My contribution to the debate on Leaving the EU: Impact on the UK, 17 March 2021

I welcome the opportunity to debate the many opportunities that Brexit presents. It was always the case that, once we had achieved Brexit, the Government needed to use the freedoms it brings to promote the greater health and prosperity of United Kingdom citizens. We meet today with a success already as a result of these freedoms. The United Kingdom Government decided last year not to join the common vaccine procurement system of the European Union. They went their own way. They had confidence in British science and in British medicine, and they had confidence in great companies based in the United Kingdom and in our great universities.

It is tremendous news that, as a result, the United Kingdom helped pioneer one of the first successful vaccines. The United Kingdom pre-ordered a very large number of vaccines for United Kingdom people on the basis that some of these vaccines would be good and would be available for use, and that put the United Kingdom in the position to vaccinate much earlier, saving more lives than those countries can that were not in the happy position of having early supplies of vaccine. Even our regulators were quicker and more agile. Our regulators gave regulatory approval to the first vaccines some weeks before the European regulator, though the European regulator came to the same view in due course.

I think this is a model for how we can use our freedoms more widely to promote our health and better prosperity. I would draw the Government’s attention to a very important policy initiative from President Biden. They may find it surprising to see me recommending something from a Democrat President, but I think his 24 February Executive order—looking at America’s supply chains, and saying that America can do much better at developing its own technology, putting in its own industrial capacity and creating many better-paid jobs by having more capacity in the United States—is a model we should follow. Indeed, it is the model we have been following with the development of the vaccine, which has led to more good jobs in the United Kingdom and more United Kingdom productive capacity.

The Biden initiative starts with a very rapid—100-day —attempt to fix the need for the United States of America to have a much bigger presence in pharmaceuticals, batteries, rare earths and minerals, and semiconductors. There is then an annual programme, involving all the relevant Departments of Government, of going through the supply chains and asking what can be done to use innovation funding, Government procurement and Government regulation to encourage more onshoring and more exciting technical developments. Of course, a country needs to have strong competition law and not to abuse state aids, but many good things can be done with the massive procurement programmes of the British Government, like those of the American Government, to encourage competitive responses in the United Kingdom and to encourage that increasing capacity.

I hope the Government will do more on both the Northern Ireland border issue, where I think we need to be firm—and I support their recent action—and on the fishing industry, where I think we need more rapid progress to build up our fleet and to take back control of more of our fish. That was the promise and that is clearly the intended journey, but I wish the Government would be firmer, because I do not think that at the moment we have the right deal to promote that industry. If we wish to develop our green policies, as we do, we need to do more at home, cut the food miles, cut the fish miles and have more value added in the United Kingdom.

81 Comments

  1. ukretired123
    March 18, 2021

    Women are gifted with organising skills and is one of the key differences between the UK and EU rollout that women with proven skills like Kate Bingham were given the task.
    Liz Truss is another proven organiser so different from EU men in grey suits.

    1. skylark
      March 18, 2021

      Careful that will be a police recorded misandry hate crime soon?

      1. Peter2
        March 18, 2021

        Do your duty Comrade, and report it to the thought Police Skylark !

    2. jerry
      March 18, 2021

      @ukretired123; Was that meant as satire?

  2. Ian Wragg
    March 18, 2021

    The problem with building up our supply chains will be the green blob crying foul at every initiative.
    We need steel for almost all activities but the opening of a new coal mine is canc.
    It’s apparently greener to transport coal 3000 miles rather than 100 mies creating uk jobs.
    We need steel to build useless windmills but again it’s deemed greener to build them abroad.
    Does anyone smell a rat with the vaccine pause as another ploy to extend the lockdown.

  3. agricola
    March 18, 2021

    To really take advantage of the position we have put ourselves in we need a system of executive power in government that extends beyond the Prime Minister. Each ministry and minister need a “Skunk Works” outside the control of the regular civil service. A small group who can think forward 25 years, understand the technology of the future and its requirements. It worked for McDonald Douglas in producing the U2 and its successors, it worked for Churchill when he created SOE , employed Lord Beaverbrook to drive forward aircraft production. In fairness to Boris, it worked when he employed a very competent female, whose name I cannot recall, to organise the vaccination programme. Dominic Cummings has the blueprint as described by him yesterday. All we need are the right people across government, well qualified, but not part of the political machine, to drive the UK forward on an action today basis.

