As Dover shows, Brexit is going from a philosophical debate to a real disaster

By any rational measure, Brexit is a disaster.

But rationality has long left the debate about Britain and the European Union. It has always been about reason on one side versus emotion on the other. It is about such things as the UK having to pay an extra £5bn “divorce bill” to leave the EU versus British exceptionalism, or a 4 per cent hit to GDP versus “getting our country back”.

Which makes the events at Dover and the horrendous traffic jams around the port at the weekend even more significant. For possibly the first time, Brexit shifted from obscure economical and philosophical debate, from bizarre punditry and political denial, to becoming a part of the real world.

The reason tens of thousands people were stuck on a Kent motorway during a heatwave was, as The Independent’s Simon Calder has quite rightly pointed out, a direct consequence of the momentous vote taken by Britain in 2016, rather than whether or not an extra eight French border guards turned up for work at the weekend.

They were a result of those obscure and possibly tedious debates about freedom of movement. The physical barriers to travel were what people were celebrating when they applauded Priti Patel for being “delighted” in ending freedom of movement. Some probably wouldn’t applaud now.

But Dover is really just the beginning. It was a warning that Brexit means… a lot of things that you wouldn’t want.

Those who finally got through the queues will have received messages on their phones on the other side of the Channel warning them about potential roaming costs, or finding that they face extra fees on their credit cards if they use them abroad, as we are no longer a member of the EU.

Those savvy enough to take out extra cash before they started travelling though will have found they are paying out more for a pain au raisin because of a weak pound, again thanks to Brexit.

And what happened at Dover is going to happen more and more. The delusion and dogma of Brexit will increasingly run up against everyday realities. Don’t expect the political class to deal with it though. Two people who championed Brexit, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, one of whom will become our next prime minister, are in denial and doubling down on it.

And the leader of the opposition, Keir Starmer, is too frightened to go anywhere near it. The costs of Brexit are going to be paid by us, the ordinary people.

Yours,

David Harding

International editor