There is an increasing amount of noise on the subject of a change of heart over the Brexit decision. Can or indeed should the decision to leave the EU be changed? European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker have in recent days both said the UK would be welcome back – the door remains open. Even MEP, Nigel Farage, has suggested there should be a second Referendum in order to finish off the “Remainers”, at least for a generation.
One thing that is certain – there isn’t a day goes by without somebody saying something about Brexit. The focus is now on the nature of the future trading relationship. And if the departure is delayed from 29 March 2019 to 31 December 2020, what will be the form of the relationship during that interim period?
But all the while these negotations are underway, there will be people who want to reverse what has been decided.
But it isn’t going to happen.
The reasons are simple:
1 The Great British Public (“GBP”) will never again be trusted with a Referendum over anything. And a Referendum would be required as a first step.
2 Parliament would then have to vote in favour of staying.
3 The information on which the GBP based their vote was incomplete, inaccurate and misleading. For example, who informed the GBP before the vote that there would be a massive divorce bill? If this had been shareholders voting on whether to accept a company sale or not based on information provided to them by the board of directors, the shareholders would have had a claim for negligence if not fraud against the directors. You can bet the quality of the information on which to base a vote the second time around would be no better.
4 Each of the 27 member states would have to agree to the UK change of decision. It would not be a unilateral decision for the UK to take.
5 If a person goes through a divorce, they would want a prenup in place before getting married again. So here, the UK could never accept 2 paragraphs in article 50 as the terms of exit if the UK were to agree to stay in the EU. The whole of the exit terms would need to be negotiated before the UK could agree to stay or rejoin. How long would that take?
6 Because of items 1 to 5 above, there isn’t enough time.
We are where we are. The UK must get on with making the best of the decision taken. Once the uncertainty and chaos is over, it is very likely the UK will be a great place to live and work – it is now. The EU will be the one with the uncertainty and chaos ahead.
Tom Redfern