  4. Peter Parsons
    March 18, 2021

    No EU member state was compelled to join the common vaccine procurement system. There was nothing that would have stopped the UK taking all the choices made while a member of the EU. Claiming such decisions were only possible because of Brexit is completely untrue.

    Reply Try telling the Germans that. They felt they had to join the EU scheme and now regret it

    1. jon livesey
      March 18, 2021

      JR has already replied to this, but there is another point to make, which is that if you insist that the EU is responsible for all the good things that happen in Europe, then when very bad things happen, you cannot just say “They could have behaved as if they were not members of the EU”.

      Are the EU 27 supposed to dodge around each day, trying to guess on which issues they should behave like members of the EU and on which issues they should pretend the EU does not exist?

      1. SM
        March 19, 2021

        What a perceptive point, Jon. It’s something of a ‘heads we win, tails you lose’ situation, isn’t it?

    2. Richard1
      March 18, 2021

      It is inconceivable we would not have been in the EU vaccine scheme had we still been a member state.

      1. MiC
        March 19, 2021

        Well, the UK was in neither the euro nor the Schengen area, so, I’d say point unproven.

  5. Christine
    March 18, 2021

    The fishing industry needs more young people and less reliance on foreign workers.

    A good start would be to expand our Nautical Colleges, like the excellent one in Fleetwood Lancashire, to train up new fishermen.

    The government needs to change the rules on apprentices and allow shared fishermen to take on 16-18-year-olds.

    Next, we need to put in place protection on UK quotas ensuring that they stay with British boats that land their catch at UK ports.

    More of the old ports like Fleetwood need to be dredged and opened up. Fleetwood used to be the third-largest fishing port in England. Sixty years ago it had 120 trawlers and the industry employed thousands of local people and now it has no trawlers left. Currently, fish are transported across the country from Grimsby to be processed in the large Fleetwood processing plant.

    To get around the shellfish ban we need investment in our own cleaning facilities. We need to expand our sales of fish and shellfish to the Asian market. Why are supermarkets still importing shellfish from India and Vietnam when we have our own surplus here?

    Fishing needs its own champion to look at the industry as a whole and build this asset into a world-beating industry.

    1. Lastgasp
      March 18, 2021

      Alas young people won’t go into boats in sufficient numbers anymore- the work is hard and dangerous and the hours too unsociable- worse still foreign workers are going to fade away. The Nautical College in Fleetwood is a fine place but anyone who knows it knows that it caters mainly for the training of foreign seafarers a lot of them coming from India and SE Asia- young british merchant seafarers are not there in numbers anymore either and all the old british shipping companies are sold out a long time ago to foreign PLCs. The situation is as bad as that- dredging would be the least of it.

      1. Christine
        March 19, 2021

        That’s rather a defeatist attitude. If you watch the trawler fishing programs on TV the people working in the industry love their jobs and their children often follow them into the business. I agree that the younger generation has been mollycoddled but this attitude needs to change. It’s up to our education system and Government to promote fishing as a worthwhile career. Yes, it’s dangerous, as is walking the streets of London. At least I try to put some practical ideas on John’s site that he can perhaps take away and investigate.

  6. The Prangwizard
    March 18, 2021

    Action on these lines is urgent. We can no longer indulge ourselves thinking what we need can be easily and freely obtained from overseas. Some minds who have been ruling and influencing us for decades must be grinding noisily to this realisation. The country has fallen low in self sufficiency and self reliance; there can be no delay in making the change.

    We have a dreadful balance of payments deficit which impoverishes us all so every opportunity must taken to make things here and as consumers to buy home made and home grown products. We must resurrect ‘Made in England’.

    1. steve
      March 18, 2021

      Prangwizard

      “The country has fallen low in self sufficiency and self reliance”

      It did not fall, it was betrayed.

      “so every opportunity must taken to make things here and as consumers to buy home made and home grown products. We must resurrect ‘Made in England’. ”

      But big business wont allow it. They have no patriotism.

      1. Fred.H
        March 18, 2021

        and betrayal clearly stated on the BBC and on here!

      2. IanT
        March 18, 2021

        But some consumers might feel it’s worthwhile Steve – and Big Business is very sensitive to what sells (and what doesn’t). Buy British – and check the labels to make sure you do.

    2. acorn
      March 18, 2021

      Are you prepared to pay “Made in England” prices? Imports are a benefit to UK citizens, we get to play with goodies we don’t or can’t make for ourselves at import prices. In return we offer Pounds Sterling as payment for those goodies.

