Lies, damned lies and ministerial statements about Brexit

But as restrictions are lifted and life starts to return to some kind of normal, maybe it’s time again to look again at the other ‘big story’…Brexit.

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I voted to remain and consider the decision to leave the European Union as the biggest act of self-harm any country has ever visited on itself in peacetime.

I am, however, prepared to accept that the decision has been taken and we will be leaving the EU at the end of the year.

I’m given to understand that allegedly negotiations are currently taking place on some kind of deal between the UK and the EU about what our trading relationship will be in the future, although it appears they are not going well.

Of course, we all know that if the two sides can’t come to some kind of arrangement in the next couple of months, we will crash out of the EU on World Trade Organisation terms (complete with tariffs that will push up the price of just about everything we buy) but never worry, this will be sold to us as an ‘Australian-style’ deal.

Just for the avoidance of doubt, Australia does not have a free trade deal with the EU, and neither will we however the government tries to spin it.

So in the spirit of reconciliation and reflection, I’ve delved back into the archives to see if what we’re going to get is what we were promised and I’ve come up with a top five list of things we were told then that possibly might not have been as ‘accurate’ as we would have hoped.

1 It will be the easiest trade deal in human history

This is attributed to the then International secretary Liam Fox. It will be great, he said. We will be global Britain. “The free trade agreement we will have to do should be one of the easiest in human history,” he said.

That’s not aged well, has it?

2 There will be no issues with the land border between the UK and the Republic of Ireland.

Let’s just look at what Theresa Villiers said in a Vote Leave press release dated April 14, 2016: “Nor is there any prospect of security checks returning to the border. The common travel area between the UK and Ireland pre-dates our EU membership and will outlast it. The unique status Irish citizens are accorded in the UK predates EU membership and will outlast it. There is no reason why the UK’s only land border should be any less open after Brexit than it is today.”

Sadly, another quote that’s not aged well as we would have hoped as plans are put in place for border posts and customs checks.

3 “The day after we vote to leave, we hold all the cards and we can choose the path we want,” said Michael Gove.

Just a pity that the path we appear to have chosen is one into trade oblivion. Our currency has tanked, we are being ordered about by Donald Trump and the rest of the world is laughing at us.

You can also add to that Boris Johnson’s quote in the Daily Telegraph of June 26, 2016: “There will continue to be free trade and access to the single market.”

Looks like the only cards we were holding were the Jokers.

4 What about protecting the NHS?

I’ll leave this one to an article on GQ Magazine’s website: “Once we have settled our accounts, we will take back control of roughly £350 million per week. It would be a fine thing, as many of us have pointed out, if a lot of that money went on the NHS.” So wrote Boris Johnson in the Daily Telegraph. Then they [Vote Leave] plastered it in massive letters across a bus and drove it across the country. The rest is history.

5 Never forget the Chris Grayling effect.

Yes, Mr Grayling, the man who couldn’t even win a rigged election somehow found himself as Transport Secretary.

As well as being the man who awarded a contract to a company that didn’t have any ferries to provide, well, ferry services, he made a starring appearance on Question Time when he said: “We will maintain a free-flowing border at Dover. We will not impose checks in the port. The only reason we would have queues at the border is if we put in place restrictions that created those queues. We are not going to do that.”

Dear oh dear, Mr Grayling.

Fast forward to last week and this is what the New European website reported: The government has confirmed it has purchased a 27-acre site in Kent which has been dubbed a post-Brexit ‘lorry park’ and a ‘Farage Garage’ by others.

The Department for Transport (DfT) was understood to be looking to buy the land near Ashford as it geared up for possible trade frictions as a result of leaving the EU.

In a letter to residents, transport minister Rachel Maclean confirmed the DfT had purchased the land and was now planning ‘two primary uses’ for the site.

She said: “First, government departments envisage using it as a permanent site for facilities related to future border processes, notably HMRC (as an office of departure/arrival for goods moved under ‘transit’ arrangements) and Defra (as a border control post for goods needing sanitary and phytosanitary checks).

“Second, the site may also be used as a contingency lorry holding area for the particular, foreseeable risk of significant disruption at the end of the transition period.”

The old saying used to be ‘there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.’

Maybe that should be rewritten as: ‘there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and ministerial statements about Brexit.’