A letter to my MP

This is the letter that I sent to my MP last week …

Dear [name of my MP]

In June 2016 I decided that I wished to ‘leave’ the EU, but in the referendum I voted to ‘remain’.

I did so because I judged that the time to ‘leave’ was not “right”. For me, the “right” time for the UK to ‘leave’ was (and is) when at least one other of our proximate EU neighbours is ready to leave also.

I am distressed at the current state of affairs in our national life. I painfully watch one parliamentarian declaring that her perspective is an articulation of the “national interest” in the face of considerable concerns from all corners of the House of Commons.

I have lived my long life in the belief that our “national interest” arose from the foundation stone of our foreign policy; namely, to ensure that our closest continental neighbours were never politically united – because, if they were, they could unite against us.

After what our culture calls WW 2, our nearest continental neighbours became economically united, and aspired to become politically united. For me, it made sense for the UK government to apply for membership of the EEC (without a referendum) in 1961, which was eventually successful in 1973 (again without a prior referendum).

And in the past forty-five years of membership of the EEC/EU, the UK has been able to veto any initiative to create a pan-European military force.

So I am distressed at the present time because the UK prime Minister seems to have set aside what I believe has been our centuries old foundation stone of foreign policy in favour of ‘the referendum result’.

I find Parliament’s decision to discard its sovereignty in favour of a referendum as an act of attempted suicide. [Am I the only person who thinks that Parliament’s current identity crisis and breakdown is linked to the current epidemic of mental health breakdowns and suicides among our young people?]

So far as I can see, a general election (involving a wide range of issues) indicates where sentiment lies in the adult population. However, the wisdom of our representative democracy suggests that on any single issue, opinions need to be weighed rather than counted, and that is the role of members of a sovereign Parliament.
It follows that the decision to remain or to leave the EU is a decision for Parliament alone (irrespective of ‘the referendum result’).

But the UK is where the UK is today … in a crisis in our national life.

In the view of many, the Prime Minister’s ‘deal’ imprisons the UK, and holds it to ransom until it surrenders enough economic assets to the EU to ensure that the UK becomes destitute.

I write to you now to ask you to vote against the Prime Minister’s ‘deal’ on Tuesday, 11 December 2018.

Assuming the ‘deal’ fails to win approval, I ask you to lobby for the formation of a Conservative-led national government (of leavers and remainers from all parties) until the end of this Parliament.

If a national government for the current emergency came into being, I would expect it to notify the EU that it wished withdraw its Article 50 notice so that the UK does not leave the EU on 29 March 2019. I would ask you to support this notification, and I would hope that such an action would “steady the markets”.

At this point, I remind myself that the June 2016 referendum did not place a date by which the UK should leave (if it voted to leave). It follows that the emergency national government can continue to say that it respects the result of the referendum in that leaving the EU remains an undated policy objective. (After all, it took twelve years to succeed in joining … why should it take any less to leave?) And in 2022, both main parties can campaign again with an undated policy objective of leaving the EU when the time is “right”.

Lastly, I ask you to sponsor a bill to ensure that the result of any future national referendum (should one be held) is only advisory (and not mandatory) to Parliament.

Sadly, this ongoing identity crisis of the UK Parliament may present opportunities to those parts of the UK who crave independence … and the crumbling of the United Kingdom remains a possibility.

Yours sincerely,

[my name]