Don’t Call May’s Brexit a Compromise
It’s a gross failure of leadership, and Parliament should reject it.
Capitulation in our time.
Photographer: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images
Few if any supporters of the Brexit agreement that U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May has struck with the European Union actually like it. Most would prefer Britain to stay in the EU. Others wanted the opposite — a so-called clean Brexit — but think May’s deal is the best that can be done. These disappointed Leavers and Remainers agree with May that her deal is a painful but necessary compromise.
Gideon Rachman offers a forthright defense of this position in the Financial Times. He argues that the priority now must be to restore some semblance of political order and stability in Britain — something that neither a sudden-stop no-deal Brexit nor a second attempt to settle the matter by referendum could achieve. He adds: “The fact that the hardliners on both sides of the debate are outraged suggests that Mrs May has found a middle ground that upsets zealots, but has the potential to command sullen assent from the muddled middle.”