Time for UK MPs to eschew narrow interests on Brexit for nation's sake

THE bus is hurtling down the highway at breakneck speed, its passengers uneasy, some are downright scared. With one final jolt, it careens off the road, injuring many. In the aftermath, survivors recall their unease before the bus went out of control but felt helpless to do anything about it.

This accident scenario is one of a number of analogies and metaphors that have emerged for Brexit, with millions of UK residents quite helpless at the prospect of the country crashing out of EU in reckless fashion.

The UK is scheduled to leave the EU on March 29. There appears to be no time left to come up with an alternative deal to the one that was roundly defeated in Parliament in January. British Prime Minister Theresa May says that she will try to get a better deal from the EU but her critics have charged that she is merely running down the clock by putting new wine in old skins and presenting it as a new plan.

The danger of a no-deal Brexit is becoming all too real. Foreign multinationals are scaling back their operations in the UK. Businesses and manufacturers have begun stockpiling goods and raw materials in anticipation of post-Brexit chaos.

Without a deal, trade between the UK and the EU will come under World Trade Organisation rules in which tariffs and customs checks on goods are the norms. This will lead to delays and bottlenecks at the border, for which none of the parties are prepared.

There is no question that the UK and its citizens have the right to determine their future, including whether to stay as a member of the vast trading bloc that is the EU. They voted to leave, albeit by a small margin, in a 2016 referendum.

But what is incomprehensible to many, including the UK's many friends who wish the country well, is the protracted gridlock in Westminster that has made a no-deal Brexit more and more likely.

Mrs May's woes were partly self inflicted when she gambled on a snap election in 2017 that saw her Conservative Party lose its narrow majority and ended up having to rely on Northern Ireland's Unionists to prop up her government. And because her party is not united behind her, Mrs May's vision of a soft Brexit - in which the UK retains access to the single market while being able to make deals outside of the EU - is a hard sell.

Soft Brexit would also see the UK stay within the EU customs union to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. This plan, known as the backstop, is opposed by hard Brexiteers and Remainers from her own party and the Unionists. Ordinarily, the turmoil among the Tories would have opened the door for the main opposition party to capitalise on. However, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has come out looking more and more like an inept co-driver. He has not been able to seize the Brexit agenda either, because the issue has opened up bitter divisions between Leavers and Remainers in both parties. Meanwhile, the government of the day and the civil service have been so preoccupied with Brexit that key domestic legislations have been put on the back burner. Is this what the British people voted for?

Brexit has become a lesson in how incompetent politicians and their grandstanding have hijacked the welfare of an entire nation. They might do well to take to heart this admonishment by Singapore's first prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, on governing and political battles: "This is not a game of cards. This is your life and mine."

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