A year until Brexit but uncertainty continues

Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of the East Kilbride News.

By this time next year the United Kingdom will have left the European Union – well, so long as everything goes ahead as planned.

A transitional deal is likely to be put in place before formal ties are cut around 2020-21 and then it’s full steam ahead into the brave new world. Or is it?

Let’s be honest – the Brexit process up to now has been a shambles. The UK Government’s handling of the biggest constitutional change Britain has embarked on in decades has been poor.

From the outside looking in, those in charge of the process appear to not have any sort of strategy to the point that the Irish border question, one of the key issues, remains unanswered almost two years since 52 per cent of those who voted chose to Leave.

It’s a far cry from what it said in the brochure and how the throwaway remarks and promises made in those feverish weeks leading up to the lifechanging vote will be dredged up by a still-divided electorate.

Uncertainty is paralysing and MPs at Westminster will be finding that out as they put their finger in the air in a bid to find out what life will be like across our post-Brexit land.

Of course, there are calls for the final deal with the EU to be put to the public and there are those who want to run the whole thing again. Views are polarised.

To muddy the waters still further, will there be any impact on Brexit from the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica data breach matter? Time will tell.

Brexit means Brexit, Theresa May would announce at regular intervals.

Yes, Prime Minister – but it’s about time we knew what that means in the most practical terms. Colin Paterson