Page 18 Daily Mail, Saturday, August 17, 2019COMMENT
Phoney Brexit war is
over – now it’s for real
AND so the phoney Brexit war has finally –
and chillingly – come to an end.
Despite the interminable agonising, so
far we have merely witnessed a public
relations contest confined to television
studios and Westminster. But now we see
a full-blown blitzkrieg – and its impact is
truly disturbing.
Take British Steel. Why is this industrial
leviathan, this mighty flagship company, in
need of rescue from the military pension
fund of Turkey – a country in the grip of an
authoritarian government?
Why are we relying on the Turkish army –
still meddling in its country’s domestic
politics and a buyer of Russian weapons –
to save British jobs?
The short answer is that conventional
investors are wary of British Steel, despite
healthy global demand for its product.
Why? Because of doubt over the UK’s
trading position in coming years. Who, in
their right mind, would buy an exporting
firm without knowing what the commercial
future holds?
Brexit uncertainty is now destabilising
the UK economy, with a fall in GDP in the
last quarter and a technical recession in
the offing if it falls again in this one.
Confidence is falling. Business
investment is flatlining. Negative equity
in the housing market is rearing its head,
a harbinger of the chaos to come if Brexit
is not put to bed.
Meanwhile, real issues such as tackling
endemic violent crime – culminating this
week in the shocking death of PC Andrew
Harper – and social care reform must
await a Government not looking over
its shoulder.
But when will that be? The real concerns
of the public are taking a back seat as Brexit
sucks the life out of our national debate.
Does this deep dissatisfaction concern
our elected representatives?
Hardly. They are more interested in
getting back to the Commons tearoom to
resume plotting. Why consider ‘boring’
British Steel and its ‘tiresome’ jobs when
you can play Fantasy Cabinet in a theoretical
‘government of national unity’?
A pitiful assemblage of Marxists,
Nationalists, Lib Dems and delinquent
Tory Remainers propose this lash-up as a
way of ‘bringing the country together’.
Yet its sole purpose is to frustrate the
2016 vote to quit the European Union. This
is the real coup being planned over Brexit
- not Boris Johnson’s determination to
control the parliamentary timetable.
Summer madness has gripped once-sane
Tory MPs like Oliver Letwin and Dominic
Grieve, who have hinted at a Faustian pact
with Jeremy Corbyn to overthrow their own
Government. Now, we hear, they have
drawn back. Why, they’ll settle for Kenneth
Clarke or Harriet Harman instead!
It’s all baloney, of course. Not least
because even Mr Corbyn is not daft enough
to cede primacy in a rainbow government.
And if by some miracle this ridiculous
project flies, what would it produce?
Months, maybe years, of debilitating
Brexit turmoil.
Aside from this nonsense, there is a
serious development. A leaked German
finance ministry memo suggests Berlin has
resigned itself to No Deal after refusing to
budge on the Irish border.
This could, of course, be a convenient leak
- part of the Brussels-London poker game.
But it should give pause for thought.
If No Deal starts looking inevitable, it will
become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
In the meantime, disloyal Tory Remainers
should pipe down and stop encouraging
the EU in its belief that Mr Johnson is
about to fold. He can’t. Because in this
poker game, his entire political capital is
stacked up in the middle of the table.
For him – and for us all – losing is simply
not an option.
acting as the planning regula-
tor for all listed buildings.
Then the Government split it
up. A new state agency, His-
toric England, took on the
regulation while all the historic
sites went to a charity under
Sir Tim. It would retain the
‘English Heritage’ title but was
given a grant of £80 million to
get started. After that, it would
be on its own.
Since most of English Herit-
age’s sites — hill forts, remote
ruins and so on — are open
and free, it falls to a minority of
paying landmarks such as
Tintagel to subsidise the rest.
‘When we get to the end of
our capital grant in 2023, we’ve
got to produce enough running
income to cover our running
costs plus additional incometo invest,’ says Sir Tim. He
might talk like the chairman of
a FTSE100 company but his
position at English Heritage is
unpaid. Yet he clearly loves it
and has just been appointed
for a second four-year term.
And he is not afraid to get
political defending his patch.
For example, he is adamant
that the Government should
slash VAT on conservationwork. ‘I would love to see VAT
reduced on historic buildings.
We’ve been fighting that battle
for a long time.
