*** OFFICIAL BREXIT SUNLIT UPLANDS and #MEGA THREAD ***

[Poopadoop]

I'm making the point there are more important economic problems right now.

We're not going to run out of food. Stop being hysterical. Not because of Brexit, not because of covid. We might run out of brie, or Choco Libniz, but we're not going to run out of anything that comes from Brazil, or any of the many non-European places much of our produce already comes from.

I explained to you before that our current trade deal with Brazil is through the EU trade deal with Mercosur. After Jan. 1 it ceases to exist - poof. So unless Japan has some bananas to sell us, we're going to have shortages, and with them inflation. And not just bananas, but everything that grows outside the UK in winter that we currently import from the EU.

If we're forced to buy British because it's now cheaper than imports, that is good news for our producers.

Only if they couldn't sell those products for a better price outside the UK. That's the only way it's better for them.

In general, restricting markets for producers is not a winning economic strategy. That's why countries form trading blocs and negotiate trade deals with other countries in the first place.

It kinda helps to have options for where you can sell your goods.

Where there are tariffs there are opportunities for those not subject to such tariffs, such as those trading in internal markets.

Nonsense. They always had zero tariffs in the internal markets. That's nothing new. THe new bit is that they will have a harder time selling to external markets like the soon-to-be external market of the EU.

So while you think we're weaker, I think we're stronger.

You haven't explained how, except thru a spurious argument about how being hamstrung in external markets will somehow benefit our producers.

And isolated? Again, subjective. We were already isolated, our "influence" has been in decline for many decades, throughout our entire membership of the EU and EEC. We've been isolated from Europe through our foreign policy for a long time. So it's kind of meaningless to talk about being "isolated" when everybody already hates us.

Oh well, may as well jump right off the cliff then!

If this were true, then we would have equally performing economies.

That does not follow from what I said at all. Countries in a trading bloc don't merge their economies. If that were true, Mexico would be as well off as the US and Canada by now.

They have bought up a large part of our car industry which has had positive economic benefit for Germany at the cost of British jobs. So no, our economic interests are not shared.

Another argument I've already demolished. How many people are employed in the car manufacturing in the UK now and how many will be losing their jobs after Brexit? If leaving the EU is supposed to help us, one might think it would not involve massive losses of jobs.

This seems naive. Covid is global. Brexit is not. Brexit won't cause a global recession, but covid will, and that of course impacts upon every economy in the world. I think a great depression is exactly what is coming, and is probably expected by those who work in finance. idk, but I can't see how we avoid it. Every country has been affected.

The vaccine will get things going again, but many people have lost their jobs, much money has been picked from the magic money tree to keep things ticking along, we'll be paying for this for at least a decade in the form of austerity.

Ok maybe that will happen, I don't know. But that doesn't really answer my point. We'll be worse off than other countries who started 2021 in a similar position because of Brexit. But the gov't will blame it all on covid. Or the EU. Or anyone but themselves. That much I am sure of.

Brexit is something business has been expecting for four years now. Contingency plans would have been made. There is opportunity here as well as risk.

Lol, the gov't is not even prepared. How many customs agents have they hired now? I guarantee you it's not as many as will be needed. The problem is there has been a great deal of uncertainty about whether and what kind of trade arrangements we would have with the EU, and little guidance from the gov't, so it's going to be chaos. Everybone agrees on that who isn't a Tory shill.