Brexit’s happening, so let’s at least prepare for it

The Brexit negotiations have started, but for all the information emerging from the camps, a disinterested observer would hardly be aware that one of the most important periods in the long history of the UK is now under way. The current situation is like the Phoney War – for younger readers, the period during WWII between September 1939 and April 1940 when many Britons daily expected a major calamity, but nothing happened. The Germans called it the sitzkrieg, or “sitting war”. As then, people now are fed up with a policy of masterly inactivity, particularly on the part of the UK and, now that our exit from Europe is a fait accompli, they want it to be concluded with the utmost dispatch. Uncertainty is the dragging sea anchor that discourages productive and forward-looking economic activity. People cannot plan and there is a temptation to batten down the hatches until the coast is clearer. UK Exit Secretary David Davis’s team’s insistence that they do not want to provide a running commentary on the talks is in direct conflict with the EU’s Michel Barnier demanding transparency – though right now that transparency appears to apply only to matters advantageous to his side.…

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