COLUMN: Drawing a line in Brexit talks

How chaotically the time in between has seemed to pass. Yet here we are, less than a year and a half from the official leaving date of March 29, 2019.

Of course we’re all familiar with the complete hash the British negotiating team have made of striking an exit deal so far. How, all too often, they have played to a niche domestic audience of committed Brexiters.

The UK’s position has felt long on waffle and short on details of what the final terms of our departure should look like. The mantra “taking back control” has taken on an almost mystical aura unrelated to the real world.

Meanwhile, we have reached an impasse predicted at the very moment Article 50 was triggered.

Namely, that once the EU has set out its basic position as a bloc of 27 nations, it is fiendishly complex for them to change it without reaching fresh agreement among all of the same 27.

Imagine the logistics of that discussion. In other words, the scope for negotiation was always going to be very limited.

Alas, amidst all the emotion swilling around, those who favour a hard Brexit seem to have forgotten one basic fact: in business and life and negotiating any hugely complex cycle of change, the devil is always, always in the details. Slogans and fake promises about £350 million going to the NHS just won’t cut the mustard.

And so we find ourselves stuck on three rocks: the divorce bill, EU citizen’s rights post-Brexit and the Northern Irish border.

ON THE ROCKS? Brexit Secretary David Davis

Now, it has always seemed to me that the best way to find a mutually satisfactory deal in a negotiation is to take on board the interests of all parties. That means not just the interests of a fractured, enfeebled government desperate to cling onto power.

One of the aforementioned rocks is Northern Ireland. The basis of the Good Friday Agreement is a power sharing agreement between Unionists and Nationalists in Stormont that now seems in jeopardy. How it will play out post-Brexit should worry us all.

Really, no one has a clue what will happen. And that feels the most disturbing aspect of the failures enacted by David Davis on our nation’s behalf.

As has been pointed out in this column before, York voted to Remain by 58 per cent to 42 per cent. We have a perfect right to expect a sensible Brexit deal driven by pragmatic considerations of trade and human rights, not some mysterious notion of “taking back control”.

So here are a few “red lines” I would like to suggest to Mrs May and her three Horsemen of Brexit Chaos: David Davis, Liam Fox and Boris “the Bungler” Johnson.

Firstly, business expects to be able to trade with our biggest export market on terms as least as favourable as when we were in the EU. No hard Brexit, thank you.

Secondly, us ordinary folk do not want to have our rights at work weakened by leaving the EU. Already we are a nation plagued by zero hour contracts and disgracefully low pay.

Thirdly, most of us actually welcome a managed level of migration. The economy desperately needs foreign workers of all skill levels, as is illustrated by the NHS and agricultural sector. In York, a city with two vibrant universities, EU students should be welcomed with open arms.

Fourthly, we are morally obliged to ensure that existing EU nationals’ rights are fully guaranteed and that includes the right to marry whom they please and bring spouses into the country. Our neighbours, friends and relatives from EU countries should be allowed to plan their futures without fear.

Fifthly, we want to retain the EU’s high standards for food and the environment. No chlorinated chicken from the US, please.

The time is too short for any more self-seeking posturing by the government. They need to prove they can make a success of Brexit or offer a second referendum on the final terms. No one voted to be worse off by leaving the EU. We expect nothing less.