Thursday 28 November 2019

Will Brexit actually ever happen?

Top of the list of priorities in the Conservative party's election manifesto is to "get Brexit done". These three words are drilled into all of us as if there is nothing else more important in the world. In some respects it's true because Brexit or no Brexit, the future of this country depends on a final resolution to the European question. But is Brexit going to be done just like that if Boris wins a mandate in the election which some polls seem to be taking as read. Those very helpful politicians who make up the Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland have made it clear today in their manifesto that no no no they won't accept the Boris Brexit deal as it is currently drafted for reasons which I am sure I don't need to spell out. Basically any wording which even smells of a requirement for border-type checks on goods to keep the EU happy will meet their disapproval. So if Boris sweeps into power with a new mandate on December 12 - just two weeks away - he is going to be confronted by the DUP with their shaking heads and cries of "over my dead body". So Brexit won't get done. There will be endless negotiations because the DUP will be supported by the dreaded European Research Group of mad Tory Brexiteers. Deadlines will be breached. Brexit will simper on and the country will yawn to death and businesses will go potty and Boris will stamp his feet. As the months go by there might well be a new surge of feeling in the country that perhaps after all the Lib Dems got it right and that the exit from Europe should just be cancelled. Could Boris ever countenance that? I guess not, but as a Remainer I'm still wishfully-thinking.

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