If you wanted relatively quick and affordable chicken over the past few days, you’d have been sorely disappointed by the drama of KFC’s change of supplier. Many people probably recognised this feeling, however, as they’ve likely felt it every day over the past year and a half, and for a similar reason – the government changed its supplier of ineptitude from domestic disagreements to Brexit negotiations. Want chicken? Sorry, we’re out. Want leadership? Haven’t had a shipment of that for months.
In fact, a lack of leadership and accountability is one of the biggest issues of the moment, and nowhere is this more evident than with Brexit. Since June 2016, rather than putting forward a vision for what Britain will try to look like post-Brexit, all our politics has put on display is disintegration. Party lines almost don’t matter anymore (best reflected in the alliance between Anna Soubry and Chuka Umunna), but what does matter is one’s approach to Brexit, except even this is failing to offer new unity. Labour and Conservative have not been perfectly replaced by Leave and Remain – we’re saddled with anti-Brexit, soft, hard, clean, transitional periods, second referenda, and plenty of other nightmarish jargon, as ever accompanied by mudslinging and squabbling. It’s a headache.
Even alternative attempts for unity are struggling to make an impact. You may or may not have noticed the birth of a new, profoundly Europhilic political party called Renew, likely inspired by the success of President Macron’s ‘En Marche!’. Whilst I do not want to rob hope from any efforts to lead the country (believe me, we need it), I don’t know if Britain is the most fertile ground for political change. The last ‘new’ party to make an impact was UKIP, and look where they’ve ended up now – and they got their way! In recent times, our leading parties have floundered to come to grips with the latest political developments, such as Brexit and President Trump, and what they’ve produced is disappointing at best, frightening at worst. We’ve gained nothing beneficial – even the heightened political awareness that possibly came around as a result of these events has only served to cause more insults, bickering and division. Just check Twitter.
The government has tried to display some form of a united Brexit vision over recent weeks, what with its series of ‘Road to Brexit’ speeches and its strategy awayday to Chequers conjuring up a ‘coherent’ ambition for leaving the EU. Yet any efforts to make a united appearance were immediately thwarted – their new soundbite of ‘managed divergence’ has already been shot down by Brussels, and we’ve remarkably few details of the precise agreements that have allegedly been made. The most optimistic conceivable scenario is desperate; I struggle to believe the pro-European arm of the Tories headed by Philip Hammond and Amber Rudd are now happy or even pacified. Adding insult is the knowledge that supporters of a hard or even ‘clean’ Brexit will never be pleased with whatever resolution Brexit ends up with because what they want is unachievable. The Britain they want to ‘return to’ never existed.
Of course, people may hold and express whatever perspective they feel on Brexit, regardless of their experience or knowledge of the issue. There are valid arguments for leaving, hence why there needs to be a decent debate on the issue, something that cannot be facilitated by internal bickering about fake figures on buses or what someone said on LBC once. Sadly, this reasonable discussion cannot begin until we have somebody to hold accountable for whatever fruit the Brexit tree (as opposed to the ‘magic money tree’) bears – if Renew want to provide that person, I’d be delighted.
As the face of KFC’s supply troubles was invisible, it seems like the face of Brexit’s delivery debacle will be absent also.