An Obvious Choice !

When the British people went to vote in a referendum on leaving the European Union in June, 2016 it was a seemingly simple decision.  The country did not want to be ruled from Brussels and they were assured that the withdrawal could be negotiated amicably.  As a result the narrowest margin voted to leave when the vote came in at 51.9% choosing " Brexit ".

As a result, Britain invoked " Article 50 " of the treaty that covers European Union membership and a parting date of March 29, 2019 was set.  Since then, the mood in the United Kingdom has shifted and all attempts to put together a programme of how so many things involved in the separation will work have failed to find agreement.  It would be fair to say that Britain is now irrevocably split on how this can be achieved.

Britain is now perilously close to having the EU simply terminate their membership because they are running out of time to reach an agreement that will gain a majority in the British parliament.  Even an attempt to negotiate between sworn political enemies, the Conservatives and the Labor opposition, failed miserably and degenerated into bitter name calling.

Now the British nation has been rocked by the news that British Steel has sought bankruptcy protection by putting its affairs into administration.  That imperils thousands of jobs, both directly and in the supply chain and delivers a sobering image of what lays ahead.  Without access to the market on the other side of the channel the future of many other British industries is at risk.

To be fair, this steel collapse is part of the problem facing the world steel industry. China over produced steel in its industrial rise and being a Communist country they have absorbed its losses in the interests of keeping their job market stable.  But unless Britain leaves the EU with a plan in place to allow goods to pass freely across borders the manufacturing sector will lose cohesion.   That writing is clearly on the wall.

The Conservative government of Theresa May has so far refused to even consider holding another referendum to let the people decide.  It took those years of negotiations to try and reach a settlement that have revealed the core issues that will need to be in place to avoid a " no deal " withdrawal, and they are very different from the structure on which the British people voted back in 2016.

Now the only way to gain vindication is to put this issue back to the people.   They will be voting on the facts that are now clear and it will be a choice of retaining the suffocating rule of Brussels in the interests of financial stability or accepting the risks of a " go it alone " nation hoping to find a market for its goods in an unfriendly world.

Hopefully, that choice will deliver a much wider decision margin.  It may also hasten the movement of Scotland to split from the union but at least a clear decision by the voters is something all side in this dispute will have to accept. Another referendum seems the only way this issue can be clearly resolved.