Why I am marching against Brexit today
Andrew Adonis
As Britain’s institutions buckle at the prospect of Brexit,
its people are finding their voices at precisely the right time
Sat 23 Mar 2019 06.00 GMT Last modified on Sat 23 Mar 2019
09.22 GMT
The tide is turning and today is the day that we the people
reclaim our democracy. On the streets of London, hundreds of thousands of us
will be marching on parliament in support of parliament. We reject the prime
minister’s assertion that she is the tribune of the people – uniquely able to
divine our interests, divinely entitled to rule. We reject her deal, which
leaves us poorer and more isolated. We reject her government, which has
humiliated us on the international stage and enfeebled us at home. Instead we
say to MPs that now is the time to assert themselves, to reject her threats and
her jibes and to give back to the people the final say on Brexit.
Remember why we are where we are. When I resigned from the
National Infrastructure Commission to campaign against Brexit and for a
referendum – just short of 18 months ago – it felt as though Brexit was a done
deal. Everywhere I went I met people who – however they had voted in 2016 –
were dismayed by the reality of Brexit but convinced there was no alternative.
It was soft Brexit versus hard Brexit – not “no Brexit”, which is in truth the
only alternative.
“I wish it wasn’t happening but we can’t stop it” was the
refrain. This fatalism is now behind us. In October we saw the biggest
political march on the streets of London in a decade. Up and down the country
the European Movement has grown from a smattering of small associations to more
than 150 branches, with tens of thousands of members. And as I write, more than
three million people have signed a petition calling on the government to revoke
article 50 (the up-to-date figure is here).
Theresa May is singularly unsuited for high office and lacks
political talent. Her late-night rant from No 10 on Wednesday may be remembered
as the worst broadcast ever from Downing Street.
But, in truth, it is Brexit that has defeated Brexit, not
May. Brexit has always been an impossible project, except at the price of
massive self-harm. The hard, populist right sold the myth of “taking back
control” because they knew that no one would buy the reality: workers’ rights
slashed, welfare broken, Ireland betrayed and Britain turned into a giant tax
haven. Theresa May has much to answer for, but it is not her fault that she
couldn’t square the circle of the Brexiteers’ lies: nobody could.
I expect today to be the biggest political march in living
memory. It will be defined not just by its size but by its diversity. Young and
old, of all ethnicities, from every corner of our country, speaking up and
speaking out. Refusing to let our prime minister rule as a self-appointed
monarch. Rejecting the narrowness, insularity and the extremism of Brexit.
Demanding a democratic solution.
In years to come, historians will write approvingly of the
British people’s passionate, peaceful and successful fight against Brexit. They
will say that as our institutions buckled under the strain, Britain found its
voice. And you will be able to say to your children and grandchildren: “I was
there. I stood up for my country, I faced down the extremists, I protected your
future.” So come today. Join us. Let’s get our country back.
• Andrew Adonis is a Labour peer
The EU knows it, so do our own MPs – Theresa May is finished
Rafael Behr
Rafael Behr
European leaders have known for some time that the prime
minister wasn’t up to the Brexit job. This week she’s proved it
@rafaelbehr
Fri 22 Mar 2019 09.32 GMT Last modified on Fri 22 Mar 2019
16.19 GMT
The EU has no time for Theresa May, which doesn’t mean there
is no flexibility in the Brexit timetable. Continental leaders have granted an
article 50 extension, but not the one requested by the prime minister. She had
pitched for a new departure date of 30 June. She was given 39 days fewer, until
22 May. And that date only stands if parliament ratifies the deal.
If May flunks another meaningful vote, the extension gets
shorter – 12 April is the new cliff-edge that comes into view. That date marks
the point at which Britain would have to start organising European parliament
elections, should it want another even longer extension. A national change of
heart on the whole Brexit business would still be welcome in Brussels but it is
not expected, and the priority is to escort a troublesome ex-member off the
premises with a minimum of disruption before those MEP ballots get under way.
Does May like this plan? It doesn’t matter. She wasn’t in
the room where it happened. The summit conclusions were handed down to the
petitioning nation as it paced around an antechamber. This is the power
relationship between a “third country” and the EU. Britain had better get used
to it.
