Brexit

Finally, after half a century, Britain can say it’s free. No more does the country find itself under the yoke of a foreign power. No more will it have to kowtow to the decisions of unelected bureaucrats. Enough. From today, Britain is free from the shackles of the European Atomic Energy Community.

This is what the people voted for in 2016. Don’t you dare tell me that there was no informed debate before the Brexit referendum. ‘Get rid of the mandarins in Luxembourg’, they chanted. ‘We want freedom from a system that safeguards civil nuclear materials’, they shouted.

They ran to the polling booths, shouting ‘We want freedom from the regulation of civilian nuclear activity’. Proudly marking their X on the voting paper while singing, to the theme tune of Downton Abbey, ‘We want freedom from controls on the supply of fissile materials’. You can’t argue with the will of the people.

In a 2016 vox pop, Graham from Great Yarmouth said ‘No one ever asked me if I wanted to guarantee high safety standards and to prevent nuclear materials from being put to military use’. Don’t worry Graham: today Britain can guarantee its own international standards, free from European interference.

And the isotopes! How sick we all were of international cooperation on sourcing radioactive isotopes for the diagnosis and treatment of cancers. Today, Britain is free to tell the Europeans to do one, and to organise it’s own supply chain for radioactive isotopes. I mean, alright, they can’t be stockpiled because of their short shelf-life, but we can just get pharmaceutical companies to bring isotopes in by air freight to avoid border delays. And maybe we can give each of them a blue passport. The Queen will be so proud.

Now Britain is free to fund its own research at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in Oxfordshire. Now Britain is free to organise its own nuclear fuel supply. Now Britain is free to manage its own nuclear waste.

It’s a bright, bright day.