Today (Friday the 31st of January 2020) at 11 pm the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Northern Ireland shall take a great leap of faith into the unknown. We shall break our alliance with the European Union and we shall seek to replace it with alliances and agreements with other countries. I do not support Brexit and genuinely believe it will be detrimental to the UK, Scotland and Inverclyde. Nothing that I have heard has changed my mind since the UK voted to leave in June 2016. Back then Conservative and Unionist MP Sajid Javid would have agreed with me.
Of course, people have the right to change their mind as the available information changes or they feel they have become better informed. But the only thing that has changed and turned Mr Javid into a champion for Brexit is that since then he has been promoted to Home Secretary and since 2019, Chancellor of the Exchequer. His plans for the economy are speculative at best which places me in a dilemma. I have no wish for industry to suffer, jobs to be lost and families to suffer hardships.
Therefore, I hope Mr Javid is right. I hope I am wrong, but I can’t see his vision of financial salvation as he has not, and no other cabinet minister ever has, explained where the trade deals and market places are going to come from. Every product that is imported from the E.U. needs to be sourced and prices negotiated. Every product exported must tender for its place in the market again. Transport costs for import and export will need to be arranged. This will not happen immediately, but it must happen. For four years the UK Government’s ever-changing cabinet ministers have repeated the mantra that it will be alright on the night. Well that night has arrived and it may be alright for the foreseeable future and it may be alright for the vastly wealthy of the U.K. but unless effective plans are made quickly and implemented efficiently, as sure as fate, night will turn to day and we will herald in the dawn of an economic disaster that will punish the poorest in our society quickest. And it won’t end there. Button down the hatches there is a storm coming and the UK Government does not have a chart that will guide us to a safe haven.
Ronnie Cowan MP 