Back down Brexit blockers, there’s a compromise to be made – otherwise we risk being shackled to the EU permanently
THERESA May’s deal might be badly flawed, but now, even with a delay to our legal departure, it represents the only chance to end our EU membership.
By rejecting the Prime Minister's withdrawal agreement, the die-hards have become Brexit blockers, not Brexit battlers.
The ultra-Brexiteers seem determined to worsen the political turmoil at Westminster by their unyielding opposition to this opportunity.
These die-hards, mainly from the anti-Brussels European Research Group, see themselves as the heroic guardians of genuine British independence, fighting to the bitter end against any compromise.
But there is nothing brave about their stance. On the contrary, their stubbornness is a form of gross irresponsibility which puts Brexit in real danger.
They claim to support our national freedom. Yet their intransigence could achieve the very opposite, shackling us permanently to the European Union.
No Deal is just an illusion
They say they would prefer No Deal to May’s deal. But No Deal is just an illusion because Parliament decided to reject that option last week. The choice now is between May’s agreement and no proper Brexit.
If her deal is thrown out for a third time next week, then the realistic alternatives will be an even greater delay in our departure, or a second referendum or a much softer Brexit, including membership of the customs union and the single market.
Any of those outcomes would betray the 2016 referendum result far more than May’s deal would.
Compromise is a virtue
In their quest for a pure Brexit, the ultras of the European Research Group have abandoned realism for dogma. That is always a dangerous course to take.
Politics is the art of the possible, not a religious faith where believers are judged on the strength of their devotion.
In the political realm, inflexibility is no virtue, nor is compromise a vice.
During the miners’ strike of the mid-1980s, Arthur Scargill was hero worshipped by his followers for his iron-willed resolution.
Focused on absolute victory against Margaret Thatcher, he refused to give an inch of ground over the Government’s pit closure programme.
The consequences of his obstinacy were a humiliating defeat, the collapse of the National Union of Mineworkers, another decade of Conservative rule and the end of the coal industry in Britain.
Scargill, the fundamentalist socialist, turned out to be the Tories’ greatest ally, just as the Brexiteer die-hards are engaged in a spectacular act of self-sabotage against Brexit.
Inspirational settlements and coalitions
In graphic contrast, the Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble showed subtlety and imagination when he negotiated the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, despite accusations from hardliners of a “sell-out”.
The Agreement was an inspirational settlement that upheld the union and British rule in Northern Ireland, while giving a major role to the Nationalists in the governance of the province.
In the process, it ended three decades of sectarian violence.
Similarly, the creation of democratic, post-apartheid South Africa under Nelson Mandela owed much to the generous vision of F.W de Clerk, the last white President of the country.
And Winston Churchill, that great warrior for British patriotism, was a tremendous conciliator who was happy to work with his political foes if necessary, as he showed in his successful wartime coalition with Labour.
Stop posturing, show leadership
Today’s Conservative hardliners in the ERG are betraying, not just Brexit, but also their own party.
Some of them have even talked wildly of voting with Labour to bring down May’s Government, so that an unsullied new Brexiteer Prime Minister will theoretically sweep the country at a General Election.
But this is just more fantasy. Such an election could easily bring Jeremy Corbyn to power.
After all, Labour is four points ahead of the Tories in the latest opinion poll.
One of Corbyn’s predecessors, Neil Kinnock, famously denounced the extremists of the Labour’s Militant Tendency for the “grotesque chaos” created by their “rigid” dogma.
The Militants of the ERG are now fuelling their own brand of Brexit chaos.
It is time for the leading Brexiteers, like Jacob Rees-Mogg and Boris Johnson, to stop the posturing and show some leadership.
There is no courage in hiding behind a purist creed, no honour in undermining the cause they claim to cherish.
Real strength lies in the capacity to accept a deal that will start to bring back our sovereignty and liberty.