Tory leadership candidates, as they spout their pseudo-Thatcherite cliches, lack the guts to admit Brexit is not working, says Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins
, and repeated this claim to their drivers. Under the EU, Britain’s borders were an issue negotiated with its neighbours. Under Brexit, the border at Dover is now controlled by France – and there is not a thing Britain can do about it. When we left the EU we lost all control.
The movement of people, goods and services across borders is always a matter of mutual advantage, of negotiation, of give and take. The prosperity of the British Isles since the Industrial Revolution has been rooted in ever-freer trade with the outside world. Membership of the EU made Britain’s products competitive, its banks rich and its labour market open to all talents.
Watching television over the weekend, I could sense the speech bubbles rising over Dover: “Why did no one say Brexit meant this?”of British trade was with Europe in 2017 and in every sector controls have increased and bureaucracy blossomed. Not a day passes without news of a 50-page form to transport a single piano. British scientists cannot collaborate with European ones. Trade in perishables
fallen dramatically. Much-vaunted “deals with the rest of the world” are few and far between and cannot begin to compensate.