Brexit already having impact
The chaos surrounding the handling of Brexit became very real this morning.
The US drug company Recardio announced it was halting the clinical trial in the UK of a new treatment to help patients recover from a heart attack.
The plan had been to trial the drug at the Golden Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank, in Leeds and in Exeter.
But, as a result of Brexit, Recardio is unsure if its drug would be accepted by the European Medicines Agency for use across the EU market of 500 million people.
As a result the trial has been pulled.
This is a vivid and alarming example of the risks we now face as a result of the chaotic handling of Brexit by the Conservative government.
With over two years having passed since the EU referendum in 2016, there is an appalling lack of clarity and certainty about how we will proceed in the light of the result.
And this week the difficulties in working out a way through Brexit were intensified by infighting within the Conservative government.
It is now crystal clear that the inability of the Conservative government to agree a position and speak with one voice is undermining the interests of all of us.
The prime minister and Boris Johnston are slugging out an internal battle within the Conservative Party while we all start to pay the price.
And of course it could all be very different.
The Scottish Government has advanced proposals to honour the outcome of the Brexit decision but to maintain our membership of the single market and the customs union.
During the referendum many Leave supporters insisted the country was not being asked to leave either the single market or the customs union.
An approach like that would give us the frictionless trade that is sought by everyone and enable us to attract the people we need to work in our key industries and public services.
But all of that is put at risk by the shambolic handling of the whole issue.
If readers think this line of argument is pretty typical of me as a political opponent of the Conservatives, I ask them to think about the view expressed this week by the principal of the University of Glasgow, Sir Anton Muscatelli.
A respected economist, Sir Anton said:“Any politician refusing to try – who won’t even attempt to soften the pain of Brexit by making the case for single market membership which all logic tells them is the right thing to do – is guilty of a serious dereliction of duty.”
It is now evident that we are going to pay a price for Brexit.
The question is how bad will it be and how can we soften the impact.
The Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson told us after the Brexit referendum protecting our membership of the single market was critical.
Like many other commitments she has retreated from that position.
It is time the Conservatives stopped slugging out their civil war and put the interests of the people first. Boris Johnson’s fight with the PM is affecting the whole country, according to John Swinney MSP