Brexit has created a political crisis that could prompt an economic one. A way to get behind the headlines to the ethical issues is to see it as a crisis of trust
Britain is currently in the midst of a political crisis. It’s the biggest such crisis I can remember – different in kind from political conflicts and economic crises we’ve had over the years. Watching it pan out, watching events spin out of control, and seeing the UK move steadily towards a uncertain and potentially disastrous outcome, it strikes me that in many ways this is a crisis of trust: the commodity a democracy requires to function. Democracy assumes conflict and disagreement, so this doesn’t mean blind trust; but it does mean a willingness to listen and debate, allow at least the possibility that the other party is acting in good faith and that a solution may be available that meets the interests of both parties.
Working out from the headlines:
# The current impasse over the government’s Brexit deal concerns the Backstop, which the EU inserted on Ireland’s insistence, to cover what will happen if there is no trade deal by the end of the implementation phase. It guards against trade barriers within the island of Ireland on the assumption that the parties can’t be trusted not to apply them.
# In turn, this is prompted by the mistrust between the two communities in Northern Ireland, especially on the part of a Unionist community in retreat.
# Brexiteer opponents mistrust the EU’s intentions in insisting on a backstop, fearing it is a trap. They are led by Dominic Raab, who carries weight because he saw the EU’s approach to negotiations as Brexit Secretary.
# The EU don’t trust the UK because (among other reasons) they know free-marketers want to use Brexit to gain a competitive advantage over the EU. They also don’t trust the citizens of their member states not to follow the example of a successful Brexit.
# The Labour Party oppose the deal because (notwithstanding their overt arguments) they fundamentally mistrust the government and want to replace it. For some this is underpinned by an ideological stance which holds that one should not in any way help the upholders of capitalism. As a result they have no interest in working with the government to manage the crisis.
# The SNP have no trust that the government will attend to the interests of Scotland, which in any case they believe would be better off as an independent country.
# The LibDems don’t mistrust the other parties in the same way, but nobody trusts them because of their record in government up to 2015.
# The DUP mistrust everyone.
# The 2016 referendum result was widely interpreted as a protest against a mistrusted political class and economic system. In many minds, we heard, membership of the EU stands for a form of government that in fact takes in all politicians.
# The 2008 financial crisis clearly influenced that, along with globalisation, mass immigration etc.
# Any financial crisis is a failure of trust (or confidence) in financial institutions because borrowing, lending, investing and trading all require trust that one’s financial interests will be respected. But these trusted institutions were in fact acting irresponsibly.
# Before 2008 regulators trusted the markets to consider longterm interests rather than short-term profit. In other words, for reasons of ideology and hubris, they trusted too much.
That’s just one causal thread, and many more factors are involved, including big historical changes like globalisation, changing media, declining institutions, shifting geopolitics, economic disparities, and resource constraint. But the result is that trust is eroded and I think our current crisis is a sign that democracy is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain. Other signs abound around the world. As I say, the alternative to mistrust isn’t blind faith, but we should see that pervasive mistrust undermines just about every human institution, especially democratic ones. In general, when trust and the capacity to cooperate are lost what replaces them is the naked exercise of power, as we see in authoritarian regimes around the world.
Regarding this as, fundamentally, a crisis of trust should affect our view of the headlines. Perhaps we shouldn’t be asking, how I can achieve my favoured outcome (e.g. ‘Remain’), but how we can rebuild trust in our dangerously fractured nations.
