Goodwill is the key to a Brexit that works

At the end of July last year the referendum result was still a shock.

This year there is frustration about the negotiations. There is also a growing sense that while the EU-27 recognise the UK as important, they want to get on with other things and leave the UK government to sort out where it is going after Brexit.

The UK is no longer part of any discussions about the future. It has become a one issue member state – a bit like a family member that has made a decision with which everyone else disagrees, but which they know they are not going to change.

This week we saw even the normally diplomatic farm commissioner, Phil Hogan, criticise the UK over Brexit. He said the lack of coordination and inconsistency was beyond belief. As an Irish politician his concern is how London can deliver on its commitment not to have a hard border in Ireland, while many still want a hard Brexit without a trade deal in place. This is a fair comment, and it confirms that at commissioner level there is growing frustration that the way ahead is far from clear.

The UK is no longer part of the EU's agricultural debate, but a policy of distancing itself is not building the relationships that are key to making sure that Scottish lamb, beef and other products can still be sold in the EU-27.

Goodwill is the key to a Brexit that works, but it seems that even in agriculture the government is failing in that task. As a result it is farmers that will end up paying for the deep divisions in the Conservative party that are blocking an exit strategy built around the needs of the UK economy.

This week marked the final date for EU-27 countries to apply to be the location for EU agencies now based in the UK, which will have to move after Brexit. These include the European Medicines Agency, which amongst other things is responsible for the evaluation and registration of all veterinary drugs. Ireland is making a big push to secure this agency and the well-paid jobs that go with it. A bigger question is what will happen to these bodies after Brexit, so far as the UK is concerned? The UK will either have to pay into these as part of its 'divorce' settlement from Brussels or create new structures of its own.

This does not only apply to medicines, but to a vast range of other central services of the European Commission. These range from food promotion, with a €200 million a year annual budget, through a veterinary directorate approving overseas slaughter facilities and products to the European Food Safety Authority and the mechanism for alerting countries when there is a food health scare. The UK cannot afford to be out of this loop, but as of now, it does not seem to have firm plans about how to remain in it.

No politician on either side expected the vote to be for Brexit, and since then we have had a change of prime minister and a disastrous election for the government. However there can be no excuses for an ill thought-out Brexit, more than a year on from the referendum. The EU-27 know what they want after Brexit. They also know the direction for the CAP and are fully committed to global free trade deals, where they are having significant gains. Each success they make adds to the mountain of paperwork to deliver an effective Brexit.

Farmers were heartened when they believed the new Defra minister, Michael Gove, had a vision for the future based around a competitive, food producing agriculture that would be rewarded for good environmental practice. Now it has emerged that one of his key economic advisers, Dieter Helm, has criticised farmers as subsidy addicts and has called for the end of agricultural property relief against inheritance tax.

With Brexit we already have enough indecision and confusion, as the farm commissioner said this week. There is no need for a 'good cop, bad cop' act in Defra – and Michael Gove needs to make clear now either he, or a right wing economic adviser, is calling the shots.