2020 - GET BREXIT DONE!

Update 26 March 2020 - by Mel Cooper:

Sienna Rodgers is Editor of Labour List 

26 Mar 20 

Dear Sienna Rodgers, 

Could you please discuss the following with Jeremy Corbyn on my behalf:

Since you say he is completely committed to the  "strength of a society that cares for each other” then why has Jeremy Corbyn been a Eurosceptic for so long and why did he do such a lousy job defending a Europe that works together and cares for each other? Are the nations of Europe not potentially a kind of society that cares for each other and works together for the common good? Or does he not think that the UK is actually a part of Europe? I admit the running of the EU has flaws. But when he said on national television that he supposed he would have to admit that he was 7 out of 10 for staying in the EU if someone pushed him to a wall and held a gun to his head, I believe that he not only lost the Referendum but that he was lying and really meant 3 out of 10. Frankly, the answer should have been 10 out of 10 for staying in and then 10 our of 10 for improving it. As with everything else, the man was prevaricating. He was also, it seems to me, lying. He basically wanted us out of Europe.

Also: If he is so keen to see Israel obey international laws, especially over their decidedly stupid and provocative building settlements in the so-called Occupied Territories, will he sit down with his “friends” in Hamas and Hezbollah and suggest that they might want to think about obeying the international laws of 1948 that established the state of Israel? or that the leaders who are crying death to Jews as their basic position might consider using some of the oil wealth of the Arab nations to do something positive for the living conditions of their “subjects”? Maybe the descendants of the 800,000 Jews who were kicked out of Arab nations in 1948 and taken in by Israel should now also, for the sake of parity and fairness, be given a Right of Return?

Frankly, I left the Labour party precisely because of the directions in which Jeremy Corbyn and his Acolytes have been taking it. I am disgusted by the narrowness , shallowness and ultimately racist attitudes in the party now (including that one race is always right and another is always wrong — you guess which ones I mean — and even the use of the term “race” and an implication of separate “races" when Jews and Arabs are actually all of the same race and Semites together).

And I am incensed also that the Labour Party is still, in the days of the coronavirus, not pointing out that after all this is over Europe is going to have the same kind of problems and challenges rebuilding as it did after World War II in terms of economic and social issues. Not only do we need to be thinking about how much better off we will be as part of the unified Europe trying to overcome the devastation of this virus, but also, frankly, what we can do to help. One thing missing from the entire debate about the EU has been the moral issue. It is not about what the EU does or does not do for us, but about what we should be doing for the EU, for all of Europe united. Instead we are permitting our feeble, intellectually challenged and totally lightweight government to make us a second rate nation and remove us from a forum where we have been leaders with influence well beyond our actual powers and position in the world. We could still return to a position of being leaders and influencers, but, of course, that would not in any way fit in with the adolescent and uncritical Marxism of Momentum or Jeremy Corbyn .

And by the way, he lost two elections in a row and cannot take credit for anything the government is doing now because that is all down to the coronavirus. If the Labour Party had any brains it would get rid of Corbyn and his people completely (I hate to think of him in his preferred role as Shadow Foreign Minister) and maybe get someone like Gordon Brown to become a top advisor. Otherwise, I think that the Labour Party is doomed.

23 January 2020.

Mel asks:- Can you explain to me again the advantages of leaving the EU?

Two septuagenarian experts, Brian and Noel, rise to the challenge. 

Noel writes: Brian puts it far more elegantly than I. But we agree in principle. 

Bumbling Boris and Cummings the Clown, with his baggy old trousers drooping off his bottom, must now globally renegotiate trade deals on the 70,000 items we buy and sell. They must win better terms than we have today with the EU.  They must make up the last 3 years of huge Brexit costs. So, I guess that England is doomed, doomed, doomed. AND - Where are the City’s Passporting Rights? Is The City of London also doomed? - Noel

******** 

Brian writes:

Dear Mel,

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to list the advantages arising from the UK leaving the EU.  Here are my thoughts, in no particular order:

• Foreigners really will “begin at Calais”.

• We will be able to make “wonderful” trade deals, which will inevitably be inferior - certainly in terms of the quality of what we import - than those we already have.  This is inevitable because of the greater size and therefore bargaining power of the world’s larger, and therefore more significant, trading nations.

• We will be able to re-establish new Governmental departments, at enormous cost, to negotiate and then monitor our new “wonderful” trade deals, establish our own food and other standards.  These, and many other new costs, will swamp any savings we make from leaving the EU.

• It will be necessary for the UK to agree new trading and other arrangements with the EU, by far our largest current trading partner.  But, it will be equally necessary for the EU to ensure that post-Brexit Britain gets worse terms than it currently enjoys; anything else would result in the unravelling of the whole of the EU as its other members would be encouraged to leave so as to improve their own status vis-a-vis the EU.

