Tony Abbott

With inflation rampant, growth stagnant, government disintegrating, and nothing working – so I’d read, all due to Brexit, naturally – it was a wonder to fly into Heathrow, breeze through customs, and smartly get to a smoothly-functioning, clean and new London hotel via train and tube. What had happened to the strike-bound Britain that Poland was about to overtake in GDP per person? Largely the Remoaner fantasy, it seems, so prevalent even among Britons who should know better. Mind you, there were plenty of signs about disruption to come via a Pride march; and there was a vital street near Trafalgar Square partially dug up on the Sunday I arrived, somehow still blocked-off a week later, even though the actual roadwork had all been done.

If Britain is to be a free country, the difficulties of leaving simply have to be faced. Now, I know that many people here in Britain think that these are daunting times, but surely they are also stirring times ,because yet again a great country is grasping for freedom. If I can say one thing above all, it is that if there is any country on earth that should be capable of standing on its own two feet, it's Britain. The mother of parliaments, the world's common language and the industrial revolution, three of the greatest gifts to the modern world. So I just want to make a few fundamental points. The first point I make, is that it was possible to be a remainer before the democratic vote was taken, but it is not possible to be a remainer today if you also want to be a democrat.

Britain, we’re led to be believe, is heading for the worst catastrophe in its history. Officialdom is warning that a no-deal Brexit would mean trucks backed up for miles at Dover, chaos at airports, a special poverty fund to cope with the fallout and — horror! — a shortage of Guinness. So apparently the country that saw off Hitler, the Kaiser, Napoleon and the Spanish Armada is now paralysed with fear at the very thought of leaving the EU. Here in Australia, this story just doesn’t fit with the Britain that we know. A disorderly Brexit would mean, at most, a few months of inconvenience. Perhaps some modest transition costs. But these difficulties would quickly pass.

It’s pretty hard for Britain’s friends, here in Australia, to make sense of the mess that’s being made of Brexit. The referendum result was perhaps the biggest-ever vote of confidence in the United Kingdom, its past and its future. But the British establishment doesn’t seem to share that confidence and instead looks desperate to cut a deal, even if that means staying under the rule of Brussels. Looking at this from abroad, it’s baffling: the country that did the most to bring democracy into the modern world might yet throw away the chance to take charge of its own destiny. Let’s get one thing straight: a negotiation that you’re not prepared to walk away from is not a negotiation — it’s surrender. It’s all give and no get.