02/03/2016
A combination of cowardice, stupidity and overweening egos has prevented the "leave" campaign adopting a coherent exit plan. Now we're paying the price, as the absence becomes a more and more central part of the "remain" narrative.
On Monday, we had the first of two FCO reports, picking holes in the leave position. Yesterday we had Peter Mandelson and today we have the second FCO report,
previewed here, taking apart the favoured leaver nostrums.
As a taster, in
City AM today, we get a demolition of the "Swiss Option", point out how it is a very poor model for the UK.
This is nothing new, of course. We've been constantly pointing out its inadequacies, most recently in
June last year. But this simply amplifies the detailed evaluation in
Flexcit, which makes it abundantly clear that the Swiss way is not suitable for the UK.
Nevertheless, Flexcit was peremptorily rejected by Vote Leave and, while it was accepted by Leave.eu, Arron Banks later
pulled back from any commitment and we have seen no movement from this quarter since early January. The GO "movement" is all over the place and, with David Bannerman and Ruth Lea in its ranks, we can expect anything and everything â except coherence.
And so chickens are coming home to roost. When the leave campaign as a whole could have been ahead of the game, with most of the points raised by the remains easily countered by Flexcit, we are on the back foot. We are attempting to defend indefensible positions, and struggling to deal with issues that should have been settled years ago.
Simply then to bluster, as the likes of Mr Johnson and others are doing, isn't going to cut it. The failure to agree and then adopt a coherent exit plan represents a major failing on the part of Brexit campaigners â a failing that goes back more than a decade to when Nigel Farage refused to devote any of his party's resources to it.
It is not too late to resolve this issue â even if we have lost the initiative, and will be seen to be responding to the remains, rather than leading the debate. But time is running short.
On 16 March, The Leave Alliance will be publishing the short version of Flexcit, and formally launching the plan. Other groups are free to join in and endorse it. Something tells me, though, that we will not be hearing from them.
However, continued failure is still failure. Ignoring
this issue won't make it go away. For as long as the leavers fail to bite the bullet, the lack of a coherent exit plan will be a running sore â with the potential to lose us this referendum.
Then to say, "I told you so", offers very little consolation, so I will say it now: I told you so. For over a decade now â since 2002 - I've been saying so and, unlike others, I've put my money where my mouth is, alongside many of our readers. We've put in the hours to produce the plan that the leave campaign needs. It may have its faults, but it is far better than anything else on offer.
To continue ignoring it reflects not on us, but on the short-sighted ignorance of the noise-makers, which clearly have not focused on need to win this campaign, and are putting their own needs (and egos) above the needs of the campaign.
But at least, if this campaign does fail, we will know where to point the finger. And it will be at individuals who looked a gift horse in the mouth and walked away empty-handed. They are the guilty people, and we know who they are.
