A place where sceptics can exchange their views

Friday, 15 July 2022

No-one wants to talk about Brexit

Britain finally left the EU single market and the EU customs union on 1st January 2021. Since then most of my Brexiter friends have not wanted to talk about it, I get the feeling that secretly they believe that they voted to be worse off and now they regret their decision. When I tackle them about the issue they clam up. Even the most avid supporters of Brexit who are to prepared to offer some sort of opinion cannot identify any tangible, economic, cultural, social, political or immigration benefit. They mumble on about sovereignty but still cannot explain why Britain  has lost more of  its sovereignty to Nato than it ever did to the EU. If Russia attacks Latvia then the sons and daughters of Britain will be obliged by international law to defend our Nato ally without  a question or a vote - but quite rightly in my estimation.

No one wants to talk about the prospect of Scotland and Northern Ireland leaving the UK union. This may not be an immediate prospect but it is certainly on the cards.

No-one wants to talk about the terms for having a referendum. Many countries reject the first past the post system and insist on a two thirds majority for radical constitutional change and for good reason, as you can see what has happened to the UK. Countries such as  Australia insist that a majority of the states must also vote for change. In the case of the UK this would mean that three of the component states would have needed to vote for Brexit for it to be implemented. No one wants to talk about this.

England was the dominant nation that voted for a change but what right does England have to decide for Scotland and Northern Ireland who voted to remain? No one wants to talk about it.

No one wants to talk about our poor relations with US as a result of  the shenanigans over the Northern Ireland protocol.

Britain now has a skills and labour shortage owing to  restrictions on labour movements, and no one wants to talk about it?

The British economy is being held back by a lack of investment and poor trading statistics - see the Reuters article below. The recovery from the Covid 19 pandemic is therefore being made more difficult, and no one wants to talk about it.

The promised sunny uplands have failed to materialise and so has levelling up, and everyone keeps off this subject.

The British Labour party has now decided not to talk about Brexit too, and this is appalling. It means that both major political parties are not talking about the problems and failures of Brexit, so they only talk about amorphous challenges. 

The EU will not let us back into the EU for a long time and we will not be allowed into the single market without paying a huge fee. There is nothing to stop Britain, however, trying to negotiate a trade and cooperation agreement which improves trade and relations between the UK and the EU. If we were willing to allow freedom of movement of labour then it could transform the trading and  political problems into rational solutions. A return to the single market will probably alleviate the pressure for Scotland and Northern Ireland to leave the UK and help to completely change the bad blood between the UK , the EU and the US. Better cooperation between the UK, US and EU will improve international cooperation and help to reverse the decline in Britain's power and influence. It maybe possible to negotiate tri-partite trading agreements. Britain would even be allowed back into the EU horizons project. All this is possible if we talk about our problems and not stick our heads in the sand.

The time has come for fatuous talk about the benefits of Brexit to stop. We desperately need action, as we cannot wait the 8.3% of GDP balance of payments gap needs fixing, and fast, before an economic crisis hits us - see below. It is time for the labour opposition to step up to the plate and stop being frightened, and it is time for the conservative party to stop the making slogans and false promises. "Getting Brexit Done" achieved little or nothing, as it was just an empty meaningless platitude.


Our nation deserves some truth and it certainly deserves better.


https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/uk-economy-grew-same-previously-thought-q1-2022-2022-06-30/


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-22/how-a-year-of-brexit-thumped-britain-s-economy-and-businesses

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/brexit-largely-blame-uk-exports-160934258.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9kdWNrZHVja2dvLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAMqZqY438B-F7iFoEaaIMhNinb2hItnoR5dYTug_E1dY0BRsCby50RPWfj40jufwYBmYuxjZaiSiM_QrFUe3-72xDMtc318auhg_D-YvXoGGeiUcrPk_fjxTf-lGExrzzkCDycfYzHZ3-kL1FCFSlb0pTPsLNobsHF7w0j76o3yF

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