Guernsey Press

Frustration of Brexit long way from ending

FRUSTRATING. That is how P&R president Gavin St Pier has summed up the Brexit process thus far. It’s a sentiment likely shared by many of us.

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Whether remainers or leavers, it’s frustrating because Brexit was not a decision that our community made. But it is one that impacts profoundly on us. Resources – in other words money, time and people – have had to be diverted from other priorities. There are the unknown costs of this, the what-ifs.

If those resources had not needed to be switched, what could have been achieved here in Guernsey? Progress in areas dear to islanders’ hearts? It is an unanswerable but frustrating question, especially given the years that have now passed since that fateful referendum in the UK when British voters backed to leave the European Union.

Deputy St Pier has also talked about necessary preparations that the States, as a responsible government, has had to make for all Brexit scenarios.

The constantly shifting deadlines and political wrangling in Westminster and Brussels has left us, though, facing the potential of Brexit preparation teams being stood up, stood down and stood up again repeatedly. Such steps are necessary, but doubly frustrating because there is no absolute certainty on what will happen next in the Brexit saga in the immediate future or more long-term.

A December general election in the UK may or may not happen, while a Brexit extension could be short or run into January next year. But it’s far from clear whether such scenarios will resolve Brexit-related uncertainty.

Even if Boris Johnson’s withdrawal agreement is ultimately passed by MPs, there could be another Brexit cliff-edge at the end of the proposed transition deal in December 2020. If there is a deal on the final UK-EU relationship, that will also have implications for Guernsey - which will need careful consideration. It’s a situation where, whether we like it or not, that the island could find itself having to spend considerable time and resource in planning for.

As Deputy St Pier has said, it’s very much not the end of the Brexit story for Guernsey either.