Post-Brexit

Brexit Was Sold as Taking Back U.K. Control. Post-Brexit Is Out of Control.

This is from The New York Times on Feb 12th 2021. A few highlights below.

As the new year made Brexit a reality, Tony Hale…confronted the need to extricate 53 tons of rotting pork products from administrative purgatory at a port in the Netherlands.

… incorrectly prepared documents meant sending five containers full of pork to… — the incinerator.

The trade deal… stopped tariffs from being imposed on goods… but did not prevent the revival of customs procedures, health and safety checks, value-added taxes on imports, and other time-consuming, commerce-limiting hindrances.

On Friday, the Office of National Statistics announced that Britain’s economy contracted by nearly 10 percent last year, the worst plunge in centuries.

The volume of exports crossing the channel in January collapsed by more than two-thirds…

Roughly half of all trucks bringing goods from Calais to Dover are now returning empty…

Administration officials have minimized Brexit troubles, describing them as “teething problems” that will subside once businesses master the intricacies of the new procedures.

Britain’s lucrative finance industry has seen trading in the stocks of European companies shift abruptly to the continent…

“We are going to be living with Brexit for the rest of our lives,” … “The coronavirus is an acute condition. Brexit is chronic.”

And so on, you get the picture…