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What would a united United Kingdom do differently?

Britain is a deeply divided nation. 48% voted to continue to compete amongst the nations of the EU, 52% believed we can compete better outside it. Part of the Brexit argument is that Britain can win more business by developing its own trade agreements (we have none currently), and that if the Pound does devalue (which it has since the referendum and may continue to slide when we leave in 2019), then our exports will be more competitively priced. Without covering old ground about the pluses and minuses of EU membership, the problem we now face is that whether we like to think of it this way or not, we will become a competitor of the EU. So why would the EU27 agree to anything other than the maximum damage in their power to inflict on a competitor to prevent us winning anything at their members' expense?

As the old expression says, you're either for 'em or agin 'em. Brexit means agin the EU. And it doesn't matter how chummy smiley Davis and May try to portray us, make no mistake, the EU will be competing with the UK, just as they compete today with China, America, Russia and anyone else outside the club.

The perplexing difficulty is that we're making it easy for them to win. All they have to do is sit back and watch us destroy ourselves from within. One Brit seeing disaster looming ever more apparently and more horribly than the 'scaremongers' predicted, and the other blaming the remoaners for the lack of cohesion causing any economic woes that may befall us.

But even if all remoaners wake up tomorrow and decide "to get on with it" as we're being exhorted to do (just like the banks are getting on with it by decamping to somewhere safer perhaps), then we still don't have a new global message that will appeal to the EU or any other nation as far as I can work out. What is the message of an 'independent' UK? How will we appear more attractive for business, science, education, arts or anything else by claiming 'independence' from the EU? I know the 'collapse of the Euro' and impending doom facing Euroland worries many Brexiteers, but last time I looked, the UK economy was the worst performer in the EU and the Euro is currently the currency to back.

I blame the politicians who believed a referendum was a sensible idea to unite the country, even if the 2m British most affected by the decision were not allowed to vote - ex-pats. WHY? Is there a legal case to give them an opportunity now? It will be interesting to see whether legal action to give these people a democratic voice will achieve anything.

So assuming that we will crash out without any agreement (with anyone, EU included), what is going to make Britain greater than it was within the world's largest club of nations? Simon Cowell? What does the world need that an independent Britain could offer?

And if there is a vision for that UK, what is it about EU membership that is preventing us from achieving it today?

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Comments

  1. Anonymous15 October 2017 at 12:11

    You're right. All businesses I know are already trying to do business everywhere they possibly can. How can being independent from a trading block give us an advantage that being part of one can't?

    ReplyDelete

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