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It is three years since Boris Johnson was photographed in Downing Street punching the air in jubilation at the news that the EU had finally agreed to a Brexit deal.
That celebration was all part of the spin on the ability of the government to claim it had delivered on its key promise to “get Brexit done.”
At a press conference, the then PM said: “We have taken back control of our laws and our destiny” and the announcement was a “good deal for the whole of Europe”.
But the pace of progress the UK has made has been glacial to the point where negotiations on new trade deals are not moving at all.
And it is hard to see what direct benefits Brexit has brought to Kent – the ‘Gateway to Europe’.
We have become accustomed to the sight of lorries stalled on the M20 and the dreaded words ‘Operation Brock’, a metaphor perhaps for the feeling that we are in Brexit limbo, waiting for the next move.
The pictures of a vast but empty Ashford Inland Border Facility, designed to carry out checks on particular goods coming into or going out, is another reminder that there is a damaging stalemate. The 230-acre site increasingly looks like becoming a white elephant, lit up at night like a distant cousin of the Millenium Dome.
Meanwhile, Eurostar trains are forced to run with empty seats because Brexit passport rules mean lengthier checks; and as yet, there is precious little optimism that services will resume from either Ashford or Ebbsfleet.
The care sector says the impact on recruitment has left large numbers of vacancies unfilled, with think-tank the Nuffield Trust saying in a report published in December last year “there has been no marked uptick in care worker recruitment with international recruitment of care workers virtually stopping in spring 2020.”
The report stated in stark language that “the economic hit of Brexit combined with the worst cost of living crisis for a generation is reducing living standards creating additional need for health and care.”
Meanwhile, there is still little to cheer for Kent’s hospitality sector, with holiday bookings down and the closure of restaurants and hotels aggravated by the continuing impact of Covid and the cost-of-living crisis.
Opinion polls seem to suggest that voters are increasingly concerned that the Brexit dividend has not been delivered. But the appetite for a new poll is limited – even among those who opposed Brexit.
And who could blame them for that? The referendum in 2016 proved deeply divisive. Going through the trauma of another vote would cause even deeper political fractures and stoke resentment at a time when political stability is needed to steer a path through the thickets of Brexit.
As things stand, the Brexit balance sheet is firmly in the red.
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