I know it’s the major sticking point on the progression of Brexit negotiations, and I get that it is absolutely fundamental to economic security once we leave the EU, but I am fed up to the back teeth of the ongoing discussion about trade deals.
It’s not trade deals per se that I have an issue with, although I could launch into a bit of a rant about why reverting to WTO rules could prove costly for us all (and I’m not even an economist), but rather my fundamental problem is that trade appears to be dominating this debate as if it is the only thing that matters.
Of course it is important and I am certainly worried about the economic impact of us leaving the EU, but shall I tell you what else I’m worried about – I’m worried about all of the ‘soft issues’ that aren’t even getting a look in. Things like identity, culture, place. Things that don’t have a value measured in sterling, and are therefore not even part of the government’s plans or of the wider discussions. Once we leave the EU Britain will be a fundamentally different place, not because we can’t buy cheap Renaults, but because the position we’ve occupied in Europe for the last half a century will be no longer, and with it, our place as citizens of a wider community of allies, friends and neighbours will have finished. And yet absolutely nobody is talking about that.
Trade is of course a pre-cursor to many of these things. Political figures of the past realised that an ever closer trading arrangement would force Europe’s super powers to improve their bilateral relationships, and trade deals have continued to underpin our international ties ever since. Which begs the question why we’re so eager to throw it all down the pan. But never the less, I am concerned that there is no real intellectual debate going on anywhere about what leaving the EU will mean for people beyond the cash in our wallets.
Not a single politician is willing to have a serious discussion about the wider ramifications of Brexit and it infuriates me. So forget trade deals, I want someone to start talking about what this great new dawn will mean for our sense of national identity, or for my personal connection with global neighbours that the Daily Mail are busy painting as enemies of our democracy.
We will be a poorer nation for this decision, in more ways than one.
Politics on the side 