      Those countries that sell us their stuff, accept Pounds as payment and make them part of their foreign currency reserves (savings). They will use those Pounds to buy Pound denominated assets that return an interest payment or a dividend payment; or, a capital gaining Chelsea Mansion.

      Hence, the Balance of Trade should ideally balance. We import some BMW and Ferrari motors for instance, ideally balanced by us selling them some Aston Martin and Rolls Royce motors. Contrary to some neoliberal Conservative MP’s belief, the UK does not exchange its Pound currency for Euro currency, in order to pay for the import of BMW motors from Germany; or Ferrari motors from Italy.

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        March 18, 2021

        So long as you factor in the total of UK’s unemployment and low employment benefits in to the price of imports !

      2. jerry
        March 18, 2021

        @acorn; “We import some BMW and Ferrari motors for instance, ideally balanced by us selling them some Aston Martin and Rolls Royce motors.”

        Cough, I think you need to check ownerships, and people with significant control, of companies, and manufacturing component trails, before saying anything further, otherwise you’re in danger of shooting yourself in the other foot to…

        1. acorn
          March 19, 2021

          Excellent demonstration of your ignorance of trade – not ownership – economics.

          1. jerry
            March 19, 2021

            @acorn; What ever, but you still appear to know little about the UK motor industry, such as the source of so many of the components used by European car companies at their UK assembly plants. If a car is in effect 80% made in the EU, with only 20% of its value (that includes final assembly) created here in the UK, once the UK factory has paid for the European parts and deducted from the UK factory-gate profit what’s left to boost the UK’s balance of payments?

      3. dixie
        March 19, 2021

        Nice in theory but the reality is those pounds are not used to primarily acquire assets that return interest or dividend payment. Rather countries buy up and remove our means of innovation and commerce resulting in lost jobs and capabilities.
        The happy, clappy, kumbaya “trade” theory breaks down completely when there is competition for resources or political conflict rises above the normal attempts at playground bullying, as graphically illustrated by the EU behaviour of the last several years and especially the last several months.
        As for “made in England prices” it would be interesting to see the breakdown and contributing factors of those higher prices, in particular how significant are the non-productive rentier elements such property costs and taxation – robotic production of products should not be significantly more costly in Sheffield than Shenzen.

      4. ian@Barkham
        March 19, 2021

        @acorn – as others have said ‘ownership’ – Havening a facility in the UK passes the reward of its wealth health and infrastructure paid for by the taxpayer to foreign domains were these companies pay their taxes. All local UK gains are shown as administration fees to the head office in other tax rĂ©gimes.

        If the UK tax system was equal and proportionate we wouldn’t be stuck in that sense with transferring our hard earned wealth abroad to fund another countries tax regimes. Its a loose, loose for the UK ‘over tax’ the indigenous and reward everyone else.

      5. ian@Barkham
        March 19, 2021

        @ acorn ‘we don’t and can’t make’ It is only cheaper from abroad because UK industry as with its people are taxed out of the Country.
        The Indian owned company Jaguar Land Rover manufactures it Jaguars and Land Rovers in the EU because the EU subsidized the transfer of the production away from the UK.
        The irony is the EU wouldn’t permit the UK governments support for JLR, but did take UK taxpayers money to facility the removal of the production facilities.

    3. jon livesey
      March 18, 2021

      No, we have a trade deficit with the EU. We run a trade surplus with the rest of the World. And as the rest of the World is growing an order of magnitude faster than the EU the overall trade deficit ought to fall in due course.

      Stop thinking of the trade deficit as a matter of inability, inattention, or self-indulgence. It is mainly a question of UK consumers buying EU consumer goods priced in an artificially undervalued euro.

      1. dixie
        March 19, 2021

        .. as opposed to buying those goods at lower prices from the original producers in China?

  7. Peter
    March 18, 2021

    ‘I hope the Government will do more on both the Northern Ireland border issue, where I think we need to be firm—and I support their recent action—and on the fishing industry’

    Boris Johnson had one job to do…

    So far he has rushed through a modified Theresa May agreement and failed to protect the U.K. against post Brexit EU machinations.

    Boris is past his sell-by date. ‘Hope’ is not sufficient when dealing with our EU ‘friends’.

    1. Fred.H
      March 18, 2021

      so far beyond his sell-by date he should be thrown out like warm food in a dodgy fridge.

