DEON GOUWS: Brexit: the biggest own goal a nation has ever scored – Financial Mail

Once again, I was only half-joking. The Sainsburys on our high street still has stocks of food and taps at the local have yet to run dry. But both petrol stations on my morning run in North London have effectively been closed for weeks now, and theres talk that the energy crisis may not be fixed until next year. Load-shedding over Christmas, anyone?

There is, of course, a critical shortage of heavy goods vehicle drivers in the UK, now that those from Eastern Europe have returned to the continent and most of them cannot be bothered to deal with the additional red tape involved in crossing the English Channel following Brexit.

In the wake of this, the UK government fast-tracked the approval of 5,000 special visas for non-UK drivers of fuel tankers recently, but only 27 applications were received; Downing Street was reportedly "infuriated" by this.

One wonders what the UK government actually expected, given that immigration has been the main crutch used by Brexiteers in their arguments and policy decisions for years. It was the former chair and CEO of Citicorp, Walter Wriston, who said decades ago that capital goes where it is welcome and stays where it is well treated. This clearly applies to all forms of capital, including the human version. If I were a lorry driver from Slovenia, Id probably also prefer to drive from Ljubljana to Lodz rather than taking the long road to London or Liverpool.

The politicians will, of course, remind one that Covid also had something to do with this problem. And they would be right: supply chain issues have been experienced in other parts of the world as well.

But nowhere has it been as acute as weve seen on the British forecourts over the past month. The winter of our discontent may just have started.

Which brings me to a remark from another Twitter friend, following my tongue-in-cheek response to Schsslers question: she said that it never sounds like Im actually happy to be living in the UK.

I wrote back saying that Im delighted to be here however, it does help to have a sense of humour. The one thing which I confess to moaning about repeatedly, though, is Brexit in my view, probably the biggest own goal a nation has ever scored in the history of the world.

I think the situation will probably get worse before it gets better. One can only hope those sunlit uplands promised by Boris and his Brexit buddies will in fact arrive one day.

Thankfully, we do at least have the lovely English weather to enjoy in the meantime.

Deon Gouws is chief investment officer at Credo Wealth, London

Follow this link:

DEON GOUWS: Brexit: the biggest own goal a nation has ever scored - Financial Mail