How Strange Is Brexit?

The UK has been left in a very strange position by the vote to leave the EU.

It now emerges that the two year negotiation period will not even start until March 2017, meaning that the exit will not happen until 2019, around 3 years after the original vote.

Some commentators have remarked upon the fact that by 2019 the UK electorate will be very different to the one offered a referendum in 2016.

For a start, 1,5 Million voters will have died and probably at least that number of new ones will have become eligible to vote on UK affairs. 

Many people doubt that the outcome of the EU Referendum  would be the same if it was re-run tomorrow, let alone in three years time. 

What is very clear is that no one IS clear on what deal can be struck by the UK as an exit package. Trade and migration issues are in a vast melting pot, with no outcomes guaranteed.

This raises the question: did the 17 Million "Leave" voters mark their crosses for the proposition "get out at any price, no matter how high the cost, financially or otherwise"? Hard to believe - but, then, so many of the events of the last six months have been in that category.

In 2019, a very different UK from the one we see today may well exit the EU, with, even at that stage, the map of the journey away barely drawn.

Strange and uncertain times, especially for those who never wanted to leave the EU in the first place.

 

 

Sunday, 9th October 2016

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