BCF blog - gridlock in parliament causing huge uncertainty and frustration to our industry

by Tom Bowtell

It’s been a pretty monumental week for British politics – one I’ve missed most of having been in China this week, at the China Coatings Summit, signing our training cooperation agreement with the Chinese National Coatings Industry Association that will bring our Coatings Training Institute to China.

Of course everyone I met said “so what about Brexit, what’s going to happen?” Right now I don’t know how to answer this question. With parliament still in gridlock, all I could say was we should know more by the end of this week. I feel like I’ve been saying that since December. I know the uncertainty is really concerning all of our members, and the frustration was clear for all to see at our Brexit event yesterday, according to reports from Ellen and Tania, who did a great job organising it.

We had key officials from the three government departments (BEIS, HSE and Defra), who laid out the no deal preparation for our sector. CIA, Synthomer and BAE systems outlined some of the challenges for up and downstream supply chains, and we also had an enlightening talk from the Swiss association, who gave us encouragement that life will go on, whichever way we leave.  

Our main focus at BCF has been to outline the major short and long term issues relating to a no deal exit. Choose any option apart from “no deal” has been our mantra, and continues to be so. 

We are becoming something of an embarrassment on the global stage. My German counterpart, Martin Engelmann at VdL, gives me that knowing smile each time I see him.  We used to be the role model for parliamentary process. How far from that we look right now. The Chinese simply didn’t see what the point of Brexit was, at least from a business point of view. I did manage to give my presentation without mentioning the “B” word as I was talking about training, which was a nice change for once.

I’m writing this on the plane home, so the “B” word is coming back into focus. So is Titanium Dioxide, which is back on the REACH committee agenda for mid-April now, just when we thought we’d bought some time and delay. We also did some lobbying with MEPs on Chromium Trioxide, which I understand had a reasonable outcome on Wednesday.

It’s certainly all go at the moment, and we continue to fight your corner on all the topics.