At this critical stage in the progression of Brexit, David Casarejos, Presidente del Consejo de Residentes en el Norte de Reino Unido, and who is based in Leeds, offers a viewpoint for a Spanish audience – in English of course!
We could laugh for a while – it could well be treated as a comedy if it weren’t for the seriousness of the matter.
The British after Brexit will not be able to enjoy the benefits of the EU … do you realize now?
The problems will not be exclusive to businessmen, hauliers, ports, airports, logistics or national security. They are going to be felt in families, wages and shopping baskets.
Queues in airports
Recently, several British media spoke of one of the consequences of Brexit: not being able to use the queue for European citizens when entering EU airports and having to use the route for citizens of third countries. It is estimated, for example, that at Schiphol Amsterdam airport, this can be translated into an extra hour to be added to a journey. And if you have to use connections with other flights, it can complicate trips a lot.
Hundreds of comments in the newspapers adorned the news: “I did not vote for this”; “We are going to take an hour more to start the holidays”; “I hope this is fixed before the departure from the European Union”. If only there were a Brexit in which they could choose which parts of the EU they kept, and which were the ones they did without.
It is not the first time that Brexiters have raised their voices on similar issues that are nothing more than a consequence of what was voted for.
Another such consequence is the need to have an international driving licence, instead of the British one, to be able to rent or drive vehicles in the rest of the European Union. Another bureaucratic procedure to be carried out by those who wanted to leave a European Union supposedly full of unelected bureaucrats.
And although they did not want paperwork, Brexit will cause exactly the opposite – a multitude of procedures, including those for imports and exports that the UK will continue to have with countries of the European Union, but at a much higher price.
Queues at Dover
Kent, a county in the south of England that showed great support for leaving the European Union, with 59 per cent of votes in favour, is already seeing how, in an attempt to solve the infinite queues that transporters will suffer in this county, large parking lots for trucks are being built. Incidentally, these are to transport all the essential products that daily enter the UK and leave for Europe.
The wealthy citizens of Kent do not like or want to have the roads full of heavy vehicles. They have been showing their discontent for months with all these measures that are going to affect their daily lives.
Queues for databases
Another issue is access to security systems and databases that are shared between the police of the different member states, and from which the United Kingdom may be eliminated or have restricted access.
The consequences are serious, increasing the danger within its borders. Likewise, collaboration between France and the United Kingdom in the settlements of migrants keen to sail in dinghies to Dover. This is going to change considerably – arrests and extraditions will now take longer.
Also under threat is access to the European Galileo GPS system, that we all use to guide us when we drive, or which marks on our mobile the route we are following when walking or running. Initially, the UK decided to create an alternative system, but recently decided to stop because of the cost over £5 billion. Now, the plan is to access an American system as an interim solution.
It has just been confirmed that the UK will not participate in Erasmus. UK citizens will not be able to use their mobiles at zero cost. The quality of food in British supermarkets will suffer the impact of possible deregulation – will the infamous American chlorine-washed chicken arrive? Aircraft pilots will have to be recognised in and validated in the EU, carriers the same, and flights will not be insured. Who thought that leaving the “evil EU” would lead to so many headaches?
The list is endless and sometimes, as a resident of the United Kingdom, I maliciously think that it is no less than what we/they deserve for allowing that referendum to be conducted in that way, based on lies, and not taking seriously the consequences that we are going to suffer in the coming years and decades.
Perhaps the most serious thing of all is the feeling of helplessness, knowing that there is already a clear majority that wants to reverse the result of that referendum. But we are told “it has already been voted on once.”
Elections held every four or five years, with random referendums, can cause long-term consequences, even permanent ones. The young people who overwhelmingly want to continue in the European Union see how that older population overwhelmingly decided the future of the country they will live in. Yet they themselves will suffer few consequences.
It will be the young people who cannot enjoy the benefits that their grandparents and parents had as citizens of the European Union.
- Articles reflect the views of the author and not necessarily of Kent Bylines.
- The British after Brexit will not be able to enjoy the benefits of the EU … do you realise now?
