Hard to believe it was 37 years ago today when Margaret Thatcher sent a task force to the Falkland Islands to remove the invading Argentine forces. Let us put to one side the simple fact that Thatcher’s government, by a combination of negligence and incompetence, was directly responsible for enabling the invasion and instead concentrate on what’s happening today. Under a no deal Brexit, the Falkland Islanders face ruin.
The Falkland Islands economy is based largely on fishing. It contributes 40% of its income. 94% of their catches go to – guess where? – the EU. The fish is landed in Spain. A no deal or even hard Brexit would see the Falklands Islanders lose access to the single market, forcing them to trade under WTO terms which would mean minimum tariffs of between six and 18%. Their economy would be hit by at least 16%. And that’s if they could land their catches anywhere in the EU.
I read a nonsensical post on social networks this morning that if Margaret Thatcher was still alive she would be trampling all over EU leaders. The reality is rather different. She might have been an evil woman in almost every sense, but here’s the thing: Thatcher always recognised that our future lay in Europe. She persuaded the Japanese to site their companies in the UK so they could create good jobs for Brits and the companies would gain unfettered access to the single market. You know, the single market Thatcher herself was instrumental in setting up in the first place. I doubt that she would want a mad, no deal or hard Brexit to destroy the Falklands Islands economy.
But that’s one of the side affects of Brexit. Don’t imagine for one moment the hard right, low tax, small state English nationalists weren’t aware that things like this would happen. Of course they were. They know, too, that Brexit will bring about the end of car manufacturing in Britain because their chief economist Patrick Minford said so.
So, to hell with the Falkland Islands. To hell with all the benefits my generation have enjoyed by being in the EU. And hello to an inward-looking island nation that is losing its influence around the world by the day, turning it into a banana republic.
