There is much feigned amazement amongst some in the anti-Brexit community today after David Davis, the 'Brexit Secretary' told a House of Commons committee, chaired by Labour's Hilary Benn, that the government had not carried out any specific assessments of the impacts associated with the UK's exit from the European Union. While this has been made to sound calamitous, the truth is surely rather different.
The fact of the UK's departure from the EU is not in dispute. That exit automatically means that the UK will leave the EU's Customs' Union and Single Market; the trading and other arrangements that will be put in place after Brexit have yet to be agreed. What possible benefit could there be from committing resources to assessing impacts that are as yet utterly unquantifiable and are, in any case, irrelevant ?
Given this situation, carrying out many highly detailed impact assessments would be a pointless exercise, wasting valuable time and expertise that could be utilised far more profitably elsewhere or on other issues. Those who are so keen on assessments being carried out are die-hard 'Remainers', people who seem to think that they can still prevent any real Brexit from happening by keeping the UK inside of the Customs' Union and Single Market; their pseudo-horrified reaction to David Davis' comments is aimed wholly at this. They are simply trying to put the Government in a bad light and to raise issues that sound of huge importance but are, in reality, entirely specious. Others, such as Labour's Keir Starmer, use every opportunity to denigrate the UK and its negotiators while saying nothing about the intransigence and sheer bloody-mindedness of those in the EU.
Instead of getting behind the clearly expressed will of the people, these individuals are continuing to put as many obstacles in the way of the government as they can and to, effectively, 'talk Britain down'. They should be ashamed of themselves.
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