I’m going to agree with Theresa May about one thing: this election is about #brexit. But so is the next one – and the one after that.
Advocates of #brexit never admitted one thing: how vast and complex it would be. The truth is, it will consume all areas of government at almost every level for the next decade at least:
- Parliament will spend its time churning through legislation to replace EU-level regulators and agencies.
- The government will have to spend time replacing all trade agreements with non-EU states.
- 759 separate non-trade agreements, on things like nuclear fuel to aviation, will have to be renegotiated with about 168-non EU parties.
- Government will have to sift through all EU legislation transferred into UK law through the so-called ‘Great Repeal Bill’ (itself a huge and unprecedented transfer of powers to the executive).
- Departments will have to be enlarged at dramatic cost just to cope with the huge workload.
- Civil servants recruited at every level of administration en-masse (devolved and national) to cope with things like customs checking and boring yet important details about fisheries.
And we haven’t even got to the divorce deal or trade deal between the UK and the EU – the latter of which will take five years at least.
So when someone who voted Conservative or Leave tells you to vote May for the good of the economy, or for strength and stability, turn to them, and with all the good will in the world, tell them to go fuck themselves.
