Second referendum: Embarrassing, but we’d be better off in

So, it’s decided, then: A second referendum it is. It wasn’t an easy choice, but it makes sense.

The British people have seen how the Brexit negotiations have gone and, quite understandably, are starting to panic. They now see that the whole idea of pulling out of Europe was short-sighted in the first place and was only approved, by a narrow majority, in 2016 because they didn’t understand what it meant or how it would turn out.

This is like waking up after drinking too much the night before. Your brain hurts and you struggle to remember what you said when the big row broke out. But then it hits you. Christ! Did I say that? Seriously? Well, no more crazy nights on the town for me. From now on, it’s a couple of pints with pals and maybe a glass or two of wine with dinner.

Opponents of a second Referendum – which I refuse to call a People’s Vote – say they are against it for one reason and one reason only. The people have already spoken. The referendum was held in 2016 and Leave won. Even if it means going to Hell in a handcart, that is the destination, and the means of conveyance, that we are honour-bound to choose. The nation, like the Lady, is not for turning.

Except that we are.

Recent polling has shown that there is no longer a majority, however slim, for Brexit. On the contrary, up to 60 per cent of those polled since Mrs May unveiled her withdrawal deal have indicated that they wish us to remain in the EU. In Northern Ireland – around whose obscure status Great Britain’s continued existence seems to turn – the pro-EU majority has risen to more like 65%. The fact that the European Court of Justice ruled last week that cancellation can be accomplished, on existing terms – i.e. without joining the single currency or the Schengen Agreement and with our rebate intact – by the simple expedient of withdrawing Article 50, looks to have struck home with voters.

For it turns out that we don’t have to do this thing. We can reverse smoothly out of the Kent lorry park and continue, unobstructed, across the Channel and onto the European highway.

Yes, but what about the impact on the Constitution? How can the electorate ever again believe the promises of politicians?

I’m afraid that doesn’t work for me. First of all, when did we ever believe what politicians told us?  it’s all a bit poncey, anyway. Better proud and poor than better-off and embarrassed, it seems to say. So let’s put that to the vote:

Would you rather be:

(A)  Poor but proud?

or

(B)  Better-off but embarrassed?

I’d go for better-off every time. Embarrassment is something we can handle. It is quickly forgotten. If we decide to Remain, the EU could choose to put us on the naughty step for a year or two. As Mr Attlee, once wrote to the leftist critic Harold Laski after one of the latter’s less than useful interventions on foreign affairs, “a period of silence from you would be welcome”. But the sense of relief throughout Europe would be such that, after a telling off by the Beak (M. Barnier), it is more likely we would be welcomed back as the EU’s prodigal son.

As for voters feeling that their voice was heard, only to be ignored, if that’s how they feel, they can use a second referendum – which, unlike its predecessor, would be binding on Parliament and the Government – to vote overwhelmingly for No Deal. With heads held high, they could then demand – and secure – a departure from the EU as defined by Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage, freeing us to concentrate on what is truly important, such as a bridge from Northern Ireland to Scotland, minimal taxes on big corporations and a fleet of offshore patrol boats bent on keeping unwanted migrants from our sovereign shores.

No one wants to admit that they were wrong. But, if we are honest, that is what is happening inside the Leave community. The evidence is in. Brexit is misguided. It will bring us few, if any, of the benefits dangled before us by the likes of Johnson, Farage and Jacob Rees-Mogg. On the contrary, the May plan would leave us half in and half out of Europe, with our arse hanging out of our trousers, while No Deal would consign us to a future that in the short term would be bleak and desperate and over time no better – in the PM’s phrase –than just about managing.

But here’s the thing. If the people have changed their mind about Europe, how irresponsible would it be not to recognise the fact? I’m not going to go into the host of reasons why it makes sense to belong to the European Union. Suffice it to say that the reasons against are few and diminishing by the day.

Just note these two facts: first, immigration into the UK is not going to diminish if Brexit happens. If anything, it is set to increase. Second, there is no way that Britain is going to be able to negotiate trade deals with the world beyond Europe that are in any way superior to those negotiated by Brussels, the representative of 500 million of the richest people on the planet. We are not Singapore. We are not Dubai. We are the world’s fifth – whoops, sixth – largest economy and our place in the world is next to our European neighbours.

That is the reality. We are where we are and, for all its faults – which can be corrected – it’s a pretty good place to be.

But it’s up to you. Vote or don’t vote. If you feel really strongly that Leave means Leave, dig out your gilets-jaunes and take control of your local roundabout. March on Whitehall if you want to.  But, if you voted Leave last time and have since come to accept that you made a mistake, don’t be tempted to double down on your error. Don’t let misplaced pride make your decision for you. Don’t vote Leave purely because that is what you did in 2016. Vote Leave because you have listened to the arguments from both sides and truly believe that a sovereign, independent Britain, with or without Scotland and Northern Ireland, represents the best future for you, your children and your grandchildren.

Otherwise, vote Remain.