      1. jerry
        March 18, 2021

        @Fred.H; A new leader/PM will do nothing but empower calls for a fresh mandate, another general election in other words (one of the democratic legacies caused by those defection to UKIP), and this time the Tory party will not be facing such an easy target as Corbyn’s last manifesto was. Be very careful of what you wish for…

        1. Fred.H
          March 19, 2021

          I’m quite happy with the idea of getting a Party and PM with sensible policies people want – it has been SUCH a long time since we had one.

  8. Michelle
    March 18, 2021

    What would be great is if more places were made available for our own to study medicine.
    See Migration Watch papers on the amount of students still being turned away for lack of University places in medicine.
    See also Migration Watch papers on various issues concerning the points system and occupational shortage lists.

    All this ‘greatness’that we can achieve and have after leaving EU, won’t mean much for the little man in the street if good old Global Britain will not encourage and make use of its own talent but prefer to hire in for the true ‘global’ feel (which is I suspect what the global in Global Britain means)

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      March 18, 2021

      It would not be so bad were it not for the thousand car washers we are expected to import for every overseas-qualified that comes here doctor.

  9. Mike Wilson
    March 18, 2021

    I saw a car in a car park in Dorset yesterday. It had a sticker on the site that read ‘Dorset County Council’. The car was 2019 reg. and it was a Renault. Why do our public bodies buy foreign cars? There are plenty of perfectly good cars made here by Toyota, Nissan, Honda, BMW (the Mini) and Land Rover. This is what is so frustrating about government. How simple would it be? We have left the EU now so, a one line bill that says ‘public bodies must buy British manufactured vehicles’.

    There is an immediate boost to our economy and our balance of payments but, Mr. Redwood, you DON’T DO IT! Why not?

    How many computers are bought by the public sector each year? Why doesn’t the government put money into a UK start up to make them? It is not rocket science. You might be able to buy a computer made in China cheaper – but there are other costs. A job in China making computers is a job not making computers here.

    1. steve
      March 18, 2021

      Mike Wilson

      “Why do our public bodies buy foreign cars? ”

      Because they’d otherwise have to buy Morgans, Jaguars, McLaren etc……though the irony is no British car is actually 100% British anymore. Most transmissions in British cars are German ZF units, Morgan use BMW engines and so on.

      We dont even have a foundry in this country, so things like crank cases and crankshafts come from EU states where environmental emissions are allowed so long as it destroys British industry and jobs.

      Ours is a pretty pathetic country, really. Laughing stock of the world.

      1. Mike Wilson
        March 19, 2021

        @Steve

        From the Toyota web site:

        Toyota in the UK
        There are two manufacturing plants in the UK, representing a total investment of ÂŁ2.75 billion and employing approximately 3,000 members (including Agency). The vehicle manufacturing plant is located at Burnaston in Derbyshire and the engine manufacturing plant is located at Deeside in North Wales.

        The Avensis (was), the Auris (was) and, now, the new Corolla, is manufactured here. To name but one.

        1. steve
          March 19, 2021

          @mike

          V. true. But they arent British. Good cars though.

        2. ian@Barkham
          March 19, 2021

          @Mike Wilson – is manufacture the same as assembled?

    2. jerry
      March 18, 2021

      @Mike Wilson; I suspect DCC do as all LA’s have been expected to do for the last 40 or so years, buy or lease on best price, not on where a product is made, or who made it, after all they have got to take care of the ‘tax payers money’, can’t go about wasting it just to “Buy British” can they. -ho-hmm….

      1. Mike Wilson
        March 19, 2021

        @jerry

        But they never take into account the COST of saving ÂŁ30 a month on a lease. Lost manufacturing in this country, lost jobs, lost tax revenue – the list goes on and on. Balance of payment deficits too. It is SOOOOOOOO short sighted. And I would rather have a Toyota or Nissan than a Renault (I know Renault and Nissan are tied up but, sorry, I have always thought French cars are crap. Apart from the Citroen DS19.

        1. jerry
          March 19, 2021

          @Mike Wilson; Non of that is in the remit for a LA, but justifying to the local electors and residents the cost of Council Tax, parking fees or the closure of a local service is. Whilst those who read this site might understand the finer points I wonder how many others wouldn’t, try explaining to them why they face increased CT or parking costs and/or have lost a service or two so the LA could spend more buying/leasing UK assembled cars – especially when most of the residents arrived at the meeting in non UK assembled cars themselves, bought on price!

