Dear Mr Barnier, thanks for inviting us back to the EU but here’s a word you usually choose to ignore: NO
DEAR Monsieur Barnier,
Thank you very much for your invitation, of today, inviting Britain to rejoin the EU.
I am keen to introduce you to a word that you may not have met for some time: NO.
I know it is the way with the EU that even if an electorate says “No”, you take it to mean “Yes”.
Or take it to mean “Try again”.
After all, we all remember when the French and other electorates failed to vote your way.
We remember when the French public voted in a way you didn’t like in 2005.
Back then the French were asked to approve the new EU constitution.
They voted “No” and you ignored them.
In fact, the EU managed to re-package the new constitution and got the French Parliament to push it past the pesky public.
After all, why should ordinary people have a say in their future?
It was the same with the Dutch, who were also given a vote on the EU constitution.
They too said “No” and you ignored them anyway.
The Irish were going to get a vote, but when these other votes went “the wrong” way it was decided the Irish public couldn’t be trusted.
So I understand that the concept of a democratic decision that goes the “wrong” way is hard for you to accept.
But the truth is that in 2016 the British public were given a once-in-a-generation opportunity to have our say on EU membership. We voted to leave the EU.
This wasn’t the infinitely complicated decision it has since been turned into. We understood the question.
It’s just a shame that so many of our politicians — and yours — did not understand our answer.
When we voted “Leave” we voted to leave the EU. That is it.
Pro-EU pundits and propogandists have spent recent years saying “What did the vote actually mean?”
I doubt that they would have wasted everyone’s time playing this game if our vote had gone the other way.
“When you say ‘Remain’ what exactly do you mean?” I don’t think so.
We were told by politicians, from all sides, that the vote would be a one-off and would be acted upon.
It is sad so many politicians for so many years failed to do that, but eventually we got some politicians who did.
True, our divorce was not as friendly as we might have hoped.
You and your colleagues tried to have your revenge.
One way you did that was by trying to split up our country. You tried to split up the United Kingdom by — among other things — taking Northern Ireland for yourselves and causing maximum possible pain.
You even threatened us with the return of war in Ireland if we did not allow you to have your way.
It was a disgraceful move by you. Imagine if we had done this the other way. Imagine if we had said that unless EU negotiations went the way we wanted, we would try to carve up France, Spain or any other EU country.
Imagine if we had used the threat of ETA, or other terrorist groups in Europe, to try to scare you into doing what we wanted.
“Nice little country you’ve got there. Shame if anything happened to it”.
This is a mob tactic. Not one used by democratic politicians.
But then, as we have seen, you and your colleagues are not democrats.
You believe in democracy only if it goes your way. If it doesn’t then you stop being democrats.
Well the British people had our say and we are happy to stick with it. We made our decision and we would like to work with our EU partners to have the best future for both sides. It is a shame that you don’t share that goodwill.
But we also know why you are doing this. You know the Tory party is in trouble in the polls. After more than a decade in power, any government would be.
But you also know that in Sir Keir Starmer and his Labour colleagues you have a politician and a party now overwhelmingly in favour of Britain being in the EU.
You see the opportunity to float the idea of us rejoining the EU.
Because you know that Starmer and co, if they get into office, will play footsie with your side too.
How easy it would be, Labour will say, to rejoin the Common Market only.
That will be what they say first. The rest will follow.
So as I say, thank you for your invitation. But we already had our say.
And you should learn from the British people, for perhaps the first time in your life, that “No” really does mean “No”.
Yours, Douglas Murray