A door closed yesterday on good sense and careful planning. This government is now hell-bent on rushing the UK’s final departure from the EU and nothing, let alone a global pandemic, is going to stand in its way.
We have had four years of negotiations to reach a considered, mutually-beneficial EU trade deal, with little progress. The Brexit zealots in control of government now think they can achieve everything they want, with no trade-offs, in fewer than six months. Even if this were achieved, it would mean negotiations which will set our relationship with our closest neighbours for the next generation are being rushed through - not in a spirit of compromise, but in a reckless game of chicken.
With so much still to be agreed, we should be devoting all our efforts to securing a deal with the EU. Instead, the government has handed our chief UK negotiator another job as national security adviser. The snub to the EU couldn’t be more pointed.
Given the very real possibility of failing to reach a deal by the end of December, we now face the very real prospect of crashing out at the end of this year in a no-deal Brexit – an outcome opposed by manufacturers, farmers, the TUC, the CBI, the Bank of England, pharmaceutical companies and logistics companies, because of the huge damage it would cause to the UK’s economy.
The UK’s reputation for good governance has been shattered and I see no sign that it will recover anytime soon.
