Leave-voting LBC host Nick Ferrari gives up. “Just bloody stay and we’ll move onto other things” he told his listeners this morning.
It’s an argument pro-Europeans have been making for years: Brexit is swallowing up all of the government’s time, energy and money. The problems that led to the Brexit vote in the first place are being neglected. What’s more, at a time of great global change the UK risks being left behind.
Ferrari easily reeled off a list of issues that politicians would do better to spend their time on: “The people who are being stabbed and shot, and the schools that are underperforming, and the hospitals that aren’t working, the NHS that’s creaking at the seams.”
He could have added the housing shortage, our ageing population, the social care crisis, cash-strapped local councils, neglect of our post-industrial towns, rising political extremism, or having a frank national discussion about immigration. All of these were on the minds of at least some Leave voters in 2016. Brexit stops us doing anything meaningful about them.
Then there are the big issues on the horizon which the government needs to focus on sooner rather than later. Climate change, a resurgent Russia, the displacement of millions of people across the globe, trade tensions between China and America, the technological revolution. The UK, with its diplomatic expertise and cultural clout, could have been a voice of sanity in troubled times. Instead we find ourselves distracted on the sidelines.
Some Brexit diehards will think Ferrari has thrown in the towel too soon. He has always described himself as a “reluctant” Leaver. They might think that within just a few more weeks or months we’ll be out of the EU and free of this political quagmire. Not so. Any form of Brexit – the prime minister’s deal, a May/Corbyn compromise, even crashing out with no deal – will see us arguing over our place in the world for years to come.
By contrast, if we have a People’s Vote and decide to stay in the EU, our politicians won’t have to squabble about Brexit and can instead fix the country’s real problems. They will also have much more money to do so.
Ferrari has hit upon something very important. A choice to push on with Brexit now is a choice to neglect everything else that affects people’s daily lives. If Ferrari is concerned about this, surely others who voted Leave in 2016 are having second thoughts too? That’s why it’s so important that, whatever form of Brexit politicians eventually get behind, the final decision must be put to the people.