This Is The End

It’s New Year’s Eve, and the Brexit transition period ends at 11pm tonight.

Ever since the UK joined what was then called the European Economic Community back in 1973, when I had just entered my teenage years, Europe has benefited greatly from the British economic ideology of eliminating bureaucratic barriers to trade.

The single market was to a large extent created by the British.

“Just think for a moment what a prospect that is,” Margaret Thatcher said in 1988. “A single market without barriers — visible or invisible — giving you direct and unhindered access to the purchasing power of over 300 million of the world’s wealthiest and most prosperous people. Bigger than Japan. Bigger than the United States. On your doorstep. And with the Channel Tunnel to give you direct access to it.”

It’s the single biggest reason we’re better off as a nation now than we were in the seventies – but, we’ve left now, and tonight the anaesthetic afforded by the transition period finally wears off.

Yes, the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (to give the “deal” its official title) gives us goods-only access to the single market without tariffs or quotas, but hardly without barriers to trade. The Rules of Origin regulations mean we have to prove anything we’re selling into the EU originated here, and vice versa – necessitating bureaucracy in the form of extra paperwork, customs checks, delays, and increased costs.

There’s no provision for services, despite their making up almost half of UK exports to the EU – last year, that is; next year’s figures won’t be anywhere near that high, for obvious reasons.

We’re still obliged to follow existing regulations on workers rights, environment etc since not doing so could give us an unfair business advantage, and while we can now do what we (or rather, our elected politicians and their big-business donors) like, we’ll be penalised by losing benefits including tariff free access.

Still, the odds are, the vast majority voting to leave won’t care about any of this. I won’t say they are stupid, although the published demographic for the referendum did show that the less education someone had received, the more likely they were to have voted leave.

Over time, as governments change, and older Eurosceptic voters give way to younger and better educated voters, we will undoubtedly drift back towards the EU.

Increased alignment will be needed to claw back any of the billions lost on services – albeit with less influence than we had – but that will be the price of progress.

As we see out one crappy year and more than likely welcome in another, I’m hopeful for the UK’s future in the longer term, although the short term may be bumpy for some.

A Pandemic Christmas

I hope you’ve all had a great Christmas Day despite the current circumstances.

I’ve spent a lovely Christmas Day at home with my wife and daughters, and have been remembering Christmases gone by with happy and fond memories of family members and friends no longer with us.

This year has taken its toll on all of us, but I’m thankful that our 2020 hasn’t been anywhere near as bad as it could have been. I’m also well aware that the global pandemic isn’t over yet, and with the new variant wreaking havoc it’ll continue to get a lot worse before it gets better.

Hopefully vaccines will help restore normality over the coming year, but until then we all need to wash our hands, follow the rules, wear masks when we’re supposed to, stay socially distanced, and call out the selfish and ignorant among us who think it’s all a joke or one big conspiracy – it really isn’t either.

It’s all helped to put Brexit into perspective, though. I can’t believe how excited and relieved I feel that there’s a trade deal, even if it is so much worse than we already had – just like 2020, it’s not as bad as it could have been. I’m sure our children’s generation will make up their own minds on it all, as the future belongs to them.

Far from mellowing, I feel more than ever that the important things in life are worth fighting for.

“Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. The grave will supply plenty of time for silence.” – Christopher Hitchens

Happy Brexit Day?

So, after all that, we leave the EU at 11pm tonight.

Happy Brexit Day one and all!

Doesn’t really sound right, does it? – to me it feels a bit like saying “happy operation”, or maybe “happy amputation”.

Still, Brexit we must, and Brexit we will. Along with many others, I don’t particularly like it, and didn’t choose it – but, we live in a Representative Democracy, which means we avoid killing each other to get our own way – instead, we periodically elect representatives who best reflect the overall public will at that point in time.

To my mind it would have been better if the Referendum had been legally, rather than politically, binding. The day after, we would all have known we were coming out. There still would have been the wrangling about how, but that’s not the point. Instead it was left to elected politicians to interpret the result as they wished. This in itself then caused years of paralysis, fuelled by anger, protest and complaints from all sides – not least from yours truly.

A legally binding referendum would have kept the debating and lobbying restricted to how, not whether, we left – and the result could have been significantly different. My personal view has always been that we were right to enter the Common Market – now the single biggest market and trading bloc on Earth – and we would have been better maintaining closer integration.

Still, what’s done is done. Those wanting this deserve a celebration, although I hope there isn’t too much taunting of the vanquished.

I still maintain that many of the victors don’t actually understand the reality of what they voted for, and my conversations with several of them over the last few years have confirmed that.

Do I feel animosity towards Leave voters? – no, not if they voted for the right reasons – although I haven’t met many of the latter. After the referendum I commented that Leave voters in my experience invariably were on a spectrum from simply misled, through gullible, ignorant, stupid, xenophobic, and ending up with racist. That’s not to say that everyone ticked every box – I’ve not met many who didn’t tick at least one of them, although I live in hope.

To those EU citizens inconvenienced – or worse – by this, I offer my sympathy and ongoing support. I’m sorry I couldn’t manage to stop it.

To those Brits abroad who didn’t vote for this – the same also applies, while to those who did, I will be quietly laughing at you for years to come.

To my children – who didn’t get to vote, yet who are way more knowledgeable on the subject than most who did – I’m immensely proud that you represent the future of our nation.

And to the Leave voters who truly believe Brexit will be good for us economically – I do sincerely hope you are proved right, although I won’t hold my breath.

As a patriotic (NOT nationalistic) Brit, I’ll do all I can to make this work – and I call on everyone else who didn’t choose this, to do the same. Our nation holds its place in the world because of an awful lot of bright, dedicated people, many of whom don’t want it – and I hope they stick with us.

As well as unleashing the darker side of the human psyche – seemingly giving thugs and racists a license to express their vile views without fear of retribution – Brexit has also achieved something positive: a movement of millions of people prepared to speak out where there is prejudice, intolerance and injustice, shining a light in the darkness.

Today, tomorrow, and always, I’ll carry on calling out racism, xenophobia, ignorance and stupidity. Sorry if anyone thought that might change!