It’s reported that the Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce said: “There are no more words to describe the frustration, impatience, and growing anger amongst business after two and a half years on a high-stakes political rollercoaster ride that shows no sign of stopping.[1]”
I’m sure that those words would be echoed by a great number of people in the aviation sector.
A defeat of 230 votes is massive. MPs have rejected the Prime Minister’s proposals by the biggest UK Government defeat in modern history. That ought to be a signal to change direction but we have yet to see if a new approach will be forthcoming.
Beyond the political hoo-ha there’s the need to act. A great deal of implementing legislation needs to be passed through the UK Parliament, whatever the destination. Naturally, this is needed if the Article 50 letter is not withdrawn and the whole Brexit process stopped.
The European Union (EU) continues to flourish despite having faced innumerable hard problems thrown at it over many decades. This is not Greenland[2], this is a large and prosperous Country giving up its membership of the EU. Thus, the avoidance of the loose-loose scenario, of a No Deal Brexit should be at the top of everyone’s priority list. Meanwhile large sums of money, that could have been used growing European businesses are being pumped into contingencies.
If this Withdraw Agreement (WA) is not acceptable as it stands then it may return as WA2 but don’t expect that to be substantially different from what’s already on the table. Alternatively, there could be public vote to consider the options.
The e-mail subscriptions to “SkyWise[3]” is useful to stay up-to-date with news, safety alerts, consultations, rule changes and airspace amendments from the UK CAA. The site has a section for EU exit alerts.
There is useful material out there, but it indicates a poor state of readiness given all the caveats and unknowns that exist. Just as business leaders are warning, the UK is like a super-tanker heading for the rocks. 72 days isn’t long to put that right.
[1] https://news.sky.com/story/growing-anger-frustration-and-impatience-from-businesses-over-brexit-11608581
[2] https://www.politico.eu/article/greenland-exit-warning-to-britain-brexit-eu-referendum-europe-vote-news-denmark/
[3] http://skywise.caa.co.uk/category/eu-exit/
John Vincent 