IT’S often seen as a cliff edge, so here goes.
Do you want to jump off this steep edge without a parachute and with no knowledge of what lies below, although rocks might be a fair guess? Or would you rather have a chute to carry you down gently? Or are you having second doubts about taking that leap?
Are you prepared to stand on that lofty place and just spring over, holding hands with Theresa as she recites headlines from an article she wrote for the Daily Express – “BREXIT PLAN DELIVERS FREEDOMS PEOPLE VOTED FOR”?
Would you like to borrow Jeremy’s chute? Oh, hang on he hasn’t decided if he’s going to wear one yet. Not made up his mind about Brexit at all. Still hoping Theresa will mess things up and be forced into a general election like the one Labour almost sort of won last time. And as near victories/defeats go, it was a good one.
Trouble is, chances of that happening are about as slim as Boris Johnson saying: “Oh, let’s not make it all about me, chaps.”
Yes, this is Brexit we’re talking about again. And I know that’s a risk because on this ledge, Brexit blogs aren’t as widely read as non-Brexit blogs.
The campaign for a people’s vote is gathering momentum, although a second-thoughts referendum still seems unlikely. It’s a hard sell in the sense that we’ve had more than two years of arguing about this, and a second vote would send us back to the start.
But I’m still in favour of a second vote, and here’s why. The first referendum was badly run and poorly argued on all sides and seemed mostly to be won on loose pernicious feelings of dissatisfaction with modern life.
It was vaguely about sovereignty, something which itself is vague and difficult to define; and it was covertly about immigration without anyone saying as much, until Nigel Farage blurted it out near polling day.
Most importantly, the 37 per cent of people who voted for it hardly represent a thumping majority. A narrow squeak ‘yes’ vote has been tattily thrashed about as a banner made by the people (you know, all of them, every last one).
Two years of infighting, blather and bollocks has left us in a poisoned vacuum. A popular vote on the terms of our departure would settle things properly – even if the notion sends the Eurosceptics into spluttering mode (a setting they are rarely a twitch away from).
A second vote makes sense, especially as politics has let us down and behaved badly for the past two years, with endless spats and spitting, and the constant unfurling of shabby lies and exaggeration.
And feel free to consider these thoughts shabby lies and exaggeration if you wish; or if your name is Nigel or Jacob.
As for the freedoms Mrs Maybe says we were promised, they were false promises mumbled into the wind.
Those ‘freedoms’ may well come with a “Made in the US stamp” – unless, like Trump’s “Make America Great Again” hats they were made in China.
Here’s what freedom might look like.
The NHS open to foreign competition, consumer and environmental regulations chucked on a bonfire, and delicious American delicacies such as chicken washed in chlorine back on the menu – alongside hormone-packed meat. And you can forget about anyone believing in climate change.
Exactly how any such a dodgy with the US would be better than what we have now remains a mystery. And another reason for a second vote.