Vaccine approval becomes our biggest Brexit bonus yet - Brian Monteith

A man in a protective face mask walks past EU headquarters in Brussels prior to a meeting of Britain's chief negotiator David Frost and EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier. Picture: AP Photo/Francisco Seco

By this time next week we should know for certain what, if any, trade deal has been agreed between the UK Government and the European Union negotiators.

If there is a deal, be under no illusion there will be weeks more of pouring over what it consists of and what in the detail provides pitfalls and elephant traps.

The reports I am receiving are there exists a draft agreement that is 95 per cent complete and that it is hundreds of paragraphs long – therein must lie a worry that there is the potential for misunderstanding and misinterpretation to incubate.

My expectation is that there will either be a deal the British Government will claim is “sovereignty compliant” and this will probably pass through the House of Commons even if it needs the votes of the Labour Party to do it – or if there is a rupture in the talks over issues of sovereignty, such as who has oversight over regulations or who decides what support for local industry is appropriate (the level playing field), then there will be many mini-deals unveiled to make the move to trading under World Trade Organisation rules as smooth as possible.

By coincidence and a healthy dose of irony, last week provided two developments in Scotland that highlighted how decision making coming back home should be a good.

There was the cheering news the UK was able to give the first licence in the world for the use of a Covid-19 vaccine to Pfizer/BioNTech and that it is expected to be administered from this week onwards.

Not only was this good for its own sake – it should mean lives are saved that would otherwise have remained at risk and we should be able to reopen our health service and economy – it was also good because it showed that being more in control of our own destiny allowed Britain to access the vaccine quicker.

It is worth noting that it is not a British vaccine, but an international one with the science developed by a partnership between the American Pfizer and German BioNTech companies with financial and scientific support from the UK.

How then has it been licensed in Britain first?

Simple, because the UK is no longer entangled in the European drugs approval system our own medicines accreditation was able to work 24/7 and expedite the reviews of all the data.

The drug manufacturers insist they have provided the same data to Britain’s medicines regulator, the MHRA, as was given to the EU’s European Medicines Agency – but the latter is moving at a snail’s pace and approvals are not expected to be given until January at the earliest.

By then we could see Britain’s own vaccine, being developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, also having received approval.

This is especially important as their vaccine can be stored in a normal fridge, which would then allow it to be used across the world in developing countries, unlike the Pfizer vaccine which needs to be kept at very low temperatures that will prove difficult in countries with limited infrastructure

The fact that Britain left the EU on January 31 has meant we could act quicker than the EU.

It was therefore rather surprising to hear Nicola Sturgeon say that were Scotland an independent country in future it would still work with the UK to gain the benefit of any similar vaccine development because geography would make it wise for both parties to co-operate.

Our proximity through sharing an island is, of course, one of the reasons we enjoy the benefits of being British, something that did not seem to register with our First Minister.

More importantly, she ignored the obvious fact the SNP would have Scotland in the EU and – close geography or not – and so she would have to abide by the EU’s far slower approval system, and be stuck in the crawler lane like nearby Ireland or say, Germany.

In Ms Sturgeon’s world, Scotland would not be receiving the vaccine this week, or the next, or not even this year.

Being British comes with benefits, and being “dragged out” of the EU’s medicines approval system against her will is one of them

The other significant development in Scotland was the considerably less cheering news the BiFab marine engineering yards in Fife and Lewis, which were hoping to win orders to build sections of wind turbines, have been put into administration with the loss of jobs real and potential (if orders had been won).

This follows £52 million of taxpayers’ money spent by the Scottish Government over the last few years in an attempt to save the yards.

We had been promised by the SNP that Scotland would become the Saudi Arabia of wind power with thousands of jobs as a result – but we have instead become the Antarctica, with all the cold winds, but very few jobs.

It was therefore rather surprising to hear the Scottish Government blame in part the restrictions placed upon it by EU state aid laws that prevented a more hands-on approach to helping BiFab.

It is, of course, these same state aid rules the UK Government is seeking to ensure do not remain in any trade deal with the EU so yards like BiFab can be helped – and which the EU are adamant must continue.

Just as the SNP cannot claim an independent Scotland can use the pound sterling if it wants us to be in the EU – a member cannot use another country’s currency – so it cannot claim it would access vaccines easily or save engineering yards.

Dragged out of the EU? Hud me back…

Brian Monteith is editor of ThinkScotland.org.