We’re all bored of Brexit, just as things start to get interesting
This week will be crucial for Brexit as Theresa May sets out how she intends to take the departure process forward after her initial withdrawal agreement was defeated.
But as Westminster gets to grips with the Brexit process, and the media pores over the ramifications of parliamentary votes on proposed amendments to the deal, most of us are utterly bored of the Brexit drama – just as it starts to get interesting.
On what has been dubbed “Super Tuesday” by more enthusiastic Brexit-watchers, May will present an amended version of her Brexit deal in parliament today. This is expected to focus on alterations to the contentious backstop policy aimed at preventing a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Whether it will be enough to appease rebels, Remainers, and Brexiteers alike within parliament is doubtful.
Many MPs from both the Conservative and opposition parties have tabled amendments aimed at forcing more far-reaching changes to May’s deal. These range from ruling out a no-deal Brexit, postponing the departure date beyond 29 March, holding a second referendum, or creating a customs union.
House of Commons speaker John Bercow is expected to select a handful of the amendments to be voted on by MPs, and so the future of Brexit – when it will happen, who decides what happens, and what the future ties to the EU will be after and if it happens – could be decided in today’s showdown.
In short, we are probably at one of the most pivotal and politically invigorating moments in the Brexit process.
And yet, bogged down in the nitty-gritty detail, unending news flow, and technical details of Brexit, the public could be forgiven for tiring of it. Since 2016, Brexit has had the destructive power of a steam roller, but the snail-like pace of one too.
We’re all suffering from Brexit boredom, with members of the public, politicians (including the Prime Minister), and the EU itself urging the UK to “just get on with it” – as if there is a single, tidy outcome for the characters, relationships, and events within the Brexit plot.
Brexit has proved itself to be a largely unscripted, improvised, messy drama with no predictable conclusion ahead of 29 March.
Britain now faces either a departure in which neither Remainer nor Leaver is satisfied, a delayed departure (I’m sure that the public would relish more months of arguing over Brexit), another vote on departure, or a General Election, in which the only departure that takes place is that of the government.
It’s taken a few years, admittedly, but Brexit just got interesting.