Page 52 - The Economist20171214

52 Britain The Economist December 16th 2017
2 laws plus the ECJ. Grenfell Tower The row over housing is a case in point.
So why are Brexiteers so quiet? One an-
swer is that their goal is simply to get to the Do they know it’s The council says that all survivors have
been offered temporary accommodation.
Brexit date ofMarch 29th 2019. They worry It has set aside £235m ($314m) to buy hun-
that a souring economy or more parlia- Christmas? dreds of homes to offer a choice of perma-
mentary upsets could change the mood. nent housing to the 210 Grenfell house-
After Mrs May’s defeat the Daily Mail ac- holds still in need; 45 households have
cused the 11 rebel MPs of “pulling the rug More than100 households who already moved in. Families have been as-
from under our EU negotiators”. That is an survived the fire are still living in hotels signed theirown housingofficers.
exaggeration: though their amendment MrRasoul concedesthathe hasbeen of-
gives MPs a vote on the final Brexit deal, if NLY recently has Zahra Rasoul started fered temporary accommodation instead
Parliament rejects it Britain may leave with Owaking up in the night yelling, “Fire! ofhis hotel, but says it was not suitable. He
no deal at all. Still, fears that the project Fire!” The two-year-old survived the dev- fears also that the council would just leave
might yet be reversed are keeping Brexi- astating fire in Grenfell Tower that killed 71 him there. “I know a bloke who has been
teers mum, no matter how many conces- residents on June 14th, but the full trauma in temporary accommodation for 17
sions Mrs May makes. of that event, says her father Mohammed, years,” he says.
Thesecondisthebeliefthat,onceBrexit may now be surfacing. Living on the fifth This deep distrust is a legacy of the
happens, all else is possible. David Davis, floor, Zahra and her five-year-old brother council’s initially shambolic and unco-
the Brexit secretary, even suggested the Ar- watched as the fire, which started on the ordinated response to the disaster. Survi-
ticle 50 agreement could be torn up if a fu- floor below them, swiftly moved up to en- vors feel that their needs were not taken
ture trade deal were unsatisfactory, be- gulfthe whole building. sufficiently into account when the council
cause“nothingisagreeduntileverythingis The family’s recovery has not been bought the new houses, and that they still
agreed”. Michael Gove, the environment helped bythe factthat, sixmonthson, they do not get a sympathetic hearing from the
secretary, claimed voters could change are still living in a hotel, some distance bureaucrats. One, Bellal El Guenni, says
anything they disliked about Brexit in fu- away from their old community in north that survivors are still tryingto teach coun-
ture elections. Such comments led the EU Kensington. Mr Rasoul was born in the cil officials “how to be human”. Anger
to toughen its negotiating guidelines to in- tower 36 years ago. Now, confined to two flared after a meeting on December 5th,
sist on the legal force ofthe Article 50 deal. bedrooms with his children, his wife and when one councillorwasspotted using his
Brexiteersstill seem to believe that a be- his 86-year-old father (who he believes is mobile phone, before noddingoffas survi-
spoke deep free-trade deal with the EU will the oldest survivor of the fire), Mr Rasoul vors opened up about theirhorrific experi-
be easy to negotiate. Mr Davis spoke this says that being cooped up is “breaking us ences. Maxine Holdsworth, who was
week of “Canada plus-plus-plus”. Liam down gradually. There is tension building brought in from anotherborough in July to
Fox, the international-trade secretary, within ourselves.” take charge of housing at RBKC, acknowl-
talked of a deal that is “virtually identical” There are about 105 Grenfell house- edges that the council has to do a “huge
to today’s. In this hope, at least, they seem holds in the same predicament. That so amount” ofworkto regain people’s trust.
deluded. EU negotiators are clear that, if many are still waiting for a permanent At least the survivors had something to
Britain leaves the single market and cus- home is testimony to how badly relations cheer when the procedural hearings of the
toms union, it cannot expect a free-trade between the survivors and the authorities public inquiry into the disaster got under
deal much better than Canada’s, which have broken down. Grenfell United, the way on December 11th. Grenfell United’s
covers almost all goods but barely any ser- main survivors’ organisation, remains so members want people to be held to ac-
vices. Services make up 70% of Britain’s angry about how the Royal Borough of count for the loss of their friends and fam-
economy and 40% ofits exports. Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) has han- ilies. And even if Mr Rasoul feels badly let
As for the Irish border, Mr Davis claims dled the fire that it was made clear to coun- down by those in authority, he is still bu-
that full alignment with single-market cillorsthattheywouldnotbewelcome ata oyed by the “amazing” public support. Of-
rules is just a fallback if there is no broader memorial service for the victims in St ten, he says, he has been moved to tears by
free-trade deal, adding that it would con- Paul’s Cathedral on December14th. “the beauty ofpeople’s kindness”. 7
cern only those rules relating to the Good
Friday Agreement and the all-island econ-
omy, and that it would allow Britain to de-
cide its own regulations so long as they
were mutually recognised. Yet Ireland and
the EU believe the deal means what it says:
full alignment with almost all single-mar-
ket rules. The European Commission goes
further, saying that it cannot see how a
hardbordercanbeavoidedifBritainisout-
side the single market and customs union.
Even a few Brexiteers see the point. Martin
Howe, a pro-Brexit trade lawyer, com-
plains that the phase-one deal could stop
Britain securing trade deals elsewhere and
turn it into a “vassal state”.
In short, the phase-one deal, especially
the Irish fix, points to a softer Brexit that
keeps Britain closely aligned with the sin-
gle market. That implies an outcome closer
to Norway than Canada. As this becomes
evident, Mrs May can expect to hear a lot
more noise from herBrexiteers. 7 A child’s hope