By Bev Haigh-Jones
I’ll begin with the Brexit snippets that you may have missed – unfortunately, few of them are exactly positive, though there is an excellent webinar to catch up with if you haven’t seen it and voting news for UK citizens abroad is good, but let’s start with the UK economic news!
Firstly, I would like to draw people’s attention to the fact that the European Economic and Social Committee are running a Youth Engagement Survey, specifically targeting young people in the UK to see how they have been affected by Brexit. If you could be classed as young, or you know someone who could, why not send in a response. They are hoping that the results can be used to strengthen EU-UK relations – but be quick, the deadline is 25 January!
London Mayor Sadiq Khan, always a Europhile, spoke out in The London Economic recently, stating that it is, “now obvious that Brexit isn’t working“. In the article he cites the recent independent analysis that he commissioned from Cambridge Econometrics, which estimates that the UK is now £140 billion worse off as a result of Brexit. This is a situation that seems to have finally dawned on the London Stock Market and they are now sufficiently concerned that top bankers have had a meeting recently at No.11 Downing Street. It’s also doom and gloom in the financial recruitment sector, where recruitment company, efinancialcareers, estimate that there are 79% fewer banking jobs in London since Brexit.
Moving on to trade, at first glance this might seem more encouraging. Recent figures show that UK/EU trade is holding up quite well, but Lucy White, reporting in Bloomberg, tells us that this has more to do with our abysmal performance in trading with countries outside Europe, than it has to do with Brexit, and the overall assessment of the UK performance is not good. Of course, small businesses have also been seriously affected by Brexit and those of you who are already members of the European Movement may have seen their recent Brexit Business Impact Report which highlights many of the issues. A number of our UK businesses and services are suffering significantly as a result of staff shortages, of course, exacerbated by the end of free movement. Far from alleviating this problem, the latest government legislation increasing the qualifying salary requirement for incoming skilled workers to £38,700 could be the “nail in the coffin” for UK hospitality, according to the Guardian. These issues aren’t just limited to UK business, however, the Dutch flower industry is extremely concerned about the planned, post-Brexit border checks which are now due to be introduced from the end of January after multiple delays. In 2021 these Dutch exports to the UK were valued at over €1 billion and if this ongoing trade is impacted by these new rules, then there will be a knock-on effect on UK garden centres and horticultural businesses. Economically, Brexit has been disastrous for the UK, as detailed in the Opinium survey Tweeted by Mike Galsworthy. However, one person at least seems to believe that they have found a Brexit benefit! Tory MP, Anna Firth announced to the Commons that shellfish beds had been discovered in the Thames estuary and asked the PM to help maximise “this brilliant Brexit bonus for Essex fishermen”! It has to be said that this was greeted with a degree of amusement, even from the Tory benches. Of course, our wine producers are no doubt also celebrating the fact that they can now sell their wares in one pint bottles! (Not that there was ever anything stopping them doing that previously, if they had thought it was a sensible idea.) Chris Grey’s blog on the subject is as amusing as it is informative.
Now I come to the more personal side of Brexit, and, to lighten the mood, I will start with a positive. The government had made returning to the UK with a spouse from another country more difficult with the introduction of the higher earnings qualification figure, but they have once again adopted the “give with one hand and take with other” (or vice versa), principle by also announcing that up to 3.5 million UK nationals living overseas will be able to register to vote in UK elections. They are not making it easy, though, and there are strict stipulations as to timing and the amount of evidence required, but at least it will be a step forward for many. Not so lucky are UK orchestras, already struggling with added red tape and costs for touring post-Brexit and about to be hit with an additional tax burden for touring overseas. Individuals too, are suffering, and two in particular have recently reached the press – both victims of the convoluted, complex settlement scheme for EU nationals. The first was a Spanish lady attempting to return to the UK after a Christmas break and forcibly removed, despite her documents being under a formal review and the other a French lady married to a Brit, who has lost her job after being told that she applied for settled status under the wrong scheme. Fortunately, in the case of Paula Serre (the French woman), the publicity that her case received resulted in the Home Office resolving the problem.
Finally on the Brexit theme, for a really interesting webinar on where we are now, try this video on YouTube – The state of Brexit in 2024. This in-conversation, chaired by Molly Scott Cato, sees Peter Foster and Chris Grey give a comprehensive sense of where Brexit is at; how it is likely to develop over the course of 2024, and discuss the most important questions facing the campaign to take the UK back to the heart of Europe.
When it comes to the EU, the reason that many Brexiters gave for wanting to leave was that they “didn’t want to be ruled by unelected bureaucrats in Brussels!.” In his regular articles Jon Danzig reminds us exactly how the EU is governed and also offers a short video detailing all the previous UK prime ministers who supported our membership of the EU. (The link to the brief video of Rishi Sunak emphasising the benefits that Northern Ireland have is also very interesting!)
