Nature abhors a vacuum. And a vacuum is what now rages through the British public’s and the British leadership’s minds, sucking all rational thought into a vortex of shock.
Let’s say, for the sake of charity and hope, that the British public voted to exit the EU because they believed that a home-grown government would be less cumbersome, less bureaucratic and more in tune with their needs than one based in Brussels. That they did not vote for xenophobic, utterly misguided reasons such as these Barnsley voters. Let’s say that the elected representatives who egged their populace on to leave, had full knowledge of the economic realities, and that the case of Cornwall suddenly seeking ‘reassurance’ that the huge subsidies it receives annually from the EU would ‘not be affected’, despite the region's considerable majority Leave vote. (Cornish fishermen and farmers are beneficiaries of the Common Fisheries and Agricultural policies – but not for long now.) Let’s say, Mr Farage will revisit and revise his statement after the vote, that the campaign-driving advertisement that $350 million per week will be allocated to the NHS instead of to the EU was ‘a mistake’ and he will not be held to it – that the money is a ‘feather bed’ for ‘the NHS, schools, and all sorts of things.’
Having decided all these charitable things, let’s now stop being ridiculous. It’s one thing for individuals to have regrets. The day after the vote, Google registered a massive spike in searches for ‘What is the EU.’ Voters sound as if they’re embarrassed the morning after a big piss-up, and the term ‘Regrexit’ has already sprung up. Yes, we’re very sorry, we didn’t know what we were doing, we used our hard-won votes without even knowing what the hell we were leaving or what 'they' do. We don't know where the money comes or goes or what it means to our own employment and economic prospects in the short, let alone the long term. It’s voted, it’s fact. We can’t be so imbecilic and immature as to think we can get out of it with ‘I didn’t mean it, Mum.’ The constitution rules that a country may opt out of the EU, but after that it can NEVER come back. That’s the game, we played it. So no pointless energy expended on gathering petitions for a second referendum, please. There are a plethora of ‘plans’ formenting now, but all of them are in some way trying to claw back a modicum of the EU, if not all of it. This is both unseemly and unhelpful.
Maybe the EU was indeed so unwieldy and out of control there was no way to fix it. Maybe a ‘clean’ start (though such a thing is impossible but we’ll talk figuratively and broadly) will be for the better in the long run. One thing is certain: now that we’ve done this, Europe as we know it has drunk from the cup, and breathes but a little before ‘the potent poison quite oer’crows its spirit’. We must look forward, not back. To waste energy in heaping further layer upon layer of deception, subterfuge, embezzling, bureaucracy, false alliances, tactical maneuvering without any outcome, good or bad, is to redouble the very properties we have supposedly voted to escape. We cannot procrastinate our final exit. If we drag this divorce out, those with more verve will muscle in, and any benefits will be quickly sucked away.
It is however a bitter irony that the vote driven by the slogan ‘Make Britain Great Again’ will almost certainly result in the ‘Great’ literally dropping off the name.