I'm not so sombre; but neither am I exultant. The referendum was always a choice between two things which were very nearly equally unsatisfactory. I'm not going to crow about the achievement of something I felt would be marginally less bad than the status quo.
(Incidentally, I wonder how Gina Miller felt yesterday when she saw the news. I suppose it would depend on how much of her money she got back following her Judicial Review. Not all of it, I hope.)
In so far as there will be any benefits from Brexit, one of the more obvious ones is the return to Parliament of powers under the so-called Great Repeal Bill, which will put reams of EU legislation directly into UK law. Sadly, this has not been obvious enough for Sir Keir Starmer. The Labour Shadow Secretary for Brexit has been urging the Government to undertake that workers' rights in EU legislation will not be watered down once the legislation has been transferred.
Sir Keir doesn't seem to have noticed that part of the point of Brexit is that Westminster can make its own laws, and that workers rights is only one amongst many fields in which the government could now act. If the government wants to restrict workers' rights it can do so (although you may think it has bigger fish to fry just at the moment). It could also extend workers' rights if it wanted to. You might think Starmer would welcome this power, as perhaps he might if he thought there was any prospect of Labour winning an election.
Instead he seems to think that we should keep forever laws agreed by previous governments along with 27 other EU states, rather than amending them from time to time at the wishes of our own government.
It's a curious kind of political cringe. If a law was passed by the EU it must be good, and we must keep it. Why? It is precisely because acting within EU tied the hands of our own parliament (in so many fields, not just workers' rights) that so many in the UK felt we had to leave.
Of course for sheer stupidity the SNP can outdo Labour any day. Its Westminster MPs are calling on the government to hand control over farming and fisheries to Holyrood. Anything else would be a "Westminster power grab".
To appreciate how ridiculous this is you have to understand that the SNP would prefer that control of farming and fisheries would remain with Brussels.
To appreciate how ridiculous this is you have to understand that the SNP would prefer that control of farming and fisheries would remain with Brussels.
Yes, that's right. The SNP would prefer to have those policy areas dealt with in a forum where Scotland is represented as a tiny minority of the UK's 1-in-28 voices, instead of a Westminster parliament where Scottish MPs votes count as about 1 in 10 (and are in fact over-represented, according to the Boundary Commission). Moreover inside the UK there is every chance that in future farming and fisheries could be devolved to the regions.
Has anyone heard the SNP complaining of a Brussels power grab recently? Has anyone heard them demanding the return of powers over fisheries and agriculture from Brussels? No. On the contrary, the SNP is determined, upon Independence, to return to the EU's embrace as quickly as it can.
Truly these people are stupid.