• If we want the best trading terms that the EU is likely to offer us, they will have to be on something other than an arms-length basis (i.e., along the Canadian, Swiss or Norwegian lines) and this arrangement will involve the UK in paying towards the EU’s ongoing costs, somewhat as we do now.  On the other hand, to avoid such costs, it will without doubt result in poorer trading terms with the EU, our most important, closest, and probably most empathetic neighbour (compare and contrast the USA, China and Russia in terms of empathy).

• We will lose perhaps a very sizeable proportion of the most profitable “industries” we have: the financial, automobile and aerospace industries.

• Brexit will result, almost inevitably, in the UK losing both Scotland and Northern Ireland, and, who knows, perhaps also Wales.  Oxford is sure to follow if they leave.  Using my constant desire to turn every thought into an anagram, the United Kingdom will become the Untied Kingdom.

• The English language will no doubt over time cease to be the de-facto lingua franca of the EU.   One could expect the French to push for English to be replaced by their own lingua franca, and the Brits will be forced to learn languages - a great imposition.

• When outside the warm embrace of the EU, the UK (in its then diminished, solitary, situation) will have to find new ways to impress other large nations to treat us as being significant on the World’s political stage.  Without Scotland and Northern Ireland, we will be a nation of about 60 million people, and have the clout of countries of like size, say Tanzania.

• And this one’s for the historians.  In the whole history of Europe, England (or the UK) has never found itself in the opposite camp to a united France and Germany.   But note: for this to be true, the pedant would set aside the 16 years between the Treaty of Rome and the UK’s triumphal entry into the then European Communities.  Ignoring the pedant, as we should, I don’t know what this might entail, but it’s food for thought.

I find that a heavy heart is not conducive to creativity, and these are the only things I could come up with at short notice.  I’m sure if I left this to stew a little longer, I could imagine other, greater, benefits to come from the UK leaving the EU.

Best regards,

Brian

********

Noel responds to Mel. 

Of course. The advantage of pissing off 50% of our export customers is to crash sterling and make £46M or more, far more, for Rees-Mogg and his pals – offshore, tax free.

Sterling has gone from $1.51 to $1.30 dollars (-13.2%). 

This coming year, 2020, of non-deals and hopeless confusion will knock another 15% to 20% off sterling. Let’s sell the BBC and the NHS to the USA! Whoopee!

Jan 23 - 20 - 1 Pound sterling equals

1.31 United States Dollar

23 Jan, 10:56 UTC · $1.51  ‎30 Jan 2015

“UK trade deficit. A deficit of £139 billion on trade in goods” losing up to, say, 20% on sterling (with which we buy our imports) is $27.8bn (annually) which at the average wage of £25,000 is 1.1 million jobs – accumulating year after year. So, after 5 years of sterling at 20% down it is equivalent to 5.5 million lost jobs. BUT, a fantabulous, generous trade deal with Trump will make our exports soar, wipe out the deficit, put it all to rights and make us rich – rich – rich. Brilliant Brexit Bullshit!

Noel Hodson - Director

Tax Reconciliations, Oxford UK,

From Tax-Havens to Safe Havens

On 23 Jan 2020, Melvin Cooper wrote:

INDEPENDENT Newspaper reports car industry job losses.

Can you explain to me again the advantages of leaving the EU? Mel

Cummings the Clown and Bumbling Boris said: Who needs experts? Nobody wants experts? Nobody reads long expert analysis. We do it all from sound-bites, by instinct. When we are seriously ill, we don't consult trained medics - we rely on shamans, prayers and lots of positive continual shagging. "GET BREXIT DONE and gambol into the Sunlit Uplands. Hurrah!" 

NOTE - Should you, contrary to Tory  promises, lose your job, assets or sanity in 2020 - these two representatives of the gang who brought us Brexit can be found at Number 10, Downing Street. They will personally compensate you, in full, for any financial losses. 

BREXIT AFTER TORY LANDSLIDE

BRITISH ELECTION 2019

Johnson wins large Tory majority. 

My fear is that Machiavellian Dominic Cummings will run the government. He, with other anarchists and opportunists in the Tory Party seem to be intent on wrecking the EU. They are probably paid or zealous-unpaid agents of Putin (Russia wants to divide & rule Europe) and of Trump. (The USA wants to impose their model of world-trade. The EU is the strongest check on US trade-power). 

My deeper fear is that this surprising right-wing revolution is, as in the USA, a fascist revival that is promoting sinister sociopathic people into power. I guess that Cummings, a man outside the Party system, is one such. Serial-liar Johnson, who famously said "Fuck business", simply wants no legal or any checks on his naughty-boy behaviour - a characteristic that his old school masters have recently published. So, sweeping aside the governing UK institutions will be his knee-jerk reaction. Lying to the Queen; shutting Parliament; hobbling the Judges; Decimating the BBC; and selling the NHS, are just for starters. Comparisons with Hitler's crazed but effective tactics in the 1930's are unavoidable - and terrifying. 

