During questions after his speech yesterday, the Trade Secretary Liam Fox refuting suggestions from his former permanent secretary Sir Martin Donnelly, about Brexit being like giving up a three course meal now for a possible future packet of crisps said something that should be shocking but surprisingly isn't. He said:
“We are already trying to seek a full and liberal partnership with with the European Union; we are already having discussions about expanding our trade agreements beyond the EU, and we are also taking about rolling over the EU agreements into UK law, so that we get no disruption in terms of market access on exit. So its not a choice of one or the other, and in any case, I think the UK Brexit process is, as we have all discovered, a little more complex than a packet of Walkers.”
Note the "as we have ALL discovered". Err, no some of us KNEW it would be more complex than a packet of crisps. When the experts said it would be long, difficult and complicated they were shouted down. It was Brexiteers like Fox himself who told us it would all be very easy, that trade deals could be done "in ten minutes" and the like. So, although HE may be discovering the Brexit process is more complex than a packet of crisps he shouldn't include remain voters in his thinking.
And if he thinks Brexit has been complex up to now, he ain't seen nothing yet. We are still only in the planning stage, the thinking about it stage, the negotiations have barely started. We then have all the upheaval in UK law, the implementation phase as numerous new agencies are created, money being committed and spent, concrete being poured on all the extra customs facilities, millions of lines of code being written as new high tech solutions are designed for frictionless borders and immigration control, people being recruited for the thousands of extra jobs. Government burdened with dozens of new policies to draft, consult upon, pass into law and bed down.
I wonder if one day he might even admit it is all too complicated? Probably not.
For a bit of humour though, Michael Deacon at The Telegraph writing about Fox (HERE) says:
Labour’s plan to create a new customs union with the EU, declared Liam Fox, was “a complete sell-out”. It was “a betrayal of voters”. It would “endanger our long-term prosperity”, and hand Brussels “considerable control” of our trade policy, leaving us as powerless “rule-takers”. In short, he concluded, Labour’s proposal was “incoherent, inept and clueless”.
Harsh words, perhaps, given that it was a proposal previously made by Dr Fox himself. In 2012, he argued that “the best way forward for Britain” was to forge a new partnership with the EU “involving a customs union”.