‘It would make a huge differ-
ence to the historic fabric of
this country and it would
provide a lot of extra jobs.’
He rattles off tourism statis-
tics — £30 billion gross added
value to the economy — and
wishes ministers would listen.‘I’m pleading on behalf of the
historic environment. I don’t
think the Government is “anti”
but I think it could be more
“pro”. This is not a loss to the
Treasury. There are benefits to
the Treasury.’ He is also a fan
of big, contentious projects
such as the proposed road tun-
nel beneath Stonehenge and
HS2. ‘I’m supportive of HS2 —
so long as we can do it in a way
that is sympathetic to the
countryside — because I
believe very strongly in linking
the North and the South of the
United Kingdom.’
Having risen to the top of the
Royal Navy during his 37-year
career, Sir Tim has taken a
number of public and privateT
HERE has always been an
other-worldly quality to
Tintagel Castle, the mighty
fortress of Arthurian legend
which straddles its clifftop
ravine on the North Cornish coast.
Last Sunday, the two sides were reunited
for the first time in centuries thanks to a new
£5 million bridge straight out of a fantasy
novel. It was in Tudor times that the narrow
strip of land which once connected the
mainland part of ‘King Arthur’s Castle’ to its
island citadel fell into the sea.
Since then, any visitors have been forced to
scale 148 steps cut in to the rock. For the old
and infirm, it was out of the question.
Now, though, Tintagel is reunited — much
to the relief of the locals. Up to a quarter of a
million tourists each year are now expected
to use this 21st century drawbridge — as I
have just done. With a gentle bounce
underfoot and an alarming gap in the middle,
it is an exhilarating experience.
But this crossing also heralds an important
new era for many of this country’s greatest
historic treasures. And supervising it all is
the Queen’s son-in-law.
Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, hus-
band of the Princess Royal, is one of the
most low-profile members of the Royal
Family but, as chairman of English Her-
itage, he is in charge of some of the
most famous structures in the world.
He is the chief custodian of more
than 400 hallowed national sites —
ranging from Stonehenge and the Bat-
tlefield of Hastings to Shropshire’s
Iron Bridge and Osborne House — not
to mention all those blue plaques on
the homes of bygone greats.
On his watch, the whole lot has been
turned into a new charity. And it has
never attempted anything quite like the
new bridge to ‘King Arthur’s Castle’.
So, ahead of the opening, I sat down for a
rare and wide-ranging interview with the boss
to discuss a range of issues, from government
subsidies and HS2 to marrying in to the Royal
Family, the prospects of a new Royal Yacht
(‘not now’) and the pain of losing friends on
active service.
What is instantly clear is that Sir Tim is
much more than a figurehead. ‘We’re very
ambitious. We want to do things that are a bit
spectacular,’ he tells me as we study the plans
for Tintagel. ‘This is a leap. The whole point
about it is accessibility.’
He recalls his first visit to Tintagel, negoti-
ating the cliff in deep winter. ‘I first went
down on a wet January day and I think it’s
one of the most dangerous things I’ve ever
done climbing down those steps!’P
EOPLE had been mulling over the
idea of a bridge for years, to no avail,
until Sir Tim’s arrival. He got in
touch with his friends Julia and
Hans Rausing, members of the Swedish Tetra
Pak clan, though he is modest about his part.
‘I know the Rausing family and made an
initial contact,’ he says. The family trust
made a generous grant of £2.5 million, the
largest in the organisation’s history. What
had been a nebulous idea could suddenly
take shape.
One might expect to find a risk-averse,
steady-as-she-goes approach from a retired
admiral in charge of a lot of old buildings
(particularly one whose official address is
Buckingham Palace). Sir Tim, however,
speaks frankly and clearly feels he is on a mis-
sion — against the clock.
He was appointed chairman of English
Heritage as it was being cut loose from the
state. Pre-2015, it had been a public sector
body with two roles: running historic sites
such as Old Sarum and Audley End but alsoBattling the Government to
help save our heritage. Why
Prince Philip should have stayed
in the Navy. His horror at his
shipmates’ Falklands War deaths.
And, in this rare interview with
Anne’s husband Tim Laurence,
the most telling admission...
There’s no
RULE
BOOK
SATURDAY
INTERVIEW
by Robert
Hardman
MAR
ROY
for
into