BREXIT. As this blog has warned for years, any Brexit will bankrupt the UK and break-up the United Kingdom. We are now a lone, wounded, tired, rich, old island nation. A perfect victim for a merciless mugging. Our past Empire ensures there is much simmering hostility; even from our closest friends, once our Dominions - Australia, New Zealand, N. America, India, Canada, swathes of Africa, and patches of Asia. etc. "Dominions" says it all. No significant trade bloc will finalise trade deals on our 70,000 trade items and The City's services - until they know and understand our future trade-deals with Europe. BMW, Oxford, a German manufacturer, has today, 17th Dec, closed for Christmas and sent the workers home on reduced pay. What terms will BMW want from Britain to make their electric-vehicles here? What will our billionaires and millionaires, such as Rees-Mogg MP, demand to keep their capital here and pay UK taxes? The flights out might be full already. Doom, doom, doom. 

At least Ex-Labour Leader, sly Jeremy Corbyn, has won what he has wanted for 30 years. To quit what he sees as the capitalist conspiracy that governs Europe. He can retire to tend his vegetable allotment with an easy mind.

Here is a non-paranoid, balanced analysis by one of the UK's staunchest and most admirable and worthy citizens: 

17th December 2019.  GINA MILLER Writes:  Thursday’s election result was a seismic shock to our politics, and to the future political complexion of large parts of our United Kingdom. There has been and will no doubt continue to be, much analysis of the effects of tactical voting on the outcome of the General Election. It is self-evident that many of the pollsters fairly accurately predicted the overall vote percentages. But they were less consistently good at predicting individual seat results, or the Conservatives’ overall majority. My own view is that the election result was primarily attributable to tactical voting by significant numbers of voters in key swing seats. But we should be honest and admit that many, including ourselves, underestimated the "anti-Corbyn effect" and the tactical voting this predicated, particularly along that “red wall” of Labour-held seats running from North Wales, through the Midlands and up to the north-east of England. In other constituencies, for example Canterbury, one can see that tactical voting ensured strongly principled Labour candidates hoovered up most of the Remain alliance vote. Elsewhere, and particularly in the South-East, we witnessed individual hard-line Brexiteers – for example, Dominic Raab, Iain Duncan Smith and Theresa Villiers – limping home with vastly reduced majorities as a result of tactical voting. As Peter Kellner wrote in The Guardian, “The big lesson is that tactical voting needs not just a common enemy, but a broadly common vision, shared by the Labour and Lib Dem leaders. This was the case with Tony Blair and Paddy Ashdown in 1997; it was not with Corbyn and Swinson last week.” I agree. My own experience, and that of my colleagues at Remain United, bear eloquent testimony to this. I can assure supporters that my team and I could not have worked harder during the Short Campaign.  But deep-seated fears about the patriotism, economic security, national safety and competency of a Corbyn-led government, and a dislike of both Jo Swinson and her election campaign, were twin headwinds that were too strong for any campaigning organisation to be able to overcome. So what do I take away from this sobering, general election result? In the absence of a robust, effective – and, for the time being, credible – parliamentary opposition, we should encourage Mr Johnson to use both his heart and his head to manage the competing and conflicting hopes and aspirations of different groups of voters in a thoughtful and pragmatic way. This also means harnessing the personal credibility and franchises of his cohort of newly-elected MPs in northern seats, in order that our great country can move forward together, harmoniously and purposefully. Only time will tell how successfully the Prime Minister navigates the challenging journey that lies ahead. It is not in the interest of any of us that he should fail, as we all yearn to see the Government bring a deeply divided country back together again; deal with the undeniable, and stark, inequalities between a rich south and much poorer, post-industrial north of England; and, somehow, keep the Union together when the results of the General Election in Scotland and Northern Ireland could conspire to make that much harder to achieve. If Mr Johnson uses his enormous parliamentary majority to start a spirited and purposeful programme to reverse the effects of austerity that has divided communities and devasted so many families’ lives, he will deserve all our support. There is absolutely no doubt that the new majority Conservative Government under Mr Johnson will pass the Withdrawal Agreement Bill before Christmas, but there is a long way to go to negotiate, much less still complete, the future relationship and trade agreement with the EU, against a backdrop of EU-inspired skirmishes on fisheries and financial services, and an uncertain global macro-economic landscape. We must now, all of us, face up to reality. For some of us, that will inevitably be tinged with resignation and regret. But we need to have a laser-like focus on the detail of what is being agreed in our name and make sure that it does not roll back on the rights, equality and enhanced democracy and transparency it has taken decades to achieve. A revolution is coming: the balance between the rights and prerogatives of the Executive versus the freedom of the individual is now a crucible of change, under a newly invigorated government with a large parliamentary majority. The courts, litigants and media outlets, alike, could all be early casualties of the Executive seeking to assert itself. We have already learnt that government advisers are urging on major machinery of government changes across Whitehall; these include change in MoD procurement processes, and a completely new department for borders and immigration. It is also likely to mean a greater role for the private sector in the procurement of public services; a re-balancing of spending to the North and towards infrastructure capital spending; and, by no means least, further centralising of power and patronage in the hands of the Prime Minister and his future Cabinet. These are times of enormous change, and my perception is that this profusion of changes is going to come with startling speed and impact. With the principal opposition parties in disarray, we must stay vigilant to ensure our progressive politics and the open, tolerance that makes Britain a beacon of democracy the world over, are not placed at risk.  We must all stand ready to speak out if ever this newly-elected majority government threatens to abuse the trust that voters have given it or uses its parliamentary strength to railroad legislation through Parliament that poses a threat to our communities and way of life. I, for one, will not stop using the campaigning voice I have developed over the last 30 years. I will continue to speak out against injustice, inequality and the abuse of power, whenever I see it. But if great opportunities lie ahead, just as much as threats, I will also be open to opportunities for reform and change that materially improve the quality of life for our families, our communities and our country, as we usher in a new decade with new challenges. They must not be discussed through a narrow ideological lens. To those of you who supported me and Remain United – through donations, sharing our recommendations and materials and, most of all, in sending your kind messages – we are hugely humbled by your belief in our work. We are sorry that, together, we were unable to achieve a different result on your behalf. We all played a part, and that’s what democracy is all about. Thank you for your incredible support, and my best wishes to you all.

