Being able to shut down sugar beet is rather the point of Brexit

There’s clearly a PR campaign going on on behalf of the British sugar beet industry. Too many pieces arriving wailing about how terrible it would be if folks could just buy world price sugar from wherever it strikes their fancy to do so. Not that we’d accuse this specific - or any other specific - piece of being part of a campaign rather than just an independently produced, and excellent, piece of journalism:

This is before growers feel the impact of post-Brexit trade deals with large sugar producers such as Australia. It’s a concern for Lankfer, whose land is in international trade secretary Liz Truss’s constituency. He has twice hosted her at the farm to answer questions from growers.

British farmers hail sugar beet for its role in crop rotation and the timing of its harvest. “It’s a good break crop, and it spreads the workload over the winter,” says Lankfer.

The destination of his beet is visible from the field itself: the factory at nearby Wissington where it is processed, eventually ending up in products such as Coca-Cola and Cadbury chocolate, or bagged and sold to consumers under the Silver Spoon brand.

Being within any state, nation or organisation of either means making a series of compromises. One of the EU ones was that significant support would be given to the continent’s sugar beet farmers by keeping out the cheaper cane sugar available from tropical climes. Hmm, well, think of that as you wish.

One of the points about being out of the EU - as with any other selection of states, nations, or groups thereof - means being able to change that set of compromises. The political balance has changed, who gets to insist upon economic privilege through the powers of the new state does.

Think on it for a moment, the ideal of Scottish independence is driven by the ability to change policy, away from those imposed by the imperialist English and toward those more acceptable to Scots. That’s what we’re told at least. The point of the going their own way being to, err, go their own way. The same was true when Ghana gained independence and so on, it’s rather the point of independence.

Being outside the EU means we now can, if we choose to, stop supporting the sugar beet industry. Leave Britons to buy their tooth rot as they wish. We, of course we do, insist that Britons in aggregate will benefit from that free trade. But that’s not quite the point we’re making here.

Complaining that Brexit means sugar beet might not retain support is ridiculous - the very point of Brexit is to be able to make the choice about whether to support sugar beet or not. Or more generally to accept, reject or modify the series of compromises that belonging to the supranational organisation required.

This isn’t even to acclaim Brexit as being worth it for offering that freedom. It’s just to insist upon the outcome of that process. Some parts of society gained economic privilege under the old system. The move to this new one means re-examining whether we wish to accord such privilege again.

So, do we all want to have to pay more for our sugar in order to support some few thousands farmers? No? Well, at least that’s a choice we get to make now.