Brexit, more Brexit and yet more Brexit

Way back in 2016, when the world seemed a much saner place – which is saying quite a lot because the world was pretty messed up in 2016 – the idea that the UK might leave the EU without any deal or with a deal that left us outside of the single market and the customs union was regarded with horror. Now here we are in 2018, facing the very real prospect of crashing out of the EU with no deal, and leaving the single market and customs union is now touted as the will of the people by our Westminster rulers. "That's what you all voted for", they cry.

It’s the worst of the worst nightmares of the Remainers in 2016. No, it's even worse, as we now know that the campaign was bought by dirty tricks and the flagrant breaking of electoral law by the Leave campaign. The vote was bought by dirty money and outright lies. There are allegations and suspicions of Russian meddling in the campaign. Then after the Leave campaign secured the result that it had longed for for so many decades, we discovered that, despite having a lifetime to prepare, not only did it not have a Plan B, it had no Plan A. It had not a clue. All it had was a hatred of the EU and all its works.

British politics ever since has been defined by the pursuit of the impossible by impotent imperialists. They think Brexit is the Viagra that will make Britain stand proud again, but it’s just a sop to a senile fantasy of an empire that shrunk away a long time ago. It’s the blue pill of blissful self-indulgence, the ignorance of illusion. All of our futures, all of our prospects, all of our possibilities are being held hostage to Boris Johnson’s ego and careerism, to the vanity of Liam Fox, to the insouciance of David Davies  to the self-serving backstabbing of Michael Gove, to the casual cruelties of Iain Duncan Smith and to the Rule Britannia wet dreams of Jacob Rees Mogg. Good grief, what a bunch of tossers. And don't get me started on the rest of them. OK, as you ask, I will....

This is possibly the worst, the most inept, the most malign and malicious British government in living memory. It flails about from crisis to crisis. It lurches towards self-destruction and it is taking us all down with it. Theresa May’s government may not survive much longer – but there is no answer to the question, “And then what?”

Another general election won’t solve the problem. At best it will replace a weak Conservative government which doesn’t have a clue how to tackle the Brexit its leadership is committed to with a weak Labour government which also doesn’t have a clue how to tackle the Brexit its leadership is committed to. Both the main parties are determined to take the UK out of the EU so it can strike trade deals of its own at the very time that the IMF is warning that the trade war sparked off by Donald Trump could cost the global economy $430 billion.

Theresa May and the Labour leadership both refuse to countenance a second EU referendum to decide the question of what sort of future best suits the peoples of the UK. There is a failure of politics in the UK, a failure of political leadership, and there is no apparent way out of the mess. However, perhaps only a popular referendum can provide the political clarity that British political leadership cannot. Let the people speak - again. The failure of Brexit is a failure of political leadership, a failure of the very concept of Britishness that is so beloved by Brexiteers. It’s a failure of the British state. Britishness is being destroyed by those who say that they love it. And don't forget, folks, that it's politicians that got us into this mess. Unfortunately, I'm not confident that they have the nonce to get us out of it. A plague on all their houses.