Thread by @jayrayner1

THREAD: last month I wrote about the next stage of Brexit: delayed border controls for food stuffs coming into the UK, which would crush supply from small EU producers and exacerbate food inflation. Lo, those controls have been delayed for a fifth time 1/
theguardian.com/politics/2023/…

On the one hand there's the relief of respite from an avalanche of costly bureaucracy. Many in hospitality and food retail will see this as a positive. And in the short term it is. But let's drill down for the moment on why this situation exists. Cos it's not good 2/

Why is there even the suggestion of checks? Because during Brexit negotiations the UK refused to have an agreement which involved the recognition of each other's food standards. 3/

The UK did this because they wanted the 'freedom' to do deals with third countries whose standards did not align with those of the EU. (Or, non-euphemastically, were not not as stringent.) Therefore the EU demanded checks because they couldn't be sure what the UK might send. 4/

Those checks have already been brought in by the EU side and it has indeed had an impact on exports from the UK to the EU. We meanwhile keep putting them off. Because as even Jacob Rees-Mogg has said, it would be an act of self harm 5/
huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/rees-mog…

But what it also means is that right now, there are no controls on what is coming into the food supply chain in the UK. We're not checking anything. We could have avoided this by recognising each others food standards during negotiations. 6/

Better still we could have avoided this if a bunch of hucksters, xenophobes and, in certain cases, downright liars had not pursued the true act of self-harm: Brexit itself. But then you knew I'd say that. Ends/