CSM EDITORIAL

Mrs May is off to Brussels to ask for a short delay to the Article 50 process. It is impossible to imagine what her short delay will achieve. The only point of it is to threaten MPs again that if they don’t vote for her deal they risk a no deal exit. This is a threat that has already been used extensively and hasn’t worked. We are stuck in a gridlock that there appears to be no getting out of. It is time for decisive action. It is time we manned up and left the EU with no deal. It is time to face this fear head on and show that we have nothing to fear but fear itself.

Remainers want a second referendum to try to reverse the outcome of the last one, as if that would be an end of the matter. Membership of the EU has been a constant source of hassle over the past 40 years. There is no way it would cease to be so if we were to remain in the EU following a referendum vote to leave. The war between the two sides would never cease.

Mrs May’s deal is not likely to become more palatable to those who object to it over a short period of time, or even over a long period of time. It is fundamentally flawed as a proposition. It would leave us as the economic vassal of the EU, locked in for an indefinite period with no way to free ourselves. We should be saving the £39B that Mrs May’s deal would cost us by walking away from the failed EU project with no deal. It will concentrate the minds of those on the continent to have to deal under WTO terms with a market as big and powerful as the UK.

We need Brexit to be a thing of the past. It is taking far too long to extricate ourselves from the EU. Everyone is thoroughly sick of the entire process. It has exposed the MPs for the shower that they are. Unable to put their own agendas behind them for the good of the country. Unable to agree on a way forward.  These people were sent to Westminster to do a job on behalf of the country, not to play politics with the entire process.

A long delay to the Article 50 process just forces us to remain in the EU longer than we wish to. It is time for us to leave. It would be absurd for us to take part in EU elections given that we intend to leave. It will be a hugely costly exercise as well, as further EU financial commitments build up. It is time to implement the will of the British people as expressed at the referendum and leave.

There is no way we should even be contemplating a second referendum. We have already had a people’s vote. The people voted overwhelmingly to come out of the EU. The people’s will was expressed and it is time to put that will into action.

The best we can hope for is that one or more of the EU 27 decide to refuse us any extension to Article 50. We would then leave on 29 March as we should do. Negotiating a trade deal would be a lot easier when the EU saw how inconvenient it was to trade without one.

It is time Mrs May stood down and left the way open for a new leader who can infuse some real energy into the process of leaving. It is time a Brexiteer has the reins. Mrs May has squandered two years negotiating a deal that no one can agree to. She has been a lacklustre leader from the outset. She has left the EU in control of the negotiations, coming away with nothing of substance. Mrs May would be the wrong person to put in charge of negotiating the next stage of the process even if her deal was to go through.

We are a country on the brink of our own independence. It is time we took the decisive step into the new dawn. There is a real sunny upland waiting for us on the other side. We have a bright future in charge of our own destiny. It is time we took it. No more waiting in the darkness. Time to walk out into the light.