It’s the word that no one wanted to mention in the election. It’s understandable why Labour were frightened to mention it, but now, if the Labour government is serious about change, growing the economy and fixing the myriad problems the country faces, then repairing the failures of Brexit and the hard Brexit deal agreed by the Conservatives under Johnson must to be part of the solution.
The social, industrial, and economic consequences of Brexit may not be politically palatable, but ignoring them doesn’t make them any less real. The consensus amongst economists now is that Brexit has made the country worse off. The Office for Budget Responsibility – an official government body – have said they expect the UK economy is going to end up 4 per cent smaller than it would otherwise have been, had we stayed in the EU. Around £100 billion a year!
January 2021 is when Boris Johnson’s Trade and Cooperation Agreement came into play, making it much harder to import and export goods between the UK and the EU. In the aftermath of that, exporting of UK goods to the EU has greatly decreased and the variety of goods being exported has also fallen. Just in terms of trade and business, especially for smaller companies, Brexit has damaged Britain. Being outside the single market and customs union increases costs, paperwork and delays, making trade more difficult and goods more expensive. Ukraine and Covid played their part but Brexit has added to the cost of living and inflation.
It’s not just money that has been lost. It’s people as well. The NHS is on its knees. Yes, Covid again played a part but thousands of well-trained European health workers have also left Britain. Hospitality and retail are also suffering and if we need to build more houses and infrastructure where are those skilled workers going to come from?
So, if the Labour government really wants change, which means doing things differently, altering and modifying, they could start by changing our relationship with the rest of Europe and creating a positive partnership, which helps trade, business and people and gets rid of the elephant in the room.
Maybe, being the EU was a very good idea?!
Editor’s note: See the latest into Brexit from the European Movement. Yorkshire Bylines’ Davis Downside Dossier lists a few of the downsides of Brexit. The count has now reached 1,959.
We want to hear your views. Please send any comments to editor@westenglandbylines.co.uk
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