Opinion is still divided but UK is floundering in the tangled web of Brexit
Three years ago this week the UK left the EU. Political editor-at-large Martin Shipton looks at how Brexit is going
SALLY Stephenson can legitimately claim to be at the sharp end of Brexit. She owns The Pencil Case – a shop in well-heeled Cowbridge, a dozen miles or so to the west of Cardiff – that sells both stationery items and school uniforms.
Long before Brexit happened, she was worried about the impact it would have not just on her business, but on the economy of Wales and the UK as a whole.
As things turned out – and as she had expected – the bigger blow came when Britain left the European Single Market and Customs Union at the end of 2020.
Leave campaigners had railed for years about EU “red tape” that was supposedly strangling businesses and making people’s lives a misery. For Ms Stephenson, the reverse was the case.
Far from creating unnecessary bureaucracy, being in the single market actually eliminated it, making it much easier to trade with other European countries.
Britain being outside the single market has turned cross-border trading into a nightmare, says Ms Stephenson.
Many of the items sold by her shop were manufactured in EU countries like France, Germany and Italy, and there were no similar British-made products that were as popular with her customers.
The introduction of complicated bureaucratic paperwork to record the goods Ms Stephenson imported caused severe disruption to her business.
Suppliers based in EU countries found it not worth their while to sell her the relatively small quantity of goods she wanted.
Initially she decided to buy more than she needed, storing the surplus items in her home. But that quickly became unsustainable, and she had to take the unpalatable decision of disappointing her customers by ending her link with the suppliers.
Together with other businesses in Britain, she’s now trying another way to overcome the hurdles.
She said: “Some EU suppliers have decided to set up offshoots in the UK to which they send large quantities of goods for onward sale to businesses based here.
“That means that UK businesses don’t have to be involved in the actual importing of products.
“But this has added to the costs and it’s reflected in the price increases we have had to make.
“Since leaving the single market we have had to think about things that previously didn’t exist as a problem. And that’s not going to improve.”
Reflecting on the significance of Brexit to the UK today, Ms Stephenson said: “What frustrates me greatly is how the main parties want to park Brexit as an issue and pretend that it isn’t causing huge damage to the economy.
“They all know there’s a very simple solution, which is to get us back in the single market.
“I think the Labour Party’s position on ruling out a return to the single market is very disappointing.
“They know as much about the problems that have been created as anyone and they should have the honesty to treat the public like adults, instead of patronising them as if they were children.”
Asked about a recent opinion poll which suggested that, with one exception, people living in every constituency in Britain were more likely to think Brexit a bad thing than a good thing, Ms Stephenson said: “Most people now understand that Brexit was a huge mistake. We’ve gone beyond the time when arguments about Brexit were theoretical, with passion and rhetoric on both sides.
“The damage that’s been done is now apparent to people – it’s affecting them directly in their daily lives in terms of what they can afford. The rise in interest rates is the latest blow.
“Labour is afraid of telling Leave voters that they made a mistake, but the Leave campaign was very sophisticated and made promises that resonated with people about the extra money that would be spent on public services. No-one should be blamed for voting Leave.
“It’s time for Labour to be honest and say that going back into the single market is the way to rescue the economy.”
Chris Harries is a supporter of Brexit who in a different way believes that people are being let down by politicians.
A former chairman of Cardiff Central Conservatives, he campaigned for a Leave vote in the run-up to the referendum in 2016 because of his belief in the principle that all laws that apply in Britain should be made in Britain.
Asked how he thought Brexit was going, he echoed former Welsh Secretary Ron Davies’ view of devolution, saying: “Brexit is a process, not an event.
“The main issue for me has been that I don’t think politicians have been prepared to take the opportunities that Brexit offered.
“Too many politicians who argued for Brexit have been very keen to portray the EU as a bogeyman, apportioning the blame for everything to it, but when they’ve had the power to deliver improvements have failed to do so.
“The fundamental point is that the political class doesn’t want to take responsibility for delivering on the promises that were made.
“Instead of engaging in the Punch and Judy show that Prime Minister’s Questions is, MPs should be scrutinising the EU legislation that’s been incorporated into our law and deciding which should stay and which should go. Then it truly would be our law.
“If Labour wins the next general election, I would be far happier if they introduced laws that I am opposed to rather than go along with EU-imposed laws that haven’t been made in Britain.”
Asked whether he accepted that Brexit had caused damage to Britain’s economy, Mr Harries said: “I accept that some businesses have suffered because of the way Brexit was implemented, but I think that’s because neither the UK Government nor the EU adopted a positive attitude towards the withdrawal negoti