David Davis Brexit Minister (BBC)
David Davis, British Minister for Brexit, said ‘If a democracy cannot change its mind, it ceases to be a democracy’ (quoted in the Independent). I suggest we change our minds about the colossal waste of time, money and valuable expertise that is the Brexit process. In Money Week this weekend, Merryn Somerset Webb described a negotiation process that when it’s over will leave us much as we are now: with EU market access, with most of EU law unrepealed, and a relatively inconsequential sum of money smoothing things in both directions. So what’s the point?
What’s the cost?
Moreover, what’s the cost? Thousands of civil servants across the EU are about to embark on creating spreadsheets and briefing papers for years to come ‘to reach a compromise plan that leaves as much as possible as it is now, just inside a different legal framework’ as Somerset Webb puts it. This cost will be immense – lay all those hours and salaries in a line and it stretches beyond doomsday and costs a fortune in civil servants’ wages and taxpayer-supported consultants’ fees. Brains and money and years of endeavour that should be spent solving real problems are wasted on this huge exercise getting us simply to where we are now.
Except for the huge damage to the UK – Scotland shuddering, Ireland anxious about its toxic internal border again – and the major geopolitical risk of a desperately weakened EU in the face of Trump/Putin. The driver of peace in Europe for the past 70 years has been the decision of the European nations to solve our differences through talking to each other and compromise rather than going to war. Our job as citizens is to make things, not break things; to do better, not to push off.
It’s just process, not substance
Brexit is a colossal displacement activity. It is a circular process that gets us back to more or less where we started; it is not a matter of substance, for all the cry about sovereignty and ‘taking back control’. We default to process when we can’t face the hard dealing with the substance – how to make society better, how to help people resolve difficulties caused by change, how to defend our society in the face of criminal or political aggression and how to bring up our children to discern what is or isn’t fake news.
In the same speech in November 2012, (Conservative Home) David Davis made two very clear pronouncements:
- ‘In democratic nations we hold regular meaningful elections where voters can stick with what they have got or wipe the slate clean. Crucial to this principle of people power is the rule that a government cannot bind its successors’ and
- ‘Democracy is not just about casting a vote. Democracy is about being willing to make sacrifices for each other, to allow taxes to be used to support those who cannot support themselves. Democracy means letting our sons and daughters put their lives on the line to defend us.’
Well said.
Take back democratic control
So let us persuade Mr Davis and his colleagues to change their minds, call an election for a proper mandate for the whole United Kingdom, take back the Article 50 letter, save the colossal waste of time and money, and get on with the real work.