Archive link for those of us in the customs union.
Uh oh 😳. It’s Wes Streeting whom we all hate because of NHS. But he wants us to rejoin the Custom’s Union. Fuck! How do we choose? Will it be a path to rejoining or will it be in fighting and dogma? 🫠😜.
This has been signposted for a long time by the fact that we have not done any regulatory realignment after importing the EU laws into the UK wholesale.
Increasing our trade with Europe (whether it’s with a customs union or some other measure) would be good for two reasons:
- It would grow the British economy, create more good jobs, increase wages, and increase the amount of money raised in taxes for public services
- It would annoy Brexiteers
The UK specialises in services exports, which are unaffected by a customs union.
Perhaps the EU should become less protectionist, it might help their stagnant economic performance.
I don’t know if the right solution is a customs union, or participation in some areas of the single market, or something else. I just read that the UK’s post-Brexit arrangements “will reduce long-run productivity by 4 per cent relative to remaining in the EU”, so presumably if we boost trade with Europe in certain ways, it should increase British productivity
Returning to common law for regulations more than offsets an annual 0.26% loss of productivity.
And the UK’s productivity problems occured while in the EU anyway.
Weirdly archive.is sometimes doesn’t load for me
So here it is on archive.ph too
Oh thank you 🙏. It’s the reverse for me.
A customs union (as opposed to a free trade area) would require us to allow the EU to control what external tariffs we set, that would effectively make Chinese and American goods a lot more expensive.
And given how much China and the US are our friends, that would just be terrible.
Oh no, we’d buy more stuff more Europe, how terrible. Then it’ll have to get shipped locally: the terror!!!
And then European businesses and consumers might start buying from the UK again! That will not stand!!
Spiking the cost of living is generally a bad thing 🤓
You’re happy to increase the price of pretty much everything, so a few rich people can buy overpriced German cars slightly cheaper?
There are many affordable goods that can be bought from countries that aren’t the US or China. I actually think I would rather buy things that aren’t from the US or China. Both of those countries don’t seem to like Europe or the UK very much.
More than half of all U.K. imports come from the EU. That’s AFTER Brexit, so lower compared to what it was before.
Only 13% of UK imports come from the US. 7% from China. Even combined it’s less than half of EU imports.
You’ve got your numbers flipped around mate.
You’re happy to increase the price of pretty much everything
I support a FTA, possibly by re-joining the EFTA.
Europe isn’t just luxury marques. It has a huge market of everyday goods, including food made there, which meets the same standards the UK hasn’t yet abandoned and is close enough to be more cost-effective than shipping over the oceans. US and Chinese manufactured goods may go up slightly (but not by much; the UK would have the same deal as the EU), but that would be offset by access to the European market (not to mention the UK being able to export to the EU with a lot less hassle; the Europeans do buy a lot of British goods, and would buy more if they became more competitive).
Plus, we’ve already played this game. Even adjusting for everything, things were cheaper before we left the EU.
The only arguments against rejoining a customs union with the EU are ideological, because we’ve hard proof that being outside the customs union is less beneficial than being within it.
Good.
They trying to hand the keys early to Reform?
Yes, because pandering to fascists ended up so well last time. Oh, hold on…
?
Which word caused you trouble?
What was the point you were making? Are you insinuating I was suggesting pandering?
Yes.
It doesn’t and shouldn’t matter what fascists think.
You see, that’s the problem. Many people voted for Brexit. Left and right. I know if those from the right that cannot stand Reform. You cannot say Norway is racist for not being part of the EU. We have always been arms length, hence why we kept the pound. The public never signed up to the EU fully. It was voted for, decided and any democrat would accept it’s a constraint the country needs to work within. The whole wait 5 years, ignore it and rejoin later just drives folk to Reform, angry that they aren’t being listened to.
You don’t fight fascism by ignoring democracy. You normalise it. And yes, I voted remain, but arrogantly thinking you’re right and folk are dumb or evil, serves your ego rather than decent principles like democracy which is the cornerstone of our society.
I do agree we shouldn’t pander though and these punish migrant policies Labour are pushing is normalising this. With their people snooping policies, its fascism lite. An introduction.
Many people voted for Brexit.
Three kinds of people voted for Brexshit:
- Racists
- Idiots
- Total cunts who actually benefited (hedge funds, tax dodgers etc.)
Opinion of neither should be taken into consideration.
You cannot say Norway is racist for not being part of the EU
For all practical intent and purpose (apart from fishing), Norway is part of the EU.
The public never signed up to the EU fully
Is your name “the public”?
It was voted for, decided and any democrat would accept it’s a constraint the country needs to work within.
This is a completely moronic argument used in bad faith by Brexshiters as it assumes voters don’t change their minds and no new voters enter the voting age. People voted for Thatcher, no election needed since. 🙄
The whole wait 5 years, ignore it and rejoin later just drives folk to Reform, angry that they aren’t being listened to.
Fascists, racists and nazis shouldn’t be listened to. They should be educated or compulsorily re-educated if needed. There should be a new legislation and people presenting such views should have their electoral rights taken away.
There should be no democracy for enemies of democracy. NSDAP was democratically elected. Appeasement and ignoring lead nowhere - these people should be removed from public life.
