Zombies are very cool: that’s why people keep making films about them and why other people keep going to watch those films. The idea of an enemy that can’t be killed because it’s already dead is a powerful one.
Politics has its share of zombies too, both people and ideas, and one of the most notable cases right now is that of the ‘no-deal’ Brexit.
For those who have been hiding behind the sofa for the past couple of years, this is the notion of the UK leaving the European Union (EU) without any agreement in place to sort out either the ending of membership or the plans for a future relationship.
The rules governing this – the infamous Article 50 – gives two years to any state wanting to leave the EU to try and settle its affairs: the rules and regulations that come from membership reach into many areas of public policy, so it’s not a simple matter to just cut it out.
But the heart of Article 50 isn’t about cutting a deal; it’s about making sure any state is free to leave the EU.
And that’s why ‘no-deal’ keeps coming back.
The central thrust of the rules is that if a state says it wants to leave, then it leaves: the efforts to find a deal are just a side-show to this. If they weren’t – if Article 50 said you could only leave if you had that deal – then it would be a recipe for states to be held inside indefinitely, which is a very bad look.
So the default is that once you’ve said you want to leave, then you get to leave, even if no deal is forthcoming. It protects the interests of the departing state.
It’s precisely this that makes ‘no-deal’ a zombie that cannot be stopped, especially in the various ways that have been tried from time to time.
This week’s indicative votes in the Commons are a great case in point. The option to leave the EU without a deal got one of the worst receptions of any of those considered by MPs, with 400 votes against and only 160 in favour.
That reflects the strong will of the Commons to avoid a no-deal outcome to Brexit, which has been expressed on several occasions. But this doesn’t kill ‘no-deal’ off.
The reason is simply that because ‘no-deal’ is the default outcome of Article 50, it requires only that time passes and the end of the period for negotiation is reached. It needs no votes in favour, nor any action to be taken.
Again, that’s because the departing state – the UK – already took the decision to leave back in March 2017 when it told the EU that it wanted to start Article 50. And remember that Parliament strongly supported the Prime Minister on doing that, so it can’t simply be laid at Theresa May’s feet.
By contrast, for anything other than ‘no-deal’ to happen, someone has to actively do something to make it happen.
The least complicated option is for the UK to revoke Article 50 and stop Brexit, for the simple reason that this doesn’t require anything of the EU, who have no say in the matter.
That’s clearly a very big political step and one that Parliament isn’t minded to pursue right now, so we end up with a range of options that involve both the EU and the UK.
Practically speaking, these boil down to accepting the current Withdrawal Agreement or agreeing an extension to the Article 50 period in which to find some solution.
And if you can’t get both sides to agree to do those things? Then it’s the Return of no-deal.
Dr Simon Usherwood is deputy director of The UK in a Changing Europe and reader in politics at Surrey University