        2. ian@Barkham
          March 19, 2021

          @Mike Wilson. A point always lost when spending taxpayers money is they are in fact funding another tax domain in preference to their own taxpayers. Keep on transferring wealth in that manner and your own taxpayer funded pot dries up.

      2. a-tracy
        March 19, 2021

        What would the difference in price be Jerry do you know? I know a guy who switched to a Toyota recently to save money. I was looking at the Company Car magazine and one of the details it doesn’t give is where in the World the car is made or assembled. I was quite surprised at the top choice it was an ugly little car by Ford and a Skoda made the top 5, I don’t know where either is assembled.

        1. jerry
          March 20, 2021

          @a-tracy; “What would the difference in price be Jerry do you know?”

          No one outside of DCC will have an answer to that question, and as I don’t live in Dorset I can’t even ask! Perhaps Mike could put in a FOI request, and then take it up with his local councillor, rather than complain here. 🙂

    3. dixie
      March 19, 2021

      I wouldn’t want a government controlled start up, it would be unfair competition. Rather it should focus on educating people on the realities of not buying local – that their jobs and prosperity are directly linked to that of their neighbour. That if you by a foreign car then your neighbour will eventually be out of a job and can no longer afford the goods and services your employment depends on.
      Another factor is that the government should avoid restricting and destroying home grown companies and commerce through over-taxation and unnecessary, restrictive regulation. They should be fostering lifetime education and a broad based of capabilities and skills.
      I do think the government should be encouraging and supporting research but not restricted to just academia nor the big companies with specialist accountants – ideas can come from anyone and anywhere and the reality of successful R&D is that you have significantly more failures and mis-directions than successes.
      This will never happen while our politicians are predominantly lawyers and journalists with vested interests in property and the civil service is more focused on being just good EU chaps than on ensuring we as a country thrive and prosper.

  10. Lisa
    March 18, 2021

    Who wrote this? It reads like a communist party article in a 1970’s edition of Pravda.

    Which freedoms are we talking about because all I see is freedoms we used to have but have lost? That is the only thing this government has been firm on.

    America is about as likely to go back to an industrial power as I am to become govenor of Mars. 100 days? More like 100 years.

    1. Everhopeful
      March 18, 2021

      + several trillion.

  11. Bryan Harris
    March 18, 2021

    That was very middle of the road – supportive even…

    This government is getting away with too much – there is no effective opposition which is why sensible Tory MP’s need to keep Boris a bit closer to what should be the optimum path — Giving him an easy time will not help anyone

  12. Nick
    March 18, 2021

    Your referencing of Joe Biden was a piece of political genius! At a stroke you (i) make people sit up and listen due to the unexpectedness of it, (ii) cut the ground from any critic on the left who might have opposed you on this, and (iii) give the government the perfect political argument to do the same. Well done!

    Sadly, I suspect that your pearls will fall before swine. The government’s betrayal of NI and our fishermen (hinted at in your speech) proves that they cannot be trusted to promote Britain’s interests. I posted a detailed explanation yesterday of how they have betrayed our researchers over the Horizon Europe project, but unfortunately you seem to have decided not to publish that. I hope, at least, you bothered to read it so you can see how bad Boris’s deal actually was.

    1. steve
      March 18, 2021

      Nick
      “I posted a detailed explanation yesterday of how they have betrayed our researchers over the Horizon Europe project, but unfortunately you seem to have decided not to publish that.”

      That’s because he makes out he’s on our side and one of us, but he isnt. You tell it like it is and wont get past moderation.

      This government is only interested in what they can get away with, it doesnt give a toss for us or making the country strong again.

  13. ian@Barkham
    March 18, 2021

    Sir John I wish to register my support for your comments and more generally – I hope the Government will do more on both the Northern Ireland border issue, where I think we need to be firm—and I support their recent action—and on the fishing industry, where I think we need more rapid progress to build up our fleet and to take back control of more of our fish
    On NI to everyone the EU is with malice trying to tear the UK apart, there is no reasoning for this attitude – as stated by other the EU action break the Good Friday Agreement. On fishing, the EU coming into our inshore waters taking all the fish they want enables them at the same time to block UK fish being exported to the EU. The just don’t have to import something they can just take. Our Fishermen at every turn have been treated abysmally.

    1. steve
      March 18, 2021

      “On NI to everyone the EU is with malice trying to tear the UK apart, there is no reasoning for this attitude ”

      Yes there is a reason for it……we have a government soft enough / bent enough to let ’em do it.

