WELL, it’s not you. The UK Government continues to set its face against any Scottish referendum. But they are going to find this position will not hold when it comes to reconsidering the Brexit decision, according to the latest opinion polls.
A Savanta survey for The Independent revealed that as of December 2022, 51% of people in Great Britain thought that it was wrong to leave the European Union, compared with 34% who thought it was the right decision.
Two years after the UK left the European Union, a whopping near two-thirds of Britons now support a referendum on rejoining. Also, the number of people who oppose another vote has fallen, with fewer than a quarter of voters now against a referendum.
The UK formally left the EU on January 31 2020, but the “transition period” meant it observed Brussels laws and remained in the single market until December 31, 2020.
READ MORE: The progressive case against rejoining the EU is not being heard
Since then, Britons believe the economy, the UK’s global influence and the ability to control our own borders have all got worse, the survey shows.
The number who say there should be another vote is now 65%, up from 55% at the same point last year.
In terms of timing, the most popular options were right now, at 22%, and within the next five years, 24%, followed by within six to 10 years, 11%. While those who said there should never be a second referendum have fallen from 32% to a mere 24%.
The survey also found 54% now say Brexit was the wrong decision, up from 46% last year, on the first anniversary of Britain’s exit.
The poll not only suggests that the majority of voters now think leaving the EU has made many things worse, but the percentage who think so has increased in many areas in the last year.
A total of 56% now think leaving the EU has made the economy worse, up from 44%.
Half of Britons think it has made the UK’s ability to control its own borders – a key Brexiteer pledge – worse, up from 43% to 50%.
And the proportion who think it has worsened Britain’s global influence is also now 50%, up from 39%.
There are signs even Brexiteers are becoming frustrated. Former minister George Eustice recently criticised a post-Brexit trade deal with Australia, saying it “gave away far too much for far too little in return”.
It would be a real irony if a Brexit referendum took place ahead of a Scottish plebiscite.
These are very troubled times for the UK, and it may not survive the challenges. To have any hope of enduring it needs excellent leadership. Instead, it has Rishi Sunak. A man who said this week that “he intends to be accountable”, whilst shrinking from the merest thought of testing that accountability at the polls.
Sunak is what happens when a small bunch of hugely unrepresentative people who got virtually every decision wrong in the last decade get to choose the Prime Minister. His very presence as prime minister is, of course, a clear affront to worldwide, contemporary constitutional standards.
When I listen to him and close my eyes, what springs to mind is the bloke in PC World trying in vain to sell a worthless extended warranty plan.
Sunak has set himself five targets. The first two seem to be closely aligned to economic forecasts, so his goal there is merely not to make things worse. The other three are extremely vague. And he is unwilling to attach any timescale for their achievement. Any business student submitting such a proposal would be fortunate not to get a D-minus.
READ MORE: Scottish Parliament's first debate in 2023 to be on independence
His Labour counterpart is cut from the same cloth. Keith Starmer seems unhindered by any clear or consistent convictions. He is an opportunist who wears his beliefs lightly. Indeed, opportunism is his guiding light. His ascendency to the top of the Labour Party has been characterised by a divorce from long-standing Labour values and an enthusiasm to ape the Tories at every turn. All the while striving not to create waves in the British media.
THE bland leading the bland is a good description of current British political leadership.
Scotland deserves so much better than this. And it would be hard to conclude this would be very difficult. But it will mean that we need to stop pleading and start acting.
To expect the above bunch of raving incompetents to conduct themselves rationally over Scotland when they have signally failed elsewhere, stretches credulity to the breaking point.
The TNT show returns later this month.
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