The terms of the extension are not drafted for the prime
minister’s benefit. They contain a message from the EU direct to the House of
Commons. In crude terms: piss or get off the pot. If you want to leave with a
deal, vote for the damned deal. If you are foolish enough to leave without a
deal, do not blame us. Have a couple more weeks to think about it. But if you
want something else, a referendum or a softer Brexit, work it out soon. And
then send someone who isn’t Theresa May to talk to us about it.
EU leaders cannot say explicitly that they no longer want to
deal with the current prime minister. Urging regime change is beyond the pale
of normal diplomacy among democratic states. But there is no effort to conceal
the frustration in May or the evacuation of confidence in her as a negotiating
partner. The one thing everyone in Brussels, Berlin and Paris had most wanted
to avoid from an article 50 extension was giving May a licence to carry on
behaving as she has done for what feels like an eternity. They could no longer
tolerate the hollow shell of a prime minister shuttling back and forth between
Tory hardliners demanding fantasy Brexits and Brussels negotiators who trade in
realities.
There is a difference between patience with the prime
minister and readiness to help her country navigate through its current crisis.
There are still stores of goodwill available for Britain in Brussels, but they
cannot be unlocked by May.
The bankruptcy of May’s overseas enterprise has been coming
since the day she set up shop in No 10. The squandering of credibility started
almost at once, with the appointment of Boris Johnson as foreign secretary in
2016. Only someone with a tin ear for European sensibilities would have given
the top diplomat job to a man known on the continent as a rogue peddler of
anti-Brussels propaganda.
Then there was the early negotiating period, during which EU
leaders thought May’s robotic, inscrutable manner concealed a deep, strategic
intelligence. They came to realise that there was no mask. The inanity – the
reciting of “Brexit means Brexit” even in private meetings – was not the cover
story for a secret plan. It was the plan.
The point of no return was the summit in Salzburg last
September. May was invited to make the case for what was left of her “Chequers
plan” to European heads of government. It was late. They were tired. There were
other difficult matters to attend to. And instead of speaking candidly,
persuasively, passionately or even just coherently, the British prime minister
read mechanically from a text that was, in substance, no different from an
op-ed article already published under her name in a German newspaper that
morning. It was embarrassing and insulting. Many European diplomats say that
was the moment when Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron and others realised they
were dealing with someone out of her depth, unable to perform at the level
required for the job that needed doing.
A similar story is emerging from last night’s summit. May
was asked about backup plans in the event that parliament rejects her deal a
third time. She had nothing. She restated her determination that the deal
should pass. This infuriating obtuseness is grimly familiar on this side of the
Channel. Cabinet ministers recognise the experience of being desperate for some
glimpse of the prime minister’s calculations. People who want to support her
have needed some window into the workings of her political brain, maybe just a
peek at her soul. They get nothing. It is hard to build trust with someone so
closed and hard to stay loyal.
There was a Salzburg-style moment for pro-European Tories on
Wednesday night, when the prime minister went on television to berate MPs for
obstructing her deal. The spirit was demagogic, even if the style was typically
charmless. Here was a besieged leader, emerging from her bunker, presenting
herself as the champion of her people against a rotten parliament. This did not
go down well with MPs of any stripe. But it was most counterproductive with
moderate Conservatives who have voted for May’s deal twice already and both
times seen her respond to defeat by borrowing ideas and rhetoric from the
hardliners who have given her nothing but humiliation. She rewards enemies of
compromise by becoming ever less compromising.
Wednesday night’s performance exposed something that many of
May’s colleagues find uncomfortable to acknowledge: the prime minister’s
failure at overseas diplomacy and her failure at domestic politics express a
single fatal flaw. She is unable to communicate with others because she has
lost the ability to be honest with herself. She has no outward-facing powers of
persuasion but she also lacks the introspection necessary to take
responsibility for the mess made by her obstinacy. She has crossed a line from
stubbornness into megalomania.
That leads to a conclusion that Britain’s continental
neighbours reached long ago. Even if the UK ends up leaving the EU on the terms
outlined in the prime minister’s deal, her part in the story will very soon be
over. She is finished. The problems with Brexit are much bigger than Theresa
May’s failings as a leader. But those failings disqualify her from being part
of a viable solution.
• Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário