The Economist backs a #PeoplesVote
The latest edition of The Economist says:
Brexit is often likened to a divorce. In fact the two years since the referendum have been more like a rocky engagement. Voters were swept off their feet by the promises of the Leave campaign, only to discover that the future relationship was not going to be as they had imagined. Calling it off would be mortifying. Yet seeing it through could be a serious, permanent mistake. If the British are determined to plough on, that is their right. But now that they know what Brexit really means, they deserve the chance to say whether they still want it.
You too can back a People’s Vote here.
And if they still do [vote to leave the EU] – and they may still – then we need to prepare for a dissolution of the current state of the UK union in an orderly and amicable process that would preserve close economic, cultural and social ties between the nations in a structure as inter-connected and as loose as possible. A federal structure perhaps. Or a union of nation states. Otherwise the future may be perilous. Having blamed Brussels and its political and bureaucratic elites for most of their ills for so long, the people may switch to blaming London and its elites. Who, in turn, may blame the people for the mess created. The regions may start blaming each other. The chasm created by Brexit appears unbridgeable in the current political discourse. Yet, all the reasons for leaving the European Union may equally apply to the Union of Great Britain and Norther Ireland, then to Great Britain… For the discourse to change, the circumstances must alter substantially. They will be if Scotland chooses independence once Britain leaves the EU and everyone wakes up to the consequences. Why not pre-empt it? Why not look into creating a greater autonomy of regions – devolution plus, plus…? A Federation plus, plus…? Isn’t that a sort of thing that is the mainstay of liberal politics? Sitting this crisis out may not do. For the country and for the Lib Dems.