As people watch the chaos in Westminster unfolding on their screens this week, they will see the usually imposing tower of Big Ben covered in scaffolding in the background. It is an apt metaphor for a political system that is in dire need of renovation. But I fear that unlike Big Ben, Westminster is broken beyond repair.
While businesses and workers are rightly furious about the uncertainty, MPs on both sides of the House of Commons are continuing their juvenile antics, incapable of acting in the interest of their constituents due to the stubbornness of their leaders. The self-styled ‘mother of parliaments’ now seems more like the petulant child.
We now know that any sort of Brexit will put Wales at a huge economic disadvantage, and we know that any sort of Brexit will lead to a loss of citizens’ rights and freedoms. Yet both the Conservatives and Labour front benches continue to deceive their constituents, while the clock continues to tick down.
This was entirely predictable, of course. The intransigence, arrogance and complete recklessness with which Theresa May has conducted her office would always lead us to chaos. Plaid Cymru foresaw this problem from the outset and argued that triggering Article 50 without a plan would be a disaster.
This mess is a Tory mess. But Labour’s failure to offer any kind of reasonable opposition has led us to this dangerous juncture. A functional Opposition should have been able to put forward an alternative proposal that could have secured majority support in Westminster, based on Customs Union and Single Market membership. Instead, they have twiddled their thumbs, leaving Plaid Cymru as the only opposition in Wales to the biggest crisis in my memory.
While Labour’s position is incoherent at best and deceitful at worst, Plaid Cymru’s position is simple and consistent. Brexit will harm Welsh businesses and workers and will remove our right to live, work and study in the rest of Europe. We cannot support a deal that harms Wales, so we demand a second referendum.
This will require a long extension of Article 50 until 2021, and for the government to hold a binding referendum at the end of that period on either accepting the Withdrawal Agreement or retaining membership of the European Union. A 21-month extension would keep the UK in the EU until the end of the EU’s multi-annual financial framework, give this Government time properly to agree the final relationship with the EU and, crucially, allow time to put this to the people through a referendum.
That is why we tabled an amendment calling for a second referendum on Wednesday calling for just that. We recognise that other parliamentarians may not be ready to force another vote just yet, but time is running out, and all other options dead in the water.
Both the Welsh and Scottish parliaments have already convincingly voted for another vote. While Westminster serves up nothing but chaos, the devolved parliaments have moved beyond tribal party politics to find ways of finding a solution to this toxic turmoil. With confidence in Westminster at an all-time low, I suggest my fellow MPs could learn a thing or two from their more sensible counterparts in Cardiff Bay and Holyrood.
It is clear that the children have by now outgrown the mother in this dysfunctional family of parliaments.
Of course, no-one knows how exactly we will proceed following this week’s votes, but what is certain is that both main parties are incapable of uniting their own parties, never mind solving the greatest political crisis in recent memory. Both parties will continue to mislead their voters, perilously clinging onto unrealisable utopias while reality is staring them in the face.
Now is a time for honesty. The options that now face us are simple. Either we accept a deal that leaves us in a position of weakness to negotiate our future relationship, a catastrophic exit without an agreement, or a recognition that our current agreement is by far the best agreement possible.
One of the causes of the Brexit crisis in the first place was the dishonesty of those in charge. Brexit was built on lies, bullying and bribery, so honesty is the only way of regaining people’s trust in politics.
Three years of lies have justifiably drained the energy from our politics. Giving people a final say on the real options ahead of us may just give people confidence that Westminster is repairable, against all odds.
Hywel Williams is the Plaid Cymru MP for Arfon