“It was the best of times, it was the worst of time, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness” starts A Tale of Two Cities – the famous Charles Dickens historical novel set in the time of the French Revolution. And, whilst we might not be quite at the revolution stage in the UK, these words would seem a fair summary of how we find ourselves with just six months to go until Brexit becomes a reality.
In my last article I wrote of how there was lots of posturing within government but no real progress on negotiations with the EU. Here we are, six months later, and the uncertainty remains. Worryingly, virtually nothing has changed. In March I talked about growing uncertainty in agriculture, Brexit and the wider economy, and this remains the case. If anything, the situation is getting more unstable as we move closer to March 2019, without any apparent idea of the shape of Brexit and there remains just a short window of time for a deal to be done if we are to avoid the cliff edge of a no deal departure. Of course, what compounds this is that our own politicians can’t agree. UK politics is as fractured as ever and the result is that not one political party seems capable of finding a solution that would get sufficient support to be voted through parliament, let alone be agreed by the EU negotiators….
