Bordering on madness
Lord Frost has been at it again, threatening to tear up the NIP by invoking Article 16. The EU has the patience of Job but this is getting silly, kicking cans down the road has become the UK government’s chosen policy for economics and international politics. It isn’t going to end well.
Now The Independent is reporting that the checks at the rest of the UK’s borders with the EU will have to be delayed because the government hasn’t built the facilities necessary to carry them out. This is, to be fair, not news. It has been obvious for a while that the UK would delay the introduction of these checks, collecting tariffs and probably VAT.
It will blame covid or the EU or both but the fact is it knows that the UK’s logistics system is on the verge of breaking down completely and more delays and red tape would be the straw that breaks its back.
It also wasted years NOT preparing for this and there is no way that it or business can train enough people to do this pointless work in the time allowed.
Line by line the Brexit deal is unravelling, it is the stupidest trade deal ever signed. It makes things worse for every industry I can think of, creates billions in red tape every year, needs infrastructure and people that the government has not even tried to produce and has turned the UK into a laughing stock.
I can only assume that the government feels that if it introduces all these things it asked for very slowly, people won’t notice how bad things really are. But that also means the pain drags on.