Tory attitude to Brexit is a disgrace

What is going to happen next with Brexit?

That is a question those of us in politics are hearing all the time just now – and no wonder, because the tortuous comings and goings at Westminster are leaving everyone baffled.

What is very clear is that there is no scenario in which Brexit is good for anyone – other, of course, than the money men who will doubtless make a pile betting on the economic failure that will cause ordinary people huge difficulties.

Indeed, all the indications are that this area faces the prospect of being one of the worst hit by Brexit.

A research document published earlier this month, ‘The Local Level Brexit Vulnerabilities in Scotland Report’found that predominantly rural areas have significant populations at risk from the fallout of leaving the EU – with or without a trade deal.

The Perth and Kinross Council area was listed as the seventh most vulnerable area in Scotland with 33 per cent - that’s one in three locals deemed to be in vulnerable communities.

The analysis considered local community’s access to services, working age population, income deprivation, workers in Brexit-sensitive industries, EU worker migration and how many EU payments are received.

A report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), also published this month, found that the UK is already £60 billion worse off as a result of Brexit before we have even left the EU - with the UK economy 2.5-three per cent smaller than it otherwise would have been.

We always knew that Brexit would be damaging to Scotland but this new analysis really hits home the devastating impact that Brexit will have on my constituents in Perthshire South and Kinross-shire.

Not, of course, that facts, or the views of experts matter to the lunatics who have taken over the UK asylum. Look, for example, at this exchange from the House of Commons between the SNP MP Kirsty Blackman and the leader of the house Jacob Rees-Mogg.

Ms Blackman raised a perfectly sensible, intelligent and important question, asking if the UK Government had yet carried out an economic impact assessment on the deal and, if it had, whether that assessment would be published in time for the second reading debate on the Withdrawal Bill.

Mr Rees-Mogg responded with a throwaway line, ‘joking’that“if you ask an economist anything, you get the answer you want”.

That dismissive, careless attitude tells us everything we need to know about this Tory government and the path down which they want to drag us.

The SNP government will continue to do what it can to mitigate and minimise the impact on our most vulnerable communities, but this study lays bare the recklessness of the Tories in their blind determination to pursue Brexit at any cost.

Scotland never voted for Brexit and certainly not for the reckless extreme version now pursued by the UK government.