If brexit happens, as I fear it probably will, the consequences, both intended and unintended, are likely to damage this country to an unprecedented extent.
As it is the most important political issue of our times, I believe we should continue to discuss it on GN, but we must be prepared for a continuence of the blind unreasoning dogma we have had so far from the little band of brexitextreemists on GN who will just keep their fingers in their ears.
Even so, I think it is important to continue to seek out the truth. We owe it to our children and grandchildren.
Did anybody catch the latest news conference from Barnier and Raab a few minutes ago? It was on Sky News but the BBC did not show it live.
It is looking a little more promising when Barnier says :
The EU is prepared to build an ambitious partnership with the Uniuted Kingdom "
They covered various subjects and whatever side of the argument you fall on it may hold some answers to the questions that have been ongoing , daily for 2 years now.
A former chief of the UK’s naval staff has said the nation does not have enough ships to patrol its waters, warning of “disastrous” consequences after Brexit.
Ex-First Sea Lord, Lord West of Spithead, said the “insufficient” number of ships had been exposed by recent clashes between British and French fishermen over scallops. Rocks and smoke bombs were hurled at British fishing vessels in the English Channel during skirmishes on Tuesday. French mariners are angry about a domestic ban preventing them from harvesting the scallop-rich region while British boats have free rein to fish.
“Co-ordination of the few ships we do have is fragmented. In theory, co-ordination is exercised by the co-located Joint Maritime Operations Command Centre.
“But this command centre lacks a single commander with authority to order government departments to take action, and therefore is unable to exercise proper command.
“After Brexit, this will be disastrous.”
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/scallop-war-brexit-latest-fishing-protect-waters-warning-sea-lord-west-a8518091.html
I read a piece today from someone obviously working in the pharmaceutical industry. They were explaining why it will not be straightforward for other suppliers of various medications to be sourced after Brexit.
Although it is true that the U.K. does have pharma companies producing drugs because of the high cost of development of the drugs each company specialises in a few areas - hence the problem there will be with insulin and all the rigmarole with the paperwork etc it would take a year to negotiate new supplies or even the same ones with a different route. Some medicines need three years to come through.
All very worrying to anyone with an ongoing health problem.
Unfortunately I could not get the link to copy,,
Economic growth is already 2pc lower than it would have been without a vote for Brexit, according to research by UBS released on Monday. The bank’s calculations also estimate that investment is 4pc lower and consumption 1.7pc down.
The research predicts that the real effective sterling exchange rate, or the value of the pound in terms of other currencies and relative to the price of goods, is 12pc depreciated. This weaker currency fed into the analysts' predictions of inflation being 1.5pc above where it would have been, partly caused by higher costs of imported goods.
The bank came up with the figures using a “synthetic control method”, where data from similar economies is used to make a model of what the UK would be like had the public not voted to leave the European Union. They then compared the real UK economy to this so-called “Frankenstein” model.
The authors of the report note that this 2.1pc cut to GDP is roughly equal to what the most optimistic forecasts predicted the entire impact of Brexit would be, despite the fact that the UK has not yet left the EU.
They argue that this effect has gone relatively unnoticed so far as it was masked by the uptick in the global economy, which helped to buoy the UK. Despite the hit to GDP being higher than predicted by many at this stage, the authors write that it is to be expected for some costs to begin before the UK officially leaves the EU. “It is intuitive that Brexit brings with it uncertainty so that part of the costs related to Brexit occur before the UK has actually exited the EU”, they write.
“As is natural for anyone driving towards a cliff - in this case UK firms likely facing a sharp increase in tariffs and non-tariff barriers - one would expect them to start hitting the brakes: i.e. scale back employment and investment decisions as uncertainty mounts”, states the report.
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/09/03/economic-growth-already-2pc-lower-would-without-brexit-says/
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