For much too long, the debate about Britain’s departure from the EU has been mired by tedious rows between so-called ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ Brexiteers.
This has been deeply unedifying – and, more to the point, hugely unhelpful to the Government’s negotiators as they deal with their bullying and obstructive Brussels counterparts.
Worst of all, many of the Cabinet have been briefing against each other amid rumours of threatened ministerial resignations. And all the time, the clock ticks down to the Brexit deadline.
Indeed, there are barely 12 months left before the two-year departure period set in motion by the triggering of Article 50 comes to an end and we leave the EU.
People who voted Remain are becoming increasingly concerned that the Brexiteers are incapable of delivering what they promised. This is why Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s speech yesterday (pictured) was so important, writes Peter Oborne
It’s not surprising that the 17million who voted to leave are getting fed up and impatient.
Conversely, those who voted Remain are becoming increasingly concerned that the Brexiteers are incapable of delivering what they promised.
This is why Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s speech yesterday was so important.
The fact is that his vision for Brexit moves beyond the acrid dispute between hard and soft Brexiteers and defines a new prospectus that is much more in line with our national history and which is reassuringly optimistic.
His idea is ‘liberal Brexit’ – a potent concept which challenges head-on the claim by Remainers that the decision to leave the EU will result in us abandoning the principle of free trade that has underpinned the existence of the EU.
For their argument is false. The EU may be a free-trade zone between member states but it acts as a protectionist zone with regard to the rest of the world.It imposes tariff barriers which protect uncompetitive EU producers and represents the complete antithesis of the free-market principles that made Britain the greatest manufacturing country in the world in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Pictured: Boris Johnson delivers a key speech on Brexit at London’s Policy Exchange yesterday
But the EU’s system of protectionism has long been a crying scandal. For instance, Brussels pays billions of euros in subsidies to French and German farmers, leading to higher prices for European consumers and which make it much more difficult for farmers in the Third World to get access to the European market.
Brussels also prevents member states from negotiating their own trade deals across the globe – simply forcing them to behave as members of a single economic bloc in a way that would make those great Victorian pioneers of free trade (such as the textile entrepreneur Richard Cobden) turn in their graves.
So Boris Johnson’s central idea – that our future trading patterns should be global and not tied down by Europe – is both liberal and profoundly persuasive.
Crucially, too, he links this free-trade vision to another magnificent British tradition – representative democracy.
This is important as, historically, free trade has never been just about commerce and creating prosperity.
It has also been about free speech, the rule of law and freedom of conscience – principles that are woven into British institutions and which have created a climate in which trade could flourish and enrich the nation as a whole.
Contrast this, as the Foreign Secretary rightly did, to the undemocratic nature of the EU – where a very small political and bureaucratic class is out of touch with the people they are meant to represent.
In sum, the EU has been quite deliberately fashioned as an elite project that is hostile to nation states and to the freedom and democracy of ordinary people.
The fact is that his vision for Brexit moves beyond the acrid dispute between hard and soft Brexiteers and defines a new prospectus that is much more in line with our national history and which is reassuringly optimistic, writes Oborne
This explains the emasculation and, in some cases, collapse of traditional European political parties such as Germany’s once-great SPD, the equivalent of our Labour Party.
Never forget that the abiding mission of Brussels is to create a new European super-state, something that very few voters actually want.
Of course, Remainers – for whom Mr Johnson is a distrustful figure in view of what they see as his undeliverable promise that the Government will be able to invest £350million more into the NHS post-Brexit – have sneered at his speech.
They always sneer at whatever Mr Johnson says or does.
However, I believe they under-rate him. They concentrate on what they see as his bombast and personal ambition, rather than the fact that this is a man with a deep intellect who has studied the origins of European civilisation while reading classics at Oxford University.
Boris Johnson’s central idea – that our future trading patterns should be global and not tied down by Europe – is both liberal and profoundly persuasive, writes Oborne
The truth is that Mr Johnson is the only senior Cabinet minister who has been utterly consistent on Europe.
We were reminded of this yesterday. He repeated his view that Britain should leave the customs union.
We cannot remain a member of the single market. And Britain must completely sever its ties with the EU after a transition period in approximately three years’ time.
Yes, if I was to be critical, Mr Johnson is weak on details about how this will be achieved.
He did not set out yesterday the nature of the trade agreements that Britain must strike with countries across the world in the aftermath of Brexit.
He did not say what kind of trading arrangement he envisaged would define our relationship with the EU. Does he think Britain will simply trade with the EU on the terms of the World Trade Organisation, as every other country is permitted to do?
Or does he hope that Britain will be able to negotiate a more favourable deal involving the trade of manufactured goods? Also, how does he see the relationship between the City of London and the EU?
That said, Mr Johnson’s blueprint is a very good starting point. In his wake, other Cabinet ministers, including Brexit Secretary David Davis and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox, will make speeches in the coming weeks setting out more details about the future of Britain’s relations with Europe.
Most importantly, Theresa May is due to make two key speeches. On Saturday, she’ll explain the security relationship Britain wants with the EU.
Liberal Democrat protesters are pictured outside London’s Policy Exchange as the Foreign Secretary prepared to make his speech making the case for Brexit yesterday
She is due to follow that with a speech that describes the overall relationship she wants Britain to have with the EU post-Brexit.
If all the speeches cohere, then Mrs May will have achieved something truly remarkable.
She would have brought to an end the very damaging Cabinet feuding over Europe which has caused so much damage.
It is no exaggeration to say that the disputes within the Tory Party over Brexit have been more toxic than those between our negotiators and their EU counterparts.
This, I’m afraid to say, shows how our political class have betrayed the public.
Now they are morally duty-bound to proceed with a united and coherent vision for the future of Britain and Europe and then to achieve it at the negotiating table in Brussels.
Millions of us hope that all sides of the Government can use Boris Johnson’s vision of a ‘liberal Brexit’ and come together to help Britain move on towards a new age of prosperity and democracy outside the suffocating maw of the EU.