Let’s check out a few selected Brexit headlines:
My Brexit box: the people stockpiling food.
Hospital food at risk from no-deal Brexit
Project Fear RETURNS: Britons may have to rely on home-grown vegetables in no-deal Brexit
Brexit stockpiling: No room at food warehouse in Cardiff
Brexit: British musicians fear being put in a “cultural jail’ if a transition deal isn’t struck
Health groups warn Brexit drugs supply risk at code ‘red’
Why this particular set of headlines? Why not other, pro-Brexit headlines? The headlines above all have one thing in common; they all relate to actual human needs. There are no positive headlines for Brexit regarding meeting actual daily human needs. Not a word that I’ve seen relates to managing basics. The best hope is that there won’t be problems, and that’s it. People and businesses are trying to manage on their own, with no support. The political headlines relate to the interests of politicians, not the public interest, on any level.
The chosen headlines also represent the sheer chaos and potential for human misery of this snivelling, mindlessly disingenuous “initiative”. Note the multiple sectors involved, and the billions of pounds they represent. How can you have a health sector with no drugs? A food sector with no food? Media with no market access?
It’s like Dunkirk in reverse. The British army arrived back in England in 1940 without all its gear, but alive and able to fight. In this case, all the economic gear is in some sort of haze of regulatory combat and systematically losing on all fronts. Meanwhile, the British people are able to be totally uninformed about fundamental daily needs, living and dying, and other trivial issues. Their welfare apparently isn’t even considered relevant. Even business leaders, that vague and usually smug demographic, are now calling for a second vote, a “EU turn”.
Empire 2.0? You didn’t need to do it this way, you bloody fools
The big vision of “Empire 2.0” is the driving farce for Brexit. It’s a weird collection of maybes for a new and extremely vague economic model, with a few tatty images to justify it. Sovereignty; the island race standing tall. Return to Commonwealth trade, and, just by the by, joining another trade group on the other side of the world, the Trans Pacific Partnership. So much for sovereignty; the TPP includes extra-jurisdictional dispute resolution by an undefined third party, and other niceties.
Let’s break this down a bit:
The original British Empire was basically a trade empire founded by the Tudors using a mix of wit, piracy, and sheer guts, all of which are notably lacking in modern British government. The British government only really got involved relatively late in the piece, after the Opium Wars, the loss of the American colonies, the muddling demise of the East India Company, and other disasters.
The old empire was lost by bad policy, getting in to an absurd, costly European war in 1914, and incredibly bad colonial policies. The Far East colonies were lost soon enough. Britain was on food rationing for many years and saddled with massive debts and costs in both wars. Joining the Common Market was the natural economic move in the 1960s.
Sovereignty was the argument against joining. In a totally different world, the idea was to hang on to the glorious, and ingloriously misunderstood, past.
What’s wrong with Brexit on the Empire 2.0 basis? Everything. Better trade links and trans-jurisdictional trade with the Commonwealth could easily be achieved without Brexit. Trade with Japan through the TPP is hardly outside the ballpark, either. Are Japanese goods and cars banned in Europe? No? What a coincidence. How about New Zealand butter, Australian minerals, etc? No? Odd. All of this could be achieved without saying a word, let alone having a farcical melodrama like Brexit.
So what is Brexit, in its actual, not stated, form?
• A shambles of possible issues, with absolutely no effort being made to address them.
• A series of problems for the public, also not addressed on any level.
• A hideous, utterly grotesque, repulsive, image of British government, made much worse by the sheer vagueness and lack of forward planning. It’s like listening to cattle deciding which abattoir is best for them.
• A large number of real and very serious economic and financial risks, made worse by shoddy, barely credible ad hoc policies made entirely of compromises. Trade? With whom? When? How? On what basis?
• The British pound and its purchasing power could be obliterated by mistakes in various scenarios, not least of which is the lack of trade agreements in place for the post-Brexit era. Think Zimbabwe.
• The UK domestic economy is apparently being left to swim for its life, and it’s a bit hard to swim if the liquidity dries up. Foreign cash holdings can only do so much at any time, particularly with a rising unfavourable exchange rate.
There will always be an England, Scotland, and Wales. Just not in these tiny little minds. Until all the issues are properly managed, Brexit is a massive liability, with no redeeming features, real or imaginary and an appalling image of total failure.
