I had to do a double-take yesterday. I thought I’d misheard. It was slipped into the news. The government was spending seven hundred million setting up new customs arrangements for when we leave in January. That will be new buildings, offices, equipment and personnel.
I can just imagine the ongoing costs of maintaining all that and paying all those wages.
Every person, and all goods, will have to be checked and processed. An immense new mountain of bureaucracy. A huge expense. Massive inconvenience.
I thought that one of the big moans about the EU was the bureaucracy? We will all be having a lot more to contend with and one thing is certain – we will pay for it. Every single one of us will be paying more.
I remember the lie on the side of Johnson’s bus – the Dominic Cummings boast about £350 million going to the NHS. These are the grateful men who are now going to make the nurses and cleaners, the heroes of Covid 19 who we all clapped for, pay exorbitant rates to park at the hospitals they work in. These low-paid people have to subsidise the NHS just to have the privilege of working there on minimum wage. I heard that the parking costs as much as £1500 a year! That’s a hell of a lot out of a minimum wage salary.
That £700,000,000 is the tip of a very big iceberg. How many extra civil servants? How many job losses? How much economic damage?
I wish there was some honesty here. There are huge costs and a huge gamble. Behind the scenes, Johnson is rushing through a trade deal with the US. What will that mean for the NHS, food standards, environmental standards or workers rights? I reckon chlorinated chicken is the least of it.
Some people think that this is worth it. They hate the EU. But let’s be honest about the real cost of Brexit. It is going to cost the whole nation a fortune.
Under the smokescreen of Covid 19, I reckon we are sliding into a Cummings-driven no-deal that will take generations to pay for.
Ever felt duped?