Three ways to undo Brexit
So it is done. The Brits voted for Brexit. Now is the time to pull together as sore losers and study how we can undo this. Forget about rerunning the vote right now:
is not how democracy wins, even if Nigel Farage himself said in May that if the outcome would be a 52–48 split, it would be unfinished business and he’d push for a second referendum.
Three other plans:
1. Negotiate an exit and reconsider
The Remain campaign accused the Leave campaign that their suggested future for Britain was unrealistic. Now we have a chance to find out. The UK should activate article 50 and then negotiate the terms of separation, including a new deal of how the UK would relate to the EU in the future. Technically article 50 is a one way street, but hopefully the Europeans can be big about this and offer an undo option.
This exit deal might look something like the one that Norway and Switzerland have, which would mean free movement of people, Britain having to contribute to the EU budget and Free Trade. Or it might be a much looser deal like the EU is negotiating with Canada — Free Trade but with restrictions on services and migration.
Putting a choice to the people between this deal and remaining in the EU then seems fair. And the Canada deal would seem weak, while the Norway deal would seem like remaining in EU without having a vote. You might as well stay.
2. The Scottish Play
Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister is already making noise about Scotland being able to veto the whole shenanigans. Many Scots voting against independence in 2014 because it would mean leaving the EU. So it doesn’t seem unreasonable to give them a say in this. Legally there doesn’t seem to be any ground for such a veto though.
Rather than veto, couldn’t Scotland just remain in the EU? In the run up to the vote, the press often wrote that the UK would be the first country to leave the EU. That is not correct. Greenland was the first country to leave, being a constituent country of the Kingdom of Denmark.
So not all constituent countries have to be EU members. So let England and Wales withdraw and keep Scotland around. For Northern-Ireland with its border with Ireland this would make even more sense.
Keeping Scotland in the EU would make it easier for them to quit the UK of course. On the flip side, it might just be enough to make the Scots not want to leave.
3. Parliament
Technically, the referendum is non-binding. Parliament could ignore it, if it wanted to. Doing so right now would seem like a major undemocratic move by the already much maligned political elites.
Cameron has stepped down and Corbyn could very well be on its way out. Asking the Queen to dissolve Parliament and leaving the invocation of Article 50 until after a new election wouldn’t be strange in this context.
If Labour would then strongly campaign on a promise to ignore the referendum and subsequently win the election, representative democracy would prevail over the direct sort.
