Mervyn (now Lord) King was the predecessor to Mark Carney as Governor of the Bank of England. He has been known to advocate what many would describe as a Hard Brexit and claimed that the UK’s decision provide a “real opportunities” for economic reform. He was less forthcoming about how he actually voted in the referendum or precisely what reforms he had in mind and why, although he suggested gains may come from agricultural reform (presumably with the withdrawal from the Common Agricultural Policy).
In an interview with the BBC, Lord King attacked the UK government’s approach to the Brexit process as “incompetent” and suggested that a lack of proper preparation for a “no deal” scenario had left the country in a weak bargaining position. He said it “beggared belief” that the world’s sixth largest economy should be planning to stockpile food and medical supplies to cope with an abrupt schism with the EU.
"A government that cannot take action to prevent some of these catastrophic outcomes illustrates a whole lack of preparation. It doesn't tell us anything about whether the policy of staying in the EU is good or bad, it tells us everything about the incompetence of the preparation for it. We haven't had a credible bargaining position, because we hadn't put in place measures where we could say to our colleagues in Europe, 'Look, we'd like a free-trade deal, we think that you would probably like one too, but if we can't agree, don't be under any misapprehension, we have put in place the measures that would enable us to leave without one.” In fairness, he did suggest that it would have taken several years of planning to get to that point. Politically, the government could not easily have taken the time to do this without being accused of “betraying the will of the people” by Brexiters.
The former Governor suggested that the UK could end up with a Brexit in name only where the UK has to abide by all EU regulations but no longer has a say in shaping them, something he described as the worst of all worlds.
He continued: "I think the biggest risk to the UK, and this is what worries me most, is that this issue isn't going to go away, you know the referendum hasn't decided it, because both camps feel that they haven't got what they wanted."
He expressed surprise that it had been easier for the EU27 to find a consensus position than for the UK government (hardly surprising because the government has never had a unified opinion on any aspect of Brexit since the nightmare started). "They must have been really worried that they had 27 countries to try to corral, how could they have a united negotiating position, they were dealing with a country that was one country, made a clear decision, voted to leave, it knew what it wanted to do, how on earth could the EU manage to negotiate against this one decisive group on the other side of the Channel? Well, the reality's been completely the opposite. The EU has been united, has been clear, has been patient and it's the UK that's been divided without any clear strategy at all for how to get to where we want to go."
He gave his personal view of the major problems facing the British nation: "The biggest economic problems facing the UK are, we save too little, we haven't worked out how to save for retirement, the pension system is facing I think a real challenge, we haven't worked out how to save enough for the NHS and finance it, we haven't worked out how we're going to save enough to provide care for the elderly. These are the big economic challenges we face, but are they being discussed at present in an open way? No, because the political debate has completely taken up by Brexit," he said. "It's a discussion where both sides seem to be throwing insults at each other."
It might be pointed out to his Lordship that these problems are domestic, UK, problems which have nothing to do with membership of the EU and will persist when (if?) the UK actually leaves the bloc. They will be exacerbated if (as predicted) the UK GDP and tax take are badly affected by Brexit.