This week’s essay, like my other blog posts, is intended to be an “evergreen” post: still relevant next winter, and long after Brexit has receded to nothing but a blip on time’s horizon.
Hello Reader,
Got project skills?
Years from now, if you are reading this essay in some dusty digital library, you may be thinking that my peers and I, during these seasons, were correct in judging that Brexit, as in Britain leaving the European Union, (EU) is one of the greatest projects of our time.
The summary so far: The people had a referendum in 2016. It would be, they were told, a “once in a lifetime” referendum, meaning: no second chances, no do-overs, meaning: a result closer to a grave Constitution than to a light bylaw easily changed. Today’s prime minister was an MP back then, and a “remainer”—until the vote was in. Then of course she tried to honour the referendum. Other MPs do not have such honour, and by journalists today they are openly called remainers.
Soon after the referendum there was an election where the people voted into power a minority government, partly because, while a big majority government might strengthen Britain’s hand for negotiating with the EU, few voters imagined a majority government would be critically needed for Brexit. I know I for one, back then, thought Brexit had already been decided.
You, years away, may be calm and objective about it all—but today we sure aren’t! In fact, as I write this, “tens of thousands” are marching for the issue of a second referendum—even though it’s Saturday March 23, 2019, with the exit—until yesterday—lawfully set for this coming Friday. A little late to be marching, eh?
As for the details of what the marchers want, and the details of Brexit: All of this, dear student researcher, you must already know as you “compare and contrast” and “document and footnote” old archives… So let me, today, only give you a single lens, like Grandmother peering through her monocle, for seeing the world. Not to see the important details, but to merely see a few concepts.
Here’s a controversial concept: If this is a great project, then perhaps Prime Minister Teresa May, now being widely derided and disrespected, is a great statesman. Not like the other MPs. In my recent reading of newspapers, no other MP has said anything great, and a great many have said things that made me groan.
I am reminded (to paraphrase Swift) of the slogan: “You know a great person by this detail: there is a confederacy of dunces against her…” Maybe there is a reason the rest of the Honourable Members of Parliament are unable to come up with a ghost of a start to a beginning of any agreed-upon plan; maybe they have pointy caps.
I first began to realize this one day in 2018 when Mrs. May was headed off to “the continent” to negotiate the terms of the exit, no doubt praying and firmly grasping her economic papers, while keenly scanning for the umpteenth time what terms she could fight to the bitter end on. May reminded me of that other lady prime minister, the Iron Lady, and the British forces in the Falklands, on a bright and fearful morning, moving off to manoeuvre over “no man’s land” to finally cross the wire and close with the Argentinian forces, each man firmly grasping his rifle—and praying.
And May’s critics in parliament? On the very day she flew? They were asking what Ms May’s “plan B” was.
Good lord! When you are down to the wire, whether on a jet plane to Brussels or about to cross a smoky battle field, the final thing to do is not to make a plan B—it’s to synchronize your watches. (Yes, I was a soldier once) Like a civilian plowing a long straight furrow, you don’t distract yourself by “taking your eyes off the prize.” (Nor does an army or corporation broadcast it's plan B "in the clear" to competitors and negotiators)
In fact, any plan B, such as secretly wanting to "remain" back in (the EU) your own trenches, is like a stab in your courage tank, letting out all your air. For a desperate battle, the Holy Bible talks about the folly of having the trumpet give an uncertain sound.
(By spring of 2019, with the drawn-out agony of Brexit, "remain" is no longer a secret but something to want publicly. It is still a secret, but now an open secret, that the calls for a "confirmatory vote" referendum is actually meant to torpedo Brexit)
In fact, any plan B, such as secretly wanting to "remain" back in (the EU) your own trenches, is like a stab in your courage tank, letting out all your air. For a desperate battle, the Holy Bible talks about the folly of having the trumpet give an uncertain sound.
(By spring of 2019, with the drawn-out agony of Brexit, "remain" is no longer a secret but something to want publicly. It is still a secret, but now an open secret, that the calls for a "confirmatory vote" referendum is actually meant to torpedo Brexit)
I knew then, as the prime minister was in the air, that many learned folks in parliament had come to their seats not from managing projects but from desks in law offices. Not the same.
As I said back in January, in my archived essay Billy Bragg and Brexit, all of the prime minister’s critics thought she should take her eye off the ball. Not just in smaller ways such as while she is flying to Brussels, but in bigger ways too. For example, some MPs advised she should stop everything to have a general election. I reply, “Really? I mean, yes it’s exciting to campaign with long days and short sleepless nights… and then get re-elected… and then? …Then time has flowed by while you were too distracted to keep your eye on the Brexit ball.
Projects, like businesses in general, need a laser focus. In business one might, as Avis rent-a-car did, invest in meetings for six months to come up with a concise definition of purpose, so the company can then take steps to avoid distractions. No point in a profitable distraction; that’s why Avis dumped their limousine service.
I like how May, as a good project leader, keeps her eye on the ball in contrast to other MPs including the head of the opposition party, Jeremy Corbyn. You might think another party leader, greatness-wise, would be in the same ball park as Ms May. Nope, not in this case.
