Letter: How to BREXIT? – Let the People Decide

Published on: 4 Sep, 2019
Updated on: 4 Sep, 2019

From Gavin Morgan

It seems the only logical way out of this Brexit farce is another referendum – not on whether to leave Europe but on how to leave.

I also support our MP in voting against the government last night. Parliament is not trying to block Brexit, just block a “no-deal” Brexit.

The government does not have a mandate for a no-deal. The 2016 EU referendum did not put that to the people. It simply said do we want to stay in or leave. Not even the leave campaign was talking about a no-deal. Quite the opposite.

Boris Johnson promised a “rapid” and comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA), tariff-free movement of goods to the EU, no hard border in Ireland, a £350m weekly dividend to be spent on the NHS, large numbers of trade deals elsewhere in the world, and full clarity about the future relationship with Europe.

The result of the referendum (52% to 48%) showed only that we were uncertain about staying in Europe but far from certain we should leave. There was no overwhelming majority suggesting we want to leave under any circumstances. In fact, if the Remain campaign had pulled its finger out a bit more and the Leave campaign had told fewer lies, it might have tipped the other way.

So there is no mandate for a risky no deal. However, I also feel we must leave. Not only was that the result of the referendum but after the chaos of the last three years, I cannot see the EU welcoming us back without demanding big concessions. Also, a referendum that reversed Brexit might leave us even more divided as a country.

The problem we currently face is that the way forward is not obvious. It is possible that we will strike excellent deals with America and India and can ignore Europe. It is also possible we will end up as economic slaves to large economies in the way some of us feel we are slaves to the EU.

All Brexit has really achieved is the division of Europe, our country and even communities. Our government is locked in a power struggle between hard Brexiteers, soft Brexiteers and Remainers.

Remainers claim it is undemocratic to shut down parliament so that an unelected prime minister can ignore the representatives of the people. Leavers claim it is undemocratic for Parliament to thwart the outcome of the referendum.

But it is even more undemocratic for a government to ignore the people or indirectly claim there is a mandate to do whatever it wants by winning an election. An election will be a dishonest political trick. It will merely ask whether we prefer Jeremy Corbyn or a hung parliament to Boris Johnson. It will not show what the people really want.

We are on very dodgy ground when we define democracy in terms that suit what we personally want. Democracy is bigger than each of us. It is about all of us.

We will be a very divided country for years to come but we will be even more divided if we allow one faction to dictate our future. This is the biggest decision of our generation. We need to take it together. That is why we deserve accurate information and the chance to directly decide how this saga should end. We need another referendum, a referendum on how we should leave.

Responses to Letter: How to BREXIT? – Let the People Decide

John Perkins Reply

September 4, 2019 at 12:12 pm

There is little in this letter that has not been repeated over and over during the past three years by those who refuse to abide by the referendum result.

One thing is relatively new: the call for “the people” to decide, yet not to be allowed a vote on the MPs who would implement their decision.
John Armstrong Reply

September 4, 2019 at 6:34 pm

I do not buy the various permutations of the argument made by Gavin Morgan and repeated ad nauseam by Remainers over the past 3½ years on how we leave.

We have to assume in the absence of clarification that those voting to remain were well aware that remaining would inevitably lead to: an EU army, EU tax-man, EU pension, the Euro and indeed the whole nine yards.

Is that true though, did Remain voters really know what they were voting for, that they were voting for all of that, or did they assume the Status Quo and that they could still have a referendum on the Euro and that we could stay permanently out of Schengen?

I feel that Mr Morgan is being a little disingenuous in his piece in as much as he presents himself as an honest broker. He gives a little from one side of the argument and a little from the other when I suspect that in fact he just wants to remain; as does Anne Milton. He supports Anne Milton in her stance, who does not want to leave with no deal, but then she breaks off one of her negotiator’s arms. The EU will waste no time in breaking off the other. The fact that he wants a referendum rather than a general election reveals his true colours. “By their actions shall ye know them.”

I get a little bit cheesed with Remain activists and MPs saying that they respect the referendum result but we need another referendum. The only referendum result they will respect is the one they win.

Gavin Morgan cautions us on defining democracy to our personal preference and then does exactly that. A general election is not democracy, he seems to say, but a referendum is, unless of course, we are talking about the one in 2016.

There is also mention of lucrative trade deals with India and the US enabling us to ignore Europe. Who has ever said we would ignore Europe? That is hyperbole. I will tell readers one thing and for nothing; with a £90 billion trade deficit Europe will not be ignoring us.
Tony Rooth Reply

September 5, 2019 at 12:37 pm

The UK voted 52% to Leave in the 2016 Referendum. But did those voters really know the consequences of voting Leave?

Wasn’t Boris Johnson’s red bus promise of spending £350 million per week on the NHS a “con”?

Boris now has no real intention of negotiating a Deal. He has put forward no proposals for a revised Deal to the EU. His henchman, Dominic Cummimgs says negotiations are a “sham” and The Telegraph reports that the Government Brexit team has been disbanded.

No-deal is like slamming the door on a 40-year partnership without admitting that a divorce involves paying £39 billion to your former EU partner.

Let’s now properly decide on the terms of the divorce agreement, not just walk away with much aggro and bitterness to follow.

Tony Rooth is the Residents for Guildford and Villages borough councillor for Pilgrims