There is no other choice.
All this talk of hard/soft Brexit etc is just a lot of hot air IMHO, ... journalists filling empty column inches and politicians pumping up their egos by pretending they have a say.
The truth is the only ones who have a say are the EU once we have rejected one of the interlocking freedoms.
We will have no control over our trading terms with the EU.

Not true. It depends on the tax and administrative burdens placed on manufactures and exporters. Foreign tariffs are nothing more than a cost to manufacturers just like the costs of transport, packaging, raw materials, labour and so on. So a country completely free of the straight jacket of supranational organisations like the EU can set the tax and legaslative burden to optimise revenue and employment. Clearly there are constraints and pros and cons of certain policies in this regard. I also remain to be convinced that the British government has the courage and imagination to act in the fast and loose way that takes advantage of these opportunities.

Is it missing a number 0. We leave are brains at the door.

1. We reduce all tariffs to zero opening up the UK to other nations exports and lowering UK tax revenue.
2. We try and negotiate free trade deals but other nations have no incentive to do so as we have already done 1 above.
3. We engage in wishful thinking of an Anglosphere when other nations all look out for themselves.
4. We pander to corporations reducing corporation tax to 10% in a race to the bottom and lowering UK tax revenue.
5. We start massive cuts to public spending, goodbye welfare, healthcare, education, etc. Hello more expensive private company provision of services for profit.
6. We somehow fund huge infrastructure projects while cutting UK tax take and total public spending.
7. We pander to developers with radical liberalisation of planning, and concrete the countryside.
8. We pander to those with money subsidize them buying better education than those without money. So less social mixing and less social mobility for the poor.
9. We somehow fund more military spending while cutting UK tax take and total public spending.
10. We engage in wishful thinking that mainstream science of global warming is not real.

Is it missing a number 11 we elect Trump Prime Minister.

This is exactly what I thought.

However appealing, unilaterally declaring zero tariffs is not a good idea. Without trade tariffs, the UK government would have nothing left to negotiate. We'd be a target for trade dumping and yet more imports. And we'd be left with little opportunity to use the WTO for resolving disputed trade. The UK government would also be lobbied by concerned domestic producers looking for protection. Agriculture complicates trade policy because of its fiendish trade rate quotas. The National Farmers Union would be vocal.

I reject Graeme Leach's concept of a shared Anglosphere economic identity. UK voters are unlikely to want to trade their employment and consumer protection in return for a free trade with the USA. UK farmers will not want to give up their subsidies in return for a level playing field with New Zealand. Australia's reliance on primary exports is a mismatch for the UK's reliance on the financial sector.

On global warming, the scientists may be wrong. But I don't want to find out. I prefer caution. If, in the long term, the scientist are proved to be wrong, then we can revert to current CO2 emissions.

I think the OP hadn't discovered you know who is back.

The referendum decision has taken that out of their hands. And the UK government has been hanging on to those EU subsidies and not passing them on to the farmers. This is causing them grave cash flow problems.

Correct. This country needs a entirely different orientation to business going forward. If certain manufacturers or farmers go out of business for the purpose of achieving greater and secure prosperity for the country as a whole then so be it.

They made their voice heard and wanted to leave the EU in the majority - the way that is achieved is not up to them.

Similarly, a vote to leave the EU was always going to cause a reduction in public services. More fool on the people who believed that more money was going to be available for things such as healthcare and welfare.

The country will be open for business and it will work for those willing to work. Pure capitalism without socialist traits is what is needed and only the people who are genuinely unable to work should be looked after.

So far the effect has been the government abandoning Osborne's austerity and economic targets and instead spending more money and cutting taxes. And government rhetoric has been about re-engaging with voters who voted Brexit because they felt left behind.

