Quote:
Originally Posted by Sephiroth
I'd like to put something forward that touches both Covid and Brexit.
1/
Covid doesn't care about the EU or the UK. But Covid has laid low both the EU and UK.
2/
Accordingly, Single Market, Free Movement, Customs Union - they have little relevance to the UK in the Covid context (not speaking for other EU countries).
3/
Covid is something where the population are important stakeholders. The EU, as we know, is not a nation state. To act on behalf of all EU nations where there is no particular competence (as with Covid), the agreement of all 27 members is required such that specific powers are conferred on the EC.
4/
What would have been the case if the UK had been an EU member? Is there a clue when, in the transition year, the UK was invited to join the EU vaccine procurement collective? Presuming that the Oxford Vaccine (and AZ) were all lined up from earlier in the year, I don't think the UK government would have wished to support the EU proposition.
5/
But then if May had remained PM, she would almost certainly have locked on to the EU proposition.
6/
Because the need to survive (a pandemic) trumps everything except public order, the UK people expect the government to pay close attention to its own. The EU is proving itself to be an enemy - a real enemy. I think that Boris' current approach, in so far as we can glean, is the right one. Not to threaten, maintain reticence, hold the line and let the EU keep on being the bad boys.
7/
How right we were to leave the EU. Our lives matter more than the Single Market.
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But let's not forget it is in the UKs interest for EU states to get over the pandemic and open up for business. Every time trade figures come out, some people go 'aha, Brexit!' and others go 'aha, COVID!' If the 'aha COVID!' people are right, then the restoring of normal economic activity in the EU can only be a good thing for the UKs trade figures.