UK SHUTS PARLIAMENT - FORECAST - WHAT NEXT?

NO HORSES NO DRIVERS.
REDUNDANT
BORIS DEPOSES ELIZABETH THE LAST

"REVOKE ARTICLE 50 to stop Brexit." Jo Swinson MP Leader of the Lib-Dems wins standing ovation at the Lib-Dem Conference. 

At last a leading politician speaks up for the majority of UK voters. Has the anti-Remain gag on UK media been torn aside? The UK Murdoch media, including The Times  (the popular channels) is still hammering-out the bullshit message that "The Will of the People" demands us to quit Europe. The BBC and ITV and some local newspapers seem to have at last woken to the threat of a fascist invasion and takeover. Article 50 is the letter sent to the EU giving notice of the UK leaving Europe. It can be reversed by another letter, of revocation. Quick, cost-free and efficient.   

18 Sept 2019 - 9.30 am - Desperate Times: UK waits for The Supreme Court. Will the eleven judges licence the Fascist revival as demanded by the offshore billionaires who own the UK media; and demanded by those traitors gambling against Sterling? 

Lee

The Lib-Dems (Revoke Article 50 and STOP BREXIT) are the only effective REMAIN party. Corbyn and Boris are for LEAVE.

Leaving is so damaging (5 million+ UK job losses) that I will support any and all serious initiatives to REMAIN.

What alternative do you see? – Noel

PS – 16.8 million voted remain. 6.2 million signed the petition. 1.2 million marched through London. I and they will not be gagged by the right wing, offshore billionaire owned media and the bullying fascist revival. Dangerous times.

Noel

10 Sept 2019 UK SHUTS PARLIAMENT - WHAT NEXT?

Our one-month old Prime Minister, serial liar Boris Johnson, and his ex-Cambridge Analytica/ Facebook data scandal, sociopathic sidekick, Dominic (evil genius) Cummings, have effected a cunning scheme (proroguing) to send the 650 UK Members of Parliament home, to prevent them from questioning The Government. The House of Commons shut down at midnight on Sunday 9th September.

Where will the 650 MPs meet in September and October? 

Astonishingly, so far, UK judges and courts have said the closure has nothing to do with them - so, to date the closure is deemed to be legal - or at least not illegal. Appeal Courts might change this.

These tactics and the lukewarm responses from lawyers, MPs and the media, are rightly being compared to Hitler's tactics in 1933 to create his crazed dictatorship, using his gangs of psychopathic killers, recently released from prisons and lunatic asylums, to rule Germany. What next, a Reichstag Fire and a weekend of book-burning in Westminster? 

"The Government" or Number 10, now consists of about 20 dimwit or self-profiting (shorting Sterling) Ministers, sworn to quit Europe on 31st October 2019; and the Civil Service that is presumed to be taking their orders and making Brexit happen. Effectively the UK is being run by Cummings with Boris as his puppet. Number 10 is being "ruled with a rod of iron" by Dominic Cummings. Boris is as baffled and waffling as ever - and has moved into Number 10 with one if his young mistresses (the UK's First Lady?). He is accused of lying to the Queen to make her sign the papers to shut down Parliament. 

If underlings refuse Boris's orders - he and and his gang are helpless. 

Boris vows to ruin his country (I say his country, even though he now claims to be a Turkish Muslim emigre) by forcing a Do-or-Die (the phrase is actually Do-and-Die) Brexit on the 31st October 2019. Spookily, that date is Halloween; more shades of deranged Nazi myths and ideologies. Any Brexit will cause chaos and bankruptcy. Boris's No-Deal-Brexit will cause 5 million job losses as WTO tariffs, from 5% to 45%  are added to our export-prices to the 500 million EU citizens and globally, and thus restrict our sales.

