Lesley Riddoch: Brexit won’t get done if Boris wins, an SNP-backed Labour government is safer bet

‘Getting Brexit done’ will simply continue to overshadow everything else, says Lesley Riddoch.

If the Tories get a working majority on Thursday, as predicted, will Boris Johnson actually get Brexit done? Will politics return to something like normal?

Even at a time of fairytales, flying reindeer, Wise Men and Tinkerbell most adults realise the answer to both questions is a resounding no.

Passing Boris Johnson’s Withdrawal Agreement (largely cut-and-pasted from the discredited Theresa May) marks only the end of the beginning – the first stage of a bitter, contested divorce which moves on to the financial settlement and future trade negotiations. These must be concluded more speedily than any similar deal in political history and if the shambolic UK negotiating team fails – by accident or by design – the inhabitants of Britain will face the same “no deal” cliff edge next Christmas that was supposedly seen off in 2019.

If Boris Johnson wins the election, will that provide an opportunity for Nicola Sturgeon, asks Lesley.

This much we know.

Every news bulletin and parliamentary debate will continue to be dominated by Brexit in 2020. Uncertainty will blight investment, job security, life-plans, recruitment and the quality of public services. The unbelievable total of 43,000 nursing vacancies in the English NHS will not diminish but increase as EU workers finally depart for good. There will be no Golden Age for public services – why should there be when the new boss is actually the old boss?

At a deeper level, how can Brexit ever “get done” when leaving is bitterly opposed by millions of voters who will neither abandon their commitment to European identity, nor be accommodated in any way by the new Prime Minister.

Thus, Europe will only become more divisive and totemic as an issue and will continue to distract from the seismic issues of inequality, climate crisis, and democratic modernisation the entire British political system has chosen to ignore.

Most Tory voters and even Brexit supporters know this in their hearts.

They back Boris, not to get Brexit done but because he’s the one who lets them dream a while longer, indulges make-believe, allows disorientated people to take respite from the bleakness and empty affluence his party has created with the vain hope of making Britain great again.

No harsh realities, difficult choices or tough reappraisals from Santa Johnson. You only have to believe in his magical powers, his innate superiority and his bona fides. Or pretend.