Opinions, and all in the past. Solutions going forward only please
Sorry, i quite like you as a Brexit Thread moderator, can I nominate you?
Opinions, and all in the past. Solutions going forward only please
I agree that it's down to Trade offs. I'm not convinced the EU would accept a Free Trade deal with no level playing field in exchange for fishing rights. The free trade deal is worth Trillions of pounds over the next few years, compared to a fishing industry which has a smaller effect on GDP than Harrod's.
I agree that the Government will have to U-turn on the Border in the Irish Sea as the only other alternative I can see is Theresa May's backstop that she negotiated specifically to avoid the Irish Sea border.
I cannot see the EU agreeing any deal without the level playing field, but at the same time, giving in to their demands on fishing would go completely against Dominic's motto of "taking back control " which was a major part of the Brexit campaign.
In economic terms the fishing argument is insignificant but there is a principle involved (unfortunately)
I agree completely on the level playing field and about the fishing principle thing.
On the level playing field, the EU was never going to give free access to all it's markets to a large economic power on it's doorstep, that could then undercut all it's businesses with Government subsidies, lessening welfare and workers rights, rules, safety and standards etc etc
The trouble is hardly any significant new deals have been made to replace the 40 we are losing in 4 weeks with the Government's own figures showing the Japan deal is significantly worse than we had with the EU/Japan deal.
All economic forecasts (deal or no deal) showing huge losses, and with so many UK industries now under threat of no deal, and "taking back control" consisting of us running completely open borders to the whole world for 6 months.
The fishing principle is all there is left, even though it's economically insignificant (and, even then, the fishing industry is completely dependant on exporting the majority of it's catch).
And don't even start on financial services, the largest part of the UK economy.
And the NI/Ireland border ? Where do you see that being ?
If only someone could have seen this coming.
I think about 48% of the voters did !
The issue with Ireland has always been Catholic Republic V Protestant Northern Ireland. The most logical solution is to unite the island of Ireland. We have moved on to the 21st century and surely the time is right to set aside old differences.
Probably never going to happen though and I really have to admit, I have no idea how to get around any deal that allows no border between North and South if the North is not in the EU trading area.