Political Incline – Unsustainable and Unmanageable

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Have you noticed that when playing on a see saw in a public park, whether you’re beyond the stated age limit or not, the see-saw works best when both ends are equally matched? One side vastly outweighing the other and as far as the see-saw is concerned, it’s game over. Best try something else.

Well politics today in this ‘postref’ world is totally the opposite. With both ends of this now binary world pretty evenly matched, our politics see-saw now is totally out of control. With such an even split of opinion it wasn’t difficult to foresee this situation arising.

These words I wrote just a few days after the 2016 Referendum;
‘Mr. Cameron talked about steadying the ship which is laudable if the ship is still afloat. Our ship I'm afraid looks to be broken into two huge separate and irreconcilable pieces at the bottom of a very deep ocean. The survivors are in the lifeboats striking out for somewhere, anywhere, which looks to be a place of safety.
The fault lines in our craft were well known. A 67/33 vote to go into the EEC in 1975 (with a 64.6% turnout) was thought to be a politically viable option to take forward. As we know, in the intervening 41 years, Europe has been a flashpoint for conflict for all parties in power.
With a 52/48 (72% turnout) result no politician with his or her salt will want to take the country forward on this basis. It's simply unsustainable and unmanageable.
We thus, though the fault of precisely no one have created a job that no one in Britain wants. The post of Prime Minister.’

I take no comfort from being completely, or even slightly right on this matter of governability. I wished I had been proved wrong by a strong and stable leader, a leader who knew what Brexit meant, a leader who had a plan A, B or even a plan C. I have to tell you no such leader has emerged, and that consequently this country is at war with itself. 
Referenda show us what opinion is. Effectively they drain the ocean so the true extent of the iceberg can be seen, and this particular one is not a pretty sight. It makes plain how difficult the task of governing the country is going to be. Perhaps it’s best to let our politicians work blind and oblivious to the state of public opinion in the country their wonders to perform. Knowing how well they’re doing should best be dealt with in a general election, rather than a specific referendum.

However, this particular genie is out of the bottle now and the true slope of the political incline is evident for all to see, just ask Pythagoras…
Brexit Sonnet No. 38 – ‘Political Incline’
Our ingrained political geometry has not changed,
It’s always been three sides with rightish angle.
Political incline set by side size range,
Now at max, as even sides do wrangle.
Our sides, no number three and four we find,
Or even count at twelve opposing five.
If t’were, politics could be less inclined
To slip down slope, in Brexit’s mud to dive.
It matters not how acute our shape is moulded,
It matters not if sides don’t square together.
It matters only that angles, when unfolded,
Are enough for U-Turn in Brexit’s hated tether.
So flourish your protractor, be obtuse,
And put Pythagoras to really useful use.
©Keith Murphy