Tag: transplant rejection

Decisive rejection of the UK-EU withdrawal agreement in the House of Commons for a third time, following hot on the heels of the House’s rejection of eight alternative approaches, raises uncomfortable questions about the quality of the UK’s decision-making process. But why is this system so apparently helpless, and can anything be done to resolve the UK’s ambitions for a new relationship with the EU? The constitution First, reliance on an “unwritten” constitution is an impressive achievement – if it can be pulled off. It could spell out the currently ambiguous relationship between government and parliament. The opposition “opposes”, biding its time until the mercurial electoral system brings it back to power. But it can be corrosive when (as in Northern Ireland from 1921 to 1972) there is no such alternation, or when (as in the case of Brexit) the stakes are very high. Geopolitical perspectives Third, the criticism that many leading Brexiteers are insufficiently familiar with EU structures and procedures carries weight, but it may be that they also misperceive Britain’s place in the contemporary world. Put differently, when negotiators on behalf of the EU27 face their British counterparts, they speak for a bloc that is six to seven times more substantial than the UK in these areas. Recognising that there is nothing sacrosanct about a consultative referendum, that government and opposition need not be deadly enemies and that the UK is by far the weaker player in the Brexit negotiations may be a big cultural challenge. Might it not also facilitate a more productive outcome to the UK’s negotiations with the EU?