The deal unveiled by Theresa May reveals how dire our options are. We need to have a say
It is our fate, and arguably our misfortune, to live in an era of great change. Yet even by recent standards, the political upheavals of the past week have surpassed in intensity and gravity almost anything the British people have experienced in the postwar era. The long, often tedious and confusing struggle for Brexit suddenly crystallised into an all-consuming political drama of epic proportions, riveting, infuriating and alarming in equal measures. Bodies litter the stage. The plots and subplots thicken. On all sides the cry goes up of treason and betrayal. But still, if we are honest – and now is a time for honesty – nobody knows how or where this tragedy, this black farce in which we gamble with a nation’s life, will end.
Line by line, clause by clause, the reality of Brexit was finally committed to dry, unforgiving paper. Every page of the withdrawal agreement negotiated by Theresa May demolished the stubborn fantasy to which she has clung over the past two years: that there is barely a trade-off to make in leaving the EU, and that we could painlessly slide out of the world’s largest, deepest trading bloc. Every sentence brought into sharp focus the colossal cost of embracing the Brexiters’ delusion of “taking back control”, measured not just in lost billions but in the damage to be inflicted on British citizens, on sovereignty and influence.
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