Like the cabinet, the public at large also seems uncertain about the implications of Brexit. The BBC today released a poll showing that, while 62% of people are positive about Britain’s future after the EU referendum, 35% are negative. Some of the other poll findings are more awkward for the Brexiteers.
A quarter of Britons have considered leaving the country since the Brexit vote, the poll reveals. Almost twice as many Britons think the UK’s reputation abroad has been damaged by the Brexit vote (46%) as think it has been improved by the vote (27%).
The Minister responsible for developing a strategy for Britain and Brexit, David Davis, a long-time Eurosceptic, appears to have no strategy and is accused of generalised waffling, even though he has had years to work out what to do in the event of departure from the EU.
The government is a total shambles over Brexit. May keeps repeating the mantra: ‘Brexit means Brexit.’ But she won’t tell us exactly what that means. Will we leave the Single Market? What will the immigration rules be? Will all EU funding for regional investment, science, education and agriculture be replaced by the government? No one seems to know.
I’m also sick of smug Brexiters saying that because the economy hasn’t collapsed, they’ve been proved definitively right. Article 50 hasn’t even been triggered yet. The economy is growing at a decent if unimpressive rate, fuelled by an unsustainable London property bubble, high net migration, record low interest rates and a slowdown of austerity (Hammond’s fiscal policy ‘reset’.) None of that will continue for the long term. So the economy will slow down, its only a question of by how much. And of course, the EU won’t help us at all.