Our Brexit minister doesn't know if Irish businesses will have to complete paperwork to 'export' goods to England and Scotland under the withdrawal bill. First, our Brexit Minister said Irish businesses wouldn't have to complete paperwork, then corrected himself - they would. Clearly there has not been due diligence! The people running this bill, do not even know the detail themselves
. There is desperation to push the bill through regardless of whether there is any value or harm to the UK. Our government is trying to slip major permanent changes to the United Kingdom through, so much so that the minister in charge doesn't know the details. There should be alarm bells.
What we know so far is there will be more paperwork and red tape for trade with N Ireland - for that matter with the whole of Ireland and the EU. And it is permanent. We would be changing England's relationship with Ireland. Basically taking Ireland out of the UK, to become its own entity in the EU. The United Kingdom would effectively be down to 3 nations. That is until Scotland follows Ireland, and England and Wales are what is left of a once-great empire. People used to wonder at the third of the globe that the UK controlled. When European nations lost all their colonies, they retained global influence and reach by clubbing together in the EU. For better or worse, what we are looking at from Boris' Breixt now, is an England and Wales that is peripheral. History will view Brexit as the final nail in Great Britain's empire.
Does that matter? Not really. It's an emotional thing. But what does matter is the practical controls we lose and standing within the global community. We no longer have a pivotal say in how global trade works, how to shape global trade to help our companies, how to influence global standards to help England, how we influence global affairs - that will be diminished. Our reach - once so extensive in every corner of the globe - will be paired back to Wales
There isn't an emoji to express how futile all this is. I still can't fathom why we'd bother doing all this. As though we have not been successful in having free trade - first via our colonies and then via the EU - we now will put in place more friction and impediment to trade.
To me, Brexit signals the slow demise of an old power. Voted for by the elderly, it is a pull-up-the-draw-bridge, end of a great empire. Like an old stately home that has fallen on hard times, there is something sad about it for me. Godness knows when we'll get the postive good news that we were promised from Brexit, though all people seem to expect from Brexit is we get English free trade deals - sure that will feel awesome and be better than the trade deals the 500m population European Union negotiate
And we get to control our borders so the small amount of EU migrants who come and work doing jobs we don't want to do pizz off; while the massive amount more rest of the world migrants will likely increase. What's not to love?
