Reading through all the promises of Theresa May’s Brexit government reminds me of Hans Christian Anderson’s story of the Emperor’s new clothes.
There once was an Emperor who was preoccupied with his appearance and his wardrobe. A pair of swindlers took advantage of this by pretending to be able to weave the finest cloth, which couldn’t be seen by people who were either unfit for office or were particularly stupid. The Emperor decided to have a suit of clothes made from the fabric in order to test which of his courtiers was unfit for office.
So off went the Emperor in procession under his splendid canopy. Everyone in the streets and the windows said: “Oh, how fine are the Emperor’s new clothes! Don’t they fit him to perfection? And see his long train!” Nobody would confess that he couldn’t see anything, for that would prove him either unfit for his position, or a fool. No costume the Emperor had worn before was ever such a complete success.
“But he hasn’t got anything on,” a little child said.
“Did you ever hear such innocent prattle?” said the child’s father. And one person whispered to another what the child had said: “He hasn’t anything on. A child says he hasn’t anything on.”
But he hasn’t got anything on!” the whole town cried out at last.
Listening to the realities of the negotiations with the EU over trade and immigration, there is something almost unreal about what is happening. We are going to adopt EU law into British law, yet we approved 95 per cent of these laws in the first place in the Council of Ministers. We are going to follow EU standards so that we can trade with the EU and the 27 EU States can trade with us. We are going to negotiate an Open Skies agreement with the EU. We would like to participate in the Erasmus scheme. We hope to win passporting arrangements for financial services.
We had all these rights before we left, so why are we leaving? A referendum, which split the nation down the middle, has caused conflict and enmity between generations and within families. The old wanted to leave, the young wanted to remain. Yet what was it all for? We could well end up with similar arrangements to what we had before but without all the rights and privileges of a Member State. It is a collective form of insanity – la folie Farage.
We may succeed in breaking up the United Kingdom. We certainly have antagonised our European neighbours. The money we will spend on the Ministry for Exiting the European Union and the Department for International Trade is desperately needed for the National Health Service, social care, housing, social services, schools and universities, transport and so much else.
We have caused the devaluation of the pound and the Exchequer with reduced tax revenues is strapped for cash. It is the biggest act of national self-harm that I have ever encountered.
In Britain’s case the two swindlers were Nigel Farage with his poster showing refugees from the Syrian war to scare people about immigration, and Boris Johnson with his claim that £350 million a week would go to the NHS and that 75 million Turks were about to get the right to come to Britain.
This is another case of the Emperor’s new clothes. “Brexit is in the altogether, it is as naked as the day that it was born!”