PSA: THE BIGGER PICTURE
BREXIT: MORE THAN JUST THE CARNETS With the implications of Brexit as uncertain as ever, the PSA’s Andy Lenthall attempts to find some clarity amid the confusion.
As part of the UK’s Brexit readiness activities, we thought it best to stick to circulating advice issued by HM Government, given the pace of change. We were offered the opportunity to apply for funding to hold events, build web pages or issue printed advice more specific to us, however, like many others, we politely declined the opportunity as the liabilities arising from that information becoming out of date were too great. One distinct benefit of the Prime Minister’s determination to leave with or without a withdrawal agreement in place was that we could actually talk openly about what a no-deal Brexit meant for all business sectors – about the level of bureaucracy for individual businesses once we’ve left behind the unseen bureaucracy of the EU. Of course, we’d discussed it before, but while our previous PM was getting a deal done, no-deal planning was shrouded in secrecy and NDAs. This time, we were all ears. You may have visited the government’s dedicated Brexit website. It’s mighty impressive and it helps you filter through the unnecessary and leave just the important information to get your business ready. Nobody reading
this column really needs to know about exporting fish in the event of a nodeal, save perhaps the former Marillion front man’s management planning his 2020 Weltschmerz tour. If you’d gone a step further and subscribed to the Brexit readiness email service, you’d have been warned before hitting the subscribe button that you could be getting 40 to 60 emails per day; boy, those fertiliser exporters will have a tonne of crap to wade through. During our journey into the rabbit hole, we had a list of questions relating to Brexit preparedness sent from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). We didn’t feel equipped to answer those questions on behalf of our members, so we set about polling opinion with a short survey. We’d soon gathered 400 responses. The results were shared with the DCMS as well as our members, and they weren’t exactly encouraging in terms of readiness and impacts already felt. Perhaps they were the catalyst for the release of more specific guidance on touring issued a few days after we shared our results. Of course, we passed that out to members as soon as we got it. That 100
