“Cometh the hour; cometh the man,” or woman, is a maxim we British applied when our saviors, Wellington, Churchill . . . pulled us from crisis but, not this time. Great Britain is in need of a visionary leader to be recognized and to address the Brexit problems in an inspirational speech to shake out our moribund parliament but, it seems, there is no one: not this time. This time we are left with only those who choose not to be recognized. This time we are faced with only the mealy mouthed who dare not speak the name of another referendum; of dissolving Parliament; of forgetting the whole idiotic concept . . . We are leader less; we know not which way we are to turn. So what is to be done?
First up is to recognize the problem. Exiting the EU after forty years of ever deepening entanglements without triggering punitive repercussions is all but impossible yet, I don’t recall either Johnson, or Farage, in their rallying cries to vote for Brexit, underscoring that simple truth. Prime Minister Cameron called the referendum to silence the ever annoying Brexiteers but failed to ensure the result. Seeing the magnitude of his error he abandoned HMS GB, leaving her to wallow in a sea of uncertainty. Theresa May opted to take the helm and command the nation on the notion that a 4% separation of those for and against represented the will of the people. It did not. It represented only the reptilian reaction of the uninformed. Still that was mandate enough for an ambitious woman hungry for the top job.
Given that ignorance and ambition brought us to the determination to leave the EU the subsequent failure to complete the job, and the realisation of our woeful ignorance of the matter, might, with a little education, bring us back to firmer ground but, how do we sugar the pill? How do we drag the blindly determined Brexiteers to the table of unalienable facts, to recognize their mistakes and, possibly, enter rehabilitation? How do we save faces and protect reputations while examining our errors and searching for better results?
We could conduct a trial? We could take the charge, ‘That we must leave the EU,” to a specially convened court and examine it for validity? We would need a jury: a big, diverse, one, and subject it to proofs and testimonies provided by the informed and overseen by the impartial? The importance of a diverse jury cannot be over emphasized. The best solutions to the Brexit problems can only come from a group diverse enough to encompass the views of many. To illustrate the point Albert Einstein said of diversity:
“Everyone is a genius but, if we judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.”
Further endorsement comes from the fact that in any given group of experts, in any particular field, will only contain those of similar training and education so can only reach similar conclusions. To find a broader solution experts from other fields: from many other fields are essential.
A trial then – better call it a revue – of the EU and our need to exit should be undertaken in order to be sure we are doing what is best for Great Britain: Not for the ambitions of politicians; not for the profits of strategic companies; not for the rallying cries of the Nationalist or the remains of the anti-Nazis loonies; for Great Britain.
For such a revue to succeed it will need time for the experts, advocates, overseers, and a jury to be assembled so let’s not leave that to any but ourselves. Let’s not ask the other members of the EU for a delay leaving us to make decisions at the behest of others; let’s revoke Article 50 ourselves, determine the agenda ourselves, decide for ourselves when we should evoke Article 50 again. Let us make every effort to make the EU great again and in the ensuing hours hope the man, or the woman, cometh.