Two years after the UK left the EU, it’s fair to say not everything has gone swimmingly.
Feverish predictions society would collapse after Brexit unsurprisingly turned out to be wide of the mark – but it’s not been a picnic either.
The government has bounced from crisis to complication and back since the country officially ceased to be a member at 11pm on January 31, 2020.
Boris Johnson has today hailed the benefits of Brexit and promised more are to come.
The government is planning on introducing a Brexit Freedoms Bill, which it claims will introduce ‘cuts to red tape’ which ‘costs the economy £1bn’.
Whichever side of the debate you were on in 2016, it’s hard to argue it’s been entirely hiccup free.
Here are a selection of the bumps in the road the Brexit bus has barreled into over the last two years.
The sausage wars
Having summoned all the Churchillian posturing he could, Mr Johnson needed a war to fight.
An unlikely source would ensure he wasn’t all dressed up with nowhere to go: the chilled meats industry.
UK officials became locked in a tediously complex negotiation over rules on importing and exporting meat.
The top and bottom of it is that new rules meant the transportation of products like sausages made in Scotland, Wales and England would no longer be able to be sent to Northern Ireland without time-consuming checks.
More meaty matters were shelved and sausages became the unlikely hot topic at a meeting of the G7 hosted by the UK in Cornwall.
It meant president Biden’s first visit to these shores as US president involved a lot more turkey twizzler chat than he might have expected.
The fish wars
The Great Brexit Wars of 2021, it transpired, would be fought on two fronts.
Conflict spread from the meat aisle to the Channel as a row over fishing rights descended into chaotic protests.
French fishermen lit flares off the coast of Jersey and threatened to blockade ports and the Channel Tunnel over the spat.
It all centred around the process boats operating off France’s north coast needed to go through to get permission to keep fishing in British waters.
Dozens were denied permits over what the UK government described as incomplete applications.
Tensions have cooled now but the fractious issues of fishing rights could easily resurface in 2022.
Border delays and empty shelves
Were it a place, what would freedome look like?
A sweeping mountain range? A boundless field? The untamed sea?
Perhaps. What it probably would not look like is a giant lorry car park off the motorway in Kent.
Traffic measures are still in place to help keep traffic moving on the M20 near Ashford as hauliers contend with new import processes.
A giant new holding bay was dubbed a ‘concrete monstrosity’ by local residents – and it doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere soon.
It has become synonymous with one of the most persistent and unsolved complications of leaving the European Union: keeping goods moving.
The knock-on effect the Covid-19 pandemic had on the logistics industry means the timing of the UK’s decision to introduce a whole new border regime couldn’t have been timed much worse.
Ministers all but admitted this in September 2021 when expected changes were delayed once again.
The recurring sight of gaps on supermarket shelves can’t be totally put down to Brexit – but these news checks have played a role.
Northern Ireland
For many people, the Northern Ireland protocol sits alongside inflation and interest rates on a list of things in the news you’ve heard of but basically pretend to understand.
In Northern Ireland itself, the policy is detested by some communities and has become a source of protest and violence.
In short, the mechanism keeps Northern Ireland in the single market for goods despite it left the EU along with the rest of the UK.
It means there don’t have to be border checks along the border with the Republic – unthinkable for republicans – but it necessitates checks on good crossing the Irish Sea.
Some feel so strongly this drives a wedge between Northern Ireland and the UK that they have hijacked buses and set them alight.
Negotiations to reform it are ongoing but the government may yet resort to triggering Article 16, a clause which allows it to be suspended if it causes unrest or damage.
Lord Frost resignation
Every general needs a steadfast lieutenant and in Lord Frost, Boris Johnson had his.
The ex-diplomat had previously been the PM’s adviser when he was foreign secretary and was given a big promotion when Mr Johnson won a mandate to ‘get Brexit done’.
Lord Frost held a series of senior roles in the government operation, spearheading the talks that would define the UK post-EU future.
Lord Frost was the PM’s most trusted warrior, his loyalist friend, his committed disciple.
He resigned in December 2021 citing ‘concerns about the current direction of travel’ in post-Brexit policy.
Sandwiches confiscated at the border
As if having to fill in piles of new forms wasn’t bad enough, some British drivers even had their packed lunch pilfered.
Because new rules means meat can’t be imported from the UK, Dutch customs officials were filmed confiscating sandwiches wrapped in tin foil from hauliers.
In footage captured by Sky, one hungry driver can be heard asking if the officials would return the sandwiches if the meat was removed.
Petrol shortages
In September 2021, a fuel crisis gripped the nation and for weeks many struggled to fill up their cars.
Panic-buying was dismissed as the cause of the chaos but there was a more structural issue at play too.
Like other countries, the UK has a shortage of HGV drivers and before Brexit it might have turned to imported Labour from Europe to deal with the problem.
Brexit meant that option wasn’t really on the table and the government was determined it would instead attempt to train up enough British drivers.
That approach won favour with some – but in the meantime, the country had to get used to ‘empty’ signs up at their local garages.
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