  14. Darius
    March 18, 2021

    Be firm on the Northern Ireland issue! You agreed to a border down the Irish Sea, you know it, the DUP knows it, Boris knows it (probably), the Irish know it, the EU knows it. And President Biden certainly knows it. So build that border, and accept responsibility for what you agreed to

    Reply I did not. I highlighted the problem and declined to vote for the final deal

    1. Fred.H
      March 18, 2021

      Sir John – declining is ducking out – vote how you see it. Reject !!

      1. Mike Wilson
        March 19, 2021

        Sir John – declining is ducking out – vote how you see it. Reject !!

        That is a fair point. If you felt strongly about it – as you said you did – you should have voted against it. Maybe others would have developed a backbone too. The EU has ridden roughshod over us and Boris has just not only allowed it, he has facilitated it. You can’t lose my vote because I never vote for you. But, of course, it is all a calculation. Once every 5 years or so you have to pretend to give a monkey’s about what people think – and then you get back to party loyalty.

        I see Polly Toynbee – someone who I very, very rarely agree with – is calling for Labour to get behind PR. One can but hope. Electoral pacts seem to be the only way we can get you out of office now. Weird, just 15 years ago it looked as though you would never get back into office.

        I can but hope that young people – under the age of 35 or so – become very politicised, soon, and, realising how successive governments – but particularly Tory governments – have destroyed their life chances by encouraging ever higher bank lending and house prices, imposing disgusting student debt levels and destroying the decent jobs in manufacturing the unions fought for in the past – finally wake up and vote for someone else.

        Your party has done a first class job of really screwing this country up. Add in your high immigration and one has to ask ‘is there anything you are competent at?’ Rant over, I feel better now.

  15. Stred
    March 18, 2021

    We wouldn’t be allowed to subsidise industries as the Americans have done. We agreed to a level playing field. The playing field, of course, is controlled by the rules that prevent us from kicking the ball in the direction of the referee team’s goal. When are we going to close British airspace to our friends and take three weeks to approve flights?

    1. jon livesey
      March 18, 2021

      Right. A level playing field isn’t much use if the referee is French.

      1. ian@Barkham
        March 19, 2021

        @jon Livesey – unfortunately that something our remain leaning HoC doesn’t get. In signing up to agreeing to abide to the rules of others inside your own domain, you are signing up to their rule. That is not an democratic independent sovereign state.

  16. Richard1
    March 18, 2021

    There are two big successes to date from Brexit. One is the vaccines policy and the other is exemption from the €390 bn of transfers / grants being made in what in reality is a eurozone bailout scheme, for which the U.K. would have been on the hook for several £10 billions. In addition, the trade policy led by Liz Truss has been nothing short of a triumph, with all the project fear stuff about it being impossible to run an independent trade policy having been shown for the nonsense it was.

    In the interest of balance however, there is no question that there are material costs, delays and frictions at the border with the EU on goods movements in both directions. There is also great unclarity for service businesses in many areas. Financial services is the most obvious but it’s not the only one. I think it would be much better to focus on these than on fishing, which is a minuscule fraction in terms of economic importance.

    The jury is still very much out. Conservative MPs should consider that if these issues don’t get sorted out – or, if they can’t be, if we haven’t seen compensating advantages elsewhere, a good election strategy for a putative Labour /LibDem / SNP coalition would be to re-join the single market (+of course introduce PR etc). Beware.

    1. jon livesey
      March 18, 2021

      It is an interesting thing that most of the problems with trade friction – when not deliberately imposed by the EU -are really due t the unfamiliarity of small businesses with trade and border issues. And that is perfectly normal. If my business is to produce small batch cheeses or shellfish I am unlikely to be very familiar with even the mild requirements of shipping to Europe.

      So what we can expect to happen is the emergence of medium scale enterprises whose business model is to handle trade and customs issues for other business. It’s no more than me hiring a plumber rather than trying to handle plumbing myself.

      These trade aggregating companies already exist for non-EU trade and in the next few months we’ll hear more about them handling EU trade, and fewer scare stories about refused deliveries and missing ham sandwiches.

    2. Andy
      March 18, 2021

      The jury isn’t out. Brexit is even crapper than we told you it would be.

  17. bill brown
    March 18, 2021

    Sir JR,

    thank you for an interesting contribution and of course we have done well with the vaccines and we can thank British science for this as well.

    Howver, I am not sure Brexit will bring more prosparity to the Bristish people and according to teh government it will cost at least ÂŁ 56 billion or more to leave the EU in lost ncome.

