Brexit was designed to fail

It was never meant to succeed

Theresa May.

Too big to fail? Please. The 2016 referendum on the United Kingdom's membership in the European Union involved a constitutional question so large it was too big to succeed.

This is the only reason the national vote on Brexit was ever allowed to take place. Like Ted Heath and John Major before him, former British Prime Minister David Cameron found himself faced with the impossible task of placating the Tory Party's right wing. His exceedingly clever answer was to pretend to give them everything they have ever wanted. Ever since Enoch Powell and Michael Foot led the cross-brench opposition to the European Economic Community in the 1970s, it has been argued by opponents of the European experiment that if they only had the chance to vote on the subject again, British people would reject it. Here was a chance for Tory right-wingers like John Redwood and hardline Labour socialists Dennis Skinner to prove that they were right. Much to Cameron's surprise, they were.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Matthew Walther

Matthew Walther is a national correspondent at The Week. His work has also appeared in First Things, The Spectator of London, The Catholic Herald, National Review, and other publications. He is currently writing a biography of the Rev. Montague Summers. He is also a Robert Novak Journalism Fellow.