Exactly 1,000 days ago today, the British electorate went in unprecedented numbers to the ballot box for the EU referendum.
And when 17.4 million voted Leave, on a 24-year-high turnout of 72 per cent, they gave the Government the biggest democratic mandate in UK history.
With a sense of quiet jubilation, courage, determination and ambition, the people said precisely what they wanted: To cast off the sclerotic bloc’s chains and step out into the world.
Defiantly ignoring the unseemly bombardment of ‘Project Fear’ scare stories from biblical prophets of doom, who warned economic catastrophe would befall Britain, the indomitable public sent a clear message to the politicians: Get us out!
Wednesday marks 1,000 days since the Brexit referendum. Leave voters in Sunderland (pictured) were some of the first people to start celebrating
Despite being visibly stunned by the extraordinary — and unexpected — result, the party leaders agreed to implement the electorate’s will.
Soon, it was said, the country would finally become a truly sovereign nation for the first time in 45 years.
We could halt unpopular free movement, regain control of borders, ditch the loathed Common Agricultural and Fisheries Policies, end the European Court’s jurisdiction over British law and set sail on the high seas of global trade with flourishing economies. And, to boot, stop sending billions of pounds annually to the Brussels spendthrifts.
How long ago it now seems! Today the dream, if not dead, is gasping pitifully on life support.
House of Commons Speaker John Bercow has been a staunch opponent of Brexit, despite the referendum result
The culprit? An out-of-touch, elitist Parliament which has shamefully failed to enact the explicit desire of the electorate.
A motley mixture of incompetent MPs, masochistically intransigent Eurosceptic zealots, treacherous Remainers and a supercilious, sabotaging Speaker have conspired to thwart Brexit.
As her deal floundered, no wonder Theresa May was forced to make the embarrassing admission that Britain was embroiled in a ‘national crisis’.
Let us be crystal clear: this is a humiliation for the United Kingdom. There are no two ways about: the failure to pass a deal in the 1,000 days since June 23, 2016, has made us an international laughing stock.
Theresa May's inability to get Parliament to agree to her deal has left European Commissioner Jean-Claude Juncker aghast
Rubbing salt into the wound, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier has suggested watering down the Prime Minister’s withdrawal agreement to a deal so soft it would make an aghast public wonder why they had bothered to leave in the first place.
For millions of moderate, pragmatic people across the nation, the unsavoury events unfolding in Westminster must seem a monumental act of betrayal.
Out in the real world, where men and women have jobs, incomes and mortgages that rely on a stable government, the tawdry antics can have been nothing short of bewildering. All they wanted was a sensible resolution. They must feel foolish for putting so much faith in politicians!
The British economy continues to yield healthy growth since the Brexit referendum, despite warnings from former Chancellor George Osborne
While the incessant squabbling of MPs has brought Government to a standstill, those self-same hardtoiling folk have been getting on with the task of keeping the country going.
And an excellent job they are doing. Figures yesterday show the jobs miracle continuing apace. Employment is at a record high (32.7 million in work) while unemployment has fallen below four per cent for the first time since 1975 — when the UK was on the brink of becoming an economic basket case.
Meanwhile, real wages saw their biggest increase since the 2008 crash. These are numbers the stagnating eurozone can only dream of.
So it is no wonder heads of companies are tearing their hair out — along with the rest of a frustrated, irritated nation — at Parliament’s abject failure to get a deal over the line.
Parliament's inability to agree to a deal on Brexit has heads of companies tearing their hair out
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