According to reports, the use of the very term “Brexit” by government ministers has been banned by Downing Street, so keen are those around the prime minister to demonstrate that Brexit has indeed been “done”.
Of course, it has not: the trade talks will stretch across the next 11 months, even on the government’s own timetable. The reality is that, one way or another, they will drag out for many more years. After all, “Global Britain” is going to enter into talks with every major economic power in the world (America, Japan, China), as well as some of the smaller ones (New Zealand) in order to conclude groundbreaking ambitious trade deals. Even the most ardent Remainer should wish them luck as they go about that mammoth task. Nothing less will do if we are to have much hope of mitigating the real economic damage to be wrought by Brexit.
It is in this spirit that The Independent today presents its “Brexit Blueprint” for how the UK is to survive, even thrive, in the post-Brexit world. For we will need not only new trade relationships with the EU and others; we will also need a national strategy for success. In the prime minister’s phrase, we need to imagine who we can “unleash Britain’s potential”.
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The chancellor, Sajid Javid, has spoken of “human capitalism” – a glib phrase, but one that points to an awareness that for small, open economies such as Britain’s, our greatest asset is our people. The better educated and trained they are, the better they will make their living in a difficult post-Brexit world. Education, infrastructure, regional investment – all will form part of the Brexit damage limitation exercise.
So how can we possibly make Brexit work? Fresh thinking will be required. Caroline Lucas, for example, offers the novel idea of a citizens’ panel on climate change – something that might help to bridge the gap between people’s ready acceptance of the climate crisis and their reluctance to change their way of life. Iain Duncan Smith talks of the tactics we will need to get what we want from trade talks with both Europe and America. Jonathan Powell assesses how Britain can marshal its diplomatic resources to best advantage as it loses the EU’s leverage in international relations. Leaders in farming, the automotive sector and fisheries highlight what government can do to support them as they try to make the most of a Brexit they did not necessarily wish for.
Those who opposed Brexit, who joined with The Independent in the Final Say campaign for a second, confirmatory referendum, and who want the UK to rejoin the EU as soon as possible, are right to remain sceptical about Brexit. Yet it is happening, and we have now to polish this most unpromising of stones. It is always going to be true that the UK will be worse off outside the EU than it should have been inside it – but that does not mean that economic growth is impossible, or that Britain has to accept its destiny without trying to make the best of this bad job. Remainers may allow themselves some time for sadness, just as Leavers celebrate. But then it is time to put into motion a different kind of debate about what will inevitably become a different kind of country.
