The dangerous fantasy of a hard Brexit.

The concept that the United Kingdom could withdraw from the European Union in one fell swoop, that we could suddenly and unconditionally guillotine our contractual relationship with the rest of the Union, was always utter fantasy.

This was the dream world put forward by the arch-Brexiteers though, in all earnest. David Davis, Liam Fox, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove; all were in this camp of high illusionists that enspelled a nation.

I know that there are many people who genuinely believe it is in the UK’s best interests to leave the EU. Yet, there can also be no doubt that the Leave campaign was not keen to delineate how challenging, or at least lengthy and long winded, the process of leaving the Union would be in reality, or what the implications and consequences would be for our people.

The revealing of the draft Withdrawal Agreement has thrown all this deceitful tommyrot into sharp relief. In my view, as someone who has studied the Union’s legal system and its relationship to the UK in some detail, there was ultimately no avoiding the intricate and lengthy process that has been arrived at. Some of the details might have been different but this general and difficult situation was always going to accompany the UK’s departure from the EU. Our legal, political and economic systems are so entwined with the Union’s after nearly fifty years of membership that this was always going to be the case.

It is the way in which Boris Johnson and the others have demanded the fantasy style hard Brexit but then backed away from taking the lead to implement it that is so galling. Boris Johnson, it is hard to remember now, was one of the front runners to become Prime Minister after David Cameron fell on his sword. He has been one of the sternest critics of Theresa May’s approach; yet at one point, he could have grasped the pinnacle of power to ensure the vision he constantly berates us with actually came to be. Baulking, he perhaps had the insight to realise he lacked the discipline and close attention for the role. Instead of seizing the leadership, he gave in and skulked away like a shamefully dirty puppy.

Where was his fire when he could have seized Downing Street, become the Prime Minister and made his hard Brexit leap from the realm of abstraction to political reality? This, from someone who only a few years ago was a faithful admirer of the European Union and all it stood for. He later gave up being Foreign Minister as well, determined to snipe from the side lines rather than have the honour and wherewithal to see the Brexit project through to its tedious conclusion. Boris Johnson’s ascension to the Prime Minister’s mantle cannot, in any circumstances, happen.

I applaud the passion and love for our country that this crisis has revealed, whichever route we take. Whether we are in or out, I still believe wholeheartedly that our country has a wonderful future.

Yet there is one option, the best option, which continues to offer the United Kingdom the greatest future, one that has always persisted throughout this dispiriting debacle. A way that has endured for nearly fifty years and ensured our people, our nation prevails.

Remain.