We have missed the bus

As a country, we have still not woken up to the very real possibility that the UK will crash out of the EU on 29 March and what that may mean for us.

Our coverage of the events unfolding in Westminster, all coming from foreign news agencies, each with its own agenda, has not really explained the issues at stake.

The fact of the matter is that for all the goodwill in the British parliament, the numbers being what they are, there is simply no majority for the choices which are still open and which can still avert a British crash – Norwegian template, or Swiss, or even WTO.

Many have blithely written that this means a second referendum but even this is problematic. It takes time to organize and it will be more divisive than the first, and maybe also so near as to solve nothing.

Even kicking the can down the road, ie postponing Article 50 by a few months or until the end of the year, has its own peculiar problems, such as what happens with the EP election being held in late May.

The Maltese government has been consistently optimistic that, whatever happens, Brexit will not affect us. It has continued to repeat this mantra even up to the last few days, when it should have realized things were not so clear cut any more.

The fact remains that a hard Brexit may not be what the UK wants, but it might still get it regardless of its desires. And that also means we may suffer the impact of a negative Brexit, whether we like it or not.

What is sure is we have not had that many British compa- nies and individuals coming over to escape Brexit.

On the contrary, we are seeing a company pointed out by government ministers as a big catch leaving these shores as well.

In Britain, uproar started when a pro-Brexit company suddenly relocated to the other end of the world.

Malta has not attracted any EU agency relocating out of Britain, contrary to previous hopes – nor any big companies. Most financial services companies have relocated to Paris, Frankfurt or the Netherlands. Objectively, this was to be expected. We could not offer such companies the critical mass they were accustomed to at Canary Wharf. That ambition, or hope, was never real.

Now I do not know if the spiel about Malta getting the benefits from Brexit underlay any construction project so I do not know if such projects need to be revised. This past week alone, the Planning Authority approved a huge project at Smart City (problematic because of lack of adequate road connections) and confirmed an already approved mammoth development on top of the Xemxija ridge, approved when rules on buildings atop ridges had not yet been approved. In all, these two projects alone amount to nearly 1,000 new apartments.

Even without the Brexit fallout, I really cannot see how employees at a fictional eGaming company could be expected to travel all the way from Xghajra or Xemxija to their work (not considering that Xemxija is just round the corner from the entrance to the Malta-Gozo tunnel).

And I am not even mentioning the controversial projects such as the db one or the Corinthia one.

Malta is a construction fairground and the workers employed in this sector, as I can see from my window at work, are very well trained, ingenious and well-coordinated. What I cannot see is how the sector will manage to fill all these apartment blocks being erected.

The construction sector is the real engine of the Maltese economy, especially considering its satellite and ancillary industries like plastering, finishing, furniture and allied skills. It has been given its head by the present government and there is still room for further growth, the motto being ‘Make hay while the sun shines.’

We Maltese worry that so much of our remaining countryside is being gobbled up before our own eyes but the thousands of foreigners being actively attracted to our island by work opportunities do not see this. Balance has been lost.

So if Brexit happens, and a hard Brexit at that, and if Malta does not get the expected fallout, whether a hard or soft Brexit, what is going to happen to the relentlessly optimistic spiel of this government? And besides explaining why the promised bonanza did not materialize, does the government have an alternative plan?