The EU referendum has long since passed, but the battle for Britain has only just begun. A minority of MPs continue to fight to prevent Brexit, but the far more important debate – about what kind of country Brexit Britain is going to be – is really starting to heat up.
In this battle, the Leave/Remain divide is irrelevant. The Leave movement was an inherently unstable disparate coalition of people who wanted the UK to leave the EU for a wide variety of reasons. Beyond that, our stance on a whole range of different political issues vary, and no philosophy unified us. That’s why there was so much in-fighting before the referendum and no continuity movement post-referendum.
What’s at stake now is clear. The victor between the two most significant tribes in the emerging ideological battle for Britain will determine our future success or failure.
Will Britain be a liberal country that embraces globalisation and free trade? Will we have an open economy that embraces free market principles? Will we welcome people into our society happily and enjoy the benefits of being a hub for talented and hard-working people from around the world? Will we maintain a close partnership with the EU, recognising it as our most important geopolitical relationship, despite Brexit?
The alternative is a parochial Britain. A country that baulks at Free Trade Agreements that involve visa liberalisation. A country that actively tries to repel aspiring students who want to come to our universities. A protectionist economy that wrings its hands over foreign takeovers and wants to roll back the tide of globalisation. A hostile environment for immigrants and foreign-born Britons who’ve been part of our society for decades.
I’m sad to say that that narrow-minded vision of a closed Britain is currently winning. That is what embarrasses our country. It leaves me feeling guilty and cursing my naivety; and determined to fight this all the way.
As a liberal Brexiteer, I have very little in common with many other people who voted Leave. Increasingly, I don’t see certain Leavers as my own ‘side’, but as a political enemy that needs to be defeated. I don’t share their hopes for Britain’s future and I refuse to go along with the notion that the referendum result gives anyone the right to reshape Britain in the Farage-ist mould.
As far as I’m concerned, we’re leaving the EU, but how we do so is all up for grabs and the culture war now raging has to be won by liberals.
This nonsense debate about Gemalto, a Franco-Dutch company, being selected to produce British passports is just the latest example of an empowered group of illiberal Leavers shouting the loudest. It’s a “national humiliation” apparently, despite the company being selected via a fair competitive tender process which will save taxpayers money. Yet these people claim to believe in free trade?
When Eurosceptics who have long championed the slogan “global Britain” call a Franco-Dutch company making our passports a “national humiliation” I can only think they: 1. Don’t know what “global Britain” really means and/or 2. Are not very sincere when they call for us to “go global”.
A Britain shaped according to their vision is going to be a bleaker and far poorer place. Shaping the future is eminently more important that continuing to squabble about the 23rd June 2016.