Assuming that something close to normality is restored, what will happen to politics? The main parties are: 

311 TORIES (Boris and Co "Leave") 

248 LABOUR (Corbyn and Co "Leave") 

17 LIB-DEMS (Jo Swinson and Co - "Stop Brexit") 

0  BREXIT PARTY (Farage & Co - no MPs but vociferous) 

35 SCOTTISH NATIONAL PARTY (SNP wanting Scotland to quit the UK and stay with Europe) 

10 DEMOCRATIC UNIONIST PARTY (DUP, N. Ireland's angry-leave gang, the 7 IRA MPs refuse to attend Parliament) 

43 WELSH NATIONALISTS - Plaid Cymru ("Leave") 

And last but not least 38 INDEPENDENT MPs (mostly "Remain" who have quit the Party System but still sit in Parliament. 

After an election, I think that another two months of Boris's lies and tom-fooleries and of Corbyn's slippery, sly smoke-filled-rooms tactics will result in:

170 TORIES "Brexit - Do and Die Suicide Pact"

120 LABOUR  "Maybe some sort of Brexit - and the Soviet Republic of Britain"

213 LIB-DEMS  "Bollock to Brexit - Stop Brexit"

40   SNPS "Quit the UK - Stay with Europe"

17  N. Ireland "We won't agree on anything, ever." 

40 WELSH  "Maybe Leave - but now we are not so sure."

50 INDEPENDENTS "Leave a little bit" 

650 MPs

The INDEPENDENTS might all migrate to the Lib-Dems. 

The proper course of events is: 

Recall Parliament

2nd Brexit Referendum

New Election.

Monday, 5 August 2019

BREXIT - STERLING COLLAPSE

BREXIT - STERLING COLLAPSE

Introduction: John backs Brexit, Trump and Johnson. He sees the fall in the value of Sterling as a great opportunity for the UK economy. Mel (and I) disagree:

*******

...And from Mel Cooper - 3rd August 2019:

Try this article on this blog:

http://noelhodson.blogspot.com/2019/08/tax-evasion-drives-brexit-stephen-fry.html 

Then follow the inks to the Stephen Fry YOU TUBE broadcasts on Brexit.

Try some of the other things about Brexit on the blog. Spread the word? Brexit is a project of the New Fascism. Brexit is a con job. Brexit is the Propaganda promoted by Dominic Cummings. Brexit is all about lies. Project Fear is really Project Reality Check!

Someone should sue Boris Johnson now before it is too late. History is not going to be kind to David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris johnson, Michael Gove, Dominic Raab, Dominic Cummings, Jeremy Corbyn, Seumas Milne, etc. Britain is in thrall to a bunch of intellectual lightweights and self-serving, greedy Thatcherite fools.

BREXIT is a moral failure. Brexit is politically and morally right up there with letting Hitler take over the Sudetenland, and we all know how that worked out!

Britain will stiffen its upper lip and win through in the end, just as they did with the Blitz: but, on the other hand, we did not vote for the Blitz. People seems to believe that Brexit is worth the loss of millions of jobs, our standing in the world and what will be left of our sovereignty when we withdraw it from the EU pool of sovereignties and stand defiantly as a Small Island off the coast of the rest of Europe.

Ireland, North and south, will not be happy with the fallout they will have to absorb because of Brexit. Brexit Chaos is not going to be a lot of fun for anyone! We*are* turning our backs on Europe and will pay for it; and the rest of the world is really not going to give us all that the Brexiteers promise.

Right now we have control of our money, our laws, our borders and everything else internal. Within the EU we have a veto, sit in a forum that debates everything, and have — until all this — had an amazing amount of influence and respect.

Leaving the EU means we are going to have to dilute our Sovereignty to get trade deals with far more powerful and rapacious countries than we will be once we are a little offshore island sending all by ourselves. One of the solutions to our post-EU problems may just be turning the UK, or what is left of it, into the new Singapore to survive. And the EU is really going to be pleased with us for that.

Brexit betrays the Good Friday Agreement and and invites the likes of the New IRA and Nigel Farage to impose their vision on the UK, or what will be left of it once Scotland goes independent and Northern Ireland votes to unite with the other Ireland as a reaction. Brexit is both economically and morally bankrupting the UK already, but no one seems to want to notice. If Labour does not fully embrace remaining in the EU and having a properly informed Referendum about Brexit, then the party will lose its soul; and if it does embrace Remaind and another ferendum under Jeremy Corbyn no one will believe or trust Labour’s position anyway. Brexit is a No Win project, except for the likes of Billionaires, Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and Vladimir Putin.

