Brexit: Shambles demonstrates why UK should leave the EU

Theresa May looks back at her own MPs during Prime Ministers Questions. Picture: AFP.

To the self-proclaimed sophisticates of the political/media elite, the Brexit push has always been difficult to comprehend — I mean who wouldn’t want to be part of some preening, expensive, bureaucratic, supranational governing council that eschews borders, signals virtue and considers itself to be at the vanguard of civilisational evolution?

The common-sense preference for a nation state that controls its own destiny confounds the so-called elites, not to mention the barons of Brussels who find it difficult to understand why anyone would not want to be part of their clique. The must feel a little like the Friars Club of Beverly Hills who famously received a telegram from Groucho Marx: “PLEASE ACCEPT MY RESIGNATION. I DON’T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT PEOPLE LIKE ME AS A MEMBER”.

Yet for all the economic, trade, immigration, legal and diplomatic complications of Brexit, the fundamentals are simpler than many like to admit. To suggest Britain would struggle outside the embrace of the EU is to deny all of history prior to it joining Europe and the reality of other nations trading and interacting with the EU now.

With or without a common market, Europe and the UK need each other and will trade productively and co-operate strongly on security and other matters. The prophesies of doom are mere political ploys used by the Remainers in an attempt to defeat the will of the people. The pessimism is also exaggerated by the EU to strengthen its negotiating position.

In the end nothing has demonstrated the need for Brexit more clearly than the humiliating shambles of watching this painful exit unfold.

Theresa May having to bow and scrape in Brussels, begging for more acceptable terms for her own nation’s departure from the grouping, is ample evidence of how the UK has surrendered far too much of its sovereign standing for far too little in Europe. Those barracking for a second referendum and revelling in the difficulty of leaving the EU are only amplifying why Brexit is so important — how can they argue the EU has not usurped too much of Britain’s independence when the organisation effectively tries to dictate the terms of Britain’s exit?

The EU is applying the rules of Hotel California: “You can check out any time you like but you can never leave.” May should always have held out the hard Brexit as a realistic option to maximise her hand. Regardless, after seeing their proud nation belittled these past few months by the Remainers and the EU powerbrokers, British voters should be more emphatic than ever about the need to leave.