With more turmoil looming over #Brexit this week, it's heartening to see support growing to #SuspendA50 and hold a #2ndEUref - most recently from @JustineGreening. What’s best for our country must be at the front of our minds
Like all who want #SuspendA50 & hold a #2ndEUref, I want time to do a decent deal then take stock and check that’s what people really want. It’s the only logical option for us all: country, party, EU and the rest of the world
We need time to determine the future of our country, & what our final Brexit position should be. We then need to put this back to people in a new vote. We must be sure that the Brexit we decide on (if we take this direction) is right. We mustn’t rush or act on this irrationally.
The reality we have to face is that the proposed deal to leave is incredibly unlikely to be as good as what we’ve got now. In the absence of a better alternative, no Government can honestly say that leaving is in our country’s best interests. That’s why we need a #2ndEUref
The Govt must recognise the growing voice that stands for #SuspendA50 & #2ndEUref. It must take responsibility for our future. It‘s not good enough to plan for no deal, or to force a Brexit that pleases nobody & undermines our future. The Govt must take notice
This analysis is worth a read - but the choice in a #2ndEUref should be simple: between a deal to Leave properly or a new deal to Remain. Don’t include the “worst of both worlds” option that all agree is bad. There’s no Third Way on this: we do or we don’t institute.global/news/the-inbet…
We have to learn from past mistakes: the Government must offer realistic, clear choices between good futures for our country. It was the height of irresponsibility to offer dreams without knowing how to make them come true; it would be wrong to offer a harmful fudge
.@NickCohen4 has wise words for all of us in public & political life: “there will be times when you will be frightened of saying what you believe...Allow that fear to dominate you and you will end up...platitudinous, frightened, and irrelevant.” nybooks.com/daily/2018/07/…
More of us need to stand up for what we believe in. It would be easy to look at our tired politics, feel that it‘s all a bit hopeless and give up. We must not be discouraged. The future of our country depends on it
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Tonight’s votes in @HouseofCommons on #Brexit were really quite shameful. The Government adopted changes that went against the proposals in its own white paper (that it had only agreed last Friday). It changed its position at the last minute
The first duty of Government is to do what’s right for our country and to be honest. This sort of last-minute change undermines both and I certainly couldn’t in all honesty support it. That would be politics at its worst....
Instead, the Government must face up to the #Brexit challenge, be honest with people about what’s possible and what isn’t, #SuspendA50 until it has worked out what it wants - and later offer a #2ndEUref once it has established good, realistic options for our country
It’s good that the Government has a common approach to #Brexit; we needed that before triggering Article 50. Now we need a strategy to get the best outcome for our country. That’s the only way to reunify it...
1. We need to #SuspendA50 to give us time to do the job of negotiating a deal properly. For better or worse the EU affects almost every aspect our lives - from our health to our work to the air we breathe. A rushed job will be a bad job - for us & the EU
2. We also need to recognise how far & fast the EU is moving on issues that matter to us - like migration, which largely fuelled the vote to Leave
If, in the future, I am to look my children in the eye and honestly say that I did my best for them I cannot, in all good conscience, support how our country’s current exit from the EU looks set to be delivered.
I voted to remain in the European Union and have not changed my view that continued membership would have been the better strategic course. Even so, I believe that it would be impossible and wrong to seek to go back to how things were before the referendum.
If Brexit is worth doing, then it is certainly worth doing well; regardless of how long that takes.