Let’s be clear, Brexit means Brexit… sort of

Nothing makes imminent economic isolation more manageable than some good old British sunshine. For 65 million Brexit Britons, squinting across at the continent atop their Winterfell wall, the May bank holiday week was a welcome distraction from the coming long winter.

The first hot day of the month brought out the Vitamin D-deprived army of the white walkers wearing the sort of clothing that should really carry a viewer warning. This year the sunshine was especially overdue in a country that feels like it needs Game of Thrones’ Jon Snow leading the charge into the political unknown. Instead it has Theresa May and Boris Johnson riding imaginary horses and clapping coconut halves together a la Monty Python.

As Britain’s departure from the European Union draws nearer, there is a creeping realization among the public that nobody has the foggiest idea what the plan is, where it is, or who had it last.

Having come through the anger and denial stages of Brexit, it feels like we’re now in the acceptance phase — even as new suggestions for the Northern Ireland question or future customs arrangements appear with each morning’s breakfast show headlines. 

Amid such confusion, people took to the parks and beaches in their droves and reclined on the grass and sands to think of England. Also thinking of England last week were the Lords of Britain’s upper house of parliament, who express their views on any planned piece of legislation by shuffling across to one side of the chamber or the other, breaking into a brisk trot only for the most urgent matters of state.

While Britain was sunbathing, the Lords were doing a very good job of making sure that, as far as possible, Britain remained practically inside the EU while remaining officially outside. British politicians generally present such obfuscation to voters by saying “let’s be absolutely clear about this,” before going on to elaborate absolutely unclearly.

The wily old Lords seem to have caught everyone napping in the sun by completely rewriting the proposed terms of Britain’s exit from the bloc; specifically to remain in the European Economic Area to prepare the way for customs union membership, and scrapping the exit date.

The government has now been defeated 14 times in the House of Lords on the EU Withdrawal Bill: A significant setback for the Brexit process even if most of the defeats are likely to be reversed when it goes back to the Commons.

So, for much of the week, as the Britons sunbathed, their parliamentary lords shuffled back and forth across the chambers to record their “ayes” and “nays” — or, to use the language of the upper house, the “contents” and the “not contents” — on various amendments to the Brexit Bill.

Retaining such important traditions as this is why it is so vitally important for Britain to take back control and leave the EU. And in leaving the EU we must, of course, give due consideration to retaining, as far as possible and without prejudice, the practices, procedures and processes that pertain to the EU.

Let’s be absolutely clear about that.

• Sean Cronin is the Business Editor of Arab News. Twitter: @seanecronin