The UK is in dire trouble. Jeremy Corbyn is not the loyal Opposition. He is the disloyal Leninist puppet of Seumas Milne and other Eurosceptics. The Labour Party is now the left wing version of a resurgence of Fascist thinking. If you do not agree with Jeremy Corbyn (or admit to voting tactically Lib Dem) you cannot be a Labour Party member. If, on the other hand, you think that Hitler was a friend of Zionism by trying to rid Europe of all Jews and send them elsewhere, like Palestine say; or you think that the whole anti-Semitism scandal of the Labour Party is actually Fake News and it is all part of a Zionist Plot to overthrow poor, avuncular, sweet-natured Jeremy Corbyn, a man of unutterable integrity, then you are One of Us!!! I do despair, I am afraid. And we will leave the EU because the LEAVERS have taken over the discourse with the NO DEAL threat and all energy is bent on stopping that and NOT on keeping us in the EU as part of a common cause. It is all very sad. There is simply no real Opposition to Brexit, no articulation of what the EU does for us, no vision of a future within the EU that is being promoted strongly.

ASK NOT WHAT THE EU CAN DO FOR YOU, ASK WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR THE EU?

But what is the vision of staying in the EU? Yes, we continue to have to pay a fair proportion of our wealth into the common fund of the EU. My goodness, that amounts to a whole 1% or 1.5% at most of our annual budget! Yup, folks, 14 billion minus our rebate accounts for 1%, roughly, of the annual UK budget of 990+ billion a year. 

Why does not one do the maths? Instead of being the third largest contributors to the EU budget, we should be aching to be the largest; because that would mean we are the richest! Instead of Brexmoaning about how much we send to the EU, we should be wishing we sent more because it would mean we are that much richer! Staying in the EU means that we are part of a programme that, like the Marshall Plan of old, supports the poorer sections of our continent to bring it up to a level where everyone benefits and wealth is more equally distributed. It means the Welsh farmers will get their 300 million pounds of subsidy a year. it means EU funding for medical and scientific research. It means building roads and schools and hospitals funded from the common EU pot in deprived areas of Europe such as the north of England! In means being part of a surprisingly small bureaucratic system that runs common projects efficiently. It means being part of the Galileo Project, it means being part of international co-operation on cancer research; it means having a common system for resisting terrorism; it means exchange of important information on many, many things. Yes, it means being under the jurisdiction of a European Court for common European problems and also as a court of last resort AFTER we have exhausted our internal system. It means our children and grandchildren can study at any EU university. It means we can travel without visas and problems on business or pleasure throughout the EU. It means that we have a common policy about the EU borders. 

It means, therefore, a special deal for the roughly 20% of EU citizens who move around for work and pleasure and business; but that we have complete control of our borders for everyone who is coming from elsewhere the world. it means we are not giving out visas and other privileges to the rest of the world in exchange for trade deals. It means that if we abide by EU law we can send back to Europe anyone who does not have a job here after 3 months, something our own government has never bothered to do. It means that Northern and southern Ireland can go on living with a peace accord that may be fragile but has worked for 20 years and which is under threat from Brexit. 

It means living in a co-operative community of countries that try to solve its economic, political, and moral problems together — such as dealing with the refugee crisis of the world today; or, heaven help us, the rise of a new kind of Fascism called Populism. it means that we actually talk to our nearest neighbours in a civilised way instead of turning them into rivals. It means continuing to benefit from the lack of tariffs and trade problems in all those industries where goods are flowing freely back and forth across Europe. It also means continuing the have easy dealings with the market that amounts, if you include services and not just good, to will over 60% of our business.

Britain at the moment has a far better deal being inside the EU than any deal we could possibly get from the outside with our nearest and largest trading and financial partners. As for trading under WTO rules, every single economist who is asked about it says that the WTO is a default situation and is a potential disaster of unfathomable proportions. The people leading the Brexit campaign are not interested in risk management for the population. They just want to be shot of EU regulations so that they can continue to manage their wealth without having to repatriate the trillions they have offshore tax free.

Staying in the EU will not be without its problems. The EU does need, in some areas, a lot of rethinking of even reform. But it has given the UK 45 years of peace and prosperity. Everyone who analyses the risk of leaving is worried that property will be disrupted and peace may be too. So perhaps we should have a serious intelligent debate in place of a lot of emotive propaganda and think again? And then, perhaps, even vote again.

Maybe Brexiteers know something that I do not know. If so, I wish they would tell me. Because all I can see in Brexit is an act of potentially dangerous self harm.

Mel

TARIFFS IN BRIEF

TARIFFS ARE COMPLICATED

What are Tariffs?

Chapter One – Tariffs: The Smuggler’s Friend

What are tariffs and why do we have them?

Tariffs are as old as man and woman-kind. From the very first simple swapping of goods and services, damned bureaucrats have added on tariffs, or duties or taxes or tolls – to be paid to the Pharaoh, Monarch, Emperor, Empress or Dictator, in fact paid to whoever is at the top of the military tree, in your neck of the woods.

To enrich such bosses, legions of intrusive scribes have recorded all imports and exports from the beginning of time. Red-tape was invented and created many millennia ago.

