By the time this hits the news -stands there will have been, almost certainly, another attempt by the House of Lords to impose upon the elected House of Commons a wrecking amendment designed to disrupt the progress of the Brexit Bill and, by implication, the Brexit process itself.  There may also have been a further vote in the House of Commons.  Which is a nonsense.  The Brexit Bill is, quite simply, a paving measure designed to allow a post-Brexit Britain to roll all European legislation into British law prior to, at our leisure, deciding which laws we wish to sensibly retain and which we reasonably wish to discard.  It has little or nothing to do with trade agreements or borders which are the stuff of other forthcoming legislation that can and may be amended.

 

All that being so I hope that I may be forgiven for saying that I am fed up to the back teeth with the grandstanding  of militant Leavers and obsessive Remainers on both sides of the House who are devoting much time and energy in self-important posturing at what I believe to be the long-term expense of the United Kingdom.

 

In the 2016 the people of these Islands voted by a clear majority to leave the European Union and to seek our fortunes on a larger global stage. Whether  we like it or not – and I would personally have preferred another outcome – that die is cast. The Prime Minister and her Government now have a clear duty which is to extricate the UK from the EU on the best terms achievable.  She cannot engage in those negotiations with one or both hands shackled behind her back by people who seek to impose, from left or right, pre-conditions upon the discussions  that have to take place.

 

The Prime Minister`s task is not to reach agreement across a House of Commons some of whose members are scrapping like kids in a kindergarten playground. She has to do a deal that, while satisfying the requirements of those that she seeks to represent, will also gain the approval of the twenty-seven remaining Member States of the European Union, of the European Parliament and of a European Commission that is terrified of the prospect that a “successful” Brexit for Britain might be the start of a trickle turning to a flood of departures from the EU. That is a big ask and the majority of Members of the House of Commons would like her to be able to get on with it without being undermined and sabotaged by those who, without this cause, would be little more than political minnows in a very large pond.

 

There appears to be a naïve belief that those in high places representing mainland Europe do not read British newspapers or follow the fake news propagated by the mechanical and social media in this Country.  As long as they are led to believe that, notwithstanding the majority view expressed in the referendum, the exit process can and will be reversed it will be impossible for our negotiators to reach any kind of half-decent agreement.  The net result will be not a re-Union but a hard Brexit or a Corbyn-led neo-Marxist government. Or both.

 

I think that it would be a very good idea if those who have to date failed to recognise that any negotiation inevitably involves a degree of compromise were to shut up, maintain a Trappist silence for the next six months and allow those charged with the awesome duty of batting and delivering for Britain to get on and do the job.  And that includes all of those who would like to get their grubby fingers  on the door handle of Number Ten Downing Street!

 

 

Sir Roger Gale MP

Herne Bay, North Thanet & the Villages

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