msgyorkie:
Ok. So let’s say we all agree with you and declare Brexit a disaster. How or what do we do going forwards?
Genuine question to hear what you think should be done as it’s very easy to stand on the sidelines and harp on and on and on about how bad it is but we hear nothing of what we should do!
We cant turn the clock back, and not leave. That has happened. And the EU arent going to say, “Yeah, these things happen, come on back on the same conditions you left.”
It is better for us, I am convinced, inside of the EU, helping make EU rules, not just taking them.
The EU is our nearest and biggest trading partner.
Pretending we are part of a Pacific trading group or whatever is fantasy. That is relevant as much as thinking we can subdue a few newly found countries and build another empire.
Unless we have a political consensus that we are, and will remain for a significant time, part of the EU, they won`t want to let us in, just for us to leave again. Sure, there will be room for discussion, but Brexit has been damaging for them as well as us.
The kidding ourselves that we are, indeed that any country, is truly independent, needs to stop.
Was it Maxwell who said that telling lies was easy if “you tell them what they want to hear” ?
Saying we are the exception, we are stronger, we can go it alone, is part of our national story, but it isn`t a realistic assessment of who we are today, nor where we are going.
Empire is gone, and isnt coming back. And the Empire wasnt built on lies, false hopes, and “positive thinking” of charlatan politicos.
Those who built the Empire invested, not in hedge-funds and international money schemes like Somerset Finance, but in real factories, and real work. The “investment” the current regime seeks isnt share holders building factories and training people for the future, its short term investment that will fly out as soon as someone else overtakes us in the “low tax” race to the bottom.
If, and when, we get a good dose of realism again? Then more practically:
The first thing would be to get rid of the burden of extra documentation that importers, exporters, and transporters have.
Get ourselves nearer the Swiss or Norwegian type of relationship with the EU.
We need to realise that since our market is with the EU, then we must produce goods to their standards. What is the point is divergence of standards if we cant sell our goods abroad? What point is there for two different sets of rules for UK and EU goods in the same factory? Madness. As part of the EU we had a good say in those standards, now we dont.
But no realism, nor any movement will be possible, while false dreams are still being peddled and believed, by mainstream politicos, supported by newsrags, and those foreign interests who fund our parties and their members.