We need a clean break to end this political limbo

First published by www.suffolkfreepress.co.uk on Thursday, November 7, 2019

We need a clean break to end this political limbo

We are in a total Limbo.

I’m writing this column on the October Friday after the House of Commons passed, with the help of 19 Labour MPs no less, Boris Johnson’s Withdrawal Agreement Bill. It then, quixotically and perversely, stymied that decision by voting down the Bill that set the timetable for scrutinising the former.

This is truly a ‘on the one hand, on the other’ Parliament.

Now the term ‘Limbo’ in its popular definition conjures up a broadly tolerable, transitional place or a brief pause between two definite situations.

All very lovely and resonant of the self-proclaimed liberal establishment’s ‘niceness’: neither one thing nor the other, a big tent where all may take refuge and other such clichés.

More classically aware readers will, however, recall from Dante’s Inferno that Limbo was actually part of Hell.

And this latest Limbo is becoming hellish, not only to the 17.4m Leave voters, the hundreds of thousands (probably Millions) of Remain voters who see the need to respect the 2016 Referendum and ‘get on with Brexit’ but also to our hard-pressed business community.

Those of us who build enterprises, employ workers (and so help sustain their families) and through our taxes and our involvement in community activities support society, are fighting the good fight of wealth creation in an increasingly hostile environment.

Suffolk Chamber of Commerce’s latest Quarterly Economic Survey showed both the resilience of our manufacturers but also the growing negativity of the service sector in terms of future activity and sentiment.

Contrary to popular opinion, it’s not really certainty that we crave. Rather, as we plan our future investment, staffing and supply chain strategies for the years ahead, we need to feel that we understand the broad direction of the UK’s future trading relationships.

Unlike Remainer MPs, businesses do not need every‘ t’ crossed to ‘i’ dotted before we do anything.
But the ‘Limbo Parliament’ has managed to secure an almost complete collapse in any immediate sense of direction for the UK.

At this stage, the European Union (EU) may or may not allow an extension to negotiations. That extension many or may not end on 31 January 2020. Therefore, we may – by the time you read these words – have left the EU already – or maybe we won’t have.

Maybe we’ll be part way through a General Election, or maybe we won’t. Maybe we’ll be facing a second referendum into any deal or maybe not. Ditto the revocation of Article 50.

Mr Johnson’s Withdrawal Agreement isn’t perfect, especially as regards the customs border between two constituent parts of the UK.  

Personally, as a believer in free markets, zero tariffs and the mutual recognition of standards, initially I would prefer an exit from the EU on World Trade Agreement terms, followed soon thereafter by a declaration of Unilateral Free Trade. And the sooner the better.

This would be a clean break involving a minimal amount of bureaucracy. It would allow British business to truly compete with the best in the world outside of the EU’s ruinous customs barriers.

Remember, the UK now only has a trading surplus with one EU member: Sweden. The deterioration in our trading position with the rest is the real price of being part of a structure designed to boost key sectors of France and Germany. 

But the Johnson Agreement is immeasurably preferable to that of his failed predecessor. It is very light touch in terms of the divorce from the EU. Correctly, in my opinion, it pushes the detail of our future trading relationship with the EU to be decided within the broad framework of the Political Declaration between now and 2020. But it does clearly state that the desired relationship will be that of a free trade agreement, which I hope will come with some form of ‘Customs Arrangement’ to minimise unnecessary bureaucracy.

Of course, should those negotiations fail, then the country can start by moving to trading with the EU on WTO rules, and then on to free trade.

To get us out of this Limbo, Parliament should vote to allow a General Election to be held as soon as possible.

What are the Remainer MPs afraid of? An electoral hell of their own making, that’s what!

Ends.