As the extent of the damage inflicted on this country by Brexit becomes ever more apparent, those who campaigned for it show not the slightest sign of being grateful to Boris Johnson for getting it done. Some don’t even think the job is finished. Jayne Adye, Director of the Eurosceptic campaign group Get Britain Out writing for the website Brexit Watch, says, “ Brexiteers [i.e. her] will not be fobbed off and treated as a guaranteed vote come the next General Election, should there continue to be a failure to deliver a real Brexit for the entire United Kingdom.”
People like her apparently see no connection between disruption to supply chains threatening food shortages, fishermen whose businesses have been crippled, companies relocating to the EU, industries forced to begin adopting costly new and different standards, etc - and their beloved Brexit.
She comes down hard on pro Brexit MPs for not “raising important issues which are still of great concern as we move towards a truly Global Britain” and sounds a bit worried:
".... many Brexiteer MPs now seemingly more concerned about saving their own skins than keeping up the pressure to make sure we are not in a situation where we could be drawn back into the European Project. If things don’t change, and the Government is not forced to sort out the remaining issues with the EU soon, this is exactly where we are heading – yet no action is being taken so far. "
Saving their own skins? Whatever can she mean? Brexit was about national salvation wasn't it?
Among the issues she mentions is Northern Ireland still being “under the grip of the EU, our regulations are still aligned with Brussels and our waters not under our own control – to name but a few examples of where there is still important work to be done.”
Another disgruntled lady is June Mummery, former Brexit party MEP for East of England and founder of REAF - Renaissance of the East Anglian Fisheries, who reacted angrily to a Daily Express story that Michael Gove (where is he by the way?) as long ago as 2017 was admitting that EU fishermen would still have access to British waters after Brexit.
Michael Gove's startling Brexit admission: 'EU will continue to have access to UK waters' https://t.co/x47j1MVXfT You won't look so smug when the next Election comes around Mr Gove, you have betrayed coastal communities and put our Ocean in grave danger, shame on you.
— June Mummery (@june_mummery) August 24, 2021
What these two have in common, is a touching faith in what they were told by Vote Leave, Nigel Farage and the entire pro-Brexit campaign in 2016. Almost none of what they said was true, as we are all now discovering.
And there is plenty more where that came from. Look out Boris Johnson, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, eh?
I seem to remember writing a blogpost in October 2018 when we were struggling even to define what we wanted, let alone what we might get, suggesting when Brexit was finally achieved, nobody would be happy. I always believed we would have to accept whatever we could get rather than leave without a deal. The economic headwinds we are facing now would have seemed like a gentle breeze compared to the typhoon fury a no deal Brexit would have unleashed and both the British government and the EU knew it.
The asymmetrical withdrawal and trade deals which these ladies now complain of were both a result of the unequal relationship between the parties. It was inevitable.
You could send in Mother Theresa against Mike Tyson in the vain hope that faith alone would do the trick but it won't. Reality will out.
Ms Adye presumably believed all that Lord Frost nonsense about sovereign equals and is still clinging to the notion of global Britain, despite claims that Johnson has less influence in the White House than the Biden’s dog walker. This is over the shameful and chaotic withdrawal from Kabul.
In the latest humiliation, the The Universal Postal Union (UPU), a UN agency in charge of the world's postal policies, has ruled that British postage stamps cannot be used on the Chagos Islands, which we still claim jurisdiction over even though three other UN bodies have already declared it should be handed to Mauritius immediately.
How the mighty are fallen.
Having shot ourselves in the foot by Brexit, the nation is limping badly towards its diminished global role while other countries laugh at the appointment of people like Kate Hoey as trade envoy to Ghana. When I read it I assumed it was fake news or satire, but no it was true, Jeffrey Donaldson gets Cameroon and Ian Botham Australia. It’s hard to suppress a snigger isn’t it?
Having erected significant trade barriers between ourselves and the EU (per capita income $34,000) we are now seeking to improve trade with Ghana which has a per capita income of $2,200. I assume Harvey Nichols won’t be opening a branch in Accra anytime soon then?
The problems are starting to pile up at the door of No 10.
