The British public is in for a long winter of discontent thanks to Brexit chaos

One of the few unalloyed benefits of leaving the European Union was supposed to be an improvement in the welfare of live animals for export. Yet even that seems now to be compromised. So much for a nation of animal lovers taking back control. Were it not for the even more pressing coronavirus crisis, the coming Brexit disaster would be at the top of the news agenda.

Such is the state of preparedness (or lack of it) for Britain’s as-yet-undefined Brexit that the government itself admits that poultry, for example, will die of neglect and decompose as the lorries carrying them to European markets are parked on the many acres of concreted-over land that used to be called Kent, the garden of England. That is probably not what Boris Johnson meant by an “oven-ready” deal. The Department for Transport envisages that the “emergency traffic measures”, a euphemism for chaos, will last until October 2021. Even that may be an underestimate. The assumption seems to be that British exports will somehow be able to find new ways to overcome border controls, tariff calculations and various checks on goods, people and vehicles. Yet nowadays we hear little about the once-promoted “trusted trader” and hi-tech solutions that were supposed to make Brexit on World Trade Organisation terms easy.

The reality, dawning now, is that delays and bureaucracy at the Channel will be the “new normal”, with dire consequences for trade. At the very least it will load costs onto companies and the British taxpayer; at worst it will mean more layoffs in British industry, lower export earnings, a weaker pound and permanent job losses. It will not all happen on day one, however big the mess, but in the months and years to follow, investment decisions will be badly prejudiced by the reputation of Britain as a newly closed economy.

Even if the British wave through imports and visitors from the EU, as is planned, there is no guarantee the EU will, even in the first weeks of Brexit.

All this, then, on top of Covid-19, the winter flu and floods. A winter of discontent awaits the British people that will make this Christmas and new year the toughest they have known since the war. There are ominous suggestions being made about stockpiling medicines, for example. There is also more irrational talk from the Conservative backbenchers about tearing up the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement. This, of course, is an international treaty that these same Eurosceptic Tories voted for, the “oven-ready” deal presented to the electorate at the general election last December, and endorsed by them. Among other things, withdrawing from the withdrawal treaty would mean the Irish border question would be reopened. That, in turn, would unravel the Good Friday Agreement, which so many have honoured again in the days after the death of John Hume.

There seems no limit to the wilful vandalism of the present Conservative party, its zealotry for the chimaera of sovereignty undimmed by any roadblock at Calais. The attitude seems to be that the British people voted for all this, so it will be implemented on 31 December, even if the voters in 2016 patently did not volunteer for shortages of food, medicines and spare parts, plus redundancies and a dollop of animal cruelty. These are not “bumps in the road” for “global Britain” but the impoverishment and humiliation of a nation. It’s on its way.