Brexit – What is going on?

With less than a month to go before the next supposed Brexit date I genuinely just wonder what is happening and what the future holds?

First of all let me say that I really am not in any way a strongly political person, much more aligned to Billy Connolly’s approach about not voting for any politician because it only encourages them! Three and a half years ago in the referendum I voted ‘remain’ because my attitude, then and now, is very similar to the sentiment on the recent image. Brits spend billions every year on Spanish & Greek holidays, our roads are awash with German cars, Italian motorcycles, we love French champagne and the UK is truly a multi-cultural society with people from every nationality currently calling it home.

Before the referendum both sides were spewing fiction as fact and vice versa, still to this day not sure what was true. The result of the vote stunned me and as close as it was, I accepted the outcome. It was made clear it was a one-off vote so the result stood because the democratic process was carried out; unlike Nicola Sturgeon who offered her once in a generation vote….however because the vote was far more clear cut but not the result she wanted, it seems she is prepared to ignore democracy and keep pushing her one policy. She wants independence but still is part of the EU and seems to ignore the land border difficulties and the fact Scotland as a standalone country would not reach the criteria to qualify for EU member status, but anyway that’s for another time

Since the result the EU members and their negotiators have collectively made a stubborn effort to ensure Britain gets a poor deal, which is understandable from their perspective. Clearly they are trying to discourage any of the other 27 countries from wanting to part ways. The UK government under different Prime Ministers has tried to negotiate improved conditions without success and the EU still believe ‘we’ are going to accept a poor deal, which clearly will not happen, we deserve better.

The last three and a half years have been a mixture of comedy, shame, nastiness, embarrassment, confusion and from my point of view it has been not only divisive within the UK but also across Europe too.

The confusing element to me is that individually all the 27 countries have made it quite clear a ‘no deal’ is not what they want. None of the countries wants to be hit by tariffs or import duty increases. The Germans would be hit heavily if they lost our car market, the French still want us to buy the produce plus the already suffering Greek & Spanish economy would slump quite tragically without British tourism. But collectively the 27 have shown no appetite to improve or compromise, meaning there seems to be little chance of anything but the ‘no deal’ they all say they want to avoid!