Also the government has quietly broken its welfare spending cap. And the autumn statement had no additional cuts to welfare spending in fact it had measures that increased welfare spending over what was previously planned.
Personal Independence Payment: not implementing Budget 2016 measure. That is more money on welfare than previously planned.
Universal Credit: reduce from 65% taper to 63%. That is more money on welfare than previously planned.
Disability Benefit eligibility pass presence test for refugees removed. That is more money on welfare than previously planned.

We haven't started the Brexit process yet alone left the EU so everything you're saying is irrelevant at this point.

On the other hand we have assured Nissan and certain other manufacturers that they won't suffer import tariffs and we keep assuring the services industry that they will be fine.

We have also refused to pledge any additional funding to the NHS, have only agreed to meet EU subsidies for a restricted period and we have allowed councils to increase council tax for social care. There is no additional welfare budget however you would like to twist it.

Sounds like hell on earth. No developed nation would put up with pure capitalism, the vast majority of people would be losers, which is hard to get approved in a democracy (although Turkeys voting for Christmas has been a theme of 2016).

Yup..

The trouble is that means when he says "with the gain to consumers around eight times the cost to producers" (of "true free trade on imports into the UK") I just don't believe him.

I just see most of the "consumers" having no money because they've all lost their jobs to cheap foreign imports.

The ballix about the Anglosphere was the most amusing part of the article. For anyone paying attention, it was noticeable that he left two English speaking countries out of his fantasy Anglosphere - Ireland and South Africa. We're the only two Anglosphere countries where its the descendants of the natives who run the place rather than the descendants of the colonists, which means that those with the worldview of Victorian imperialists think we don't count.

It does seem to make the massive assumption that we can keep on importing, and paying for goods, without actually producing anything. The national debt would explode, currency devalue, interest rates sky-rocket and unemployment reach massive levels.

But the UK workforce would be compliant to ever worse working conditions and lower pay, so the bosses would love it.

I've just realised that "Anglosphere" equals the white parts of the old British Empire.

Why aren't the ex-British Carribean countries, India or South Africa part of the Anglosphere?

"It is this Government that is providing not just the £8 billion of extra funding that the NHS requested, but £10 billion of extra funding”. Theresa May, 23 November 2016

How is councils are going to increase spending on social care consistent with
"More fool on the people who believed that more money was going to be available for things such as healthcare and welfare."

The UK government has exceeded the welfare cap and instead of announcing measures to cut welfare spending in the Autumn statement had measures that will increase welfare spending. That is indicative of the government spending more on welfare than it previously planned to.

I beat you to it a few posts up, and also Ireland, aka the blacks of Europe.

We must have been typing at the same time. Great minds think alike!

The only feasible Brexit option in no Brexit!

Yep. This man's vision of Britain's future is basically a return to the 1800s.

BIB - you mean, after Brexit, us immigrants will still be forcing wages and working conditions down? Even if getting a job becomes hard if not impossible?

The government has obliged to some of the funding the NHS has asked for. Something that happens pretty much every year. A very big difference to giving more money to the NHS. That aside the figure May gave is a lie in any event.

More here: https://fullfact.org/health/10-billion-whats-going-on/

Then we obviously have: https://www.theguardian.com/politics...s-health-chief



You do understand the difference between welfare and social care I would assume?


Hardly. Until Brexit happens the public needs to spent money so May doesn't look even more ridiculous than she already does. So she can hardly take money away from the work shy.

Ireland is stuck with the EU, nothing anyone can do.

Why on earth would we want to trade and open up more to India or the Caribbean countries? We want immigration to come down and we want overseas outsourcing to stop.

South Africa is a candidate for an FTA but due to a number of reasons hardly on par with the countries mentioned in the article.

I can remember the full adage:

Great minds think alike, fools seldom differ.

For anyone not looking at the world through the eyes of a Victorian imperialist, Ireland's EU membership would be a very good reason to include us in this brave new Anglosphere. What better asset could you have than one of your own on the EU side of the table?

No, you just remembered the snide reply that was tagged on later.

Check the etymology.

http://english.stackexchange.com/que...ds-think-alike