Brexit has apparently created a dead-lock situation. We can’t have free access to the EU market without free movement of workers but most of our politicians feel that the referendum result has created a mandate to prevent free movement - so the only way out would appear to be the loss of the Single Market, which would be very bad news for multinationals who have EU manufacturing plant in this country. However, we can’t even plan round that option yet because of the uncertainty.
Meanwhile, American politicians are talking quite a lot about ‘Bringing American Jobs Home’ - which equates to protectionism. Trump would be the worst option, but even Clinton is saying similar things.
But there’s always China. As the Brexiteers always liked to point out, this is the kind of market that our entrepreneurs ought to be addressing - but whoops! - it seems that our new best friends are getting slightly miffed over the possibility of us cancelling the reactor deal.
So we are turning our back on Europe just at the point when America is considering a policy of protectionism and we are about to upset the Chinese.
Does all this bode well for the future?
