LONDON: Former British prime minister Tony Blair told voters on Thursday that time was running out to reverse Brexit, a folly that he said would torpedo Britain’s remaining clout and be regretted for generations to come.
More than a year and a half since the 2016 Brexit vote, the UK remains deeply divided over the planned EU exit that Prime Minister Theresa May says will take place on March 29, 2019.
Both opponents and supporters of Brexit agree that the divorce is Britain’s most significant geopolitical move since World War Two, though they cast vastly different futures for the $2.5 trillion (SR9.37 trillion) UK economy and the world’s biggest trading bloc.
Blair, Labour prime minister from 1997 to 2007, said Britain would be poorer and weaker, and he warned that May had solved none of the problems over Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit status.
“We are making an error the contemporary world cannot understand and the generations of the future will not forgive,” Blair said in an article published on his website on Thursday.
“2018 will be the last chance to secure a say on whether the new relationship proposed with Europe is better than the existing one,” Blair, 64, said.
Leaving the European Union was once far-fetched: just over 15 years ago, British leaders such as Blair were arguing about when to join the euro, and talk of an EU exit was the reserve of skeptics on the fringes of both major parties.
But the turmoil of the euro zone crisis, fears in Britain about immigration and a series of miscalculations by former prime minister David Cameron prompted the UK to vote 52 to 48 percent for Brexit in a June 2016 referendum.
Blair has repeatedly called for reversing Brexit, echoing other critics such as French President Emmanuel Macron and billionaire investor George Soros, who have suggested that Britain could still change its mind.
So far, opinion polls show little sign of a change of heart among voters on Brexit and it is unclear how it could be stopped if both major political parties support the divorce.
Supporters of Brexit accused Blair of undermining both Britain’s negotiations with the EU and the will of the people.
“Blair and his elitist gang are damaging our negotiating strength, thus damaging our national interest by their continuing efforts to undermine democracy,” said Richard Tice, who helped found one of the two Leave campaign groups.
“History will not forgive them,” Tice told Reuters.
Blair is unpopular in Britain for his decision to back then-US President George W. Bush’s 2003 invasion of Iraq and the justification he used for going into a war that cost the deaths of 150,000 Iraqi civilians and 179 British soldiers.
Blair implored his Labour Party, which is now led by veteran leftist Jeremy Corbyn, to join the fight to stop Brexit.
“Make Brexit the Tory Brexit. Make them own it 100 percent,” Blair said. “If Labour continues to go along with Brexit and insists on leaving the Single Market, the handmaiden of Brexit will have been the timidity of Labour.”
Corbyn, who voted against membership of the EU in a 1975 referendum, said he voted in 2016 to remain in the bloc, though opponents said he did not campaign strongly in the referendum.
Eight out of 10 grassroots Labour Party members want a referendum on the terms of Britain’s exit from the EU, according to a survey published on Thursday.
The survey of attitudes within Britain’s main political parties showed 49 percent of Labour members definitely wanted a second referendum on the exit deal and a further 29 percent said they were more in favor of the idea than against it.
The poll of more than 4,000 members of political parties was conducted shortly after last June’s national election as part of a three-year academic project by the Mile End Institute at Queen Mary University of London.
Tony Blair tells UK voters: time is running out to reverse Brexit
Tony Blair tells UK voters: time is running out to reverse Brexit
Homeless Muslims in southern Philippines observe Ramadan as month of trial
- Thousands lost their homes when parts of Bongao in Tawi-Tawi were burnt to ashes
- Many trying to fully observe the fasting month say they are grateful to be alive
Manila: As Annalexis Abdulla Dabbang was looking forward to observing the month of Ramadan with her family, just days before it began they lost everything when an enormous fire tore through whole neighborhoods of their city in the southernmost province of the Philippines.
Bongao is the capital of Tawi-Tawi, an island province, forming part of the country’s Muslim minority heartland in the Bangsamoro region. The city experienced its worst fire in years in early February, when flames swept through the coastal community, leaving more than 5,000 people homeless.
“We were swimming for our lives. We had to swim to escape from the fire ... We swam in darkness, and (even) the sea was already hot because of the fire,” Dabbang, a 27-year-old teacher, told Arab News.
“Everything we owned was gone in just a few hours — our home, our memories, the things we worked hard for, everything turned to ashes.”
Trying to save their 2-year-old daughter and themselves, she and her husband left everything behind — as did hundreds of other families that together with them have since taken shelter at the Mindanao State University gymnasium — one of the evacuation centers.
Unable to secure a tent, Dabbang’s family has been sleeping on the bleachers, sharing a single mat as their bed. When Ramadan arrived a few days after they moved to the makeshift shelter, they welcomed it in a different, more solemn way. There is no family privacy for suhoor, no room or means to welcome guests for iftar.
“Ramadan feels different now. It’s painful but at the same time more real. When we lost our home, we began to understand what sacrifice really means. When you sleep in an evacuation center, you understand hunger, discomfort in a deeper way,” Dabbang said.
“We don’t prepare special dishes. We prepare our hearts.”
While she and thousands of others have lost everything they have ever owned, she has not lost her faith.
“Our dreams may have turned to ashes, but our prayers are still alive,” she said.
“This Ramadan my prayers are more emotional than ever. I pray for strength, not just for myself, but for my family and for every neighbor who also lost their family home. I pray for healing from the trauma of fire. I pray that Allah will replace what we lost with something better. I pray for the chance to rebuild not just our house, but our sense of security.”
Juraij Dayan Hussin, a volunteer helping the Bongao fire victims, observed that many of them were traumatized and the need to cleanse the heart and mind during Ramadan was what kept many of them going, because they are “thankful that even though they lost their property, they are still alive.”
But the religious observance related to the fasting month is not easy in a cramped shelter.
“It’s hard for Muslims to perform their prayers when they do not have their proper attire because they usually have specific clothes for prayer,” he said. “Sanitation in the area is also an issue ... when you fast and when you pray, cleanliness is essential.”
For Abdulkail Jani, who is staying at a basketball court with his brother and more than 70 other families, this Ramadan will be spent apart from their parents, whom they managed to move to relatives.
“The month of Ramadan this year is a month of trial ... there will be a huge change from how we observed Ramadan in the past, but we will adjust to it and try to comfort ourselves and our family. The most important thing is that we can perform the fasting,” he told Arab News.
“Despite our situation now, despite everything, as long as we’re alive, we will observe Ramadan. We’ll try to observe it well, without missing anything.”
