Blind indifference to Ireland

Gisela Stuart, former BLP MP and pro-Brexit proponent writes in the Guardian this week in a more in sorrow than in anger mode about how a no-deal Brexit is entirely reasonable.

But let’s be clear about one thing: the voters’ decision to leave the European Union and how politicians have gone about implementing the result are two distinct issues. Criticising the process of leaving is not the same as questioning the referendum outcome. Leave had a clear majority on a high turnout.

Except – as noted many times, the definition of ‘leave’ was never made clear. Indeed she herself in the same piece argues later:

The UK is leaving the union, but it is and remains European. In years to come it will be seen as more remarkable that we decided to join the political project of the core European countries in 1973, rather than prioritising a trading-based relationship by remaining within the European Free Trade Association.

Would she consider EEA/EFTA status a ‘leave’? Most on the Brexit side appear not to. But by the logic of the piece she writes it would indeed constitute ‘leave’.

Worse she argues that:

It was wrong to label as “extremist” anyone who suggested that if the UK and the EU could not reach an agreement we should leave in any case. Just as it is wrong now to imply that the only way of avoiding no deal is for the UK to not leave the EU after all.

But what option does she offer other than a no-deal?

None as it happens:

The most significant conclusion to draw from the past three years is that, despite best efforts, this process can’t even begin until the promise to implement the referendum and leave the EU has been delivered. Now is our last chance to deliver on that promise, and begin the process of restoring trust in our institutions.

Given that the British polity is so divided by the fact of Brexit that it has proven impossible to make a decision the idea that a no-deal Brexit is a plausible way out of the conundrum is difficult to take seriously. It may well happen, but to say that it is the only way forward is an abysmal derogation of duty on the part of the political class and those same institutions. And far from strengthening them in the future I can’t but think that this last three years and longer will actually leave them enfeebled and distrusted for decades to come. The implications of where that leaves the UK are unpleasant to contemplate.

And of course for all her agonising and hand-wringing, and contradiction, what is conspicuous by its absence is any effort whatsoever to address or engage with this island many of us reading this are on. Ireland simply doesn’t figure in her calculations. It is of supreme indifference to her that the one land border the UK has – one complicated by history and overlapping national rights – is with the EU.

She blames politicians? She should look at herself.