Brexit’s Troubles Aren’t All Teething Problems
Boris Johnson will come under pressure to blame the EU for new costs and frictions. Instead, he should seek to reduce trade barriers.
Brexit remains in choppy waters.
Photographer: Bloomberg/Jason Alden
For anyone who thought Brexit was done in 2020, the early signs are that it will, once virus woes settle, become Boris Johnson’s biggest headache. Again.
It’s not a great sign when a formerly pro-Brexit lobby is suddenly furious about a part of the deal that was billed as a triumph. “The key is we’ve got our fish back and they’re now British fish and they are better and happier for it,” arch-Brexiter Jacob Rees-Mogg told a near-empty Parliament last week. Whether or not the fish are happier is unproven, but fishers, as the largely family-owned businesses that catch them are called, surely are not.