As any pilot will tell you – though I’m no pilot but one you can call an aviation enthusiast – landing is all about the approach. In an emergency landing – one 4 years in the making would you believe – where the pandemic panel lights are on the fritz, while the business regulation panel is completely shut down just to name a few support mechanisms kick in;
- Pilot experience
- Going through manual/contact ground engineers to first understand what the heck is going on so you can plan your approach and eventually safe landing.
- Stabilise the aircraft
- Achieve the planned/assessed safe approach
- Land the aircraft
To translate this into real world BREXIT lingo the approach towards safe BREXIT should have been this;
- Pilot Experience; Oh sorry forgot to mention………..!
- (Planning the Approach): Once we have a deal, we need to understand the necessary implications & steps (approach) necessary to take us safely to the BREXIT line in terms of new regulations/implementation procedures likes rules of origin – which is kind of a disaster in of itself – & time required considering the many challenges we’re facing not least of which is the pandemic.
- Develop a plan to meet these challenges with realistic timescales that also allows for time to achieving control before you roll into landing mode. In other words make sure you are not beginning the process in the midst of a pandemic which by definition means there is minimal control if any.
- Within the negotiations work to agree the necessary extensions required. Also agreeing to quicker vaccine rollout considering the UK’s unique emergency situation would have been very likely achieved without problem.
- (Goto Into Landing Mode); Now that you’ve taken all the necessary precautions/steps for safe landing you’re ready to go.
What we are seeing right now is how ill prepared we are in facing up to the many challenges we have on our hands and the situation is likely to get worse before getting better; why? Because of the incompetent leadership that has focused entirely on when NOT how we get to land in BREXIT territory. BREXIT may indeed be upon us but continuing with this current incompetent team at the helm in the most challenging time in our history cannot be a given otherwise the road to recovery will be steep/painful if/when it begins. Pessimistic? Not really I know things eventually have a way of working out mid-long term; I am however concerned of the price some may have to pay short term while decision makers have less of a real personal stake in this game and that’s what really bothers me.
Have a nice weekend 🙂