So this is Brexit... and what have we done?
SO the EU is facing serious problems with their supplies of Covid vaccinations, while it makes us proud and a little more confident about our future health that the UK is forging ahead with anti-Covid jabs.
On the other hand, a reality check on the post Brexit health of the nation shows that some issues are becoming clearer.
We are told that there are teething problems and that things will be “lumpy and bumpy” in the short term. Is such language helpful or an attempt to hide the truth?
Already the Scottish fish trade is deeply affected. Fresh shellfish rot in lorries and attempts to export them frozen mean that prices are a fifth of what they should be. Boats are not sailing; crews are losing £15,000 every 24 hours. On the day that this situation becomes clear, Mr Rees-Mogg tells Parliament that “our fish are British again and all the better for it”. Nice to have well-informed leadership in a crisis!
The fishing crisis is spreading to the SW. Even the leaders of fishing here were unprepared: the CEO of the SW Fishing Association stated (1-1-21)
“the fish merchant sector will be very pleased with trade flows”.
In agriculture, problems are starting with lamb exports, 90% of which used to go to the EU. Passing through Dover used to take a lorry 15 minutes (BBC report); now it takes many hours; export volumes are down by 75% and clients are looking for non UK sources.
The new red tape, all in the trade agree, “is here to stay.” The need for EU seasonal workers for vegetables and fruit later this year is still a problem; the Government will allow 30,000 this year but farmers say the figure should be nearer 70,000 (although Mr Eustice, the responsible Minister, once suggested that there should be a new National Service scheme whereby unemployed 18-year-olds would be forced into farm work!).
The car industry is reacting: Honda has stated that it will cease production in the UK this year. Nissan dropped plans to make two new models here... what next?
One estimate from our universities is that there will be at least 14,000 fewer foreign students next year; European students will face much higher fees. Had these youngsters been universityeducated here the benefits to our future economy from pro-UK people
scattered across the EU would have been immeasurable.
Our musicians and actors want employment across the EU to fly the flag. The EU has proposed touring visas to enable this. Our government has refused.
The repeated promises to maintain EU standards are being trashed. Workers rights such as a 48-hour week and a minimum of 11 hours between shifts are “to be re-examined”...
The bees in sugar beet growing areas might need to emigrate; the EU ban on neonicotinoids no longer applies here for one year... yet we are still promised a more ‘environmental’ agriculture.
Our export lorries are back in the Kent “car park” in their 1,000s; professional qualifications are no longer to be recognised across the EU... where will it end?
Great to know that anti-EU leaders have it all in hand; MP Mark Francois recently insisted that Brexit “was a marvellous example of buy one, get one free”!
And just when two of the men most responsible for breaking things down (D Cummings and N Farage) are needed to rebuild the UK, they are no longer at the wheel.
Jeremy Hall Crockernwell, Exeter
Francis Kirkham Nymet Rowland, Mid Devon