The week in Brexitland, November 26, 2021
The “Brexit red tape” myth that refuses to die
Lord Frost was at Guildhall in the City of London on Monday, giving his latest thoughts on all things Brexity. The main gist of it all was twofold. One, we need to diverge from EU rules and regulations in order to prosper as a country and two, the NI Protocol is really bad and we just want to do away with it somehow or other, even though it was our idea in the first place.
I’ve spoken about this a million times already, but our unelected Brexit minister mentioning it once again means I have to: this idea that there is a host of EU regulations sitting perched inside of British Common Law that if ripped away will have a dramatic effect on the UK economy is utter cobblers. It just isn’t true. Yes, there are applications of EU Directives that are less than ideal when applied to the United Kingdom. But there actually isn’t all that much that fits this description and even when there is, it is always small potatoes. The idea that regulatory divergence is a silver bullet is near and dear to the whole Brexit project, however, because without it, what was the point of it all? I mean, if we leave the single market and customs union, only to basically do everything the same way but without the privileges of being inside of those two things, then Brexit was a horrible error. Which of course, it was, and that’s why the ‘red tape’ myth needs to be so throughly clung to by this government. They can’t admit that they don’t really have any great moves to pull now that we’re an ‘independent nation’. This must be particularly scary to the sentient ones in the cabinet as it sinks in that Brexit gained the country nothing in any practical sense; nothing useful in terms of our ability to manoeuvre better in the world.
Expect this ‘red tape’ and ‘regulatory divergence’ thing to rumble on and on for at least the rest of this decade. Just don’t expect any actual positive results.
The search for scientists gets zero response
A nice little story is out this week which offers us an update on one of those post-Brexit government schemes you hear so much about in the newspapers. You know, one of those things that are meant to spring ‘Global Britain’ into action and show how unshackled to a corpse we are these days, now that we’ve left the rotten EU. Yes, freed from Brussels Eurocrats, the government decided to launch a new visa programme for those considered world leading in their fields, particularly the sciences. And how did that scheme do over the course of six months? There has not been not a single applicant.
I know this is a minor story, but it’s Brexit in miniature, isn’t it? At great expense you ‘break free’ of the EU, only to hold a big party where you invite all the special people you want to come along and no one shows up. It demonstrates both how little we were held back when we a member of the EU - there was nothing stopping the UK advertising a visa scheme for talented people from around the world back then - and how little we get out of being outside of EU institutions, launching a scheme we could have done as a member and having it all flop completely anyhow.
Boris Johnson at the CBI
Although it isn’t strictly Brexit related, I couldn’t escape this week without a short word on Boris Johnson’s performance at the CBI conference. Obviously, it was a national embarrassment - but the cynics out there could respond, ‘What’s new?’ After all, Johnson has done plenty of publicly stupid things and he’s still prime minister, and indeed not doing terribly badly in the polls all things considered, so why should this one speech at a business conference make any difference? Except, I think it was different, although admittedly it remains to be seen if it will make any real difference to Mr Johnson’s political fortunes.
For those who haven’t seen it, the speech was as terrible as reported. Long sections where he searches for the right page to be on, car engine sound impressions, the whole malarkey about Peppa Pig World. Again, you might say that could be the description of any run of the mill BJ crap. But at the CBI, he didn’t seem in control of any of the schtick. It didn’t feel like he was carrying any of the audience with him. It felt like a glimpse into the future, when everyone’s grown tired of his adolescent rubbish, not simply the business leaders he’s told to go f themselves so many times before.
Although Boris Johnson’s time as prime minister coming to an end will not be the same thing as the Brexit delusion coming to a conclusion, the former would be a good start to the latter taking place. The religious fervour that surrounds Brexit is intimately tied to Boris Johnson’s place in the world. If one came down, the other might start to follow.
Thanks for reading, subscribe if you haven’t already, and I’ll see you next week when something that was supposed to be ‘done’ some time ago continues to rumble on, with more to talk about some weeks than I know what to do with.