Brexit: sunny side up or butter side down?

David Crozier

I was at an excellent event for family businesses recently, a forum run by Harbinson Mulholland and sponsored by our good friends at Cleaver Fulton Rankin. As you would expect, the subject of Brexit, and particularly how it will affect us in Northern Ireland was a hot topic of discussion, both among the chattering classes and in the formal agenda.

The mood in the room was surprisingly upbeat. Stephen Kelly from Manufacturing NI painted a picture where there was no border between either the North and the South, nor between NI and the rest of the UK, drawing a parallel with the position of Hong Kong and mainland China. It seemed to me, and to most if not all in the room, like a win-win situation, where nobody’s political principles were compromised, and nobody’s economic future was sacrificed.

The Hong Kong of Europe? Would that not be an amazing outcome? Kowloon with cows.

Sadly, it seems that some folk don’t know what side their bread is buttered. Let’s just hope that it doesn’t now land butter side down.