There have been
times during the Brexit saga when the First Minister has seemed to be saying
something different and more helpful than his party’s leader in London. He has generally managed, in particular, to
give the impression that he is much more open to continuing membership of the
single market and customs union. But his
comments
last week put him right back in the same position as both Corbyn and May.
There’s nothing
wrong with asking the EU to ‘help us avoid a catastrophic Brexit no-deal’, as
the headline put it. Indeed, it seems to
me that the EU27 have had that as an objective from the outset but have been
hampered by the utter inability of the UK Government to agree on what it
actually wants. But in asking the EU to
‘blur its red lines’, he is effectively asking for exactly the same thing as
May, Corbyn and the rest – a deal in which the UK gains some or all of the
benefits whilst avoiding compliance with the rules. The semblance of reasonableness is once again
lost in the demand for exceptional treatment for the UK.
It’s important,
of course, that he does what he can to get the best deal for Wales from the
increasingly shambolic process which Cameron kicked off; but he’d stand a
better chance of doing that if he were willing to explain, clearly and
repeatedly to the people of Wales, why the Brexit fantasy they were sold was
never an option, instead of joining the fantasists in pretending that it, or
something like it, can be implemented as they expected. He's as much an Anglo-British nationalist as the rest of them.
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1 comment:
The idea that Carwyn “Nipper” Jones can do something for a better Brexit does stretch the imagination somewhat.
Wales is not at the table and has no skin in the game, it is there you have to be if you want to influence the outcome. The deal that HMG will reach will mean that a box of corn flakes imported for consumption or shipped out to sell, will have the same trading rules in Luton as it will have in Lower Cwm Twrch, there will not special chapter covering Wales on these issues.
Now, I think we can all agree that the Brexit articles from both sides are not what you might call a riveting read, because as I have said before, it only at “five minutes to midnight” there will anything substantive to comment on.
As the voters in Wales at each election, have up to now voted in large numbers to give people outside Wales the power to govern their lives, whatever deal is made, especially a bad one (odds on) there should be no complaints.
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