Friday 19 February 2016

Vote Leave launch Brexit "plan".


Vote Leave have published their "plan" of what happens after Brexit. It was actually sent to me yesterday, but the web design is so bad, I didn't realise there was further content. Just as well really, because the fewer people see this moonhowling nonsense the better. It defies all good sense. Just look at it!
First, not in chronological order, we will repeal section 2 of the European Communities Act 1972. This is Parliament’s instruction to our courts to treat EU law as supreme. We will repeal it and restore democratic government. 
Never mind those details like a negotiated settlement via Article 50. Just repeal Section 2 and let the chips fall where they may! This is kindergarden stuff.

This immediately puts us in dangerous and hostile territory in that we'd be unilaterally breaking with a treaty obligations. If we are leaving the EU by feeding the the treaties into the shredder, then there is no legal obligation for the EU to enter any trade discussions.

Almost immediately, the EU erects tariff barriers, not out of spite, but because it has a common external tariff. That's just the legal default. And that's before we even get to the finer points of non-tariff barriers.

The whole of it needs and deserves a thorough fisking, but really, at this stage, what is the point? What this is, is a petulant tantrum on the part of Dominic Cummings. It has no substance in the real world, it's not on this planet and nor indeed is Cummings. Especially when we see "Instead of sending £350 million per week to Brussels, we will spend it on our priorities like the NHS and education".

This stuff is fantasy fiction. It is not plausible, it's never going to happen. No government would even consider it. It is in every sense economic suicide. It is not a Brexit plan. It is eurosceptic flatulence.

It is a stream of consciousness of a man asserting his vast ego and supreme ignorance onto the campaign without even the slightest cross reference to reality. Without rolling out the tanks, this plan is as close to a declaration of hostility as you can possibly get. And that really is Cummings all over - creating strife where none is necessary.

The point of Brexit is not to cut ourselves off from Europe or indeed turn our backs on the EU. What we seek is a new relationship with the EU based on cooperation, not subordination. In order to get that, we will have to act in good faith and to act in the spirit of cooperation to ensure that Brexit is not harmful to either party. Cummings thinks otherwise.

Cummings thinks we can just rip up contracts and treaties, utterly shafting our partners in the process and expect them to roll over and give us what we want at the first asking. Much like Dominic himself as it happens. What a prat!

In this we might well be thankful that Vote Leave's hopes of winning the lead designation are fading fast. The problem is, with Lea and Bannerman being the thought engine of Grassroots Out, believing in much the same fantasies, there is little hope of getting a sensible campaign out of either camp. The Leave campaign is in serious trouble and they don't even know it.

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