    On the foreign policy, we seem to be a bit lost on Northern Ireland I disagree with you on the government on actions. On more nuclear warheads and an aircraft carrier in the Pacific, we seem to be out bound with our size and capabilities as a medium sized country in Europe. With more domestic problems like education, food-banks, mental health problems for the young and lack of infrastructure, is the government policy just trying to compensate for an already bad decision and making it worse?

  18. steve
    March 18, 2021

    Mr Redwood

    You say the UK should follow Biden’s model. In that case we can look forward to more British manufacturing going to China.

  19. formula57
    March 18, 2021

    T. May’s government’s wilful failure to establish a department for post-Brexit planning hinders us still. Damn quislings. The people’s Blue Boris needs to take your words as a strong signal to get a grip on these matters.

  20. jon livesey
    March 18, 2021

    I know that JR isn’t suggesting this, but on the issue of Biden and his plans,let’s not over-interpret. Biden is far from saying that Jeremy Corbyn was right after all. He is not proposing a Government takeover of the US economy.

    Rather, he is pointing in a direction and maybe priming some pumps, and then we will all see how the US economy takes over and does the job. And yes, that will be the US economy with all its power, but also the US economy with all its excesses, speculation, inequality and occasional fraud.

    Regulation is motivated by avoidance of risk, and reduction of regulation is recognition that the private sector will get the job done, but it will often be messy. It’s the end result that matters.

    1. dixie
      March 19, 2021

      Avoidance of risk might be a motivation for some but it is far from the only or even primary reason for the extent and degree of regulation. Usually it is for political and/or commercial control with safety/risk reduction as the fig leaf.

  21. David Brown
    March 18, 2021

    The biggest single most damaging thing about Brexit is to trap us in Britain, where in the past we enjoyed the opportunity to travel or live freely within Europe and salute the EU flag for this freedom.
    Forget about world trade, money and the Union Flag blood smeared with slavery, think about the freedom of people.
    We are all European citizens and we are now in prison, trapped with aging people on the British Isles who are not looking 10 years in front but 20-30 years behind.
    That’s the problem with Brexit – to me if it is not broke don’t try and fix it. The best years have been spent within the sanctuary of the EU family.
    The light is that I know despite all the talk of world trade etc, the next generation of voters will take Britain into the EU Customs Union, and wipe away all the current changes. The only future young people have is a Federal system and Proportional Representation to end the autocratic rule of West Minister.

    1. jon livesey
      March 18, 2021

      I worked in three different European countries, and traveled to several more, before the EU even existed. The EU external border has *created* barriers, not removed them.

      1. Fred.H
        March 19, 2021

        almost a prison as UK found out…

    2. Richard1
      March 18, 2021

      Let’s list a few other prisons: the US, Canada, Switzerland, Japan, Australia, New Zealand…yup, if you’re not in the EU you are imprisoned in your home country.

      It was under the union flag that the slave trade was abolished and suppressed. It is a symbol of freedom and doesn’t need your silly insults.

    3. IanT
      March 18, 2021

      But it is broke David – and they have no intention of mending it either….never have, never will.

    4. Mike Wilson
      March 19, 2021

      @David Brown

      That’s the problem with Brexit – to me if it is not broke don’t try and fix it.

      What is the matter with people like you? Are you incapable of rational thought? Do you, for instance, think that everyone in the EU thinks it is just lovely? Macron said he thought if the French people were given a referendum, they would vote to Leave! But, of course, he won’t give them a referendum because EU lovers realise that it involves having no real belief in democracy.

      Which is the main reason why I voted to Leave. I’m sorry to see the end of Freedom of Movement but the price is too high. Too high both in terms of our contributions and in terms of the lack of democracy. If you decide you don’t like what your government is doing – and enough others agree – you can vote them out of power. If you don’t like what the EU is up to – and plans – tough! You are stuck with them and have no chance of realistically altering anything. Our involvement over the last 47 years proved that over and over again. They are intent on fiscal union. One currency for all and with them controlling taxation in each country too. That is where they are headed. Look it up. I am not imagining it or making it up.

      Look at how they behaved with Greece. There are a lot of people in a lot of EU countries that are far from happy with it. It is not some earthly eden as you seem to think.

      The best years have been spent within the sanctuary of the EU family.

      The best years have been spent within the sanctuary of the EU family.

