‘It’s essential to keep fighting for the things you believe in’
THE catastrophe that is Brexit is already striking. For higher education, despite the divorce papers not being signed, the effects of Britain’s decision to leave the EU are being felt now.
At the University of South Wales, a university founded in communities without the long traditions of higher education that exist elsewhere in Wales, the impact of leaving the EU is being felt – and it means job losses.
On top of the already stiff competition for students in the sector, the challenges in higher education are being compounded by the prospect of Brexit switching off the supply of European students.
For the University of South Wales, adjusting to this difficult environment means cutting costs – nearly 140 redundancies were announced yesterday.
The important contributions universities make to local economies cannot be underestimated.
The University of South Wales has grown into the institution it is today, with a student population of more than 25,000, from the School of Mines in Treforest and the Mechanics Institute in Newport.
Universities are drivers of growth, providers of employment and symbols to communities that education matters.
That a university in Wales is already pinning financial problems on Brexit is a worry for us all.
So we are a couple of days into our negotiations to leave the European Union and the problems mount.
The Guardian reports that 40% of computer games companies – a burgeoning sector of British industry – are considering relocating from the UK in the wake of Brexit.
In the City, large firms – the famous Lloyds of London among them – are making similar sounds as the cracks begin to appear in London’s title of centre for global finance.
The NHS last year saw massive numbers of EU citizens – vital in keeping the creaking and underfunded organisation going – quit.
NHS Digital said 17,197 EU staff, including nurses and doctors, left their posts in 2016, compared with 13,321 in 2015 and 11,222 for 11 months in 2014.
The economic and social impacts of Brexit are only just beginning to be felt. There are massive and unknowable challenges ahead for a government, which has proved clueless and inept in its leadership in the aftermath of last year’s referendum – and clumsy in its early negotiations to leave the EU with our continental friends thus far.
But there are 700-odd days until the process to leave is complete.
The fight isn’t over – no matter what anyone else says.
Because whatever anyone says on either side of the argument, the Brexit isn’t over until it’s over.
In the next couple of years much could happen... Labour could find itself with an effective leader with an alternative, positive message on Europe to win the hearts and minds in its core heartlands; the Government might realise that the deal it’s been forced into will cause irrevocable damage to the country and realise it has to put a second referendum on the issue before the country.
There are many more possibilities beside. Including, of course, the one that puts negotiations on track and Britain’s exit from the EU a seamless affair.
While the alternatives exist – and even after it’s all over leaving us in whatever mess we’re left in – there’s every reason to keep fighting the economic and social case for integration and partnership with Europe.
If you don’t keep championing the things you believe in – whether the argument’s been won or lost – then what’s the point in taking part in democracy?