Opinion : Following the referendum result will the UK really leave the EU or not?

Following the vote of the Century the people of the UK have opted to leave the EU.

With the decision taken to say goodbye we’re now waiting for the Government to kick-off our BRexit by triggering Article 50.

However nobody seems to be in a rush to start the ball rolling indeed it may not be until October that formal notice to leave will be given.

Leaving the EU would have big implications as the recent turmoil on the financial markets has shown. The longer it takes for an exit agreement to be reached surely the longer the financial turmoil will continue?

Obviously we must not rush into big decisions, indeed it’s best to wait and make sure things are settled properly and to our advantage but I fear that dithering, stalling, delaying and waiting too long may result in an outcome that is not to our advantage or even the one that the people were consulted on.

Don’t forget the question on the referendum paper was ‘Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?‘, to which the people said ‘Leave’ by 52% to 48%, the difference being more than 1,000,000 votes, a million is a lot of people.

However it now seems that even those who spearheaded the leave campaign are saying ‘we who agreed with this majority verdict must accept that it was not entirely overwhelming‘ and ‘I cannot stress too much that Britain is part of Europe – and always will be‘.

It seems that paradoxically we may now leave the European Union but remain in a relationship with Europe in some form or another, possibly as part of the European Economic Area.

It would seem people voted to leave the EU for a number of reasons ranging from the loss of sovereignty, implementation of EU laws, free movement of people/workers coming into the UK, amount of money that we pay to the EU, etc….

The agreement spelling out the level to which the UK remains integrated into Europe looks likely to be decided by Civil Servants and politicians but not the people.

When an agreement to leave has been hammered out who will decide if it acceptable? Will it be the politicians at Westminster who seem to think they know best, in some cases better than their party leaders? Surely it should be the people who decide in another referendum?

Suppose the ‘remainers’ in Westminster get involved in the ‘leaving’ process, how can the people of the UK be assured of the outcome they desired?

At the moment everyone seems committed to ‘leaving’ but as time goes by will the issue be sidelined, eventually become less important and forgotten?

I fear that may be the case or any agreement that is made won’t actually end up with use ‘leaving’ at all but merely a re-arranging of the UK’s relationship with the EU and we will still suffer some or all of the various issues that caused people to vote ‘leave’ in the first place.

The question asked in the referendum was ambiguous and ‘leave’ meant different things to different people in which case very few will be happy with the eventual outcome when changes come to the UK.

What do you think?

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