There are as many reasons, good and bad, for adding tariffs as there are types of goods crossing borders. Great Britain lists 70,000 (seventy-thousand) different types of traded goods.

Captain Jack Sparrow, earning an honest living as a Caribbean pirate, privateer or simply as an ocean-going thief, relies utterly on governments imposing taxes and rules on trade. His victims might be honest traders, risking their lives to ship cancerous tobacco to Liverpool; or manacled slaves from Africa to sugar plantations in Barbados; or they could be armed battleships “for King and Country” stealing gold, silver and jewels from indigenous natives; or, like Jack Sparrow, they could be other lawless pirates and smugglers, intent on stealing, then selling to, say, London, while evading the tariffs.

They all have in common a strong desire to offload the goods they are carrying, in a safe port, with a safe bank that will pay them, in good coin (currency guaranteed by big-government), with minimum taxes being siphoned off by those same governments. And it gets much more complicated. This ‘No-Tax’ shared ambition binds all importers and exporters together in an unholy covenant, which makes their trade-routes and timetables predictable; which pirates can use to intercept the traders’ cargoes.

Their self-contradiction or dichotomy is, as you will have noted above, that all traders, pirates and smugglers are really keen to avoid the government. Red-Tape Is a Nightmare! Taxes Drain Us – After All Our Risks and Our Hard Work!

(Existing free-market trade deals that eliminate or reduce tariffs for the UK as a member of the EU. Signed ...Pending - South America. Each of these have taken 20 years or more to negotiate. They are the largest free-trade bloc ever to have existed - more than 700 million cooperative souls. China, 1.2 billion customers, is the next deal to do - and this is an example of how complicated the issues are.) 

BUT, without Monarchs, Presidents, Emperors (and Empresses) and the like – without government – without all that loathed red-tape – how would traders get paid? IN GOD WE TRUST – declaims the almighty dollar. I PROMISE TO PAY THE BEARER (in gold coins) boasts the Bank of England on the British Pound Note. Currency is an IOU that is transferable with no questions asked. It is merely cunningly and artfully designed, beautifully printed, valuable ‘bits-of-paper.’ Government stands behind the promises. Without strong & stable government – currency is worthless. So, we put up with that part of their interference. We can swap our cargo of fish, for money that works anywhere in the world.

BUT, unless the cargo is good; unless it is fully certified by an independent authority, The Banks, won’t cough-up. Bankers are a suspicious lot. Before they’ll enable your rapidly deteriorating cargo of smelly fish to be swapped for an Unlimited American Express Card, respected at all the best hotels and super-stores and on cruise-ships and intergalactic-flights – the bankers insist on knowing that the fish are really yours; that they are fresh, not contaminated; that they are saleable in their region; in short – that the fish comply with the very highest standards. Who sets the standards? Of course, it is The Government. More and more red-tape.

If you don’t like the rules in that region – you are perfectly free to sail away with your fish – and sell it anywhere in the free-market-world; without certification, without taxes or tariffs, without all that awful red-tape. And get your money. Surely, now we are free, now we are buccaneering and swash-buckling world traders (hoorah!) someone, somewhere, will buy the fish. And surely the buyers will pay us in a currency that all banks will honour. To the devil with the paperwork. We have real goods to trade.

But, it gets very tiring, tedious and worrying to swash-buckle with every cargo you trade. As you age and look for a safe haven, a familiar routine, it makes sense to negotiate a Trade Agreement with, say Sweden. The Swedes like fish. It will take many months, even years, to convince Sweden that our fish is edible. They will certainly ask for our quality control documents, with details and science tests that their Viking ancestors would have spurned. Ancient Vikings would have eaten the sea-trout raw – sea-lice and all. And …the Swedes are worried that we will put their own fishing boats out of business; so we sign guarantees and quotas. But eventually we make a trade deal – and are paid for this cargo in Swedish Krona – which is internationally bankable.

Phew! What a relief. Its good to have settled trading terms. So we set about making deals with other countries – one by one. This could take decades. There is however a more efficient way to do it.

We could join trading a bloc. A whole set of countries that already have their rules and regulations in place. There is such a group nearby of 27 nations – 500 million hungry souls who like fish and have all the red-tape sorted. It’s called The European Union. And it’s very bureaucratic – almost socialist. Too many damned rules.

  

But, say our exporters – there is a much larger trading bloc, over 100 years old. Many more millions of customers. All the red-tape is tried and tested and sorted. It’s the World Trade Organisation – WTO; which is 164 friendly nations that we can join immediately, opening up the whole world to our goods and services. So we join the WTO. Hurrah! Free Trade, Free Markets at last.

