A moment of history. Two men who, without wanting to do them down in any way, will be famous for this image. And what a moment, the UK handing over a letter triggering our departure from the EU under the provisions of the Lisbon Treaty.
Speaking personally I see this as marking a change between a new and old order. We are leaving the sclerotic European system with its Laputan obsession with vain projects and the endless layering of government in the name of a mythical subsidiarity. The challenge we face now is making the right choices about our future - rejecting statist and centralised government, embracing free trade and opposing the EU's preferred mercantilism, and remembering that being a place people want to come to is a sign of strength not of being a soft touch.
The essential point is that we can now have a genuine debate about Britain's government, law and policy rather than one where we pretend that the decision isn't made under a different, less accountable system on the other side of the English Channel. This means people can vote for a parliament that wants to change laws on employment protection they can do so. Or to strengthen those protections for that matter. And the same goes for climate change, for state aid to industry, for trade and for consumer protection. Leaving the EU merely makes it possible for the UK to change its rules, it doesn't tell us the direction in which those changes might take us.
And this - not trade, migration or bent bananas - is why we are leaving the EU. And it's brilliant.
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2 comments:
I was afraid that the chap delivering the letter might have left his briefcase on the train... Thank goodness we have got this far, but now the negotiations begin.
“We are with Europe, but not of it,”
If Britain must choose between Europe and the open sea, she must always choose the open sea.”
There is a world out there for us to trade with again.
Nice comment.
A lot of work needs to be done to rid us of a lot of bad law.
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