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“Free from the leash – or with the lashings seized?” asks Independent friendly with the EU. “Our future. Our Britain. Our destiny.” Writes the Daily Express happy about Brexit next to the national symbol: the white rocks of Dover.
The British are now leaving the EU and sailing more alone in the world.
The front pages of newspapers show how divided the country still is, now waking up on the first day of its life outside the European community where it has lived for almost half a century.
End of the free movement of 500 million people across borders and start of new formalities for all cross-border trade.
However, the situation seems quite calm in the ports of the English Channel. The fact that New Year’s Day is a public holiday, followed by Saturday and Sunday, means that the onset of any trouble is slow.
– The traffic forecast is mild for the next few days, says Eurotunnel spokesman John Keefe.
But on Monday, truck traffic is expected to be heavy under the new rules, which, among other things, require special permits to operate on the roads around Dover. Now 220 million forms must be completed each year for trade in goods with EU countries, estimates the road transport association RHA.
Not just trade. How long can a Briton stay in their vacation home on the continent? And what do you do with your pet then? What about studies abroad?
Having a permit to drive a car in the EU with a British driver’s license should work fine thanks to a separate agreement, but both the tourist and business traveler used to smooth transit will encounter delays, even when barriers are removed of the crown.
Something that is still uncertain are the conditions for the entire financial sector and the service sector. Both were left out of the commercial agreement that was concluded at eleven on Christmas. And how will it work on the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland? which, according to the agreement, must be kept free of obstacles to guarantee the peace accords of 1998.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson remains optimistic about an “open, generous, outward-looking, free-acting internationalist” country that has its “freedom in its own hands and can make the best of it.”
According to opinion polls, the British in general are much more concerned about the coronavirus and now they just want to move on.
In Scotland, which voted to remain in the EU, Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon suggests that a new battle awaits independence from Great Britain.
“Europe, Scotland will be back soon. Don’t turn off the light,” he tweets.