2 BREXITS - THE REAL WTO & A GLOBAL RANT

BUT, as we join and sign up to WTO Membership Rules, a bit of a glitch occurs in Sweden. Captain Bird’s Eye, one of our biggest fishers and sellers is offshore in the North Sea, waiting permission to land a huge cargo of fish – good clean fish. What is holding up the deal is some fiddle-faddling red-tape. As WTO members via their membership of the EU, Sweden has to apply the WTO tariff on fish they import from non-EU members. This protects their own and Europe’s fishing industry from dumping. The tariff is 40%. When the fish wholesalers sell Captain Birdseye’s fish to Swedish shops and families – they have to add a 40% tax. That makes UK fish a tad more expensive; so the Swedes want a price reduction.

Oh dear! Yes, very dear. Whatever shall we do?

Chapter Two – Who pays and who gets the money from the tariffs?

Well, what a question. Where indeed does the 40% fish tariff go? It is of course paid by the Swedish consumers who happen to prefer British fish, even at 40% more than their own fish, or French fish, or any other European Union fish – British is Best. The anglophile Swedes buy our fish in a shop – pay the shopkeeper, who separates off the 40% WTO tariff /duty /tax /impost element; and sends it to the Swedish Treasury. The tariff money goes from the shoppers to the government. It does not get paid to Captain Birds Eye, who risked life and limb to wrest the fish from The North Sea. He gets the usual market price. The Swedish Treasury is very pleased to effortlessly collect an extra tax.

An entrepreneurial pirate would of course sneak into a Swedish port, at dead of night, and sell the fish to a middleman, without the WTO tariff. But …would the middleman pay-up without all the usual paperwork?

FREEDOM AT LAST!

The reason that Sweden imposes the tariff, is that as a Member of The European Union, which has signed numerous agreements with the World Trade Organisation, by law, Sweden must apply the WTO tariff to the fish being imported from a non-EU country.  

This also automatically applies to whichever of the 164 WTO member-states where Captain Birds Eye might want to sell his fish. The 27 member-states of the European Union apply the tariffs and 164 WTO member-states apply the tariffs. You might think it is a conspiracy against free-trade and The Free Markets. It isn’t. All these countries have thrashed out mutually beneficial trade agreements, in the WTO case over the past hundred years or so, and the agreements enable free-trade.

Britain is of course at liberty to go to, say, Patagonia, and negotiate a trade-agreement. But, if Patagonia is in the WTO, all 164 members have to approve the variations in the existing deals. All 164 have a veto. It functions on mutual-agreement. If there is a disagreement, it goes to the WTO Court in Geneva. It usually takes five to ten years for a court decision to be approved by them all. Will Captain Birds Eye’s cargo still be saleable in another five years? He could try for a Kwick-Deal in America – Donald Trump will always do a deal. But, America has many trade agreements around the world – including ones with Europe and the WTO. Even the mighty USA will have to consult its existing trading partners, before signing a new deal with Britain.  And, they have plenty of fish of their own. Maybe the fish will have to be sold tariff and regulation free, in Britain, – free, apart that is, from the UK’s own Health & Safety laws. Its complicated.

Chapter Three – What about tariffs on stuff we import?

The United Kingdom, Great Britain, as a sovereign nation – if/when freed from the shackles of Brussels bureaucrats – and spurning the even more entwining maze of WTO red-tape, does not have to impose and collect tariffs on goods and services that we import from beyond our borders. If France wants to sell us cheese and frogs’ legs – we can buy them. France might have to comply with some European, EU, rules on trading with us – but that is their problem. If we agree to buy, say, £100 million of food from France – that’s the price. Tariff free. And – the French products will comply with all the quality controls we could wish for.

If that food usually has an EU members’ tariff of, say, 5%; it is no longer our problem. It is an SEP – Somebody Else’s Problem. We do not have to impose the 5% as the goods enter Britain – even across the Northern Ireland border – and then pay that tariff to HM Treasury. Lower taxes – cheaper food in our shops. We are free! Life is cheaper – or at least some cheese and frogs-legs are cheaper.

Ditto for Italian and Spanish wine – and champagne. They tell us their price – we buy at that price – they ship it, we drink it. All tariff free. We can do the same for all goods entering the UK. No tariffs – lower cost of living! Who is to complain about that?

HM Treasury, who normally gets the import tariffs, might raise a murmur. British farmers and food manufacturers could complain, along the lines of “dumping” as every nation on earth queues up to sell us their stuff – tariff free. Those damned Health & Safety quality controllers would of course demand certification – Frogs Legs can be diseased; wine can be adulterated; chickens can be washed in chlorine; meat could be stuffed with growth-hormones and pumped up with water – and fish might have been taken from our own waters by unscrupulous foreigners - damned pirates.

If we overdo this tariff free import bonanza, it could affect our Balance of Trade. The goods might be tariff-free, but they are not price-free. We still have to pay for them. And …due to the WTO tariffs on our exports making it more difficult to sell abroad – we could run up a mighty trade deficit.

So:– for the moment. There it is. Tariffs in less than 2,000 words. We've dealt with 3 trade items: Fish, Cheese and Frogs' Legs - only another 69,997 items to go. 

THE DISCUSSION WILL FOLLOW.