On the same day that Arsenal beat Manchester United on penalties to win the 2005 FA Cup final, David Foster Wallace gave perhaps the most acclaimed commencement speech of the modern era. Standing before the graduating class of Kenyon College in Ohio, Wallace began his speech with a joke:
“Two young fish were swimming and happened to come across an older fish swimming in the opposite direction. The older fish nodded to them and said, 'Good morning, guys. How's the water?' The two young fish continued swimming for a while, and then one of them looked at the other and said, 'What's water?'”
Wallace went on to explain that the gist of what he calls “the fish story” is that “the most obvious and important realities are often the hardest to see and talk about.” But the fact is that “in the everyday lives of grown-ups, banal clichés can take on life-or-death importance.” And here we are, unfortunately, talking about Brexit.
From a public perspective, this is a reality that remains a challenge for all major political parties: a recent YouGov poll found that more than half of Britons believe the negatives of leaving the EU outweigh the positives, with only 15% opposed. As a result, the Conservatives, the party of Brexit, have become reluctant to talk about leaving the EU.
The Labour Party has also been silent on the issue, partly because they want to appeal to Leave voters, but also because so few voters care. From July 2016 to February 2020, Brexit was one of the top issues facing the country. It now ranks behind the economy, healthcare, immigration, housing, etc. Like water, unless you're going on holiday or trying to export chemicals, Brexit is just… a problem.
But therein lies the opportunity. In an interview over the weekend, Rachel Reeves dropped a bit of news. Speaking to the Financial Times, the shadow chancellor suggested a Labour government would “seek to improve our trading relationship with Europe”, including a “bespoke” deal for the chemicals sector. To underline this subtle but clear shift, Keir Starmer described the current EU withdrawal agreement as a “failure” and an “impediment to growth”.
Before I go any further, and I know we’ve already taken a scenic route to get here, I need to discuss what I call “Remain cakeism” (perhaps stolen from Peter Foster of the Financial Times): the refusal to accept that wanting to remain outside the EU single market and customs union severely limits the closer relationship London can negotiate with Brussels.
Moreover, negotiations require willingness on both sides: the EU is, frankly, pretty busy with the rise of far-right parties, the import of cheap electric cars from China, and migration issues at its southern and eastern borders. It should not be assumed that member states are desperate to negotiate a substantially new Brexit agreement.
Yet if Keir Starmer wants to deliver economic growth, he will have to anger some people. On town planning reform, that means existing homeowners. On trade tensions, that means people who voted Leave, or simply don't want to debate the issue again.
The challenge for a Labour government will be to negotiate better terms while downplaying the importance of Brexit: if voters are uninterested or unaware, a majority government can do as it pleases.
Of course, the real benefits would come from rejoining the EU, rather than accepting the rules and nibbling away at the periphery, but that would probably only be in a second term.
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