EU

Resetting the Clock

Brian Riley Political - National and other , ,

In November a correspondent of the East Anglian Daily Times suggested that we should improve our negotiating skills and apply to rejoin the EU.
This pie in the sky thinking has still not disappeared and presupposes that the EU would reset the clock to 2016 before we had the referendum.
Our negotiating position since the referendum has been consistently undermined by the Remainers and their Quisling-like supporters in the Labour and Liberal Democratic parties. Both parties undertook to recognise the results of the referendum. Subsequently, the Lib Dems announced that they would not recognise the result at all. Labour in the form of their Shadow Foreign Secretary (Emily Thornberry) announcing that they would renegotiate the Brexit agreement and campaign against its acceptance.
What the two parties should have done is to recognise the people’s wishes and work towards the best possible outcome instead of continually trying to denigrate our country and reinvigorate project fear.
This is why the EU felt that it could offer us a deal worse than they have with Japan.
And what if we did rejoin the EU?
Sterling would be subsumed into the Euro at a disadvantageous exchange rate. Our economy would become as sclerotic as theirs (unemployment in France pre Covid was over 8% ), our agriculture would be disadvantaged through the Common Agricultural Policy and we would doubtless be required to make a massive contribution the EU structural deficits and recovery funds.
From Day One after the referendum, we have appeared weak because of the noise coming from those who think they know better.
Now is the time to get behind our Government and show the EU that all parties support the wishes of the people and that we should be treated as the independent sovereign country with appropriate and friendly relations with our neighbours.
A version of this blog was published in letter form in the EADT

Pinocchio Effect

Brian Riley Local Colour, Political - National and other , , ,

Most of us learned from the adventures of Pinocchio not to utter falsehoods, because if we did, our actions would betray us and  we would be found out lickety split
Whilst we are all aware of the dangers of untruths, many people decide to chance their luck and see what they can get away with.
Hence my interest in the East Anglia Daily Times of the 16th which contained a letter from Mr. John Bailey of Stanton who indicated that the U.K. does not have a single trade deal in place for when we leave the EU.
As I was pleased to point out in today’s EADT, we signed a trade deal with Japan earlier this month and there are 23 other trade deals signed.
So what prompted Mr Bailey to go forward with his Bremainer falsehood.
I would like to think that it was just ignorance and a feeling of being hard done by.  I suspect, though, that it is from the Bremainer bubble for whom nothing about Brexit can be good and any assertion, truthful or otherwise denigrating Brexit is welcomed.
Whatever the origins of Mr Bailey’s opinion, we would all do well to remember what happened to Pinocchio when crossing the line between truth and otherwise.
The exchange of correspondence is attached.

eadt-201118-trade-agreementsDownload

Retreat from Glory

Brian Riley Money Matters, Political - National and other , , , ,

Last week I blogged on the echoes from the 1930’s and the German position after the Versailles and Locarno treaties and the U.K. position and the E.U. at the present time.
The blog was based on the book Retreat from Glory by R.M. Bruce Lockhart.
The Retreat from Glory can be applied in the ironic sense to the EU as it negotiates Brexit. Here I am indebted to Guido Fawkes for the  chart.
Well, faced with €12 billion walking out of the door who would not be petulant.
What’s more interesting is that France with an economy and population comparable to ours makes a net contribution less than half of ours.
Why does Italy pay make a net contribution and Greece makes a net withdrawal?
There’s a Ph.D. project in the making as to the relationship of contributions to GNP, who comes out best and why.
But looking to the future there are two questions to be asked: What will we do with the money we no longer pay to Brussels and What will the EU do to fill the hole?

Zero Sum Game

Brian Riley Money Matters , ,

Brexit CartoonA Zero Sum Game is a  situation in which a gain by one person or side must be matched by a loss by another person or side. Good examples of this can be found in the following list which was sent to me by email showing losses to the United Kingdom as a result of activities being transferred abroad with EU assistance, often financial.

  • Ford Transit moved to Turkey 2013 with EU grant.
  • Cadbury moved factory to Poland 2011 with EU grant.
  • Jaguar Land Rover has recently agreed to build a new plant in Slovakia  with EU grant, owned by Tata.
  • Peugeot closed its Ryton (was Rootes Group) plant and moved production  to Slovakia with EU grant.
  • British Army’s new Ajax fighting vehicles to be built in SPAIN using  SWEDISH steel at the request of the EU to support jobs in Spain with EU  grant, rather than Wales.
  • Dyson gone to Malaysia, with an EU loan.
  • Crown Closures, Bournemouth (Was METAL BOX), gone to Poland with EU  grant, once employed 1,200.
  • M&S manufacturing gone to the Far East with EU loan.
  • Hornby models gone. In fact all toys and models now gone from UK along  with the patents all with with EU grants.
  • Gillette gone to Eastern Europe with EU grant.
  • Texas Instruments Greenock gone to Germany with EU grant.
  • Indesit at Bodelwyddan Wales gone with EU grant.
  • Sekisui Alveo said production at its Merthyr Tydfil Industrial Park  foam plant will relocate production to Roermond in the Netherlands,  with EU funding.
  • Hoover Merthyr factory moved out of UK to Czech Republic and the Far  East by Italian company Candy with EU backing.
  • ICI integration into Holland’s AkzoNobel with EU bank loan and within  days of the merger, several factories in the UK, were closed,  eliminating 3,500 jobs.

I have edited the comments from e-mail and I have only checked the first statement which can be verified from the Daily Telegraph of 3rd October 2007.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/2816921/Cadbury-to-move-jobs-to-Poland.html

Nevertheless the sentiments ring true.

 

Brexit

Brian Riley Political - National and other ,

bojesen_brexitMonday’s Daily Telegraph (2nd November) was full of gems. Roger Bootle’s column contained the best arguments I have seen for the Brexit. On past form the EU will continue to stretch its tentacles wider and deeper into every nook and cranny of national life. Hence the costs of its interference will rise substantially. Meanwhile, over time, the EU budget will surely increase. The logic of moving towards a closer union is that the central budget should outrank national ones.
If most of the EU moves towards full fiscal and political union, it will be very uncomfortable for the UK to be inside the EU but outside that bloc. Finally, the EU itself is likely to fall in relative importance in the world.
But if the rest of the world is continuing to grow in importance, the benefits of membership would be proportionally smaller and the costs yet more unnecessary. It is highly likely that there will be a deal which gives the UK special access to the EU markets. We would have freedom to rescind EU laws and regulations – which are estimated to cost several per cent of GDP. We would keep the UK’s net contribution to the EU which is about ₤9bn a year. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/11968813/Three-reasons-why-Britain-needs-Brexit.html
Elsewhere in the Telegraph we are told that Direct CAP payments to Britain will average ₤2.88bn a year from 2014 to 2020 and that without this subsidy many farmers will go bankrupt. But if leaving the EU saves ₤9bn a year, then we can pay for our own food security and not need to have the monies recycled through Brussels.