White House Products is a family business in Renfrewshire dealing in hydraulic pumps and spare parts. In 2019, in the run up to the March 29 date when we were supposed to be out of the EU, I wrote a blog post about him. . Here's a flavour of his first Brexit Central article:
"Now, nearly three years later, due to EU intransigence – with, one can only assume, a certain complicity on the UK side – a Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration have been proposed that is not Brexit. It is Remain with a Brexit wrapper, converting our membership to that of a colony that can be asset stripped with impunity by the EU without repercussions. It is a disgrace and epitomises a deep low point in British statecraft. We have got to this point because MPs and the Government have consistently taken the easiest option. They voted for a referendum, thinking it would be won by Remain, and then backed the triggering of Article 50 because they knew they could not look the voters in the eye if they didn’t. In voting through Article 50 and then the EU Withdrawal Act they set a deadline of 29th March to leave with or without a deal with the EU."
Anyway he wanted MPs to reject May's deal and walk away: "There is only one way out and that is to go WTO on 29th March"
Any potential 'small issues' were a result of a "groupthink bubble that has been inflated to such a size that those propagating it have to keep inflating it, because if we do leave on WTO terms and it is as I expect a relatively straightforward change, they will be shown to have been crying wolf."
Well he didn't get his wish (thank God) and we left with both a Withdrawal Agreement and a trade deal. How does he think things have gone since December 31? He tells us in his second article: "3 weeks of the post-Brexit Free Trade Agreement – Teething problems or deeper issues?"
Mr MacMillan wanted no deal at all - just WTO terms instead of the 2000 pages or more or treat obligations painfully hammered out across the negotiating table between sovereign equals - apparently. This is his opening paragraph from his article published on 28 January:
"Well, we have now been working with the post-Brexit Free Trade Agreement for 3 weeks and it has been far from smooth, however are the problems of the teething variety or more deep seated? From our own experience a bit of both I would say."
He recounts a few problems he has had in shipping products into the EU and "due to all this there have been some absolutely horrendous delays of weeks for parcels that should have only taken one day. I am sure these problems will be ironed out as we go on." He says these are lack of preparation and I think he may well be right, but then we get what he says are "deep seated" issues.
These are apparently "not going to heal with time" and include transport, Northern Ireland, retail shipments, fish and seafood. He doesn't include financial services or agriculture or even the air cargo, charter and airline leasing businesses who say this morning they are losing contracts and business to EU rivals.
Does he think any of this would have been better if the government and MPs had taken him at his word in March 2019?
Is any of it his fault? No. He blames the EU, who he says "wants to punish the UK." On fishing he says the EU is punishing their own people by reducing choice and increasing prices in seafood. Mr MacMillan calls for "equivalence in terms of regulation" seeming to forget this is what we voted to give up and he thinks having our own former rules used against us is simply the EU "making things difficult."
On transport, going back to March 2019, his call to leave with no deal would have left UK hauliers with no automatic right to drive in the EU at all. They would have had to apply for a limited number of annual ECMT permits, about 1,600 in total to cover an estimated 10,000 UK trucks. Instead we got a deal which at least allows some cabotage (pick-ups and drop-offs in EU member states), even if its quite limited. This is clearly a big problem for him because he hopes "sense will be made to prevail."
He explains:
"In these times when we are meant to be using energy most efficiently it is complete madness to limit the number of drop-offs and pickups that a GB truck can do in either Northern Ireland or in the EU. It simply makes it unviable to handle mixed loads and will therefore increase costs and see a reduction of service which benefits no one. Having trucks travelling empty either back to the EU or vice versa is stupid, unproductive and a waste of time and resources."
In other words he wants more negotiations on road transport, presumably because the increased costs of transport is hitting his business and Brexit is impacting him personally.
On financial services, already decimated by an exodus of companies, jobs, operations and trading into the EU, he gets back to his let's walk away mantra:
"There are negotiations going on at the moment about equivalence in financial services, it is vital that we do not get tied to the EU rule book on this or anything else. If they won’t play ball on equivalence then so be it, I suspect the Americans, Canadians, Australians, Japanese and others will be only too keen to do a deal in this area. History tells us that those who employ protectionist measures in trade tend to end up the poorer in the long term. Whether it is in financial services or any other type of trade the UK must prioritise a fully Global Vision."
What this "fully global vision" is he doesn't really say and he may have heard Dominic Raab on TV at the weekend saying the EU will "nick a bit of business" from us and it will be ten years before the 'benefits' are felt. I wonder how many UK businesses like White House Products will still be in business in 2031?
