Ed Spalton emailed me a link to an article/letter at the Campaign for an Independent Britain website, which the Derby Telegraph also published as a reader's letter.
Jack K has kindly cut and pasted the article in the comments, it's recommended reading. Attention to detail, that's what we need now.
Saturday, 23 December 2017
Reader's Letter of The Day
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16 comments:
Preparing for Brexit – a letter from our Chairman
Sir,
It is one of the very few advantages of getting older that you can remember things which others either do not know, have forgotten, or wish had been forgotten.
When we joined the EEC on 1 January 1973, our animal feed mill entered a completely new way of doing business. We were prepared because the government gave very full, detailed information starting from late in 1971. Whilst the new system was complicated, bureaucratic and alien, we were able to continue earning our living smoothly because we knew what to do and had been given adequate time to prepare.
So I heartily endorse Heather Wheeler’s point (“Focus is now on getting best trade deal” 15 December) that firms will need similar guidance and time to adapt to all the new procedures which will be required when we become what is called a “ Third Country” outside the EU.
The detail required is tremendous and advance notice to business essential. Our successful chemical industry is in the middle of a lengthy period of adaptation to the existing EU REACH Regulations which require all chemicals to be registered with the EU for health and safety purposes. So, back in March the government assured the industry that there would be an identical British scheme. Not only has there been no progress but the EU has indicated that only its own scheme will be acceptable and that is only available to firms established within the EU. So British chemical manufacturers are having to set up EU subsidiaries to avoid being excluded from their important EU market.
Similarly, the airline Easyjet, presently a British company, plans to move its headquarters to mainland Europe and alter its articles of association so that a majority of shareholders must always be EU companies or individuals – not British. That way, it will be able to stay flying between the 27 other EU countries, if the UK is unable to conclude an agreement with the EU before Brexit to continue present aviation arrangements.
On a more homely note, sheep farmers need to know immediately whether to breed from their youngest ewes or to fatten them for slaughter. Forty per cent of British lamb goes to the EU. If we are outside with no agreement on Brexit day, 29 March 2019, there will be a tariff of as much as £2689 per tonne. Lamb would be would be unprofitable. Not only that, coming from a ”Third Country”, British lamb would face sanitary inspection at the border before being allowed near EU customs.
It is, of course, a British tradition to conceal a sharp intellect and selfless, unsparing, industrious dedication to duty behind an appearance of languid amateurism. In a recent interview, David Davis said “I don’t have to be very clever. I don’t have to know very much”. Taken with his performance to date, one has to admit that it is a singularly effective disguise. At least, we must hope so!
Yours faithfully,
Edward Spalton
To my mind that also demonstrates just how protectionist the EU is.
Good joke about our elite's effortless incompetence presently exemplified by David Davis; Boris Johnson is another case but he really tries to be a witless undiplomatic tosser.
I do not see the point of ED Spalton's informative/ revelatory diatribe.It reads like an argument against Brexit. Quite right, but not at home on here, an average cliff-jumper site.
JK, thanks.
L, I don;t think the EU denies this, and many Remainers think that protectionism is A Good Thing.
DBC. As Ed S campaigned against joining in the early 1970, he's perfectly entitled to say "Yah boo sucks, I told you so" and point out that we never should have joined in the place. It's not up to him to justify leaving.
Except on Crimbo Day.
It is actually very difficult to find a Remainer who can explain exactly why it is so great to be in the EU. It seems to boil down to the problems of leaving, which does not seem a compelling argument to me, or those economists saying that we will be poorer if we leave, as if wealth is the only possible consideration. It all seems to boil down to an aversion to change. Obviously this is important but the fact that they cannot see any negatives in belonging to a bureaucratic state slowly suffocating the continent in petty rules without any mandate in order to protect the farmers of France, the industries of Germany and the fishermen of Spain seems bizarre to me
JH, ?
G, agreed.
It is actually very difficult to find a Remainer who can explain exactly why it is so great to be in the EU
Well I'm not a Remainer -chalk me up as a Constitutionalist or Anti-Plebis-cide-ist. But just the 1st round of totally unnecessary 'negotiations' confirms to my mind why we should be in the EU and makes me glad my kids and their kids have dual citizenship. Anyone who needs that explaining has,I'm afraid,not been paying attention.
You're right about £ not being the sole/main consideration- if only PMT.May had realized that we could have saved ourselves the farce of the last 6 months or so and the supping with the DUP.
Jk, maybe I have not been paying attention but why is it such a great thing to want dual citizenship? I would like dual citizenship with, say, Spain or the USA or Australia but it's not going to spoil my life.
Still don't see what a posting warning of the numerous disadvantages of Brexit, with calls for avoidance action, is doing on a Young People's Party blog which normally acts like a teenage gang urging its members to jump off the Brexit cliff or be thought forever "chicken".What signed and sealed alternative international trade deals have the entitled ones got ready for the changeover? Or have they made a mess of things ,including their trousers, as usual?
DBC: ".What signed and sealed alternative international trade deals have the entitled ones got ready for the changeover?"
Continuity of existing treaties under Vienna Convention. We've covered that.
The terms 'continuity' and 'alternative' are mutually exclusive in normal usage.Face it: the entitled ones have made a hash of fixing us up with alternative trade zones having ridden the UKIP tiger to nowhere, its ultimate destination, and screwed up a Conservative majority and also the labour vote.
On the real issues, did you see that Prof Steve Keen , Larry Elliot and others have tried to start a Reformation of Economics by nailing 33 Economic theses to the doors of the LSE in commemoration of Martin Luther and indugences four hundred years ago.We should get down there and nail one thesis to the door (actually they Blutacked theirs )being Adam Smith's all-party claim that LVT is the only legitimate source of taxation/ government income.We should give advamce notice to maximise the possibility for uproat and publicity.
Having had a fall and minor fracture on Boxing Day, I am a bit behind in catching up.
Until about 4 years ago, I thought leaving the EU would be a single event. " Britannia waives the rules" and
Johnny Foreigner ( mindful of his favourable balance of trade) agrees - as do all the other non EU countries
with whom we presently deal through EU treaties.
Then I began to realise it would have to be a process - because the complexities of global ( not just EU)
regulation are so great.
So the two years provided in Article 50 would only be enough to arrive at a tolerable interim position from which a final
settlement could be made. That would be one year of intensive, constructive negotiation, followed by a year of preparation of and
instruction to business, creation of necessary government facilities etc.
Mrs May's aspirations in her Lancaster House speech in January were frankly unattainable in the time scale.
It was not until her Florence speech that she recognised that reality.
So, I think Brexit will happen but on less favourable and timely terms than could have been arranged if she had relied on more realistic
expert advice rather than that of her special advisor, Mr Timothy. ( if media reports are to be believed)
To disregard problems affecting employment and trade which will have to be faced and could have been minimised or avoided might seem brave and British but is rather on a par with the Charge of the Light . That was British too, I suppose!
Having had a fall and minor fracture on Boxing Day, I am a bit behind in catching up.-Ed Spalton
Sorry to hear that. Best wishes for the New Year and speedy bone regrowth.
Thank you for your kind good wishes.
I can now take short walks with only a single crutch .
Having been in the house for nearly a month, all the space outside was quite unfamiliar.
Ed, glad to hear you are on road to recovery.
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