Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Brexit 2 months on

It gets worse. Once, when a UK cabinet minister spoke on his brief at the despatch box in the House of Commons it was assumed that it was government policy. No more. Of course, the blame doesn't lie entirely with the Secretary of State for Exiting the EU. The problem is that there is no government policy. Or indeed, no prospect of developing one.
It must now be clear to everyone that:
a) the UK government lacks the capacity to actually leave the EU (unless it wants to just walk away in the desperate hope that something will turn up, which it won't)
b) the arguments advanced by the Leave campaign were blatant lies
c) there is no easy way out - Theresa May can't even call an election and lose it, leaving someone else to clean up the mess as the lamentable state of the Labour Party means that she would win
I've written a few new blogs that try to set out some of the issues. They are pretty depressing. But they may inject a degree of reality to a debate characterised by political demonstrations of optimism that make one wonder if the speakers inhabit the same world as the rest of us.

Brexit - the confusion continues. BMJ 8th September 2016

"Brexit means Brexit" Health Policy & Planning, 7th September 2016