With David Davis, Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, watching from the front row, Journalist William Hutton and Labour Politician Andrew Adonis set out their alternative proposal to the UK leaving the EU on March 29th 2019.
Saving Britain: What Europe Does for Us, and How to Keep the Best of It was published today. They propose to give the vote to 16 and 17-year olds, to devolve and decentralise parliamentary power, and to give the British people a final say over the terms of Brexit.
“The national conversation is just not serious enough,” said Hutton. They described Brexit as an act of national self-harm, and their ‘Great Charter’ proposes radical social, political and economic change within Britain.
“The answer is radical decentralisation of parliament within England itself,” said Adonis. “I think the House of Lords should be abolished, and it should be replaced by an elected second chamber … which should meet in the North of England”. He said that this elected chamber “should be guarantor of a new constitutional government”. “I think the chances of stopping Brexit are more than 50 percent at the moment because the logic of the situation is inescapable.”
Adonis said if Theresa May’s proposals for Brexit, to be presented in October, are rejected, an election or, more likely a referendum, could certainly be on the cards. Hutton said he thinks Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn wants Brexit to be a Tory project, knowing “it’s likely to be a calamity”. “He doesn’t want his fingers on it,” said Hutton. He said Corbyn hoped Labour would be elected to “pick up the pieces” after May fails.
The book’s profits are going towards helping disadvantaged teenagers fund voluntary, professional or educational projects.
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The War on the Young on Wednesday 30 May at 7pm.