Stairs that go up also come down. So does Brexit.

By George ILIEV
Brexit Metaphors No 20

Stairs that can take you up should also normally be able to bring you down. That's common sense. But the guide in a guided tour of Wentworth Woodhouse (northern England) told me that he had been accused of misinformation by a tourist who fell down a flight of stairs. Apparently the guide did warn the group that the tour involved going up a lot of stairs but he did not tell them that they would also have to come back down.

Brexit is a similar story. There may be benefits from Brexit (depending on who you are and what industry you work in) but it is obvious that Brexit will entail significant disadvantages and cause damage to the economy and society. Yet, even though I am assuming that it is obvious, it may not be obvious to everybody, for example to the tourist who fell down the stairs at Wentworth Woodhouse.

And then there are cases (as in the Escher work below) where you simply cannot tell if the stairs are going up or down. When Estonia joined the EU in 2004 it had to switch from zero customs tariffs to the protective tariffs of the EU Customs Union. While some Brexiteers are calling for the opposite: that the UK should leave EU Customs Union and abolish all tariffs.

Is free trade good or bad? Is Brexit good or bad? It all depends on where you stand in the image below and at what angle you are holding your head. Yet, you need to have a head in the first place.

Relativity by M. C. Escher (Source: Wikipedia)

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This article is part of a daily series, with 141 more Brexit Metaphors to follow until Brexit day, March 29, 2019.
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Disclosure: the author has a master's degree in European Integration.