Brexit balance

The often biased and one-sided discourses on Brexit over the past weeks promote a need to bring more balance to the discussion. Apparently, most of the press, especially the BBC, do not support Brexit. This is compounded by attacks on the Brexit messengers which should always encourage us to take another closer look at their message.

Britain, led by Prime Minister Cameron, tried to reform the monstrous, autocratic and despotic bureaucrats in Brussels and failed, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt how such bureaucracies disempower the little people and emasculate their sovereignty. The EU totally destroyed Britain’s once-thriving and productive fishing industry and cut the value of its agriculture production in half – in the same way, that it destroyed our region’s banana and sugar industries. No wonder the rural shires, hamlets, fishing villages and counties in the UK voted “en bloc” to leave the Union. No one fooled them about anything and they will not change their stance!

As a teen, Boris Johnson won a full scholarship to Eton, one of Britain’s top public schools. Based on his academic brilliance, he subsequently won a scholarship to Oxford. Barbados scholars are selected from a cohort of about 1,000 students. Scholars in Britain are selected from a cohort of over 300,000. Mr. Johnson who has also been facilely labeled “elite and privileged” may act at times in ways that will promote a political connection with those less privileged, but one only has to watch him in a question-and-answer period in parliament to realize that he is smart, articulate and anything but a buffoon or, for that matter, a Trump clone.

Mr. Johnson has always maintained the wish to leave the EU with a deal. He has, however, faced reality. Mrs. Theresa May, the former Prime Minister, had famously stated that “no deal was better than a bad deal” and subsequently could not get a deal good enough to be accepted by the British parliament. The deal being offered by the EU is a bad deal and the EU is not prepared, at this point in time, to renegotiate it because they think they have the British people over a barrel and large segments of the UK have played into the EU’s hands. Mr. Johnson’s reasoning is to crash out of the EU with no deal and then when the EU is ready to renegotiate to do so in Britain’s best interests.

Britain currently has a significant trade deficit with the EU which stands to lose the most from Brexit. At the same time, among the EU members, Britain is the largest exporter outside of the EU. As a global trader and manufacturer of the highest caliber, Britain has the capacity to succeed outside of the EU. There are significant numbers of people who believe that far from being an economic and financial disaster, Brexit will lead, over the longer term, to an improved economy. Already there are reports of over a billion pounds sterling being reinvested in Britain’s future fishing industry after Brexit. The press is not reporting this. Why?

Democracy is not voting and voting again until you get the result that you want. A majority of the British electorate voted to leave the EU and democracy requires that Britain leaves the EU, no doubts about it. The only issue is “the deal” and if Brussels is unprepared to offer an acceptable deal, then “no deal” is better than a “bad deal”.  Furthermore, it must be noted that there are already in the region of 14 separate, standalone agreements between the EU and Britain that will inhibit the chaos being forecast by the gloom and doomers. Why is this not being reported?

It should also be noted that a hard border between the EU and Britain is an EU requirement, not Britain’s. The Scots voted twice to remain in the UK and those who think that a hard border in Ireland will be a problem should also consider what will happen to the Scots if there is a hard border between Scotland and England.

Peter Webster is a retired Portfolio Manager of the Caribbean Development Bank and a former Senior Agricultural Officer in the Ministry of Agriculture.