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Edwin Phillips listens as two nervous Welsh voters (V1 and V2) return to discuss politics and how their loans could be affected, after the former Chief Executive of a building society warned that Brexit could stop lending to long-term projects in Wales.
V!: (Nervously) I talked it over with my missus and I am worried.
V2: (Coughs) yes… me too.
V1: (Scratches head) after all, that bloke, Graeme Yorston, who used to be in charge of the Principality (Building Society) said banks could go into “risk-averse mode”.
I know he was only talking about businesses, but I am pretty risky.
V2: (Voice breaking) yes.
That lot in Westminster saying Brexit would strengthen “financial services relationships with non-EU countries” only makes me more worried.
V1: (Clears throat) exactly.
He said: “I think the whole uncertainty and the lack of answers… undoubtedly mean that banks and indeed building societies tend to think about things perhaps with a little bit more of a risk-averse perspective”.
He was in charge of the Principality for five years, so he knows his onions.
(Starting to laugh) do you remember “SAVE WITH THE PRINCIPALITY”?!
Well, I’m not!
I’ll keep all my money under the mattress when this Brexit thing happens!
V2: (Coughing again) I’m with you on that.
Brexit is bonkers anyway.
(To self) they both begin with ‘b’ too – perhaps I can do something with that with my mates down the pub; ‘BREXIT BONKERS’.
(Louder) I read in the paper there is no way they are going to do all the stuff that is needed in two years!
V1: (Sounding knowledgeable) Ponty rugby club is more likely to come back instead of the regions, than they will do it all in two years!
My mate said we haven’t negotiated a trade treaty since we went in in 1973.
That posh bloke Sir Simon Fraser, who was in the Foreign Office until two years ago said as much.
(Clears throat) he reckons we have to have a transitional arrangement because there is “no way” a deal will be finalised.
V2: Yes, I saw that.
(Also clearing throat) wasn’t he the one who said we’d been “a bit absent” from the Brexit negotiations because those Tories have been fighting like cats in a sack?
(Sighs) the whole thing is more ridiculous than me saying I do lots of stuff around the house!
That new department {Department for International Trade (Dit)} – what a joke that is.
They couldn’t negotiate a deal on my Fish and Chips!
V1: (Also knowledgeably) I know.
They have already had to fork out loads on getting people (Parliamentary answers have revealed the UK Government has spent over £1.15 million on headhunters and recruitment consultants).
V2: (Gloomily) that’s more than my loans.
I am ‘risk-averse’ too…
