COMMENTARY: Brexit a mess with no end

By Dickson Igwe, Contributor

In spite of Boris Johnson’s supposed breakthrough deal, Brexit remains an eternal conundrum.

This is why now, Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal of October 17, 2019 has been described by the anti-Brexit crowd as a Theresa May Deal ‘Lite’ — a worse version of the first Theresa May deal.

Johnson — a ‘can do’ type much admired by Brits — has apparently done the impossible. The problem is that with Brexit doing the impossible is never good enough.

Johnson today is exactly where Theresa May was with her own EU deal which was blocked by parliament some months back. And do not forget there is a great hypocrisy here.

Johnson was the prime rebel against the Theresa May deal only to present the same deal in ’nuance’ this week. Johnson’s deal promises a hard border everywhere apart from the Irish Sea where Northern Ireland will remain part of the EU for customs purposes, while the rest of the UK exits.

This will be poisonous for UK trade, according to ‘pundits’. Even Nigel Farage the great champion of Brexit has stated that he ‘hates’ the deal. “This is not Brexit,” according to Farage.

Johnson’s new deal has actually united the opposition, which heretofore has been a disunited patchwork of anti-Brexit politicians who receive support from their remain constituents.

Then Johnson’s deal is simply the beginning of tortuous and eternal negotiations with the EU on regulations and Customs tariffs in which the UK as an ‘outsider’ will have a very weak hand of cards.

The key question is whether Johnson will get this deal through the British parliament — which is a bastion of ‘remain in the EU’ supporters.

With passions running high on both sides of the battlefield that is a big question. If Johnson wins then there will have to be acceptance of Brexit by half the population opposed to Brexit.

A type of healing process will begin. Remainers will simply have to learn to live with Brexit. However, if Brexit begins to bite the wallets and living standards of Britons as is expected by the ‘experts’, the whole matter of Brexit will likely erupt again in a year or two, with a new push to rejoin Europe by a newer generation of Britons.

Were ‘Remain’ to succeed in frustrating Johnson’s Brexit deal at the Special Sitting of Parliament on Saturday then a Second Referendum is in the cards. And Remain were handed ‘great encouragement’ by the EU the day of the deal, by EU leaders stating that the UK is free to return to the EU whenever it wished.

If ‘Leave’ wins the second referendum, then Brexit will be placed on ice for a number of years until this generation of over 50s exits planet earth and the under-40s generation — who would have suffered greatly from the Brexit folly and are clearly European — rejoins the European Union.

Were Remain to win the Referendum, then Brexit will be buried for good as the UK lives with being a part of the EU: commonsense, continuity, and quiet will have prevailed.

Deluded Brexiters remain the actual losers, notwithstanding their being led by posh Eton and Oxbridge types. Their belief that a trans- Atlantic alliance that once ruled the world can be resurrected is ‘laughable’.

Donald Trump’s terrible foreign policies have put the final nail in the coffin of the much over-rated special relationship. Trump has destroyed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The USA today is as distrusted as Russia is, in Brussels. Most Brits recognize the new global realities, apart from ‘Hooray Henry’ types, with their noses in Dom Perignon, add a touch of Nostalgia and Cream.