So, we are now a couple of days on from the EU Referendum in the UK. We have no credible government leadership. Her Majesty's Opposition is falling apart and incapable of offering any leadership or alternative vision. Those who led the campaign to leave the EU are conspicuous by their absence – not unreasonably as – a point made loudly during the campaign – they had no power or authority to do anything once the vote had been taken. Although run like a general election campaign, Leavers had no responsibility to plan, no authority to promise anything (including how much might be committed to the NHS), and no accountability for doing anything once the vote was over.
Therefore, their absence or silence is entirely reasonable.
What is unreasonable, however, is the absence of any government planning for what a Brexit vote might mean. Our political life has become reactively tactical rather than strategically prepared. I guess it just proves that everyone (including most Leavers) assumed that we would remain in the EU, but the protest would have been heard. It is the government's responsibility to plan for all eventualities, but it isn't easy to see who is now driving the bus.
Two points as we live through the chaos. First, the fact of present uncertainty is not the major issue. Life is always uncertain; major national decisions – including general elections – inevitably cause uncertainty. That so many people seem to have believed the claims that everything would now be rosy and that a free UK would lead the world from this small island says something about our internal national fantasies. The chaos will last for some time; some believe it is worth the cost.
Secondly, we always have to shape life in the light of unexpected turns of events. What the Germans, among others, are now telling us is that decisions have consequences and those who make them must take responsibility for those decisions. That is what we call “being grown up”. So, we need to get on with it – whoever the “we” is in the midst of the unforgivable political power vacuum we now inhabit.
And the petition for a second referendum will not work. Would the same plea from the Brexiters have been accepted, had the vote gone the other way by the same margin? The best hope would be for David Cameron to call a general election now and allow the matter to be resolved in the place where power and responsibility (to say nothing about authority and accountability) are directly affected by that vote. I won't hold my breath. In the meantime, of course, the Europeans we have dismissed, derided, abused and mocked in our public discourse will feel no need to be nice to us in what lies ahead.
Now, what do Christians do in all this? Well, as in church this morning in Ilkley, we pray. We make the space for all-comers to hold together in a common space where different views and emotions are strongly held. We can provide a space where the nerve can be held while the political vacuum persists. And – the real power of this – it can be done locally, at every level and in every place. Nothing magic; just space for people to stick with this one for a while.
After all, we are realists. Our foundation narrative reaches back 3,000 years to a people who, led from oppression and captivity in Egypt (in the narrative metaphor used by one or two Brexiters during the campaign), did not drop straight into the land flowing with milk and honey. First they spent forty years in the desert while a generation of romanticisers and fantasists died off; then there was a fair amount of violence before they began to prosper in their land. As Asian theologian Kosuke Koyama urges in his book 'Three Mile and Hour God', the temptation to rush out of the desert is dangerous; we have to have the courage to stay there, to live with it while we go through the process – which we know from history – cannot be rushed.
As the prophets of the Old Testament teach us, when empires die and tactical alliances implode, the thing to do in the desert is to keep alive the songs of 'home' – to hold out a vision of a better way … and a way of living through this present reality with hope, imagination and commitment.
Lamentable though it is, we are where we are. What matters now is how we shape the vision for what we want to become … and devise the strategy for getting there.
June 26, 2016 at 6:37 pm
I don’t think the Leavers have abandoned ship. Far from it. The media is reporting that Johnson et al have been meeting today, so rather than the headless chickenhood of Labour there appears to be some action and plans hatching behind the scenes.
If we get to the middle of the week with no concrete announcements on what the path forward is then I think you’ll have a point, but at the moment the radio silence from the Government / Leave benches is actually a signal that stuff *is* going on, they just don’t want you to know it.
And I bet the Tories are NOT using WhatsApp.
June 26, 2016 at 7:25 pm
My own belief is that referenda are profoundly undemocratic, and all the more dangerous because they have the illusion of democratic process (marking X’s in boxes). People have no say in when referenda are called, and on what issues; they have no say in shaping the question; the question itself reduces reduces immense issues with many nuances and grey areas to a simple yes-no / black-white answer. One cannot vote conditionally, such as “yes, if such and such is satisfied”. I think politicians use referenda when they want to avoid the responsibility being wise leaders. This referndum ought not to have happened, and let us remember Jo Cox, and her husband and children. Without this referendum this family would be intact, and living and loving together.
Wise leaders are looking beyond the horizon and navigating accordingly. This is why we elect governments, to make the big decisions. I am in complete agreement with Bishop Nick, a general election is the only way to resolve the avoidable mess that has been created.
