A few days ago it emerged in the Sunday Times Newspaper that last Thursday Michael Gove had held what is being described as his

final behind-closed-doors video call with small and medium-sized business owners, ranging from children’s toy makers to packaging companies, to hear the unvarnished truth about their post-Brexit problems. It is a mark of the topsy-turvy state of politics that Gove, one of the leading campaigners for Brexit, is increasingly regarded as an ally by those with concerns. According to one attendee, the Cabinet Office minister was at pains to show that he “gets it”, and heard the plight of firms facing sudden bureaucracy and border delays first-hand. The person said: “There was a shift from saying there were teething problems to recognising that there are real issues here.”

Then yesterday lunchtime on twitter the James Milbourne piece at the top emerged which was copied and responded to by many people. James runs a business called Canagan which is a food supplier for pets. The response to Mr Milbourne from Greg Hands came in the afternoon presumably because he was getting embarrased at the wider level of interest and his comment is shown here and the response from James Milbourne is

Thanks Greg, your colleague referred my email to the Cabinet Office 18 days ago without answering any of my questions and subsequently I have heard nothing. Regardless, I look forward to discussing with you on Zoom. I will wait for your team to get in touch.

Also on Sunday, in this case in the Telegraph

Rishi Sunak told by ‘red wall’ Conservative MPs to reverse EU directive

Sales of new £45,000 motorhomes had slumped by 15 per cent after the tax hike triggered by an EU regulation last September

These are just three examples, two of which indicate that MPs or Ministers are beginning to grasp the challenges that they approved of back on Christmas Eve when they all agreed to have a deal with the EU that had only been placed in front of them about a week earlier. This is despite the fact that had our Government extended the transition until the deals were understood, we would potentially in a very different position. My own business does not export to the EU and although the majority of our products are imported from the EU it is our suppliers who are paying similar prices to those presumably being expressed to Mr Gove on Thursday. However the end result will potentially be equally difficult as we are now facing delays and in due course may also be facing increases in costs. Let us hope that in the very near future our Government will either reform its actions from back in December 2020 or we will get a new Government that will reverse the actions that this Government has made and set up a new relationship with the EU.