No Exit Plan From Europe

[bainbrig]

Nick Cohen, writing in The Observer, makes a very strong argument that there never WAS a coherent exit strategy from Europe. It was a bit like invading Normandy but having no idea what to do next.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/26/brexiters-never-had-a-real-exit-plan-no-wonder-they-avoided-the-issue

Come the crunch, it is going to be chaos. Is that what you voted for?

[CrapAtCryptics]

A deal would have been nice - but when have we ever agreed with 27 countries on almost anything. The main issue is, in my opinion, that we can survive and thrive without the EU a point that many seem to doubt. I say shame on them for doubting what this country, when properly motivated, can do.

[jno]

I think it's pretty obvious the Brexit campaigners didn't have a strategy - lots of talk from them at the time about how Britain would be able to eat its cake and have it, how we could just set up trade deals with individual EU members and it would be the easiest negotiations ever, etc etc. The official ignorance of what they were doing is stunning - the most recent being Raab's surprise that there was a lot of cross-channel trade.

[-Talbot-]

Yes.
I love chaos with a passion

[sunny-dave]

It may be chaos (although I think it's been wildly overstated by those with a vested interest in scuppering our exit) - but if we withold the exit/ransom fee of £39 billion and distribute it in cash on a per capita basis (about £700 per head every year), then I think most people would be happy enough to go a bit short of sauerkraut and camembert?

[bainbrig]

Trouble is, us 'remainers' would LOVE there to be a fleet of Canadian, Australia, general worldwide shipping, queuing up in the Channel, ready to deliver all the goods we need come Exit Day, ready to take away all the environmental waste that normally goes out of ports to Europe.

But there AREN'T!

Nor are there hordes of electricians, bricklayers, and the like, waiting to pour in from foreign (non-EU) parts, to take all the vital jobs that currently no British worker wants to do.

Wake up!

Plans could have been put in place. They haven't. We are sailing towards the edge of the cliff, whistling merrily, hoping for the best.

[dannyk13]

Bainbrig, //Plans could have been put in place. They haven't//
They have:-
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/how-to-prepare-if-the-uk-leaves-the-eu-with-no-deal

[dannyk13]

Succinctly put Mrs,D :-)

[New Judge]

“Lots of talk from them at the time about how Britain would be able to eat its cake and have it,…”

“Proper” Brexiteers never said that. They had no illusions that the EU (quite rightly) would make it very difficult, if not impossible for the UK to retain any of the main benefits of membership without unacceptable concessions.

“…how we could just set up trade deals with individual EU members”

Nor did they say that either. It is well known that individual EU members cannot make their own trade deals (one of the principle reasons for leaving). What they did say was that the UK could negotiate its own trade deals with non-EU countries. This is something it cannot do at present and which, if Mrs May’s deal is accepted - even with the “backstop” modified - it will be unable to do for some considerable time to come.

“…the most recent being Raab's surprise that there was a lot of cross-channel trade.”

You should not confuse the level of knowledge (or lack thereof) among politicians (even senior ones) with that of the electorate generally. Politicians and Ministers come and go. They are “jacks of all trades” and, with a few honourable exception, masters of none in particular. It is unsurprising, for example, that the Secretary of State for Defence knows little about defence when, before being elected to the Commons in 2010, he ran a firm making cups and saucers and before that he was selling fireplaces.

“ Trouble is, us 'remainers' would LOVE there to be a fleet of Canadian, Australia, general worldwide shipping, queuing up in the Channel, ready to deliver all the goods we need come Exit Day,…”

What on Earth leads you to believe that “come exit day” all the goods that currently are imported from the EU will suddenly cease?

“… ready to take away all the environmental waste that normally
goes out of ports to Europe.”

We should not be exporting rubbish to Europe or anywhere else for that matter.

I don’t think it is Leavers who need to wake up. But that aside, these problems – if they indeed exist – are problems that must be solved. They are not reasons to delay or abandon Brexit. I agree that preparations for a No Deal exit should have begun in June 2016. But that’s what happens when you have a Parliament of Remainers who have spent the last two years devising ways to either thwart Brexit entirely or water it down. That’s hardly the electorate’s fault.

[jim360]

The Millennium Bug turned out not to be a problem because people took the threat seriously and went to great lengths to solve it beforehand. It wasn't solved by people ignoring the risks.