems, the terrible complications that have arisen as the UK has tried to extricate itself has demonstrated how horrible. While the sticking point has been “How do we keep Eire and Northern Ireland borderless while still maintaining trade and customs separations?” every other step along the way has shown how much the necessarily deep economic and populational entanglement between the UK and the mainland are going to be painful and very, very expensive to break or pull back from.
Add to that the evidence of heavy shenanigans by pro-Brexit forces (and outside influences) during that referendum (akin and proximate to our own US 2016 fiasco), and the immediate aftermath of many people who voted for Brexit admitting they really hadn’t realized what it would mean … it would seem, from the outside, a second referendum would be in order. But politically it’s been hugely fraught, given the Conservative majority, and the deep national divisions over the whole affair.
If Labour manages to convince enough in Parliament, though, to put up a second vote, especially if the end-of-March deadline looms without some sort of agreeable alternate solution … that, it seems to me, would be an informed vote. People (and politicians) in the UK have a much clearer view of what’s at stake now. No matter whether that happens, or however such a second referendum would roll, those deep divisions will remain. But at least there will have been that more informed affirmation (or denial) of the departure.
(Assuming the EU would allow the withdrawal process to end. Which they would be nuts not to, but, hey, it’s the EU.)
Interesting times.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-47363307