There was a very pertinent comment on the EU Referendum blog by someone who uses the moniker JDD and is actually an advisor to government. He makes a point which I think is very true. Many ministers and MPs were born after we joined the EU or were too young to know what things were like for trade prior to 1973. It is akin to being unaware of gravity before deciding to jump off a cliff and perhaps this is why Brexiteers seem to have no fear of the cliff edge.
JDD says:
"The problem we have is that our politicians have never known the 'real' world ie outside the EU. Things work smoothly because of the EU processes that have taken decades to put in place, we have nobody now who can educate from experience how it was before, by that I mean in Government not the Civil Service or blogsphere
"The problems that we advisors keep raising have or may have overwhelmed the positions that these politicians have held for life, they will therefore retreat, in most cases already have done, into what they know rather than engage it is a natural human reaction.
"I don't know the solution to this, education doesn't seem to have worked, peer group meetings haven't worked
"There is complacency at the heart that things will just carry on because that is what politicians are used to, they have never had to discuss WTO rules, compliance, Customs Agreements or basically anything to do with trade and trade facilitation except in Committees which by their nature attract the people who have an interest anyway, but again they have never had experience outside of the EU and how trade works without agreements".
JDD is concerned with international trade and Brexit will undoubtedly disrupt our trade and therefore our economy. It will filter through to almost everything we do.
This may not matter if (a) we had plenty of time to read up on things and so begin to understand them (b) we had time to debate among ourselves and reach a consensus about the way to deal with the changes (c) we then had time to prepare the population for the coming changes and (d) we were then given the time to plan for and build the infrastructure needed.
But this lack of understanding and failure even to recognise we have a big problem is running against the clock. As Andrew Rawnsley writes in The Observer (HERE), Mrs May's attempt to "muddle through" Brexit is fast coming to an end and the next few weeks are crucial.
The old adage about the first step in solving a problem is to recognise you've got one. At the moment I am not sure Mrs May even realises we do have problems.
The old adage about the first step in solving a problem is to recognise you've got one. At the moment I am not sure Mrs May even realises we do have problems.
