(Na h-Eileanan an
Iar) (SNP): It is six long weeks since this process
began on 4 December, and I would just like to start with a book
recommendation that I hope you will find very good reading, Mr
Speaker. Fintan O’Toole’s “Heroic Failure: Brexit and the
Politics of Pain” is a great read that explains the psychology
behind Brexit and exactly why the colonialists in there got
themselves in this situation—will we be a colony—and explores the
juxtaposition of every emotion, but it is really the madness of
Brexit that is well captured by the Irishman Fintan O’Toole. The
book starts off with a great Turkish proverb:
“An Englishman will burn his bed to catch a flea”.
That is exactly what Brexit feels like, so I appeal to you:
please do not burn your beds; revoke article 50 for your own
good. You probably will not listen, but anyway I have said it.
How did we get here? Well, the Prime Minister went and triggered
article 50 on 29 March 2017, without much of a thought. I
remember that I was fencing my potatoes a few weeks later when
around came the news that she was now holding a general election.
I was a bit surprised. I had thought maybe the Prime Minister had
a plan, but from that moment on—when I was fencing my potatoes—it
was very obvious that she did not have a plan.
Six months later, she went to Florence of all places—no idea
why—to beg the European Union for two more years. The EU gave her
21 months, and this is what she is now fighting about. Her whole
strategy was without any foresight whatever. It was only beaten
by the Leader of the Opposition, who wanted to trigger article 50
immediately, meaning that the disaster would already have
happened. The situation continued without any cognisance of the
needs of the Falkland Islands or Gibraltar, which do not want any
of this nonsense. This is damaging to them, and any hon. Member
who speaks to their representatives will understand that...
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