Another Brexit Day: instead of departing, we are still in denial about our destination

Today was meant to be Brexit Day. It was a date with destiny, chosen by the EU itself, endorsed by the Cabinet, by two Prime Ministers — one of whom pretended to stake his life on it —and,

lest anybody forget, by Parliament. But Brexit is still elusive. Not for the first time since 2016, the political establishment has weaselled its way out of a promise.

Many people will be relieved that we are still in the EU. No nation, ironically, loves Europe more in practice, while detesting “Europe” as a political project. Not only do we travel around

the Continent more than anybody else; not only is our history inextricably bound up with Europe, but our economic, cultural and social life depends on it.

And we pay a lot for the privilege of remaining. Just how much became clear this week, when the Germans discovered that their net contributions will almost double after the UK finally

leaves. To our divorce bill of £39 billion must be added our annual contribution, which has shot up by an extra £2.6 billion, or 20 per cent, in the year 2018-19. It will continue to rise

until we leave.

Predictably, politicians have excelled themselves in self-scrutiny this week, agonising about how many of them were leaving the Commons (though it’s a safe bet that quite a few will pop up

again in the Lords). But if Parliament were a business, such an abject failure to meet expectations would have the shareholders demanding that heads should roll. The firm would be up for

sale by now, in need of a new owner and a fresh strategy. Few would be lamenting the departing executives.

If Britain wants to make a decent fist of going it alone, we really do need to do better. There has been a collective loss of nerve at the top, which makes Brexit feel more like Dunkirk than

D-Day. We should be thinking about how to make the most of our hard-won independence, not just to go out and conquer new markets around the globe, but to give our “friends and partners”

some much stiffer competition.

This, after all, is only what they expect of us. Angela Merkel spoke no more than the truth when she told her compatriots this month to expect the UK to become a competitor comparable to

China and the US. The British have had a trade deficit with the EU ever since we joined, but there is nothing inevitable about this. Nor is there any reason why a more balanced economic

relationship with Europe should be any less mutually beneficial.

While we have been so obsessed with turning our own psychodrama into an identity crisis, Europe has moved on. The French are busy with their grand project of a federal Europe — an empire to

rival America and China. The countries of Central and Southern Europe, staving off bankruptcy and demographic decline, are equally determined to thwart any further centralisation.

Meanwhile the real engine of Europe, Germany, is on the brink of an economic recession, dragged down by the former East. One of the “new provinces”, Thuringia, has just elected extremist

parties of Left and Right. Weimar, the region’s cultural jewel, once gave its name to Germany’s first experiment in democracy. Nobody thinks the tragedy of the Weimar Republic is repeating

itself, but thoughtful Germans are more worried than at any time since the fall of the Berlin Wall 30 years ago.

It is high time that the British came to terms with Brexit. The EU has long since done so. They wish us well, in theory at least, but they have had enough of a departing member state in

denial about its destination. The coming election will give us a clear choice between those who want to make the best of Brexit, those who want to turn the clock back and those who don’t

think there should even be a clock.

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