You cannot “draw the poison from Brexit” without extracting deception from the human heart
by Archbishop Cranmer:
‘Where there is no vision, the people perish’, the Archbishop of Canterbury writes in the Mail on Sunday, reminding is that the Authorised Version still resonates down the ages, and that God’s revelation is the source of public morality and eternal salvation. A whole acrimonious year on from Independence Day UK, when the majority decided that the UK should leave the EU, Justin Welby’s grand vision for restoring national unity – to reconcile the regions, social groups, faiths and generations – is to draw the poison from Brexit divisions by establishing a cross-party commission:
Brexit continues to divide us. Exit negotiations will be fierce and the differences on what we should aim for, and how, are very deep. They divide our politicians and our society. With a hung Parliament, there is an understandable temptation for every difference to become a vote of confidence, a seeking of momentary advantage ahead of the next election.
…we need the politicians to find a way of neutralising the temptation to take minor advantage domestically from these great events.
We must develop a forum or commission or some political tool which can hold the ring for the differences to be fought out, so that a commonly agreed negotiating aim is achieved. Obviously it would be under the authority of Parliament, especially the Commons. It would need to be cross-party and chaired by a senior politician, on Privy Council terms. It could not bind Parliament, but well-structured it could draw much of the poison from the debate.
Justin Welby’s motives are honourable, as ever: the Brexit debate has become poisonous to society, so politicians must focus on national reconciliation and the “common good arrived at through good debate and disagreement”. His exhortation is unarguable: “Let us do everything we can to ensure the right values are at their heart.” But there is in his proposal for a cross-party commission a certain political naivety, if not a simplistic Christian idealism, which underestimates the potential apocalypse or miscalculates the future imperative.
Watch: Jacob Rees-Mogg disagrees with the Archbishop of Canterbury
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