Brexit fades before it even started

ONE by one, the much-vaunted aims of Brexit are being diluted. The core objectives were surely leaving the single market, scrapping our payments to the EU and controlling immigration.

Within the last few days it has emerged that the Government is considering allowing unskilled immigration where it is necessary for certain industries – building and agriculture – and that it is sufficiently concerned about keeping access to the single market that it is considering keeping up payments to the EU.

And the source of these ideas is not a Remainer, but Brexit Secretary David Davis. It seems that faced with the responsibility of government, even Brexiteers are recognising the importance of these issues for our economy.

Brexit voters should be furious. They were told that Britain did not need the single market. That we would have billions to spend on the NHS if we stopped paying our subs to the EU. And it was said that we could close our borders. All of this, it was claimed, could be done without serious damage to the economy. It was nonsense then. It is nonsense now.

But if we tend towards very soft Brexit, it is possible the economic damage will be mitigated. Perhaps the prophets of doom (myself included) will be proved wrong. But that will only be because it would not be the Brexit that people expected. THE plague of bank branch closures continues apace and will continue to infuriate those who depend upon their local branch. The inconvenience it poses to many people cannot be doubted.

The Mail on Sunday’s Personal Finance section has been relentless in highlighting the damage branch closures cause.

But I must confess that, even if some branches can be saved, I do not believe this overall trend is likely to be reversed – the economic pressures are too great.

Our patterns of shopping have changed, leaving small town and village high streets more deserted and, at the same time, a younger generation is turning more and more to remote banking.

Banks are also, quite rightly, under pressure to make themselves as financially strong as possible. Royal Bank of Scotland failed last week’s stress tests by the Bank of England and must raise an extra £2billion to satisfy regulators that it could weather a global financial crisis.

But accepting that the forces driving the closure of branches are unstoppable does not mean letting banks – or indeed the Government – off the hook. What matters just as much as whether branches stay open, will be what is done when they close to ensure vulnerable citizens and communities are not left high and dry.