Let Europe Arise!

The last few weeks have seen this government’s Brexit fall apart, and a People’s Vote is now virtually inevitable.

On Bloomberg on Wednesday I argued that the fact that 117 MPs voted against Theresa May in their second referendum on her leadership shows that her deal now stands no chance of getting through parliament, and that when MPs reject Theresa May's Brexit deal we'll have run out of options and another referendum must follow.

Sadly, the best speech I ever made in the House of Lords never happened. My blockbuster was all ready to go on Monday, then the debate was cancelled so Theresa May could buy herself a few more days of humiliation. Luckily, you can read it in the New European this week. I did however manage to speak in the Lords on education this week, raising three issues that urgently need to be tackled: school exclusions, apprenticeships, and how we train our young people for citizen engagement.

In all this chaos we must not however lose sight of the big picture. In a speech at the British Academy on Wednesday I argued that the European Union is the greatest international venture for peace, prosperity and freedom in the history of civilization, and that we need to start speaking about it in the same positive way that Americans extoll the manifest destiny of the United States.

Finally, last week I debated Daniel Hannan and Nicky Morgan in an Intelligence Squared debate hosted by Nick Robinson. I argued the case for a People’s Vote, and won convincingly with 19% of the audience in favour of Theresa May's deal, 27% in favour of renegotiating /walking away with no deal, and 53% in favour of another referendum.