Britain voted in a referendum on 23rd of June to leave the European Union, to bring about “Brexit”. The IChemE polled its members before the vote, and 75% were in the “remain” camp. There is a fair amount on continuing controversy on the IChemE’s social media accounts between members who favour leaving and those who favour remaining, so it is clearly as live an issue for chemical engineers as it is for everyone else .
The most visible of the IChemE’s leadership were clearly strongly for remaining. Our CEO started a petition for a rerun of the referendum, and he and the communications director were both clearly solidly for remaining, both in the discussion on LinkedIn and elsewhere. After the vote, the Chair of the IChemE’s Board, Jane Atkinson, sent a memo to all UK-resident members.
“The vote has delivered huge political and economic insecurity. The timetable is unclear. IChemE has over 24,000 members in the UK. The uncertainty that the ‘Brexit’ vote brings for members and their employers is highly regrettable.”
If the IChemE poll was representative (an issue disputed by the Brexiters), it would hardly be surprising. Lord Ashcroft’s study showed that the AB social group were the only social class amongst whom a majority voted to remain; among those whose formal education ended at secondary school or earlier, a large majority voted to leave; most of those not working voted to leave; and two thirds of social housing tenants voted to leave.
Brexit voters tended to think that life would be worse for their children than it was for them, and that “people from some backgrounds couldn’t ever be successful, no matter how hard they worked”. Chemical engineers are all highly educated and tend to be employed well enough to afford to buy a house. It would come as no surprise if they voted along with the rest of their class.
Personally, I voted to remain, but like some others, I am sometimes uncomfortable about the way in which those who voted to leave are portrayed. Lord Ashcroft’s study shows that a vote to leave was often an angry reaction to an entrenched inter-generational exclusion from opportunity. Chemical engineering is not the most diverse of professions from a social background point of view, an issue I am presently writing a report on for the IChemE, and may return to another time.
I’m guessing however that you are hoping I’m going to tell you how I think the vote will affect chemical engineering. What is clear is that nothing is going to change quickly other than certainty about the future. Jane Atkinson is right, the Brexit vote has generated a regrettable uncertainty both for business, and for academia (if we are still thinking of academia as being separate from business).
What is also clear is that nothing is going to change quickly, and that most of the foreseeable outcomes after negotiations have ended are not that different from the present situation. There will almost certainly still be some degree of free movement of labor, UK contributions to the EU, harmonization with EU legislation, and so on. It is close to certain that the wishes of the slim majority who voted for Brexit will largely be frustrated.
From the point of view of engineering practice, we might be concerned about how changing legislation could affect practice. The most crucial parts of legislation from the point of view of practicing chemical engineers (Health, Safety and Environmental) are very unlikely indeed to change in the UK, and even if they did, professional engineers might still choose to work close to them as benchmarks of good practice. After all, when we work in countries with limited HSE legislation, we often consider ourselves ethically bound to operate to a minimum standard. In any case, chemical engineering is a global profession, used to working to different sets of codes and standards. The oil and gas sector already looks worldwide to US rather than local codes and standards.
From the point of view of chemical engineering research, much has been claimed about how Brexit will damage academia, and there are anecdotal claims that damage has already happened, with European universities allegedly not wanting to partner with British ones in applying for research funding.
Our science minister said that he was “extremely concerned” about the status of science and universities post-Brexit and that he had sought assurances from the EU’s science and research commissioner about Britain’s access to research funds, who wrote:
“For the time being, I would like to reassure them that the referendum as such doesn’t change anything regarding their eligibility for funding under Horizon 2020, the world’s biggest research and innovation funding programme. As long as the UK is a member of the European Union, EU law continues to apply and the UK retains all rights and obligations of a member state. But what would be the implications of the UK’s leaving the EU? It is far too early to speculate on this question and provide the much-awaited answers. There is no precedent in the EU’s history.”
I’m with him – as with the rest of it, we will just have to wait and see. It is in my opinion however clear that once the fuss dies down, little of practical importance may happen, and that which does, will happen slowly. This is after all, Britain that we are talking about. Soon we will all remember that referenda, and getting excited about politics is all a bit, you know, Continental.
Read more posts from Sean Moran, The Voice of Chemical Engineering
About the author
Professor Moran is a Chartered Chemical Engineer with over twenty years’ experience in process design, commissioning and troubleshooting and is regarded as the ‘voice of chemical engineering’. He started his career with international process engineering contractors and worked worldwide on water treatment projects before setting up his own consultancy in 1996, specializing in process and hydraulic design, commissioning and troubleshooting of industrial effluent and water treatment plants.
Whilst Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham, he co-ordinated the design teaching program for chemical engineering students. Professor Moran’s university work focused on increasing industrial relevance in teaching, with a particular emphasis on process design, safety and employability.
Connect with Sean on LinkedIn here, check out his Facebook page here and stay up-to-date on his thoughts, research and practice at his personal blog here.
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