Twenty-One Days until Brexit Talk at the United Reformed Church by Sofia Lammali, Reigate College

On Thursday, with twenty-ones days until the UK's date for leaving the European Union, former Labour MP and writer Dennis MacShane, and Toby Young, a journalist for the Spectator, sat down and talked Brexit at the United Reformed Chruch in Oxted, Surrey.

Dennis MacShane opened slating the deal on the table as well as Theresa May, whom he criticised for never having addressed the nation during such a turbulent time. In short – he would not vote for her Brexit deal.

Toby Young, on the other hand, despite having preferred that David Cameron or Michael Gove oversaw Brexit negotiations instead of our current Prime Minister, said he would vote for the deal – purely to get the process over and done with. He believes that a further two-year extension would be humiliating and come with appalling terms, though confesses that it seems the most likely thing that would happen.

It quickly became clear what the two speakers’ differences were: Dennis was too pessimistic of the UK leaving the EU and Toby was too optimistic.

Toby Young argued that Article 50 had been triggered too quickly and the divide in opinion in the Conservative Party was causing the Brexit delay. Nonetheless, he retained his support for the deal, including the controversial ‘backstop agreement’.

It was on this subject that the first audience questions were raised. On whether a hard border should be feared, Dennis argued that the customs checks would cause tensions, though Toby thought that these fears were exaggerated.

On the question as to why the backstop question had never been raised during the referendum campaign, Dennis pointed out that it had been, but none other than Theresa May.

Other questions concerned what would happen if parliament voted against extending Article 50 (Brexit by default according to Toby) if they had been better ways of negotiating and what would happen to EU students and EU student programmes.

The final and most poignant question of the night concerned how the nation could move on. Judging by the fact that events like these are continuing to be held two years after the Brexit vote it looks like we are a long way from moving on.