June 26, 2016 at 7:27 pm
Reblogged this on hungarywolf.
June 26, 2016 at 7:33 pm
Reblogged this on A Rector reflects and commented:
Reblog from Bishop Nick Baines
June 26, 2016 at 7:49 pm
Probably the most sensible article that I have read. The decision has been made. We now need to work and pray for the way forward. For wisdom and faith in that decision .
June 26, 2016 at 8:45 pm
It is worth reminding ourselves that “No battle plan survives the first contact with the enemy”. Success arises from good professional officers responding to uncertain events with a mixture of discipline and initiative. We must hope for leaders “steady under fire”.
The signs from Europe are better than the media narrative. Frau Merkel sounds very practical and there is no reason to believe that some of the more spiteful responses to #Brexit will gain traction. This is especially the case amongst those heads of government facing elections in the period of our renegotiations
This is the most important distinction. Politicians accountable to electorates will be sensible. Many will have sympathy.
Here lies the key point.
We are seeing the turbulence of democratic accountability. That is a good thing. The unelected EU Presidents holding to their romantic Bonapartist edifice hold real responsibility for what has happened and yet they alone will not – cannot – be held accountable. Their hauteur and intransigence makes the #Brexit case on sovereignty to perfection.
June 26, 2016 at 9:18 pm
Peter, I am not sure that Boris meeting with his friends to hatch his leadership campaign is quite the same thing as exercising leadership in a crisis.
June 26, 2016 at 9:20 pm
Thanks, Martin, but the military analogy assumes that leaders/generals are actually there and with authority. I think you might be a little optimistic about “the signs from Europe” – my connections tell a different story. We’ll see.
June 26, 2016 at 9:27 pm
Nick,
I don’t think that’s the only meeting going on. I don’t think you do either. đŸ™‚
June 26, 2016 at 10:31 pm
Ta for the post Nick.
My social media feeds are full of:
a) triumphant leavers & depressed remainers;
b) name calling & complaints about that from both sides;
c) hard to verify but appalling egs of disgusting racism on the street;
d) analysis deriding no plan or praising slowness towards clause 50;
e) egs of leave campaign claims now being watered down/disowned;
f) continuing over confident statements about what will/won’t happen.
As you quote … “decisions have consequences and those who make them must take responsibility for those decisions”
In a referendum individuals can moan about the info presented to them …. but can’t really escape the responsibility for the way they voted.
So for leavers they have to take accountability for what will happen to us …
and for remainers they have to hope that leavers best case visions turn true.
June 26, 2016 at 11:36 pm
Reblogged on Wakefield Churches Together Website Blog
June 27, 2016 at 8:17 am
On 9th June you spoke at Ripon Cathedral on “Reimagining Europe”. One phrase struck me immediately and remained with me showing me that the UK needed to leave the EU as our relationship is with world and not just Europe – “who is your neighbour?”
June 27, 2016 at 4:10 pm
[…] Being grown up is about accepting responsibility for our actions and decisions. And being Christian is about abandoning fantasy and facing reality, as Nick Baines reminds us here. […]
June 27, 2016 at 9:03 pm
Interesting that Ian Fraser has such a sure insight to know that if the referendum had not taken place then Jo Cox would still be alive. Is that the only way you can justify your argument Ian? Shame on you
June 28, 2016 at 5:06 pm
What argument? That there ought not to have been a referendum? The murder, which was political in its nature, is not in any way a justification for an argument that the referendum was a mistake. It was not stated, or implied, and it had not, in fact, even crossed my mind. I simply listened to Brendan Cox’s very moving eulogy to his wife. I admire him for his words, from the heart, and for being able to hold it together. The tragic waste of a life that could have achieved so much in service to her nation is deeply sad, and even sadder is the collapsed world of the Cox family. Best thing we can do now is heed Mr Cox’s words on how to respond.
The arguments that the referendum was a mistake are well summarised here:
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2016/06/referendums-cheapen-our-democracy-heres-why
June 28, 2016 at 5:21 pm
The New Statesman article on why referendums are undemocratic was written before the referendum results were known, nobody at that time had a sense of how it was going to go. With the very real prospect of a general election, to settle questions about Britain and the EU, and whether the UK as a political union still has a future, one thing we can all do is listen very carefully to what politicians are saying, pray, reflect, and tell them clearly, consistently, loudly, what we think, feel, of the hopes we have for this United Kingdom. We, all of us, face the biggest existential crisis humanity has ever faced, anthropomorphic climate change. Coordinated actions around the globe are needed to transition off of fossil fuels, and to mitigate the causes and effects of climate change. The fallout from the referendum is a massive distraction.