Deal affected UK economy and integrity

WHEN Boris Johnson launched his election campaign in November 2019, he said he had an ‘oven-ready’ deal by which the UK could ‘leave the EU in just a few weeks.’ This was the key to his electoral campaign, which was reduced to a three-word slogan: Get Brexit Done.

So good was this deal that, once he was elected, Johnson illegally prorogued parliament to try and get his deal through without parliamentary scrutiny.

In the end, MPs had just two days immediately before Christmas in order to scrutinise the bill. One minister admitted that she had not read the bill when she voted for it: she had been busy preparing for Christmas. (She was probably not alone.)

No sooner had Johnson signed the agreement with the EU than he began to campaign against the Northern Ireland Protocol, and in particular the border in the Irish Sea, which had been a key part to the deal.

The government has now passed the necessary legislation to allow them to break this international agreement which they had freely entered into. In September 2020, the Northern Ireland Secretary, Brandon Lewis, justified this by claiming that it was fine to break international law as long as it was

‘in a limited and specific way.’ It is not recommended to try this defence in other legal contexts.

We are now getting a sense of how good Johnson’s hard-Brexit deal was. One immediate result of this deal was a 10 percent devaluation of the pound (against the average of other leading currencies) to its lowest level since 1985.

The resulting increase in the price of imports has helped fuel inflation.

On the other hand, the disruption to trade and the increased red-tape for UK exporters (but not for importers into Britain – the government has not yet implemented this part of the agreement) led to a 40 percent drop in exports to the EU in the first month after Brexit. Exports to our nearest neighbour and most important trading partner have not significantly picked up since then.

The UK economy suffered the sharpest fall in the G7 in 2020, and the government’s own independent economic forecast is that Brexit will still mean a four percent hit to the economy after 15 years.

Johnson’s deal has not only had a damaging effect on the economy, but also on the integrity of the UK.

In Northern Ireland, the DUP reacted to the betrayal of a border in the Irish Sea by bringing down the Northern Ireland Assembly so that Northern Ireland has been without devolved government since February 2022.

In Scotland, which voted to remain in the EU, there is increased pressure for a referendum on independence from England. Ironically, the government uses the same arguments against Scotland leaving the union as were used by remain against leaving the EU.

The deal has also impacted on our scientific community. It wasn’t greed, as Johnson claimed, that brought us the Astra-Zeneca vaccine, but a team of scientists at Oxford University.

Because Johnson’s deal did not include provisions to stay in the EU Horizon scheme, this year 19 scientists who had won prestigious EU research grants moved to EU universities in order to carry on with their research, and 115 scientists had to forfeit their EU grants since the UK now has ‘third country’ status.

It is not just the loss of significant money for research, but also the loss of the opportunity to collaborate in cutting edge EU science with EU scientists. Meanwhile, the team that created the first anti-covid vaccine are searching for funds in order to stay together.

We are also, of course, seeing how the return of a border between England and France (and the need for passport checks) is playing out in Dover and Folkestone.

R Hampson

By email

Heatwave a warning to change our water ways

THE current period of hot, dry weather in the UK should serve as a warning sign that our use of water needs wholescale change.

July 2022 was the UK’s driest since 1935, with England experiencing just 35 percent of its average rainfall for the month.

In East Anglia, Southeast, and Southern England, it was the driest July on record[i]. The Climate Crisis means we can expect these drier, hotter summers to become the norm.

The hosepipe ban is a necessary short-term measure in many areas of the South and East of England under extreme water stress.

However, we need to start thinking much more strategically about how we are going to cope better in the future with long term measures.

Historically, water companies have relied on being able to withdraw more water from rivers and aquifers in times of drought, but our rivers will die if that continues, under the conditions we can now expect.

The water industry has waited too long to start implementing hosepipe bans. England has experienced a very dry year so far, with July being the driest ever and including our hottest day.

We are now months into a prolonged drier period and we’ve seen reservoir levels dropping for some time, with high demand.

But hosepipe bans are really just the tip of the iceberg in terms of dealing with long-term water scarcity in this country.

To tackle this grave issue, The Rivers Trust is calling for:

● Accelerated water metering for households – implementing smart metres for water in the same way as we do for energy will allow people to better understand their domestic water use and will help to identify leaks. A social tariff could be brought in to ease the burden on lower income households.

● An urgent, rapid reduction in leaks from water infrastructure – In 2021, 2.3bn litres were lost from our water system each day due to leaks.

● Support, incentives, and guidance for households to be able reduce water usage permanently – examples include the installation of water butts, grey water recycling, low-flush toilets, and water-wise gardening.

Widespread implementation of sustainable drainage, incorporating features such as rain gardens, wetlands, and permeable pavements as part of a large-scale green infrastructure would help to build up local stores of water underground which can gradually recharge watercourses over time, reducing strain on them during drier months.

The UK uses more water per capita than any other country in Europe, and this has to change.

Part of our current issue with low water levels leading to measures like hosepipe bans is that we still think of this as a wet country, treating water as an infinite resource.

It’s not viable to meet our current consumption patterns in the same way in the future, so water must be treated as the most precious resources – after all, it is the source of all life.

Christine Colvin

Advocacy and engagement director at The Rivers Trust

One immediate result of this deal was a 10 percent devaluation of the pound (against the average of other leading currencies) to its lowest level since 1985.

R Hampson