Roar to rejoin will be heard

David Savory asks a question “what is the perceived great benefit that we have lost at the crossing in departing the EU?”

He should be deafened by the bleating of the “lambs” starting with:

The hauliers who are stuck in lorry parks for hours or days where formerly they whizzed through a frictionless border.

And now even the ham from their Kent-bought sandwiches gets confiscated by the Dutch.

The businesses who have to spend hours filling in extra paperwork and also set up an office in the EU to deal with distribution and VAT. This makes exporting to the EU much more complicated. Jobs and tax revenue are diverted to the EU.

The firms exporting fresh food (Scottish salmon, cheddar cheese) that have lost exports this month because of border delays.

4. The ‘independent service providers’ who include a huge range of people (lawyers, musicians, IT experts, technicians for UK export goods, etc) who have earned part of their livelihood in the EU and now can’t, as the deal does not clarify their visa status and costs.

Since his question asks about “the crossing” only, I have not put on this list all the other losses, such as the growing list of jobs lost, of research money and collaboration to UK Universities and the deplorable loss of

ERASMUS grants for students.

This is not bleating, this is the roar of rejoin just beginning to be heard.

Charlotte Mbali