Leave or remain - the Brexit debate rages on

We hear from Christopher Gill and Bill McClements.

Ludlow Tory MP Christopher Gill applauds the party’s Brexit rebels

Good for Owen Paterson. As a former dissident Conservative MP myself and like Owen, a former businessman, I can well understand the frustration he described in the Shropshire Star last week.

He is frustrated at the inept way in which Britain’s negotiations with the European Union have led to what is now looking more and more like an act of abject capitulation.

From my own bitter experience at the time of the Treaty of European Union (Maastricht) 25 years ago I know the pressures that Owen and others of his ilk will now be coming under.

The Government Whips will be telling them to toe the Party line, or else!

The threats will be many and varied, ranging from the personal to the extreme – ‘if you don’t vote ‘the ticket’ Theresa May will resign, there’ll be a General Election and we’ll get Corbyn’.

Like Marie Antoinette our current Prime Minister appears to have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing.

Had she been so minded she could have played the outcome of the referendum quite differently, but she didn’t and one has to ask why ?

Judgement

Why, when it comes to the question of European Union, have otherwise irresolute and vacillating PMs such as Ted Heath, John Major and now Theresa May, dug their heels in and become irrationally obdurate in the face of public opinion and the better judgement of so many of their Parliamentary colleagues ?

Our PM's obvious reluctance to make a clean break with the corporatist EU has resulted in two wasted years and two years in which the uncertainty, that at the time of the Referendum the ‘remainers’ constantly harped on about ending, has simply become progressively worse.

In her shoes, as a former Secretary of State for DEFRA (responsible for Agriculture & Fisheries), a former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (with intimate knowledge of Irish border issues) and not least as an experienced businessman, I like to think that Owen Paterson would, immediately after the referendum result had been declared, have told our so-called European ‘partners’ in no uncertain terms that we were leaving the EU, but that if they wished to carry on trading with us on the existing terms the choice was theirs.

The EU response to such an ultimatum might have been brutal but at least we would have known where we stood and found ourselves in no worse a position than we are now - trying to cobble together a Free Trade Agreement by making one concession after another and ending up with something that the British People most certainly didn’t vote for on June 23 2016.

As an object lesson in how not to cut a deal our Government has excelled itself.

As for the forlorn Theresa May, what a missed golden opportunity.

Had she had the gumption she would have surely recognised that, by honouring the mandate explicit in the referendum result, she could have become one of the most popular and successful PMs of all time, restored the reputation of the world’s once most successful political party and served her country with distinction by overseeing the restoration of our freedom; democracy that millions laid down their lives for 100 years ago.

We need a second vote, says Remain campaigner Bill McClements

Theresa May is being criticised by the Conservative Party, Parliament and the country for her muddled 'Chequers Plan' to leave the EU. We’re in this mess because the PM is trying to hold her party together. She clearly knows Brexit is damaging the UK economy and that a hard Brexit will be devastating to our standard of living.

The PM put Brexiteers in her cabinet to hold her MPs together. This has led to inept performances. Dave Davis never put forward a detailed plan, not even a 'fag packet' plan and in 2018 only bothered to go to Brussels four times.

Dominic Raab now admits that he didn’t realise how important the Dover-Calais link is for the UK’s trade. That shows how little he understood when encouraging the UK voters to vote for Leave! Liam Fox has failed to find any lucrative trade deals with the rest of the world.

The reality is that there never was an easy alternative to trading with the EU. Jobs are already leaving the UK for Europe, more will follow and a hard Brexit will be disastrous with UK car companies relocating to Europe.

A hard Brexit will make the UK economy at least 15 per cent worse off in dollars than it would have been by 2015. The pound has been down now for over two years and would fall more.

Untrue

Even Rees-Mogg now says it could be 50 years before the UK benefits from leaving and Farage says he never promised a better economic future outside the EU. What an admission – their claims were all untrue. Their unbalanced hate of the EU has driven the UK into a big hole.

The EU has its faults, it could be more democratic and accountable, but then you can say the same about democracy at Westminster, in the US, China, Brazil, etc

Regularly we hear comments from Brexiteers about Remainers moaning, not honouring the referendum, about 'millions laying down their lives for freedom' and other emotive populous comments with little detailed substance.

In a democracy it is healthy that people say what they believe and question poor decisions. The referendum was a consultative process and my ballot paper didn’t mention the type of Brexit.

As regards the argument about fighting for freedom in two world wars. We were also fighting to stop Germany dominating Europe. Now Brexiteers want to walk away from the EU, severely damaging cooperation and joint working which means Germany has to dominate Europe. Even the Germans don’t want this outcome.

To get out of this mess we need a proper Referendum. Another General Election would be a distraction. The Conservatives would spend time disagreeing about their next leader and we would end up with a confused mandate on Brexit.

The British people deserve to be told the truth about the options for the country, the costs of change and be allowed to vote to either “Stay in the EU” or “Leave despite the costs”. If the people still vote to leave then it will be clear that they believe that these costs are worth paying.

Time really is running out!!