A friend was having a quiet drink in a pub when he was approached by a couple of guys who tried to persuade him to buy a car. They kept pointing out all the problems with his old car, and it was true, there were quite a few scratches and it needed a bit of work doing to it, although it was a very reliable car and kept my friend and his family safe on the roads. But these two salesmen kept telling him how much better the new car would be and how much money he would save, although they couldn’t give him many details about the car itself. They were witty and persuasive, and eventually my friend said ok, I’ll buy your car. Great, they said, you can pay for it when its ready. It will take a couple of years to sort out, and we don’t actually know what it will look like or how much it will cost, and it probably won’t save you any money – in fact it will probably cost quite a bit more than your old car, but hey, you’ve agreed to buy it so you can’t back out now. Hold on, said my friend, I said I wanted the car you described, not just any old banger – I’ll wait and see it before I finally make up my mind. Too late, said the salesmen, we will deliver your new car in two years and take away your old one, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
And that’s pretty much what Theresa May, David Davies and the rest of the Conservative Party are telling us about Brexit. We don’t know what agreement she will negotiate with the EU, but she wants us to accept it anyway – a blank cheque with no discussion, no vote, no democracy. If elected, Green MPs will demand that the British people be given a chance to vote in a referendum once they have seen the Brexit deal negotiated with the EU. That referendum will give the public a clear choice: accept the deal, or remain in the EU and work with our European neighbours to make it better. So if you want a proper say in our future, free of spin and the facts laid out in front of us, then vote Green.