Let no one ever say that the plans to leave the European Union have not had sufficient debate in the House of Commons. There was another full day of debate yesterday not even curtailed by any urgent business. At the end of it both sides appeared satisfied. Of course the Liberal Democrats and the SNP were unhappy but they will do anything to frustrate the will of the majority who voted to Leave. For most MP’s even those who campaigned and voted remain the reality is dawning. The U.K. Is leaving the EU and what is more the Article 50 notice which will trigger the formal start of the negotiations will be served before the end of March. At the end of yesterday’s debate MP’s voted by a majority of 372 to back the Prime Minister’s timetable with just 89 MP’s voting against.
5 thoughts on “Brexit Progress”
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David Nuttall 
Well said Mr N. There seems to be a reluctance by some that in our ‘first past the post system’ the decision is made – where leaving. I have never quite understood that the SNP ; who claim to be the voice of the Scots BUT would rather be told what to do by a Luxumbeggar or worse Germainia – that’s racism for you. As someone who over 30 years negotiated with businesses daily you listen first to the client/customer – SILENCE is of massive importance (hence no detail to be released) Keep to your principles.
Surely the SNP MP’s were right to vote against leaving the EU. That was the view from the Scotish people as expressed through the referendum. The new MP who replaced Goldsmith was also surely correct in so doing. She told her electorate that is what she would do – and surely must.
Are you suggesting that they should ignore their constituents because the UK as a whole voted for Brexit. To whom does an MP – e.g. you, owe their allegiance ? Their constituents surely ?
I do think that your constituents should be told, as a point of principle, what you would do in those circumstances.
As for the debate about the ‘plans’ – please maybe enlighten us about what they are ?
Hoping these requests are not unduly onerous and merit a response.
Well it is indeed up to each MP to vote how they think fit. This is an unusual situation in that MP’s know the way the Country overall voted but in some cases a majority of their constituents disagreed. To be honest I am not sure what I would do in those circumstances. I think I would say that the referendum resolved the issue for the Country as a whole and so I would say that to the constituency we were outvoted but we must make the best of it. As for the plans on Brexit my view is that we should say we want to continue with tarrif free trade. However, if you – ie the EU – want (out of spite and because you want to try and stop others from leaving) to impose yarrows on UK exporters then obviously we would have to do likewise. Given Civitas calculate the cost to EU exporters would be £13 billion a year and the cost to the U.K. £5 billion it would not make much sense from an economic point of view to do this. I suspect the German car manufacturers would have a lot to say! Free movement must end. There is no doubt about that. When we leave the EU the U.K. must be free to decide who we need.
David
As ever thanks you.
The figures are interesting – but a bit like apples and pears.
The population of the EU – UK is about 440m. £13b tariffs shared between them is much much less than £5b shared between the 64M people in the UK.
Another way of looking at it is that about 44% of the UK’s exports go to other EU countries, while somewhere between 8-17% of exports from other EU countries go to the UK (depending on how you measure it).
The value of that trade to the UK and other EU countries’ economies—exports to the rest of the EU are worth about 13% of the UK’s economy, and exports from other EU countries to the UK are worth about 3-4% of the value of those countries’ economies taken as a whole.
When it comes to the negotiations we are in a distinctly weaker position – I cannot see why people don’t realise this – it seems blindingly obvious.
But maybe when meaningless cliches about German cars are the stuff of debate it is no wonder.
As you say freedom of movement is a critical issue – we want more control – but the EU and the remaining 27, just as strongly, it seems to me, believe that controls are not needed. the scope for negotiation seems limited on that front. We must then pay the cost.
As you know I remain worried about the future of our nation- as a student I recall the banner banner saying ‘down with the gerontocracy’ little realising how it would come back with such a force.
Re our appetite for Mercedes and BMVs, I have just seen that Marcus Kerber, German BDI (CBI) thinks that the UK has an “over-simplified” way of looking at Brexit. He has said that –
“I read a lot of articles in the British newspapers about Germany being a relatively soft negotiation partner because for instance, 7.5% of our exports would go to Great Britain.
“Well, 7.5% is a big number, but 92.5% goes somewhere else. The vast majority goes to other European countries. So as much as we would like to uphold our very good relationships with British customers, it is extremely important for us not to lose or alienate other European markets.”