Over the last couple of days and this weekend there have been a number of challenges which have appeared in Newspapers regarding the impact of our departure from the EU. Of course they could easily be minor items that will not impact us very much in the long term, or alternatively they could be issues that dramatically strip out the parts of our nation that so many of us have found very encouraging over the last 50 years. I was in my early teenage years when our nation joined the agency that has now been transformed to the EU, with dramatic involvement from our nation through Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Tony Blair along with their colleagues. The nature of our economy at the beginning of the 1970’s was a time when it was clear we needed a major shift and although many people argued against the Edward Heath focus on getting us into the European Deal, and some of the obstacles were UK based and some were European based, after the first couple of years the trade benefits became very evident.

So the images above are indicating that businesses that had no intention of moving to Europe for their trading overseas are now having to do so or at least are being encouraged to do so by the Government. This is far more than opening an office overseas, but even that was not necessary a year ago. There is also the stripping out of the UK jobs and money. Then there is the calls that suggest that our trade deal with the USA will take at least 4 years and indeed that Joe Biden would want us to rejoin the EU. There is also plenty of evidence that many of the current trade deals which our nation has made in recent months are only temporary fixes based on what the EU has had with most of the same nations and as time goes on they will need to be revisited and may take a long time to get refitted if we take different approaches to the rest of the EU.

These factors however are very modest by comparison to the prospect of Northern Ireland finally leaving the UK and reconnecting with Eire and forming a very seperate nation in our area. The Scottish Independence in many senses will be less clear but if that happens too, our need to reconnect with both of those nations may require us to reconnect with the EU which economically would make a great deal of sense and would enable us to draw back businesses that have already left or are having to extend out of our nation primarily to help them to remain in a position to work.

So the question is how soon will it be before a new potential Government will review and potentially offer us to do a u turn on the Brexit situation. Clearly if Scotland and Northern Ireland leave our nation the numbers of people who voted for us to leave the EU will become much greater based on the 2016 referendum situation. However there are parts of England that are very disappointed that we have left and there will be many others who are very disappointed that Scotland and Northern Ireland are seeking stronger independence. Perhaps places such as Brighton and Hove and Lewes along with other places that were opposed to our departure will begin to call for change sooner than the next General Election?