I imagine that most people have heard the news that the UK have rejoined the Horizon Science Programme. Unfortunately, when announcing this as a “fantastic opportunity”, the Science Secretary, Michelle Donelan, failed to mention that we had been full members during our time in the EU. This fact was soon pointed out by pro-EU campaign groups like the European Movement, though, and also echoed by The London Economic who hailed it as the first step to rejoin. Happily, rejoining is now mentioned far more frequently than was the case a short while ago and Labour MP, Marsha De Cordova states that, “Reconstructing relations with the EU must be a priority for Labour”. Even the BBC recently took up the gauntlet and held a very interesting debate on the subject on Radio 4.
Ending our EU section on more positives, the European Parliament Elections take place on 6-9 June and millions of EU citizens in the UK are eligible to vote. See how to #UseYourVote here. And why not be inspired and encouraged by the latest video of Guy Verhofstadt talking to Alasdair Campbell and Rory Stewart, explaining Belgian politics and giving his views on the future of Europe and the rest of the world.
Now on to government issues and, as we all know Rishi Sunak is having a hard time from his party over the Rwanda Bill and there are rumours of letters of no confidence which, of course, could generate a leadership contest. As it happens, Conservative Home helpfully ran a poll in December to decide who was most likely to take the Tory leadership crown, if such a thing came to pass. Please don’t lose sleep over the results, even though they might be a thing of nightmares! Another major landmark on the horizon is the general election and Mr Sunak may have more than one headache when it comes to deciding on a date. Apart from the significant gap between the Tories and Labour in the polls, it seems that Lady Hallett, Chair of the Covid 19 inquiry, has plans to issue a detailed interim report “before the summer” which may not be the ideal publicity prior to an election. Could this be a worry for our PM, or maybe is he immune to the potential of adverse publicity? Certainly the saga of the junior doctors might make one think so, despite an excellent explanation of the facts by TV’s Doctor Hilary Jones. While refusing the doctors a decent wage rise, despite the cost of the strikes being higher than the requested increase, Mr Sunak has managed to approve a good deal for MPs, and reverse a decision to scrap a £40m contract to provide helicopter transport for him and senior ministers. To be fair, though, he did apparently pop into an M&S at a station and buy six boxes of mince pies for key workers just before Christmas! (Claimed on expenses, perhaps?) Contrast that with Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, who donates 15% of his salary every month to a homeless charity – something he has been doing since 2017.
Before we leave the subject of the government, an article from Liam Thorp in the Liverpool Echo suggests that “We should never get used to the damage done to this country”.
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We don’t have an article from Chris on environmental issues this month, but I came across a couple of things that I felt were worthy of inclusion, one detailed here and the other will lead the final section which covers Cornish news. So, for my stand-alone “green” item. I happened to catch an interview on TV a few weeks ago with which I was totally fascinated and delighted. The interviewee was Isabella Tree and the subject was the rewilding of a 3,500 acre farm/estate in Sussex. I was so impressed with what I heard that I researched to find out more and have included a brief article link above. Isabella has also written a book on the experience – I haven’t read it yet, so cannot comment, but I expect it to be inspiring – the title is: “Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm.”
And lastly, our Cornwall section. As promised, I will begin with the environmentally friendly item. “Solar panels are to be fitted to Cornwall Council’s headquarters which will provide a third of the energy the council needs.” At last! Some forward thinking and planning for the future – with so much sun and so many car parks, I have never understood why this wasn’t happening in Cornwall, but now it is. A great beginning, but we need to go further.
Mixed blessings? £50 million of funding has been accepted by Cornwall Council for the Mid Cornwall Metro Scheme. Is this good news for Cornwall? Certainly if there are sufficient numbers of people wanting to travel between Newquay and Falmouth and it keeps them out of their cars, then that is good. But what of the impact on our countryside environment? I must admit that I don’t know, but I am concerned having seen the scars that run across Cornwall from the A30 “improvements” and the construction of the St Austell-A30 link road. My other concern is that projects of this nature invariably run over budget. Will the Metro be Cornwall’s HS2, turning into a white elephant that never gets completed after draining more of the Council’s depleted funds? I certainly hope not!
Something that is definitely not good news is the closure of Heartlands in Pool, near Redruth. Despite initial development funding from both the National Lottery and the EU, rising costs and a lack of further funding have meant that the site as a whole is no longer viable and only some of the offices and the gardens will remain open.
To finish with, let’s turn to politics in Cornwall and perhaps a change is in the offing. In September we reported that the Mayor of St Ives, Johnnie Wells, had resigned from the Conservative Party and now, in December, a leading Tory councillor has resigned, leaving a Tory majority of just three. There was also some confusion recently when a Conservative candidate, Connor Donnithorne, PPC for Camborne and Redruth, distributed a leaflet which did not mention the fact that he is a Tory.
And finally, it seems perhaps that Tory popularity in Cornwall may be waning, a fact that has even been picked up and reported on by The London Economic.
