Frontline Brexit

Why do I care so much about Brexit? Well, apart from not wanting my country or fellow Brits to be poorer and have less opportunities than I have had, Dover will be frontline Brexit, and it will be here that the first wave of chaos will strike

As I write this tonight, there is a 5 mile queue of traffic waiting to get to the port, and Jools is stuck in it, this is normal. Can happen at least one night a week, turning a 40 minute commute into one of an hour or two. In the past 25 years, as the Tunnel opened, all of the other Kent ports closed as all the traffic came through Dover because the crossing was its shortest, getting to Calais in about and hour and ten minutes. In that quarter century, the process of getting to and through the port has been more and more streamlined.

All this means that the port is operating at 90% capacity most days, meaning any holdups in the port or on the other side of the Channel, or a ferry breaks down, creates instant backlogs which quickly snake up the A20 to Folkestone and then onto the motorway. In extreme cases, "Operation Stack" is imposed, where lanes are turned into lorry parks. In the worst year, 2016, there was 14 weeks of stack and as each phase was introduced, more and more lanes of the motorway was turned over to trucks waiting, until phase IV, when there were at least two lanes of parked trucks on each carriageway, and us locals got round as best we could.

Any imposition, therefore, of anything which slows the check in and immigration checks for cars but most importantly for truck would mean queues building with no hope of seeing the end of it, if a hard border is imposed. So, my desire to stay in either or both the SM and/or CU is selfish, I don't want the town in gridlock. And yet this is what is going to happen, especially as there is zero preparation being undertaken here with Brexit day being just fourteen months away. More offices, customs sheds, recruitment of officials and guards has yet to begin. It has taken DHB nearly two years to have a multistory car park demolished. The chances of the infrastructure needed for a hard or no deal Brexit is zero. It will be chaos on legs, and like it for years, potentially.

Last autumn, the UK Government promised The City a detailed position paper on Financial Services post-Brexit. It was delayed several times before Christmas, and now seems unlikely to be published at all. Meaning many companies in The City who were waiting to see what the Government were aiming for, will now have to decide whether to stay or leave using nothing provided from the Government. This is clearly incredible, but I would suspect it was only the FT that reported this, as the rest are all full of "Isn't the Brexit Lovely" stories. There is no trade deal in the world at the moment that included financial services, which means a bespoke one would have to be created. In 6 months. If Britain knew what it wanted. Or the PM knew.

This morning, the Foreign Secretary made it known he was all for demanding an extra £6 billion a year for the NHS. Depaite the treasury and Health were not his ministerial area. In normal times, he would have been sacked for this. Mind you he could have been sacked on a weekly, sometimes daily basis, as he seems to be actively undermining Government policy. A press statement said he was "rebuked". That he voted against a motion to better fund the NHS before Christmas is a mere trifle, I'm sure.

Ian Duncan Smith accused the CBI who have spoken in favour of staying in the SM, of appeasement, like Britain tried with the Nazis. He did this in The Mail. Who once had a headline "Hoorah for the Blackshorts". You really could not make this up.

Jaguar is cutting its workforce and investment due to brexit and uncertainty.

In contrast to most of the First World economies, Britain is forecasted to stagnate further while the EU, America, Japan all will surge ahead. Wonder what the cause could be.

And all the while, the phase 1 agreement has yet to be signed off.