The Fallacy of Getting Brexit Done

One of the key slogans we have been hearing from Boris Johnson since he became Prime Minister, is ‘let’s get Brexit done’. We have officially entered the election period with the general election being held on 12th December and no doubt we will be hearing a lot more of this line.

In fact just yesterday the Conservative party launched its election manifesto with Boris ending his speech with ‘let’s get Brexit done’. And let me be honest; we are all fed up with Brexit. Remainers and Brexiters have had enough with news programs and radio shows talking about it and it will be a welcome relief when it’s over.

But the problem with Brexit is that it won’t actually be over for a long time. Unless of course, we end up remaining in the European Union which is the easiest way to get out of Brexit, and therefore not having to hear about it. In reality, Brexit is just beginning because we haven’t actually left the EU.

Whether the UK leaves the EU with the current withdrawal deal (that didn’t get through parliament) or we leave with a ‘no-deal’ Brexit, the long and complicated Brexit journey has just begun. The no-deal Brexit on ‘WTO terms’ means that we have to negotiate every single deal with the EU and the rest of the world all over again. We are talking about hundreds and hundreds of laws not just related to trade but all manner of things from meat to fish, and cars to spoons. And if Johnson’s withdrawal agreement goes through by the Conservatives having a majority in the House of Commons then that again it’s just the beginning.

The best way of getting out of the nightmare that is Brexit is to cancel it. Except for the Tories and the Brexit party, the main parties all want to Remain. Labour wants to hold another referendum, but largely there’s more chance of remaining than leaving with them.

I understand the ‘will of the people’ but when people have been fed lies over years about the EU and immigration then the advisory referendum we had in 2016 should be invalidated. The posters the Leave campaign put out, I believe may have been the tipping point of the referendum result.

We’ll never know how much influence the propaganda really had but no doubt it affected voters. And let’s not ignore the Russian interference report that has been suppressed by the government for one reason and one reason only – if it’s true then it makes the Conservatives look very, very bad.

They’ve done a pretty good job doing this themselves this week with Jacob Rees Mogg’s distasteful comments about the Grenfell tragedy implying the dead victims should have had more common sense by not listening to the firefighters to stay put. He not only showed his lack of compassion and empathy but just proved how out of touch he is with the rest of society and he really hasn’t engaged with anybody involved with the Grenfell Tower fire. And then we had James Cleverly not being so clever on Good Morning Britain. Regardless of these faux pas by leading Tories, the report not being published is the raises the loudest alarm bells for me.

The dossier which has been put together by the intelligence and security committee and approved by MI6 looks at how the Russians have influenced and meddled with the 2016 referendum in the way of high-profile donations to the Conservative party, espionage and trying to infiltrate the party. It is highly suspicious that the Prime Minister has refused to publish it. Dominic Grieve (former Tory MP and Attorney General) who led the report says there’s no legitimate reason for the report to be withheld until after polling day as voters have the right to know.

Hell yes! Does this not worry Tory voters? That their party leader is withholding this fifty-page report that will show how much influence the Russians have had on the party and what role they’ve played in getting that Brexit result. Have Brexiters thought about why Russia would go to such lengths to influence a British referendum about leaving the EU? Have Brexiters considered what advantage it is to Russia for the UK to leave the EU? Because they need to right now!

A weakened UK and Europe is only beneficial to powers like Russia and the US. Donald Trump has shown his support for Brexit and Nigel Farage, not because he cares about democracy but because it benefits him. The UK is being used as a pawn and the average British voter who doesn’t want more foreigners in their country has fallen for it hook, line and sinker.

Working-class people who voted Leave are prepared to vote for a party that does not have their best interests at heart, simply because they’ve been duped into thinking that Brexit is more important. They genuinely believe ‘getting Brexit done’ will play a more significant part in their lives than the economy, workers rights, the NHS and living in a fairer society. They know that the current Conservative party is led by liars and privileged people who don’t care about them but despite this, the lure of Brexit overshadows everything. Even colluding with Russia may not be a big deal for some Tory Brexiters, because they believe these people are still better than having people in Brussels make our laws. Really? Leave voters really need to wake up and not get swept up in the Brexit rhetoric and deal in facts, not emotions.

Remember that only 52% of the population voted to leave so it was a very narrow majority, that’s 16.1 million people who voted to remain. If we as a disenfranchised and disunited electorate can agree on one thing, it’s that we want Brexit to be done already. But voting Conservative is really not the answer, and the sooner voters realise this the better.