{"id":4715,"date":"2018-08-02T12:21:57","date_gmt":"2018-08-02T12:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chief-exec.com\/?p=4715"},"modified":"2019-06-10T10:39:56","modified_gmt":"2019-06-10T10:39:56","slug":"will-may-put-country-or-party-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chief-exec.com\/?p=4715","title":{"rendered":"Will May put country or party first?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Slowly but surely public opinion is turning against Brexit. Should we drop the whole idea or are we moving towards a second referendum on the terms? Murray Ritchie<\/em> takes a look.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Brexit is the most extraordinary crisis in post-war British history. If the Leave hardliners have their way and the UK quits the EU with no deal the result could be Scottish secession, a return to armed conflict in Ireland, and economic disaster. And that\u2019s just for starters.<\/p>\n

Is it all really worth the risk? Even if Prime Minister Theresa May reaches agreement with the Brussels negotiators we won\u2019t have as good a deal as we have now. How could we?<\/p>\n

Your confirmed Leaver believes any risk will be worth it in the long term. This credo is rather terrifying: bring on the crash because then we will be free to negotiate wondrous deals with anyone we can find (even with the world\u2019s greatest protectionist in the White House).<\/p>\n

When 10 Downing Street\u2019s spin doctors insist there are \u201cno plans\u201d for mobilising the armed forces to keep us fed and medicated you know just how worryingly things are shaping. \u201cNo plans\u201d are the greatest weasel words in the political lexicon and normally mean their polar opposite.<\/p>\n

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Your confirmed Leaver believes any risk will be worth it in the long term. This credo is rather terrifying: bring on the crash because then we will be free to negotiate wondrous deals with anyone we can find.<\/span><\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If you discount voters in Scotland and Northern Ireland who want to remain in the European Union, the bulk of the UK was split right down the middle on Brexit. Finding reconciliation looks impossible. But that might just be changing.<\/p>\n

There is one idea that could bring a sort of peace and that is a multi-choice referendum when the terms become known. This second referendum, for which there is growing support, would ask three questions and could bring a much more decisive result than that 52 per cent-48 per cent split which has paralysed British politics.<\/p>\n

Cue cries from Leavers that the democratic wish of the people would be scandalously denied \u2013 and they have a point. The only plausible response to that is another chance to express another democratic wish. In a democracy voters are, after all, entitled to change their minds, even those who blundered into supporting Brexit without a clue about the consequences after a Leave campaign now discredited as an exercise in cheating and dishonesty.<\/p>\n

Put simply, Brexit should still be negotiated as the people decided it should be. But if the terms mean national economic suicide then surely those same people should have the chance to back off the whole wretched idea.<\/p>\n

This appears to be the way the Brexit torture is now travelling. Voters are sniffing disaster. According to a Sky Data poll this week 78 per cent of us think the government is doing a bad job on Brexit, 65 per cent expect a bad deal and 50 per cent now want a say on the outcome. As does parliament.<\/p>\n

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BREAKING: Confidence in the government’s negotiating of #Brexit<\/a> has plummeted, new polls from @SkyData<\/a> find.<\/p>\n

10% say @theresa_may<\/a>‘s administration is doing a good job, compared to 23% in March.<\/p>\n

78% say it is doing a bad job, compared to 55% in March. pic.twitter.com\/pCYfSp5eDM<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Sky News (@SkyNews) 30 July 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n