A suitable film title for the comedy of errors that is being acted out in the UK with a bemused world watching. Despite avidly gathering as much information as I can on Brexit I frustratingly find myself arriving at the same conclusion as Theresa May, ”Brexit means Brexit.” For a short period the Prime Minister managed to successfully convince me and a few others I imagine that she actually was strong and stable and knew what she was doing, until it dawned on me that when she said ”Brexit means Brexit” she had as much idea of what it meant as most of us did, that is not a clue. Well, to be honest, politicians not always revealing their intentions or plans is nothing I normally lose sleep over, more like irritated that sound bites are considered being material enough for voters like me, read stupid, to gung ho along. Churchill said most of that in, you know, ”fooling all the people…,” although I am beginning to believe that Theresa May either didn’t understand what he was saying or she didn’t read to the end, ”….you can´t fool all the people all of the time.” The view can can be taken though that she isn´t attempting to fool anybody. ”Brexit means Brexit” just about covers everything on the subject and not a lie if you haven´t a clue what it means. The Daily Telegraph would you believe has twigged on, calling the government clueless and other rather unpleasant epithets. The Independent thinks it´s a done deal where EU has just about told the UK not only what it can get but what the EU thinks it should have, other than possibly Remain. Some of the issues like the cash seem to have been resolved, the Irish conundrum has been fudged and the earlier red lines set out are not showing up in the dark hours of Winter but they have not gone away. A ”No Deal” crash continues to have a number of supporters and I am not referring to the xenophobic Brexit Taliban and their ”it´s my cuntry innit?” but to the hard line Brexiters, not only the Tory right, who realise that the negative effects for their country may have some positive effects for themselves. The mood of the public however is changing, not fast enough or dramatically enough for any foot shifting but in the light of the ever increasing negative effects of Brexit making everyone rather nervous. I see no immediate way out of this. We are not witnessing a process changing the political direction of a country after a vote in parliament, we are witnessing damage control after a referendum lost to people addressing their grievances rather than their needs. There is no plan, not for these people not for any of us. HMS United Kingdom is floundering in heavy seas with a sea-sick Captain lashed to the wheel, her officers bickering among themselves on the bridge and Jeremy, the stoker in the boiler room shovelling coal for all he´s worth.
The general consensus is however that 2018 will actually reveal to us what ”Brexit means Brexit” really means. In my opinion there is no acceptable in-between or ”Soft Brexit” meaning all rule taker but no rule maker which is why I prefer to call it a ”Pretend Brexit” It will therefore be one of 3 things:
- No Deal aka Hard Over the Cliff Brexit on Friday 29th March 2019.
- Remain
- A transition period with a Pretend Brexit or Hard Brexit in view that will most likely run out in a Remain.
But for now Brexit means Brexit.