Given that many argue Brexit will have a more profound effect on the UK than Covid, it’s reasonable to guess its inquiry would be a similar windfall for the legal trade. Even this is likely an under-estimate, with the Covid-19 inquiry already generating an £85m bill for taxpayers as government ministers and departments lawyer up before proceedings even begin this summer. In Oct ober last year the Times estimated that £110m a year was being spent each year on them, with a third going to lawyers. What would be achieved by a public inquiry, so much public inquiring having already been done? Certainly it would mean a few more million for those who work on inquiries, which have been a growth industry of late. Even amidst the cost-of-living crisis, war in Ukraine and the usual American political hijinks, our relationship with the EU has rarely escaped news editor s’ attention. Such a shift from the referendum result follows near endless discussion of Brexit. Our relationship with the EU has rarely escaped news editor s’ attention UnHerd polling from Dec ember 2 022 showed 5 4 per cent saying Britain was wrong to leave the EU, with only 2 8 per cent disagreeing. Nonetheless, it is surely such downsides that have led a majority of the British public to regard us leaving the EU as a mistake. It’s harder to put a number on the damage to our international reputation, but were this a grand strategy game we’d be operating with a serious handicap.įor me, these were the trade-offs in achieving self-determination and improved democratic accountability. As the infamous experts predicted, Brexit has not been good for us economically. To be fair, even as a Leave voter, I think Day is right - to a point. “The more I learn, the more I realise that there is no such thing as a good Brexit ,” he said. You can see why from his opening remarks. Even the debate leader, the SNP MP Mar tyn Day, was obliged to admit discussions had been “rather one-sided ”. Such suspicions would be confirmed by contributions to the debate, which indicated that an inquiry would be a show trial for the evident stupidity of Brexit. Given Packham’s membership of the national council of the European Movement, which regards Brexit as “a historic national mistake ”, you might suspect that there are particular ideologies and interests he hopes to exclude from framing the inquiry. Petition organiser Peter Packham argues that, “This can only be done by an independent public inquiry, free from ideology and the opinions of vested interests. Going by the petition that prompted the parliamentary debate on such an inquiry, some 2 00,000 people agree that we should be “told the truth about Brexit, good or bad ”. Her own party and the Greens want a public inquiry into Brexit - as do the SNP, despite the inconvenient parallels with their own separatist aspirations. Yet Hobhouse finds herself amongst friends who want much more banging on about Europe. As for Labour, there is little desire to remind voters that a section of the party considers the public idiots for lighting the fuse. Tory shyness is motivated by the recent memory of David Cameron hoping to stop his colleagues “banging on about Europe” and instead detonating several tons of explosives beneath his party and the country. The complaint would be more forceful if it weren’t like noticing that an estate agent is reluctant to acknowledge the mould creeping out from under the wallpaper. What I guess Hobhouse meant is that neither Labour nor the Conservatives find it politically expedient to discuss Brexit. As with the self-styled iconoclastic newspaper columnist, the claim was rather undermined by the fact she was saying it in parliament, broadcast live over the internet and with a Hansard reporter jotting everything down.Ī majority of the British public now regard our leaving the EU as a mistake I was reminded of this on hearing that Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse believes Brexit has “become a bit of a political taboo ”. When somebody makes excitable claims that a topic is taboo, you can bet it is often talked about - if mostly because you are already bored of their pet subject and have remembered something urgent to attend to.
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