I have been working on my thoughts over the current situation. Nobody I know has told me they are happy with where we are today; some because they want us to turn back, others because we haven't gone far enough. A lovely man in Church last week was in tears about this. We have been failed in numerous ways by a variety of our leaders. I welcome the call for a compromise, but I am struggling to see how such a compromise can be reached in the current climate.
The issue is almost terminally divisive, and was allowed to proceed in that way because of complacent leadership by those who framed a referendum in such simplistic and lazy terms, and by allowing the campaign to have been stoked so emotively by many - I want to say on both sides, but it would seem that the dishonest slogans on the sides of a red bus and illegal campaign funding were predominantly on the leave side. The remain side lacked leadership too. As a result nobody described a clear and honest vision of what leaving or remaining would look like. A recent tweet by John Simpson, the political journalist...
I’ve been going through my notebooks for the referendum campaign, looking for any warnings that we might just crash out of the EU with no deal of any kind. Haven’t found a single hint of it. Just lots & lots of assurances that it would be dead easy to negotiate our departure.
— John Simpson (@JohnSimpsonNews) March 13, 2019
...and so we are caught in limbo by warring sides, and one significant option - as demonstrated by the current petition and last week's march - is being intentionally kept off the table. In those circumstances compromise can only mean one side relenting and I don't see that happening.
Compromise should have really been the first action by the then newly promoted Theresa May back on the 13th July 2016. That may not have been popular, but that is the sort of action that a leader should have taken.
I will continue to pray for our leaders in all the major parties, and on both sides of the issue in question. I will pray for the wisdom and humility that true leadership demands.
As Theresa May's premiership draws to a close, the possible successors will be considering whether to make their moves. The names presented thus far all seem (to my mind at least) to be tainted by their involvement in the poor leadership that has got us to this point. May they consider very carefully for whose benefit they want high office.
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