Four prime ministers in six years? It's all Brexit's fault
As the historian Mark Gilbert and I underline in The Brexit Car Crash there was no single explanation for Brexit, but today no amount of skepticism towards monocausal explanations can stop one from stating very simply that the current political instability in the UK has been caused by Brexit. True, Boris Johnson was finally convinced to throw in the towel due to partying during the pandemic, but his I-can-do-no-wrong attitude was buoyed by a landslide victory in December 2019 built upon the false promise of "getting Brexit done". Cameron of course fell after improvidently calling the Brexit referendum despite negotiating a best-of-both-worlds agreement with the EU in February 2016. As we all know, Theresa May was forced to resign after her withdrawal agreement was defeated three times in the House of Commons and Liz Truss herself admitted in her resignation speech that the imprudent mini budget she and Chancellor Kwarteng presented was a way of taking advantage of "the freedoms of Brexit". The truth of the matter is that Brexit did not deliver more freedoms, but has simply isolated the United Kingdom and left it societally and territorially divided. After voting against independence in 2014 so as to avoid leaving the European Union, the Scottish people feel cheated because they find themselves out of the EU against their will. Not by chance there is now a strong push for Indy2. The situation in Northern Ireland is even more troubling (a verb not used lightly). Due to clashes concerning the Northern Ireland Protocol no government has been formed in Belfast since the elections last May and both Johnson and Truss are in part to blame for this political crisis due to their intransigence. Even in Cardiff tensions are running high as the shouting match between First Minister Mark Drakeford and Welsh Tory leader Andrew Davies of just a few days ago clearly demonstrates.
All of this must stop. For outsiders it would seem logical for the UK to hold a general election, but that is not going happen. Albeit split into various factions the Conservatives command a strong majority in the House of Commons and they have no intentions of going to the country and being heavily defeated as the current polls would indicate. The party once led by giants of the calibre of Churchill, Macmillan and Thatcher needs to get its act together. If the mainstream tory Jeremy Hunt remains at No. 11 then the party should choose a leader who is prepared to tell the British people some home truths and "take back control" (to use the slogan so dear to the Brexiteers). Without further ado the new Prime Minister must ditch the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol Bill 2022, a proposal that "brazenly breaks a solemn international treaty" to use the words of a tory MP and work to fully implement the withdrawal agreement with its friend (not foe) the European Union. The Northern Ireland secretary must make every effort to convince the DUP to form a government with Sinn Féin on the basis of the Good Friday Peace Agreement otherwise the Northern Assembly should be dissolved. The new Premier must also work closely with the First Ministers of Scotland and Wales (on the contrary to Truss who, in 45 days, never found the time for official meetings with the heads of the devolved governments).
In a nutshell, while we mustn't expect a mea culpa on the decision to leave the EU, the "Brexit Baloney" must stop and it must stop now.
Post scriptum: if Boris Johnson returns to No. 10 Downing Street then please just ignore all of the above....