TRUTH and accountability; fake news and corruption. These are our stark choices. Out with the old, and in with the new – it’s time for change.
In 2018, we have to take a stand against a government which showers incompetence and dereliction of duty with honours; which allows sexism to go unchallenged; which fails to protect the poor, the sick and the vulnerable; which feathers the nests of the already grossly wealthy and works hand in glove with media moguls to further their own greedy agenda. We can’t sit back and just spectate as our prime minister blunders her way into the greatest political catastrophe of our era, with Nigel Farage pulling her Brexit strings behind the scenes. It’s time for a more robust challenge, and it must be cross-party.
Time is running out and it even feels like our remaining window of opportunity is closing faster. Chinks of light have shone through here and there, where Tory rebels have discovered their better natures and held firm against their party’s chaotic Brexit stance. But not one Scottish Tory MP has taken a stand for Scotland, bowing to their southern masters rather than represent the wishes of their constituents.
Scottish Labour are no better, meekly following their Westminster leader despite the 62 per cent of Scots who voted Remain. In the House of Commons, the majority of Labour MPs are too busy abstaining on key Brexit votes, turning a blind eye to their responsibilities with only a quarter defying the Whip and voting to remain in the customs union in a Commons division before Christmas. It’s time for Jeremy Corbyn to put his out-of-date personal opinions on the European Union on the back burner and realise that most of his own supporters don’t want to leave. They want to remain – they want to keep the UK in the single market and the customs union, and they want to make sure their international friends can stay living alongside them. They don’t give a stuff about the colour of passports, only whether they entitle the bearer to freedom of movement across much of the continent of Europe. Corbyn has missed so many opportunities to hold the Tory Government to account purely because his heart wasn’t in it, but it’s decisions from the head we need now, not gut or knee-jerk reactions.
The SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford has called for a rainbow summit of members from across the political spectrum to come together on January 8 to limit the damage of a hard Brexit.
As we enter the second phase of the UK-EU Brexit negotiations, it’s essential that parties put their differences behind them to form an effective and practical opposition to this disastrous and ill-thought-out divorce from the EU. If Tory and Labour rebels joined forces with the SNP, LibDems, the Green Party and Plaid Cymru, all four of whom are committed to remaining in the single market and customs union, then a strong majority could derail the worst aspects of a hard Brexit and protect the national interest.
This should have been in place last year. Now in the new year and more than a year and a half into the Brexit bourach it is vital. But with successful support for crucial amendments to the EU (Withdrawal) Bill now in place, and as the facts of the severe lack of proper analysis of leaving the EU are now apparent (rather than the tissue of lies and inaccuracies peddled during the Leave campaign), opposition parties may feel they are in a stronger position to challenge the current government and effect lasting change.
So finally, some progress and perhaps some hope – or at least there will be as long as Corbyn rises to the occasion and becomes more than a bumbling stumbling block. The momentum must be maintained with steely determination as strong and sinister forces are at work to undermine any attempts to challenge a hard Brexit.
But is it enough? Maybe it’s not too late to reconsider the whole sorry mess and go further than a mere compromised softer and kinder Brexit.
Recent polls indicate that even those who voted to leave are changing their minds as they watch the parade of lies and incompetence from the UK Government and feel the harsh reality in their pockets. Of course, in Scotland, we never wanted to leave in the first place, with support for staying in the EU continuing to rise.
One initiative to watch for in 2018 will be the cross-party group of MPs, MSPs and MEPs who have stuck their necks out and lodged a petition at the Court of Session to establish whether parliament can unilaterally withdraw the Article 50 notice. It has never been established in law whether an EU member state can unilaterally decide to revoke Article 50 if the final deal is not to the satisfaction of the national interest. It has been previously commonly believed that all 27 member states of the EU must give permission to remain but it has never been established.
By taking this petition to the European Court of Justice, we will definitively discover whether parliament can legally withdraw the notice without permission. Such a ruling could change the course of history for the UK. The judgment should be known in the next 12 months, well before March 29, 2019, the date set for the UK's exit.
Now that is radical and bold. After all, to quote one David Davis: “If a democracy cannot change its mind, it ceases to be a democracy.”
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