What is the upside of Brexit to Britain?

It’s been a year since the 2019 General Election. and a clear win for the Conservatives with their promise to Get Brexit Done.

The country was promised an ‘oven ready deal’, the easiest deal in history, lots of

new trade deals, continued frictionless borders and so on.

The reality a year on is sobering. No one foresaw COVID-19 but the end of the Brexit transition was entirely foreseeable. Boris Johnson was offered a year’s extension, which most voters would surely have understood in the circumstances, but he chose not to take it.

And where are we now? With barely two weeks to go until we start our new trading relationship with the EU businesses still have no idea what the post Brexit regime will look like. How on earth can any business prepare for this, except by setting up outside Britain, as many have done? What about individuals who depend on the continued availability of life-saving drugs now threatened by disruption at UK por ts?

Our local Conservative MPs, all of whom have contributed to this mess, now owe us a big apology. But I have one question for all of them. Knowing what we know now, what is the upside of Brexit to Britain? If it’s about sovereignty, then to do what exactly? To sign new trade deals – they don’t appear to be forthcoming and none are on better terms than we have already? To make our own laws – well which laws exactly will we change and how will this benefit us?

As Sir Michael Heseltine has said just this week “We are constantly told of a glorious tomorrow. All that is missing is a shred of evidence or a single fact.”

JULIAN TISI Windsor Liberal Democrats