Corbyn’s advice to everyone reminds me of some Quebec leaders, before their calling for voting on an exit from Canada, telling everyone Quebec could have a “sovereignty association” with Canada, even though there was no clarity as to what the heck that would mean. Corbyn is talking about some sort of unprecedented association between the United Kingdom and the European Union, but I can’t explain it here, because nobody can. No one—certainly no leader in the EU—can say exactly what Corbyn’s unwritten, unprecedented, unlegal plan might be.
What I can say, using Granny’s simple monocle, is that Corbyn is taking his eye off the ball by calling for the UK to be in the same customs union as the EU, without being in the EU. Call it, to paraphrase the Americans, “Customization without representation.” Yet the Brexit ball presumably means freedom from the EU, full sovereignty, not partial freedom.
Right now, through my lens, I see MPs believing the people’s vote doesn’t count until the majority of confused MP’s vote to agree with them. I think of parliament as a ruling mini-democracy, complete with jokers and anarchists: folks in the guise of “remainer” MPs. How queer, because by my monocle the 2016 referendum supersedes the current parliamentary session. As clear headed project managers would say, “A done deal. Move on to the next step.”
As I see it, the people of a great democracy didn’t say: Brexit only if the EU agrees, or, only if we get a good deal, or, only if we get no deal, also known as a “hard Brexit.” To the people? “Brexit means Brexit.” This Teresa May has quoted. I can’t attribute who she got the quote from, since it’s such a wide spread “no brainer.”
Good foundations, or good first decisions, as with an engineer’s postulates and theorems, are the bedrock, the sine qua non (without which not) of every engineering or business project.
Dear future student reader, I am feeling quite at ease, with no emotional need to weigh and balance the latest “six options”… because, although I am not from the future, I am from Canada. I will merely note that creative brainstorming is best for the start of a project, not at the end.
Below are some creative options, stated this very weekend, by the MPs. My classroom exercise for you, oh learned student, is this:
To look through a monocle at each option in turn to ask: Does this take eyes off the ball?…
Surely in her clarity of intention, against stormy waves of harsh MPs, Mrs. Teresa May is a rock of Gibraltar. …
God save the Queen.
END NOTE:
HERE ARE THE OPTIONS
From the BBC web site, with bolding by me, for Friday 22nd March:
QUOTE
in the coming days, as many as six other options, in addition to Mrs May's deal, could be voted on:
- Revoking Article 50 and cancelling Brexit
- Another referendum
- The PM's deal plus a customs union
- The PM's deal plus both a customs union and single market access
- A Canada-style free trade agreement
- Leaving the EU without a deal
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who wants his alternative plan for a customs union and guarantees on workers rights to be among those voted on, said there was support for a different way forward.
Conservative MP Sir Oliver Letwin, who is spearheading the move with senior Labour MPs including Hilary Benn, said he believed enough MPs would back an amendment to a government motion on Monday to trigger the so-called "indicative" votes later in the week.
But Conservative Brexiteer Marcus Fysh said the idea of giving MPs a menu of options after two years of negotiations was "ludicrous and childish", while ex-minister Steve Baker said it would end in "national humiliation”.
UNQUOTE
Sean Crawford
Under serene prairie Skys,
Alberta, March 24, 2019
***Update, March 27: May has promised that If MPs vote to back her deal with the EU, Then she will resign. (Because they will be voting for Brexit, at last)
***Update, April 3:
Wow, talk about keeping your eye on the ball: May has put getting a deal for Brexit above party unity. Here is an editorial about her sacrifice. Her fellow conservative-party MPs will be angry, but they couldn't be counted on to vote for Brexit. (They opposed everything, including her negotiated deal with the EU)
***Below is from March 27, I think..
***Update, April 3:
Wow, talk about keeping your eye on the ball: May has put getting a deal for Brexit above party unity. Here is an editorial about her sacrifice. Her fellow conservative-party MPs will be angry, but they couldn't be counted on to vote for Brexit. (They opposed everything, including her negotiated deal with the EU)
***Below is from March 27, I think..
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I don’t care what her critics say about my view - I have massive admiration for Theresa May’s fortitude and sense of duty. How has she managed to go through every day taking so much flak from less decent people?
Replying to @AlanDuncanMP
Agreed. She has been bullied by almost everyone in parliament. But she has stood firm and may just about make it out the other side. The fact she is prepared to give her job away in order to respect the referendum result should be applauded and respected. Thankyou PM.
Footnotes:
~As an evergreen post, archived January 2019, I weaved together MP’s, Politically Correct guys criticizing idealistic folk singer Billy Bragg, and polarized politics in Billy Bragg and Brexit.
~Aw, shucks! The British Business community still ain’t worried enough, as the pound is nearly the strongest ever on a 120-day graph. Fine, but I want to buy cheap pounds!
~Surely frustration causes fantasy: A recurring fantasy, one printed again today, is that if May took her eyes off the ball by resigning, then “somebody,” never named, could somehow lead the MPs to a solution that has somehow eluded them—including those remainers, which implies the same chaps who won’t honour a referendum will somehow honour a new leader. This fantasy I somehow doubt.
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