Guernsey Press

Bailiwick climbs aboard Brexit juggernaut

A HISTORIC day. And not just because the States met on a Christmas Sunday.

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The breathtaking speed with which the Brexit juggernaut has hurtled along the final few miles is unnerving. There has been no time to consider decisions which will govern generations to come.

Few of the deputies called to the Royal Court building for yesterday’s unprecedented meeting will have found time to read, let alone reflect upon, all the intricacies of the trade and co-operation agreement between the EU and UK.

Beyond a Control-F search of the 1,256-page document for ‘Bailiwick of Guernsey’, deputies were relying heavily on Policy & Resources.

Thankfully, their assessment was overwhelmingly positive. The deal was better than could have been hoped for. Better than had seemed possible even a few weeks ago.

The hard work had paid off. Years of cultivating the good opinion of UK ministers and MPs had brought a deal we could not only live with but enthuse about.

Protocol 3, the comfortable constitutional niche in which the islands have thrived for the past half century, has fallen by the wayside.

In its place is a deal that offers tariff-free trade, and protection for the island’s fisheries. Immigration arrangements and border controls will change but the Bailiwick retains the authority to govern its own patch. Finance should be untouched.

It will take months to pore over the detail of the treaty agreement and understand all the implications and even longer for the macro effects to be work through. There may even be areas where the Crown Dependencies are better off.

For now though the overwhelming sense of relief in the States yesterday was a cheering end to what has been a wretched year.

The chaos of no deal has been avoided and some stability and certainty can return. Our principal fears about fishing and trade have not materialised and the UK has stood by its promise that the islands would not be sacrificed for the greater good.

Inevitably, problems will come to light but, as the chief minister says, the future is there and beckons us forward. We should go out and grab it.