Brexit on its own terms (Three types of Brexit)
Let’s begin with a question: how many Brexit’s are there really:
three, or one, or three in one?
And does the level of approach we have adopted admit of the level of sophistication needed to understand it, and what we might do about it?
I am going to suggest there are three Brexit’s, or three areas for Brexit consideration: political, cultural and economic.
These are distinct and yet there are links between them. It is these links which can create the problem.
There is probably most approval for a political Brexit:
we get to govern ourselves again without interference from Brussels; probably a thumping majority for that one.
Then there is the economic Brexit.
This depends on how you feel about the advantages of a tariff free zone between member countries with accelerated processes on the one hand
(big tick) and free movement of labour on the other (tick or cross depending on whether you are an employer or an employee feeling the impact of low wages to your benefit or detriment).
On balance, probably a minus here (although maybe also a plus if this results in lower prices in the shops).
Then there are the limitations on being able to trade so freely with the rest of the world.
So here a mixed picture but overall perhaps a small plus.
Then there is the cultural Brexit.
We feel and perceive ourselves to be different from our European neighbours but know the benefits of two way tourism
without barriers and with international cooperation across many fronts.
So probably here a big tick in favour of remaining at an operational level even though as a people,
a mind set and a cultural entity we feel ourselves to be alike but different and ferociously independent as befits our geographical location and island status.
You only have to look at our geographical relationship to Europe to see how cultural links may be valuable but as neighbours we are also set apart.
And of course we are an innovative, as well as an independent, people.
So if we were to compare and contrast the relative merits of all this, we could probably draw a line between coming out to maintain self governance,
staying in to maintain cultural ties (whilst also being separate) and being half in and half out for trading purposes.
Could we not agree on this more readily if the problem were broken up like this, to see the three in one as well as the one?
How much does ‘the deal’ bring to this the necessary level of sophistication?
I’m not sure but the image of wearing gardening gloves to manage fine tapestry springs to mind.
Could we not have approached this more respectfully from the start in relation to all these things, the advantages and the obstacles?
There is, of course, the question of the border with Northern Ireland on the Irish mainland.
And I am not sure anyone has really confronted the magnitude of this element.
In many ways it makes a customs free border in the event of leaving an impossibility and the degree to which magic dust is thrown over this question in the hope that it will go away,
magically transform itself or simply obscure our clear thinking about it is remarkable.
Is it a matter of holding the reins until technology rides to the rescue?
The current approach seems to be to deny there is a problem.
This seems to be an object lesson in what happens when a fact becomes an obstacle you don’t really know what to do with.
I would have a lot more faith in everyone if there was more honesty about this obstacle, its magnitude and the difficulty of getting round it.
Maybe they just want to throw dust in our eyes!
The Good Friday Agreement is rightly prized in all this and is not to be compromised or sidelined.
But was the Good Friday Agreement the end of the road for taking the situation in Northern Ireland forward or a step in the road?
What would the next step be and how would this be addressed if the question were to be addressed on its own terms?
Doesn’t Brexit provide all parties with a prompt to extend our considerations further on this matter?
How can we give those concerned every encouragement and support to achieve this?
My issue with the Brexit debate is that it has paid so little attention to all these things.
In our attempt to find a solution we have, once again, adopted binary approaches to a much more multifaceted problem. |