The Poverty of Brexit

I wonder if it was significant that J Major was wearing a yellow tie?

Yes I absolutely agree that there is no consensus for a hard Brexit and cooperation seems to be the best way to ensure that.

What is worrying me though is I keep reading more and more though is cliff edge or nothing!

John Major.

We are all being patriotic and get behind Brexit. But it is precisely because I am patriotic that I am against Brexit

Chuka Umunna

Brexit is at crises point because the government has failed to produce any workable, realistic solution to the Northern Irish problem.

But then you get people like Kate Hoey who is Irish and says to forget about the Good Friday Agreement, it doesn't matter.

Remaining in the Customs Union is the only solution to the Irish border problem and many MPs of all party's are realising that fact and that solution may well be forced on Johnson and Co. Hopefully, that will be the beginning of the end for Brexit, or if we do leave it will be in little more than name only.

Yes that’s what I am reading. The beginning of the end that is. But I think it is full of potential real crises as I can’t see the John Major’s bastards lying down, and there are the real lunatic fringe like Farage and cohorts who talk of civil unrest.

We need a strong leader

Whitewave I agree, political instability can easily lead to social instability when "whipped up" and in that I feel it is a tight path we are all treading

John Major speech in full For those who missed it. It starts at about 15 minutes in.

According to mad as hell Leaver, Richard North, the only solution to the Irish border problem would be for us to rejoin EFTA, thus becoming part of the EEA, which would mean that we would remain part of the Single Market (he says that a customs border alone won't work) but it means accepting Freedom of Movement (the Norway option). If we just have a customs union for NI there still has to be a border (in the Irish Sea?) between all of Ireland and the rest of the UK; which the DUP won't accept.

Of course, no-one seems to be paying much attention to Gibraltar at the moment...same problem...

^ I feel it is a tight path we are all treading^

I completely agree with you, Grandad

Agreed whitewave, Grandad and Maizie.

JRM has just come on PM, talking about John Major's speech. I thought his USP was that he was always polite. Do the BBC realise we can easily silence people now, I wonder?

The Brexit Broadcasting Corporation shows no willingness to deprive their current favourite politician of as much publicity as he demands.

John Major is a giant compared with the minion that is JRM.

John Major is talking sense, not meaningless rhetoric.

Perhaps he does not have his own private reasons for promoting a hard brexit which a few outspoken ultra-rich stand to benefit from at the expense of everyone else.

I see Toyota haven't lost faith in the uk.
They are going to build their new generation Auris at the Derbyshire plant.
I'm sure some remainers were convinced that all the Japanese companies were leaving the ??
It appears not.

I got the sense, listening to John Major's speech, that he understood just what can't be done with an organisation like the EU. Not that they will not do it but that the organisation is simply not set up to do.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Dr Johan van Zyl, president of Toyota Europe, said:

"Today's announcement that we will manufacture the new Auris at Burnaston, with most engines to be supplied from Deeside, shows our confidence in the skills and capabilities of our Toyota UK members."

However, he added: "As a company, we are doing what we can to secure the competitiveness of our UK operations as a leading manufacturing centre for our European business.

With around 85% of our UK vehicle production exported to European markets, continued free and frictionless trade between the UK and Europe will be vital for future success."

Free and frictionless trade is only possible within a (if not the) Customs Union.

The reporters at Deeside on the local news were talking of the work initially being till 2019.

So now, nearly two years on from the glorious taking back of control, the only thing that pro brexit people can boast about is that one Japanese company' isn't' going to leave in the immediate future.

But they do have a proviso continued free and frictionless trade between the UK and Europe will be vital for future success."

Not total confidence, really...

Lord Stonnel has said he's seen the impact assessment reports and they're really bad. Should we not all have access to those reports? Why isn't it on the front page of the Mail that we haven't?

Tegan2
I'm not boasting, just pointing out the fact that Toyota has confidence in our country.

No; they've reasoned that, at this moment in time, it is economically sensible to continue making their cars in a purpose built factory and it would probably cost more to move elsewhere. That doesn't mean that they will stay here indefinitely [although that did appear to be the case prior to brexit did it not?].What I'd like to see is something to prove that things are actually going to get better because of brexit, not that things are staying the same in a fingers crossed sort of way.

That was Nissan, wasn't it, not Toyota?

No; I'm just making an assumption about Toyota. Nissan, [another assumption] just had some sort of huge bribe from the government to stay here. Toyota, unlike Nissan [who were really angry that leave had stated that they wouldn't leave if brexit won] were quite ambiguous about brexit I think. The leave leaflet categorically stated that Toyota, Nissan, Unilever, Vauxhall, Honda, GE and Airbus said they would stay in the UK no matter what the result of the referendum was. I understand that Nissan complained about this at the time as they had promised no such thing.