Hard-Brexit delusion of the day goes to David Davis’ former chief of staff. In a lengthy Telegraph column, ex-MP Stewart Jackson claims fears of food and medicine shortages if we crash out of the EU are “illogical” – pointing to the border between Bulgaria (an EU member) and Turkey (a non-EU country) as an example of a frontier that “can be seamless, with very low friction”.
It’s unclear whether Jackson has ever visited the border crossing at Kapıkule. Fortunately the Financial Times did the hard work for him back in February 2017. Its reporter found a 4km tailback of lorries inching its way towards the EU border. One trucker, who had been waiting 14 hours, described it as a “good day”, explaining the previous week had seen 7km queues. The record length is 17km, with waiting times up to 30 hours.
Jackson thinks there will be a “seamless” frontier because the UK and EU will recognise each others’ standards and inspections taking place away from the border. In contrast, the FT described drivers facing “mounds of paperwork, hours of waiting, a scrabbling for scarce transport permits and random inspections”.
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Click here to find out moreWhile Kapıkule is the busiest land border crossing in Europe, the volume of traffic through it is dwarfed by Dover. In 2013, the Turkey route saw 400,000 vehicles pass through. In the same year Dover saw 2.2 million freight vehicles alone, and 2.5 million cars.
And Turkey actually has a closer relationship with the EU than the hard Brexiter scheme to rely on the World Trade Organisation proposes if we crash out of the bloc. It has a customs union with the EU, meaning when those lorries do finally get to the border there are no duties to pay on the goods inside.
Turkey has geography in its favour too. It has a land border. Most of the goods entering the UK from the EU would be coming through Dover. That means additional complexities, such as space at the port. More northerly UK ports are already preparing to pick up some of the slack, it was reported today. But sending stuff on a long roundabout will waste time – as senior vice-president of Honda Europe told the FT.
As with Boris Johnson’s intervention on Monday, or that of Michael Gove’s buddy Nick Boles, Jackson ignores the daunting realities of leaving the EU. With every supposed blueprint it becomes more obvious that no one has a palatable Brexit strategy. Knowing that, the only thing to do is pass the whole thing back to the people – with an option to of staying in the EU.
InFacts contacted Stewart Jackson for comment on the Bulgaria-Turkey border claims in his column. At time of publication we had received no response.
Edited by Hugo Dixon
I think people should be made to realise that as well as the disruption to trade, what about visas that may be required to travel to European destinations? As a retired airline captain who went through European Airports many times before 1975 and saw the queues at Immigration and customs, I am very disappointed that those who want to leave the EU seem to think that the present way of travelling into European destinations will not change. It will almost certainly will change and I do not want my children and grandchildren to have to undergo those inconveniences as a result of Brexit.
Good to see Project Fantasy still alive and kicking
Very little information about impact on normal travellers, and remember the vast majority of foreign holidays by Brits are to other parts of Europe. Will people need to apply, or even be forced to pay for a travel visa? Imagine deciding on the spur of the moment for a weekend trip to Amsterdam. Would people have to start sorting their paperwork out weeks in advance? Then there is the question of queues at the borders. Its no good Brexiters trying to blame the French for longer queues. Why should they be made responsible for our self-inflicted complications?
Then there’s questions about money exchange. We are currently part of SEPA (Single European Payments Area) which simplifies transfers of money within Europe. If we drop out of that, its hardly going to make transfers either quicker or cheaper, to add to the abysmal exchange rate since the Brexit vote. Presumably the rate charged for credit card transactions will also increase. Add to that, the possibility of losing the EHIC health card, and so being at the mercy of private insurance policies with their numerous pages of get-out clauses.
The chances of all of the above increase dramatically in the event of a No Deal scenario. Did the people who voted for Brexit even think about any of the above? They were not all pensioners whose holidays never took them beyond the Isle of Wight.
More to the point, when are Dominic Raab and co. going to start addressing them? Or they going to be swept under the carpet for the sake of a “good deal”.