Warning about leaving customs union is redundant. The UK is leaving, and will suffer

Last Updated: October 18, 2016By
Felixstowe container port [Image: David Levene for the Guardian].

Felixstowe container port [Image: David Levene for the Guardian].

It’s pointless arguing about whether predictions about GDP falling and trade slowing are accurate; we will all find out soon enough.

The debate about whether the UK will enact a ‘hard’ or ‘soft’ Brexit is a nonsense; it will be as hard as the rest of the EU can make it.

That means no membership of the customs union or the single market.

Bank on it – if you can afford to!

Cabinet ministers have been given detailed warnings that the UK pulling out of the EU customs union could lead to a 4.5% fall in GDP by 2030 and the clogging up of trade through Britain’s ports.

The predictions were contained in a paper circulated at a meeting of Theresa May’s special Brexit cabinet committee, which concluded that ministers were not yet prepared to decide whether the UK should withdraw from the EU’s free trade bloc.

The 4.5% cut is the average prediction made in three studies that were carried out before Britain’s EU referendum, in a move that could anger Brexit supporting MPs who believe that the old estimates are out of date.

Source: Theresa May given stark warning about leaving customs union | Politics | The Guardian
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6 Comments

  1. Christine Cullen October 19, 2016 at 12:06 am - Reply

    And this is Britain “taking control!” Feels very out of control to me and we haven’t even left yet. Knowing I had a trip to the US coming up at some point, I bought dollars back in May. The trip was delayed but no way did I think the £ would devalue by nearly a fifth before I even get to fly there.

  2. NMac October 19, 2016 at 6:43 am - Reply

    These rabid Brexiteers appear to believe that economic suicide is a price worth paying for their bigotry and xenophobia. They fail to tell us what the benefits are going to be – ‘taking control’ of something, but what?

    • Christine Cullen October 19, 2016 at 12:48 pm - Reply

      NMac it appears at the moment that we are “taking control” of all those “floods” of child refugees who look older than they are or who might be older than they say, with threats of dental checks or bone density scans to sort the sheep from the goats because obviously interviews, observing demeanour and looking at documentation is not enough.
      It all feeds into the general hate-filled atmosphere being generated by the Brexiteers and their puppet masters, the right wing press. Always remember that Murdoch said,”When I go to Westminster they do as I ask, when I go to Brussels they ignore me.”
      Lots of things in play here.

  3. chriskitcher October 19, 2016 at 11:17 am - Reply

    Having just returned from a holiday in Greece where I made a pint of speaking to people from other EU countries. Everyone I spoke to was amazed that the UK was being so stupid with its future by voting to leave the EU. Not one person thought that this silly decision was a good idea.

  4. Barry Davies October 19, 2016 at 11:45 am - Reply

    More pro eu propaganda there is no economist who would consider making predictions for 2030, and if at it claims our ports will be clogged up by trade passing through them would appear to mean we need to increase the capacity to deal with it, not just carry on whinging about leaving a crumbling and less important trade bloc which is governing us which other trade partners will not. Additionally the trade agreements with the eu actually push prices higher because of the tarrifs they place on imports to keep the charges with higher than the should be, food being one of the most easy to see, so leaving far from being the disaster predicted by pro eu wingers is likely to be far from the truth.

  5. yarmouthboy October 19, 2016 at 7:18 pm - Reply

    Perhaps it is a “cunning plan” reminiscent of Baldrick. “If the UK becomes so poor then the migrants won’t want to come here anymore will they Sir?”

    “Quite so Baldrick. Quite so.”

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