If it’s not broken, don’t Brexit!

From the moment the result was announced, George and I agreed that Brexit would never happen and we have remained unanimous in that assessment ever since.

The detail is usually in the little hints that British politicians from all sides drop into their interviews with equally bewildered and misinformed British journalists, usually on Sky News. You will notice since Jo Johnson’s resignation from Government last week that there has been an upsurge in the mention of a second “people’s vote”, note the avoidance of the “R” word as the seed of dissatisfaction is planted deeply into the minds of the even more bewildered than anyone else British public.

It would seem to me George that the British people are desperately seeking a Get Out Clause and I don’t mean get out of Europe, I mean get out of the utter and total fiasco that has become Brexit.

For a start, this was the most badly planned event in British history as the so called Mother of Democracy failed to understand the subtleties of holding a referendum in the first place. This is something that we know all too well in Ireland, indeed, recent events have shown that if there were Olympic medals in holding referenda, then the Irish would win Gold every time. But then again, we actually have a constitution, unlike the British who don’t actually have one but continue to refer to it and utter phrases like “that would be totally unconstitutional”.

The fact remains that Calamity Cameron missed a trick when drawing up the terms for the Brexit referendum by failing to insist that it had to be ratified in all four jurisdictions of the United Kingdom, otherwise known as Mainland England. I hope you’re still following me George because now it really starts getting complicated.

You see, the fact of the matter is that the referendum of 2016 on whether or not the United Kingdom should leave the European Union was meant to be advisory, a sort of national fact finding mission on the issue, it wasn’t actually supposed to result in an immediate decision to leave.

So what should they have done? Simple, on having ascertained that 51% of those who voted wanted to leave the powers that be should then have looked at what leaving the EU would actually look like. There would have been no need for the invocation of article 50 and no need for discussions about backstops or divorce settlements (although we should definitely fleece them for the Crown Jewels). Then, once a true and accurate picture of what leaving the EU would actually involve (I’m repeating “actually” a lot I’ve realised, must be really serious), the British people could have had a vote on whether or not they wanted to take action and you know, actually leave (there I go again).

This is why, in my view, a second referendum as suggested by Jo Johnson is, in fact, the right way to go because not only will it correct a very flawed and hitherto chaotic process, it will give the British people the right to vote on an issue knowing all the facts and even more appropriately, will give them the opportunity to change their minds – the words “Nice Treaty” come flooding into my mind!

So that’s it George, that’s my view on Brexit (or as I really like to call it, we in the North East of England want those pesky skilled Europeans to stop coming into our country and stealing our jobs and we are taking the rest of you down with us)in a nutshell.