And we have a result- a good result. Hopefully one which will bring some stability to one of our largest nation’s, while the rest of the world (or most of it) took a collective sign of relief.
I have no idea how they are going to get the ‘tranTrumping’ party evicted from the White House but in January 2021 we are expecting big things from Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. I will be watching Kamala with great interest as I think she is, or will become, a wonderful role model for young women all around the world.
I also think this new administration will be good for us. There are numerous quotes from Joe Biden saying that he will uphold the integrity of the Good Friday Agreement. This is in stark contrast to the ramblings of Dominic Rabb last Sunday; who once again went unchallenged by Marr when he said it was the EU who were putting pressure on the Good Friday Agreement. His ‘American friends’ may not be so friendly anymore. In reality, we need intervention, and we need it quickly. The Internal Markets Bill may have passed through the House of Lords at the time of going to print which would in my opinion show clear intent to undermine the Good Friday Agreement.
Brexit is an absolute shambles- for once I don’t feel the need to say ‘in my opinion’ because I challenge one single person to tell me it is not.
If this were any other major constitutional change it would not be enacted during a global pandemic. It would absolutely be put on hold to allow for economic stability and a certain level of recovery from a catastrophic year, for so many people.
If I see one more of those patronising ads telling me to get ready – get ready for what? With now approx. 50 days to go we don’t know what we are preparing for. On 28th October the mood was positive, on 29th October when the negotiation teams moved to Brussels it turned cold again. It’s like watching a really poor game of tennis and having no choice but to watch because your livelihood depends on the outcome.
The deadline for the transition is 31 December, but the treaty must be ratified by the European Parliament by 14 December. In between the legal text must be translated into 23 official languages and be legally sound before going to a series of European Parliament committees. Time is quickly running out.
On 4th November Michel Barnier tweeted that there were still ‘very serious divergences remain in Level Playing Field, Governance & Fisheries’.
These are the issues that have yet to have any resolution. If you look however at the things that we do know and how they are progressing, they aren’t much better.
We have been told that there will be checks on goods coming into NI from the rest of GB. We were told there would be infrastructure at the Ports to support this. We were then told that this ‘may not be ready in time’ so Assembly members were told that there were contingency plans but that these relied on the agreement of the UK and EU.
Some £38m has been made available for permanent port infrastructure to facilitate checks and it was revealed that a further £5m had been made available to finance contingency measures while they were being built.
It was reported on BBC that Denis McMahon, Permanent Secretary of DAERA said, that contingency planning was working on the assumption that there would be no requirement to check supermarket lorries, but again that was subject to EU/UK agreement.
Are you seeing the trend here? Even the things that have been agreed, haven’t totally been agreed because they rely on agreement between the UK and the EU. An agreement, which this week, seems further away than ever.
Again, I would like to know how businesses are supposed to divert attention away from one crisis to deal with another crisis, where even after four years they pretty much haven’t agreed the basics.
The only thing I can advise businesses to do at the moment is to put their focus on getting help in relation to Brexit. Intertrade Ireland has taken a significant lead in driving clear, communication for business, all of which is available on their website. Newry Chamber also has a wealth of knowledge on the situation. Businesses can apply for grant support from Intertrade Ireland to help understand how the various potential outcomes could impact them; and what they will need to do to mitigate these outcomes. I would also recommend following some key players on Twitter for updates.
These are my go-to people for updates- Dr Katy Hayward and David Phinnemore from Queens, Tony Connolly from RTE and John Campbell BBC, and then for industry perspectives you should definitely follow Seamus Leheny, Transport and Freight Association, Aodhan Connolly, British Retail Consortium and Stephen Kelly, Manufacturing NI.
In the meantime Mr President elect, if you are reading, we sure could do with your help rectifying Brexit over here while you are ‘between jobs’. To quote Mr Biden quoting Seamus Heaney in ‘The Cure of Troy’- ‘But then, once in a lifetime, The longed for tidal wave, Of justice can rise up, And hope and history rhyme.’
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