This week saw the annual Multimodal logistics conference in Birmingham as reported in The Guardian (HERE). These are professionals who don't deal in wishful thinking so what came out of it is important for those of us interested in reality. John Keefe, the director of public affairs at Getlink, the new name for Eurotunnel Group, warned that delays will be disastrous for fresh produce and we will all have lost from Brexit unless there is frictionless trade as now.
Peter MacSwiney, the chair of Agency Sector Management, a freight specialist, described the proposed customs partnership as “ridiculous” as it would require French, Belgian and Dutch authorities to reciprocate. He said, “Why would they invest in developing new IT systems to match ours when it was the UK that voted for Brexit, not them?” At the very least, even if they were persuaded to do it, we may have to pay for it.
The Telegraph give a splash in their on line edition to this story HERE about Britain not being able to leave the EU until 2023 because the technology "might not be ready". I love the use of the word "might". It is an absolute certainty that it won't be ready. I think Liam Fox may have listened to this with a slight sense of disappointment since he may go down in history as a quiz question. Name the Trade Secretary who served a full five year term and never implemented a single trade deal?
This is all confirmed by a report from the Public Accounts Committee (HERE) raising concerns that IT systems will not be ready, certainly in time for March 2019, in the event of a no deal Brexit. Civil servants will have to carry out what is being called "manual workarounds" whatever they are - paperwork alternatives I assume. In which case long delays are unavoidable.
When the two UK customs options were first proposed last August, they were ridiculed by EU diplomats as unworkable but in the intervening months I've lost count of the number of Brexiteers who defended them and suggested Brussels was simply being awkward and intransigent. We were proposing perfectly good solutions they claimed and the EU weren't accepting them in the spirit of cooperation.
Now Jacob Rees-Mogg has described one of the options as cretinous (HERE) and a Telegraph reader agrees saying, "We want British business to be able to operate efficiently and productively, with the minimum of regulation." (HERE). He doesn't seem to realise it's the customs union and the single market which allows British business to operate efficiently and productively!
Elsewhere it was reported (HERE) the Chancellor has warned the Brexit War Cabinet that time was pressing, according to the Daily Mail. “'If we don’t keep moving forward it will be a car crash,’ he said – only for one pro-Brexit minister to point out, to laughter, that ‘the best way of avoiding a car crash is to stop.’”
Perhaps when the laughter stopped, whoever it was might have recalled that when Article 50 was triggered last year we effectively disconnected the brakes. We can't stop.
Brexit is a complete shambles and one that is only going to get worse. I don't think this is now a controversial statement, at least among anybody following what's happening.
But what do Brexiteers think? They cannot be oblivious to the potential calamity but seem able to ignore it or somehow rationalise the problems as short term issues gotten up by the remainer press and Brussels. Some are seemingly intelligent men and I cannot imagine they believe what they're saying in public. They must be getting nervous in private. We are long past the point where Brexit was supposed to be good for us, the talk now is of avoiding disaster but as that disaster approaches the next stage will be managing expectations. Look out for advice on stockpiling food, avoiding travel and so on.
There must be growing public disquiet as this kind of thing begins to get more mainstream media coverage, although it doesn't get a lot of airing on the BBC, and the realisation sinks in of what Brexit actually means. Leave voters are only marginally changing their minds it's true but this is because they are deaf and blind to the huge problems ahead, especially if they read The Daily Mail, The Sun or The Express. Apathy and the terrible triumvirate of the Brexit press are surely more responsible than anything else for the ignorance.
On the surface, at the moment this looks bad for we remainers. It's true things could be better but I take comfort from the facts. You can only shield the truth from the public for so long. Sooner or later, even if it takes empty shelves in the supermarkets, the problems of Brexit will be laid bare. The triumvirate is going to have to eat a lot of humble pie. The longer they wait the bigger the portion they will be forced to eat. Our day will come.
There must be growing public disquiet as this kind of thing begins to get more mainstream media coverage, although it doesn't get a lot of airing on the BBC, and the realisation sinks in of what Brexit actually means. Leave voters are only marginally changing their minds it's true but this is because they are deaf and blind to the huge problems ahead, especially if they read The Daily Mail, The Sun or The Express. Apathy and the terrible triumvirate of the Brexit press are surely more responsible than anything else for the ignorance.
On the surface, at the moment this looks bad for we remainers. It's true things could be better but I take comfort from the facts. You can only shield the truth from the public for so long. Sooner or later, even if it takes empty shelves in the supermarkets, the problems of Brexit will be laid bare. The triumvirate is going to have to eat a lot of humble pie. The longer they wait the bigger the portion they will be forced to eat. Our day will come.
