Paul Arnott column: Brexit turkeys are coming home to roost – Sidmouth Herald

Last Thursday, I left England for the first time in two years and headed by car to Glasgow to see our 30 year old son wed last seen at Christmas 2019, during which time he had married with us unable to attend.

It was a wonderful three night stay, and we were reassured that although he and his wife live in South Glasgow where lockdown had been as severe as anywhere in the UK, all was well with them. Of course, travel is always an opportunity for understanding other things from outside of ones normal perspective, which can get a bit East Devon-centric in my case.

So, South Glasgow. Well, their area is a bit like Hackney or Shoreditch or Brixton in London, a place which people used to flee from 30 years ago and now are desperate to move back to. The youngsters are attracted by the amazing restaurant, shopping and cultural community ignited by Kurdish refugees from the first Gulf War back in 1991, and their later arrivals.

Adding to the mix have been Polish, Romanian, Hungarian and other arrivals, all benefitting from freedom of movement within the European Union. The result of all these arrivals: economic growth, the restoration of a dying community, the refurbishment of miles of once notorious tenement flats into something actually desirable.

However, on the long drive south listening to Radio Four all day for seven and a half straight hours, all I could hear were stories of the results of leaving the EU happening right here and right now. I have already written about how your own waste and recycling service has been affected by the grave shortage of HGV drivers nationally, and again I thank you for your patience.

Now the turkeys are coming home to roost or rather, they are not. Put a bid in for your Christmas turkey now, because over in the turkey breeding parts of the country there is nobody left to rear them. Meanwhile, food processors represented by The Association of Independent Meat Suppliers are begging the government to allow more prisoners on day release to process our meats. You may have to learn how to wrap bacon round your own sausages if you want pigs in blankets this year.

This week, McDonalds are telling us that they are unable to provide milkshakes and other products, while last week Nandos, whose whole raison detre is chicken, told us they were running out of chicken. Still off the radar are the inner city schools I have been told about whose rolls have shrunk to an economically non-viable state by the departure of the EU-origin children.

In summary, the worst element of the Brexiteers wanted Europeans sent back to where they belong. Well guys, they heard that, and theyve gone, and as many of us warned you we have to live with the consequences of the propagandising of the Daily Express, Mail and Telegraph.

What on earth has this act of self-harm achieved? A supposedly proud, global Britain resorting to prison labour. If Dickens were alive today hed have a novel about this written and published by Christmas.

And being Dickens, who was a bit preachy sometimes to be frank, hed look for a moral to the whole chaotic story. I cant guess what his would be, but if he were here Id suggest one. Brexit is a story of devious men lying to a nation to gain power who promised a bounty for the nations health and wealth and knew they were lying.

Most of all, these are men who said at the time judge us by the consequences, who promised that they would own the result. Well, where are you now Tory fellow travellers? It looks to me you were about as well prepared for this as you were for our shameful departure from Afghanistan. Which of you have themoral courage to admit this now?

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Paul Arnott column: Brexit turkeys are coming home to roost - Sidmouth Herald