We always welcome a Letter to the Editor to share with our readers – unsurprisingly they don’t always reflect the views of this publication. If you have something you’d like to share, get in touch and of course, your considered comments are welcome below. Liberal Democrat MEP for the South East, Catherine Bearder. Ed
So this week Theresa May has invoked Article 50 and the formal negotiations to leave the EU begin.
On Saturday I joined tens of thousands of people to march to Parliament Square with one message for the Prime Minister: Brexit will not deliver the UK a better deal than we have now, and that we as Europeans want to stay united.
But as it is clear the clock is ticking towards a hard Brexit it is important that people know that this can be stopped – democracy didn’t end on 23rd June 2016 – voters can and should have their say over what comes next.
Hard Brexit continues to divide us
Mrs May’s version of Brexit does nothing to unify a divided country with the 48% and the 52% on either side of the argument.
Her hard Brexit continues to divide us and takes us down a dangerous path of isolation – she says she is determined to pull us out of the Single Market before she has even started to negotiate.
European MEPs frustrated
My European colleagues in the Parliament cannot understand the line Mrs May is taking. They are frustrated, worried about Brexit tearing up their cohesion, strength and their country’s economies and they are aware of their own nationalists destabilising free trade and cross border cooperation.
Their primary concern is keeping the EU strong, united and stopping nationalism and preventing Brexit from stealing the next two years on the EU’s pressing agendas when the other issues of climate change and migration are still key.
Complex negotiations
These negotiations will be some of the most complex to ever take place – they may exceed the two year window the Treaties allowed and they will require skill and compromise.
If the Prime Minister goes in all guns blazing I am afraid we will end up with the very worst thing for all of us: industry, trade and the NHS: no deal at all.
