Brexit

[Muddy Retriever]

That's a pretty sweeping statement MR. Almost Johnson-esque. Can you provide any figures on this? The part that would be most relevant would be to ask about the size of these economies, and whether these large and fast-growing economies of comparable size to those within the EU already have trade deals with the EU.

I wouldn't like to walk away from an existing deal with China with the promise of a deal with Nigeria.

Here you go. The EU is shrinking as a percentage of the world economy.

https://fullfact.org/europe/eu-has-s...world-economy/

As for trade deals, the EU is notoriously bad at agreeing and ratifying them. Noel you don't need to worry about walking away from an existing deal with China, because the EU doesn't have one. Switzerland on the other hand does. The reason the EU is poor at agreeing free trade deals is because it has to try and accommodate the interests of 28 different countries. Sometimes even individual regions have to have their say. The EU Canada trade deal was nearly scuppered by the Belgium region of Wallonia.

Furthermore very few of the trade deals the EU has negotiated include services, which as we know is where the UK is strong. Britain going it along can negotiate trade deals that do include services by offering in exchange tariff free access to its huge consumer market.

[William Clough]

This made me laugh from the current Private Eye.

Person in Millets anorak solves Brexit.


There was widespread joy today, as a bloke interviewed on the Ten O'clock news, standing next to a fruit and veg stall, solved Brexit by telling politicians to "pull their bloody fingers out and just get on with it".

Instant relief was felt across Whitehall, as politicians from every party suddenly realised that the answer to sorting Brexit was simple, whereas previously they'd thought that it was a complex and multi layered conundrum.

Seconds after they all "pulled their fingers out and just got on with it" Brexit was solved, hundreds of thousands of jobs in the aerospace and car industries were saved. British farmers received tariff free entry into the Common Market and the immigration status of hundreds of thousands of British citizens resident in the EU was sorted with no fuss at all.

"We really don't know why we didn't just pull our bloody fingers out and get on with it months ago" all the politicians agreed. "Why didn't we realise it was that easy?"

[Muddy Retriever]

Some good points MR. I agree the CBI have made some poor recommendations. Let's see what small businesses think about Brexit. If your narrative were correct, they'd be clamouring for a no-deal Brexit to break the strangle-hold that big businesses have got on the UK economy. But in fact they're not:

https://www.fsb.org.uk/media-centre/...no-deal-brexit

The link you provided dealt with businesses that export to the EU and only 8% of UK businesses do. Yet as I mentioned before all have to comply with EU Single Market rules whether they export or not. Plus our sales to the EU only comprise 44% of all exports and this is reducing. As we agree more free trade deals with the rest of the world the cost of exporting will reduce. Indeed I expect in time the EU will want to do a deal with us given their massive trade surplus.

Frankly I think it is better to have a deal than no deal but not at any price. May's withdrawal agreement that keeps us shackled to the EU via the backstop without ever being allowed to unilaterally exit should be deemed totally unacceptable.

[CL]

This made me laugh from the current Private Eye.

Person in Millets anorak solves Brexit.


There was widespread joy today, as a bloke interviewed on the Ten O'clock news, standing next to a fruit and veg stall, solved Brexit by telling politicians to "pull their bloody fingers out and just get on with it".

Instant relief was felt across Whitehall, as politicians from every party suddenly realised that the answer to sorting Brexit was simple, whereas previously they'd thought that it was a complex and multi layered conundrum.

Seconds after they all "pulled their fingers out and just got on with it" Brexit was solved, hundreds of thousands of jobs in the aerospace and car industries were saved. British farmers received tariff free entry into the Common Market and the immigration status of hundreds of thousands of British citizens resident in the EU was sorted with no fuss at all.

"We really don't know why we didn't just pull our bloody fingers out and get on with it months ago" all the politicians agreed. "Why didn't we realise it was that easy?"

But Mark, Millets bloke is right. The government timeline should have been to the EU: do you want a free trade deal? If the EU says no then the government prepares to leave in two years with its own agenda. The prime minister prepares the path for how WE will operate after two years and tells business exactly what laws etc will be in place. Then everybody can prepare for what's to come.


