High Peak Liberal Democrats

Brexit - We are paying for past mistakes

In our political system, where a government can win power with 25% support amongst the electorate as a whole getting support from around 38% of the electorate (52% of the voters) as a mandate to leave the EU that is hard to ignore. Perhaps, with hindsight, Parliament should have taken the example of the first Scottish Devolution Referendum in 1979 and set a minimum threshold for a majority either way. But it's too late now and the result is a country more divided politically and economically than at any time since the Second World War.

The EU Referendum has revealed the fault lines in our country which have been festering away for decades. Despite the fact that most of our difficulties are of our own making, many have preferred to lay the blame at the 'European Project'. As an island people, who came late to the party, where the suspicion of the foreigner has been ingrained in the national psyche for many centuries, with an international language, a proud history of standing alone and where the last battle on its soil took place on Culloden Moor in 1746, I'm not surprised that antagonism towards the EU has revealed profound divisions in our society, which may prove difficult to eliminate.

I'm not even going to attempt to speculate on how negotiations may evolve as the formal Brexit process begins. There still may be a few surprises on the way. Those who woke up on 24 June to 'Independence Day' having got their country back might find that the milk and honey will take a long time to flow, if at all.

While acknowledging the strength of feeling amongst those who genuinely resent the sovereignty they claim we have lost, although the verb I prefer us 'pooled', I am sure that what tipped the balance towards Brexit was the feeling amongst many working class communities that they had been passed by and largely ignored as globalisation swept away the certainties that their parents and grandparents felt they enjoyed.

These areas used to listen primarily to the Labour Party but no more. Under Blair and Brown Labour made a conscious decision, in order to win the confidence of a Middle England, to espouse the market and was unwilling despite massive parliamentary majorities from 1997 to 2005 to attempt to reverse the policies that led to the erosion of much of our manufacturing capacity which began in the 1960s thanks to ineffectual management and ideologically motivated Trades Unions and was finished off by the Thatcher government, bolstered by the windfall of North Sea oil.

With so many jobs now performed by machines and with wages for many in our society stagnant or undercut by cheap labour from abroad, it's not surprising that many of those directly affected have looked round for somebody or something to blame and the EU referendum gave them a unique opportunity to give vent to their frustrations.

When in 1975 I was one of the 75% who voted to stay in the EEC, although I know the implications of the original Treaty of Rome, I was basically supporting a trading block. With the Cold War still raging hardly anyone could have foreseen the collapse of communism or, indeed, the rise of radical Islam, let alone the emergence as economic powers countries such as China or India. As membership of what became the EU expanded, our Labour government, unlike countries such as Germany and France, ignored the transitional arrangements which could have limited the numbers of migrants from Poland and the Baltic States coming to these shores. The Coalition quietly scrapped the funds made available by Gordon Brown to ease the pressure on school places and medical services in areas such as Boston, for example.

I see that the party is now boasting about an increase of 4000 members since the result was announced (am I really bothered?) and Tim Farron is telling us to vote Lib Dem to get back into the EU (is he really being serious?). Meanwhile Boris and Gove appear more concerned about getting the former into No 10. Jeremy Corbyn appears to be 'Billy no mates' and is paying the price for a lacklustre EU referendum performance. He might soon be toast like David Cameron. Our soon to be former partners across the Channel are demanding action while over here the 'victors' here appear to be scratching their heads about what to do next. We're in fairyland, aren't we? What an unholy mess.

One way forward

As the Brussels and European Liberal Democrats pointed out yesterday:

"Since the referendum's result last Friday, a new dynamic has developed with an online petition calling for a second referendum which has this by morning gathered more than 3.6 million signatures.

"It reads: 'We the undersigned call upon HM Government to implement a rule that if the remain or leave vote is less than 60% based on a turnout less than 75% there should be another referendum'. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/131215"

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Cllr John Marriott

27.6.2016

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