Prime Minister Theresa May has extended the date the UK will leave the European Union yet again, this time to October 31. The eight-and-a-half month delay inspired some cheeky Brits to give the interminable process anthropomorphic qualities: the “Halloween Brexit” monster.
The endless stalling is “slowly destroying the opportunity of liberty which leaving the EU offers,” writes Rev. Richard Turnbull in a new essay for Acton’s Religion & Liberty Transatlantic.
Rev. Turnbull, who is the director of the Centre for Enterprise, Markets, and Ethics (CEME) based in Oxford, first forecasts the likely political outcome:
The prime minister will attempt to force through her Brexit deal against the wishes of the majority of her own party and potentially with the support of the opposition socialist parties. She has promised to step down after this deal is complete, so May might indeed be the end of May.
The deal which the Prime Minister will cobble together will be some version of her own withdrawal agreement (which Parliament has already voted down three times) and a customs union favoured by the opposition parties. The outcome will be messy and contain little to encourage proponents of economic liberty.
After he assesses the latest Brexit bungle, Rev. Turnbull lays out a vision of a politically and economically free society that charts its own course, embraces the growth and dynamism of trade, and upholds its own religiously informed culture. The result prospers, not just citizens of the UK, but all who follow their example.
You can read his full essay here.
(Photo credit: Christoph Scholz. CC BY-SA 2.0.)
