Ian, Nelson, Sammy – any chance of repentance?

We’ve all experienced it – that moment when we have to face up to the fact that we’ve made a truly bad decision, we’ve inflicted damage on ourselves and those we care about, that our declaration that we were the master of our destiny is beginning to look a bit…stupid.

Ultimately, though, it’s the scale of the cock-up we’ve landed ourselves in that matters. That, and the ability to come out with our hands up and admit “Sorry, guys – I screwed up on a massive scale. Is there any way, even at this stage, that we can clean up the cosmic mess?”

Hard though it is to believe, it’s that last one that we find really hard. It’s one thing to have made a massively stupid mistake; it’s another to admit publicly that you are responsible for the mess that everyone is now sufferening. ‘Loss of face’ doesn’t even begin to describe how we feel about ourselves and how we look to others.

Here’s what some unionist Brexiteers had to say during the Brexit referendum campaign:

First Ian Paisley Jr : “This is a really important campaign – it’s  the only real chance to change the direction and the destiny of our nation, therefore we should seize it with both hands.”

Next, the wisdom of Nelson McCausland: “An exit from the EU would very much be to the benefit of NI…We would be free from the dictatorship and the bureaucracy of Europe, we would be free to make our own decisions”.

And finally, Sammy Wilson: “It [Brexit] would benefit people in NI in a lot of ways…Instead of giving £10 billion a year to the EU – which never comes back to NI – we will have that money available for services in NI…They’ve far, far more to lose than we have”.

How do you take your foot out of your mouth and admit you got it completely wrong, that working jointly with other countries is how a nation prospers, and yes, that puts limitations on what you can do but it also opens up market horizons that are truly desirable? Do you think that Ian or Nelson or Sammy  has finally seen what a mad , bad idea Brexit was, and however humiliating, we must now chart a way back into the Common Market if we want to even begin fixing this shattered world we’ve created?  (Sorry, Virginia – you’re quite right – they’ve created, not us. )

If they haven’t seen the folly of their ways, they shouldn’t be let out alone. If they have seen the folly of their ways, maybe grow a pair (six in all) and start working for the rest of us rather than wrecking the rest of us.