‘Brexit could be a great opportunity’

IAM NOT about to get embroiled in the complex and emotive subject of the advantages, or the disadvantages, of remaining or leaving the EU.

But, as a businessman of more than 40 years, might I just give you a simplistic scenario?

Let’s say I had a chain of shops in the UK that sold only one thing – oranges.

My sole supplier for these oranges was Pedro, a grower in Spain.

After the referendum in 2016, it’s obvious that, once we’ve left the EU, I could have problems importing oranges. What should I do?

I could: Ask advice from the CBI; Demand a meeting with my MP; Tell my employees to demonstrate in the streets because all their jobs are at risk; Seek out other likeminded people and try to force another referendum; Employ someone with a megaphone outside Parliament to broadcast, like Fraser in Dad’s Army, that we’re all doomed; Make sure my will is in order and contemplate which high-rise in the city centre I’d be throwing myself off.

Or: I could try and find somewhere else to buy my oranges!

Whether you voted Leave or Remain, it does nobody any good to listen to the doom and gloom forecasts of politicians – the vast majority of whom have never held down a job outside Parliament.

Companies who have made no preparations for the possibility of leaving the EU will, inevitably, fall by the wayside.

This is not the fault of Government, but their own stupidity.

Companies who look at it as a great opportunity to expand their business have a greater chance of success.

Brexit could be the worst thing this country has ever done, or the best, or somewhere in between. Nobody knows.

The only way we will find out for certain is if and when we leave.

Incidentally, don’t you think good old Pedro would be giving his MP an earful for allowing an unelected bureaucrat in Brussels (to stop) him from exporting his oranges?

Remember! Brexit works both ways.