Instead we've a bunch of losers dragging things out because they're in tow to the EU. We don't need the permission of the EU to exist. They are not our masters. We can make our own destiny and with the right leadership make a success of it.

[CL]

Where's Graham Breeze nowadays? Is he locked up in some picture house watching the new Mary Poppins film? Come on Graham, Theresa May has to be the most hopeless prime minister ever. Tell us your judgement was poor in this regard.

[William Clough]

But Mark, Millets bloke is right. The government timeline should have been to the EU: do you want a free trade deal? If the EU says no then the government prepares to leave in two years with its own agenda. The prime minister prepares the path for how WE will operate after two years and tells business exactly what laws etc will be in place. Then everybody can prepare for what's to come.


Instead we've a bunch of losers dragging things out because they're in tow to the EU. We don't need the permission of the EU to exist. They are not our masters. We can make our own destiny and with the right leadership make a success of it.

I don't know what I think about Brexit any more Chris, I'm rapidly losing the will to live over it! There is probably a clever and witty analogy comparing May to Poppins, I'm sure the erudite Mr Breeze is the man for the job.

[Graham Breeze]

Where's Graham Breeze nowadays? Is he locked up in some picture house watching the new Mary Poppins film? Come on Graham, Theresa May has to be the most hopeless prime minister ever. Tell us your judgement was poor in this regard.

But CL I'm just obeying your suggestion (27th November 2018) that I "should tone down...".

[Mossdog]

This made me laugh from the current Private Eye.

Person in Millets anorak solves Brexit.


There was widespread joy today, as a bloke interviewed on the Ten O'clock news, standing next to a fruit and veg stall, solved Brexit by telling politicians to "pull their bloody fingers out and just get on with it".

Instant relief was felt across Whitehall, as politicians from every party suddenly realised that the answer to sorting Brexit was simple, whereas previously they'd thought that it was a complex and multi layered conundrum.

Seconds after they all "pulled their fingers out and just got on with it" Brexit was solved, hundreds of thousands of jobs in the aerospace and car industries were saved. British farmers received tariff free entry into the Common Market and the immigration status of hundreds of thousands of British citizens resident in the EU was sorted with no fuss at all.

"We really don't know why we didn't just pull our bloody fingers out and get on with it months ago" all the politicians agreed. "Why didn't we realise it was that easy?"

Yes, there's nothing to worry about. It really is quite as simple as all that. We can also thank and trust top Brexiter-Gurus like Chris Grayling for pointing the way and sorting it - what could possibly go wrong? They demonstrate a reassuring level of cluelessness and organising ability that clearly bodes well.

Organising to beat the Brexit Blues and show those Continentals that we can do it our own way by using an untested ferry firm with zero ships or shipping experience and which cuts-and-pastes it's company's term and conditions from a Pizza company, neatly sums up the entire Brexiters', we-don't-need-experts approach quite admirably.

Roll-on 29 March I say. Oh hang on! It won't be roll-on now, or even roll-off. Darn it. Perhaps "Carry-on" would be a better metaphor - "Carry-On Brexit". Sid James would also have loved the phrase "pull their fingers out" too....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVrm6Qc6neM

[noel]

Here you go. The EU is shrinking as a percentage of the world economy.

https://fullfact.org/europe/eu-has-s...world-economy/

Thanks MR. This certainly shows that the average global economy has grown faster than the total EU economy. Not quite what you said, but I'm happy not to split hairs.

And I agree we have a very services-focused economy. There are those who could prefer the UK to move away from this and provide more diversity within the economy. But I work in services, so I'm not in a great place to comment.

I also agree with your point in another post - I'd prefer we strike a trade deal with the EU, and it needs to be one that works for us.

To be fair to May she did at the outset talk about what she judged to be the country's priorities. Taking control of borders; control of laws; continued frictionless trade.

[noel]

The government timeline should have been to the EU: do you want a free trade deal? If the EU says no then the government prepares to leave in two years with its own agenda. The prime minister prepares the path for how WE will operate after two years and tells business exactly what laws etc will be in place. Then everybody can prepare for what's to come.

Maybe that is what happened. Except the EU said "yes, let's discuss the details", and then the negotiations started.