The next Tempest in a Thimble

[Suff]

Our esteemed Government has come out and said it will take a decade to arrange our trade with the EU.

Really? I like the riposte which stated that it was impossible to conceive that it would take twice the length of the second world war to arrange a trade deal with the EU.

In fact I was checking the facts on that response. In 2014, for which I have the figures, the balance of trade with the EU was £59 Billion to the net benefit of the EU. Yet our trade was £24 billion in net benefit to the UK for the rest of the world.

To me that would say get the hell out of the EU and sell our goods to those countries outside the EU where our balance of trade would be more positive. This was also a case of the UK trading outside the EU with one hand tied behind our backs with EU trade barriers. Without them we could fly...

Notably the Eurozone has just fallen into deflation again and that is dragging the UK down with it. But the value of the £, punished by Brexit fears, is growing again. In fact it might just have percolated through the noggins of the traders that the UK is still growing and growing strongly whilst the Eurozone shrinks. Again...

Apparently the net trade balance with the EU was £50 billion negative for us in 2015.

Why on earth would the EU massively risk that revenue by being awkward SOB's in the negotiations and dragging their feet. Also, if they are that kind of people, then do we really want to be part of them.

I'm kind of enjoying this stuff because it's dragging all the little lies and mis-statements out into the light of day and the case FOR the EU is diminished by it. Which is why they are doing all that fear mongering in the first place.

When I talk about trade barriers, don't think I'm just talking. I have a personal bee in my bonnet about EU trade barriers. I wanted to make my own solar panels this year. Except Germany petitioned the EU and had them slap a 50% tariff on incoming Chinese solar components and assembled units. Sticking nearly 80% more on the price of the cells I wanted to buy.

I have absolutely no intention of paying nearly twice what I should pay just because Germany can't keep it's manufacturing costs UP because they can't compete on the world market. There was no question that the Chinese parts were the same quality as the German parts, just the cost of manufacture.....

Anyone remember all that EEC butter we got really cheap at the beginning of the 70's, before we joined the EEC? Mrs S grandmother in law at that time was in Holland. They were paying through the nose for it and the EEC was selling it off cheap outside the EEC to keep prices high and farmers uneconomic. Nothing has changed nearly 50 years later....

The EU. Working for the EU.... Stuff the little man.

[Workingman]

I am sick to death of all the scare stories coming out if the Better Together camp.

I listened to Sir Digby Jones answer this particular question the other night. He was scathing in his denouncement of it. We already have trade deals with the EU, they would not collapse overnight, or even in two years. They might need tweaking a little in the coming years, or even decades, but that is what happens to trade deals anyway. It is not in the interests of either side to throw baby out with the bathwater.

[cromwell]

I am sick to death of all the scare stories coming out if the Better Together camp.

You and me both, old lad. I would like nothing better than an informed debate on the pros and cons of EU membership. But there is no chance of getting one. The British public has been kept in the dark for decades, when we are not being outright lied to or fed very selective facts. They say that you get the politicians that you deserve but we must surely deserve better than this lot.

[Suff]

They say that you get the politicians that you deserve but we must surely deserve better than this lot.

Depends whether you vote or not. Those who don't vote deserve everything they get and voting has been dropping for decades.