Trading Losses

As my wife and I drove away from the port of Dover, on the way back home from a family visit to France, we were struck by the sheer self-destructive absurdity of what one of the great trading nations of the world was doing to its economic life-blood: trade. We passed about a mile of stationary HGVs, waiting on the other carriageway to access the port, before reaching the beginning of what is known as the “M20 barrier

This was quickly filling up with more HGVs, and it goes on for miles. It is used, say the Government, when there is “cross-channel disruption”; post-Brexit disruption. At the same time, on the other side of the country, the Government is planning to take us straight into a damaging trade war with the 450 million-strong EU. Our ‘replacement’ trade agreements - with Australia, India and the Pacific countries - have yet to yield anything significant. The plan to build lots of free-ports - which we could have done anyway inside the EU – is stalled. The only post-Brexit trade deal that the Government will be able to boast about is the one which will send massacre victims to Rwanda: shameful. It seems that the taboo subject for many social conversations, and, indeed, for most of our local and national politicians, is the impact of Brexit on this country. As readers of my previous letters on this subject will understand, I firmly believe that it is neither responsible, nor acceptable, to stay silent on what is happening.