Tony Harms's Blog

I was glad to be one of the many conference attendees voting to revoke article 50.

Suppose we had removed the lines committing to revoking Article 50? A majority Lib Dem government would then hold a new referendum and if the vote was leave, carry it out. How could a passionately Remain, party which considers any form of leave damaging to the country do this? It’s nonsense.

What would happen to the party if it did? The Conservative party is a Remain party which felt obliged to provide some form of Brexit. Brexit has ripped the party apart. Worse, it has emasculated the government and is increasingly damaging the country. We are fully justified in refusing to follow the Conservative party into this maelstrom. We must to make it clear that if people want to leave the EU the Lib Dems will not assist them. They need to vote for somebody else.

What is the point of the party obtaining a majority only to be forced to do something it believes to be wrong?

The people who voted Leave in the referendum were encouraged to believe that just by doing so they could have a result that would please all of them. But to alter a forty years’ old economic and political relationship requires a party committed to that project. Not a reluctant party which is instructed, but one that already has a policy and will implement it.

In 2017 the electorate was offered such a party, the UK Independence Party. The electorate rejected that party. If the majority failed to get the result for which they voted the fault lies with political parties which promised to implement something they disagreed with and thought would damage the country. It was inevitable that they would make a mess of it and so they have.

The Lib Dems must not be such a party.