The markets are collapsing, our allies are discussing their future without us in the EU, and the UK political scene is totally discredited.
There is no end in sight to this. Party politics has spectacularly failed. Not only do the Leave campaigners now admit that they lied and have no plan, but say that this was all OK - and, as we can see every hour, they continue to have nothing further to add than to deny reality.
The democratic mandate of the referendum is questionable, constitutionally and practically. It was obtained by deceit.
Power vacuums during times of crisis are profoundly dangerous.
Two political groups have some authority left - the Lib Dems, who have little influence, and the SNP, with no MPs south of the border. But their Scottish MPs are full UK MPs, and it is the full UK which faces the crisis.
The House of Commons must assert its sovereignty.
The SNP must build a coalition of MPs from all parties who are prepared to save the nation. This coalition must say that there will be no assertion of Article 50 until a meaningful post-Brexit economic and political plan, in conjunction with the EU, has been set out - and that there is a time limit on this, after which, should such a plan not be forthcoming, the referendum result will be set aside. There will have to be a general election either way at this point, giving the political hierarchies time to rebuild themselves in a less febrile environment and decide what their policies will be before presenting the nation with, one hopes, options showing us the respect as citizens we must demand. from them.
During this period, the SNP must commit to acting for the UK as a whole and not push for an early independence referendum. (I am in favour of Scottish independence but, unless it is absolutely unavoidable, it should happen in calmer times than these.)
This will be a very hard path to follow, but has the benefit of being a plan with definite outcomes and definite timescales. If there is any substantial alternative other than to wait and see how far the ship will sink before we have to swim for it - I am unaware what that might be.
A coalition of the sane is the only way forward.
Er...? and where does democracy come into this?
ReplyDeleteAs Britain has an no written constitution we have no absolute guarantees of anything. Parliament has it all - it is sovereign. But that power self evidently is on loan from the people.
When we have a situation where all three main parties support the same line on a contentious issue (ie. pro-Europe), in general election after general election, then a referendum is the only way to resolve a contentious issue (as voting for Ukip does not garner power in our first-past-the-post electoral system). This is the release valve for a non-constitutional state. Follow the logic and this referendum and the result is legitimate.
The alternative as you propose, or as some clever lawyers are playing with, is to reverse the decision of the "pressure valve" and then we have a situation like circa 1969 in Northern Ireland, where a substaintial minority are forever compelled to be in a minority, never gaining their sway in power chambers, living under a permanent gerry-mandering legal-political elite perversly proped up by the popular vote. We all saw what then followed, a near civil war for the next 30 odd years.
And as for no exit-plan, of course there is, though the journalistic community living up to his reputation has been too lazy to read it. Plus, if you are interested, the Treasury Select Committee has been studying a "leave" situation for some time, you can download the text from the parliament website, narrowed down to just trade issues, but they have had interesting witneeses questioned over the past few months.
Google Flexcit, a full comprehensive plan -free to download- on how we leave the EU, written over 15 years with over a 100 contributors from constitutional lawyers, to senior civil servants, to trade negotiators and so on. Before 23 June about 30k copies were downloaded. Since then suddenly 90k has been downloaded, obviously the entire civil service is busily reading it.