If I was a fisherman or Gibraltarian I would be starting to get worried. I don't think for one second that Brexit casualties will be limited to just these two groups, it is going to negatively impact us all, but I do believe the scale of their betrayal will be the first to become apparent. Fishermen voted enthusiastically for Brexit while Gibraltar was 96% against. But this won't make any difference.
President Macron made it abundantly clear yesterday (HERE) that France will use the deal to force Britain to permit EU fishing boats access to our coastal waters, and he will have the means to do it - twice over. He implied that trade talks might be slowed down, forcing us into the backstop and locking us into a customs union and of course, France, along with other nations will have a veto on the trade deal. It is going to be very hard.
If the government faces a choice of either throwing 11,700 fishermen (HERE) overboard or putting 800,000 car workers on the dole and risking 12% of our exports, I wouldn't want to be a fisherman.
Faisal Islam at Sky News (HERE), reports on this but also includes Gibraltar:
"On Saturday we heard the Spanish gloating, overly so, about their biggest diplomatic win since the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht. Spanish
PM Pedro Sanchez said on Sunday: "Really, regarding the departure of
the United Kingdom, we are all losing, and it's especially the United
Kingdom who is losing, but regarding Gibraltar, Spain wins. And Europe
wins."
Spain is seeking joint control over Gibraltar -as Reuters report (HERE) - and will probably get it.
If the Brexiteers are angry now, they will be absolutely livid by the time we negotiate everything away to secure a far worse trade deal than the one we enjoy now.
One day there will have to be an enquiry about Brexit. Farage, UKIP, those who campaigned for a referendum, Cameron who conceded it and May who negotiated the deal will have to be put in the dock and answer for the folly.
Paradoxically, I think Brexit will eventually cement our place in Europe more solidly than anything we could have imagined. All the pretensions about global trade and Britain's diplomatic power will be revealed for what they are. Brexit will kill British exceptionalism and dreams of empire once and for all. It might take a few years, but the result will be a smaller, slightly chastened and diminished nation working to make Europe a better, more secure place - from the inside.