      It is no good, I have to say it – don’t talk such bolleaux. In the last 43 years we have become progressively more uncompetitive, our balance of payments with the EU is appalling, we have lost loads of decent, well paid manufacturing jobs while Germany’s manufacturing has grown, we agree to every rule and decree (and our bloody civil service gold plates them), we have had a large influx of workers and some people have found themselves unable to work in local factories because they are undercut by cheaper labour from Europe, housing costs and rents have gone mad poisoning our young people’s life chances. I could go on and on. And now look, we decided to leave and the EU are being spiteful and vengeful – and acting nothing like the Lisbon treaty which enshrined how they should behave to a leaving member.

      I venture to suggest you are a typical middle aged, middle class, selfish so-and-so who has never been affected negatively by anything to do with the EU – indeed, you probably work in the public sector. All you know is how easy it has been to tear up the planet by going over to Barcelona or Prague for long weekends.

      Second rant over.

      1. David Brown
        March 19, 2021

        I like a balanced augment and you have made some good points.
        You you totally wrong on your final paragraph.

    5. dixie
      March 19, 2021

      You display a poor level of education. The Union Jack was a symbol of freedom for slaves, borne on Royal Navy ships with the full support of the UK population capturing the slaver ships out of Africa with the intent of abolishing the trade.
      If you are British then why did you not leave this land you despise so much when you had the clear chance of what you claim was free and easy migration to a more welcoming and conducive country.
      What the next generation do is in their hands mine was occupied with dealing with the consequences of the previous attempt at european federation.

  22. jon livesey
    March 19, 2021

    I see that Sefcovic is now saying that the strict letter of EU law has to be applied in NI. Isn’t it ironic that the NIP was supposed to be about preserving the Good Friday Agreement, and now the support of the people of NI for the GFA has to be risked to guarantee the strict letter of EU law?

    Does any sane person really risk a return to violence so that they can “inspect” a box of biscuits or a churn of milk. or make sure British soil isn’t on someone’s tyres?

    In a weird way, it reminds me of the euro crisis, when the euro was supposed to promote growth, but then the EU had to abandon growth to save the euro.

    1. Denis Cooper
      March 19, 2021

      To repeat a comment submitted yesterday but not published – did none of the Tory MPs notice this crucial contradiction between the promise made in the Political Declaration attached to the Withdrawal Agreement and the final deal that they were told to vote for?

      I’m just looking at this document dated 19 October 2019:

      https://tinyurl.com/y8jh5r9k

      “Political Declaration setting out the framework for the future relationship between the European Union and the United Kingdom”

      And paragraph 4 runs:

      “The future relationship will be based on a balance of rights and obligations, taking into account the principles of each Party. This balance must ensure the autonomy of the Union’s decision making and be consistent with the Union’s principles, in particular with respect to the integrity of the Single Market and the Customs Union and the indivisibility of the four freedoms. It must also ensure the sovereignty of the United Kingdom and the protection of its internal market, while respecting the result of the 2016 referendum including with regard to the development of its independent trade policy and the ending of free movement of people between the Union and the United Kingdom.”

      “It must also ensure the sovereignty of the United Kingdom and the protection of its internal market”

      So how in God’s name did Boris Johnson subsequently persuade Tory MPs and peers to vote for something which far from protecting the UK internal market actually disrupts it?

      And how does he dare to tell the press that his treaty does protect the UK internal market?

      https://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2021/03/13/news/boris-johnson-says-he-hasn-t-seen-the-letter-from-loyalists-withdrawing-support-for-the-good-friday-agreement-2253764/

      “It’s there to protect the EU single market but also the UK single market 
 “

    2. Longinus
      March 19, 2021

      Boris Johnson stated that Britain would take back “full control of our money, our borders and our laws” when a status-quo transition arrangement with the European Union ended.

      He obviously chose ‘Britain’ rather than the ‘UK’ for a reason…

  23. BJC
    March 19, 2021

    “We” haven’t indicated in any way, shape or form that “we” want to go green, or we’d have the Green Party in power. Indeed, if the US and other large consumers of fossil fuels were to relieve pressure on their use, it can be argued that the UK should keep a strong foothold in these industries as demand and prices will drop and help to provide a more reasonable, achievable and fluid objective that supports the variable demands of the country. As sure as night follows day, any “all eggs in one basket” policy is destined to be damaging as it will always lead to the same supply/demand/monopoly issues, won’t it? Are the government truly as detached from reality as they appear?

  24. jon livesey
    March 19, 2021

    I see that David Campbell, chairman of the Loyalist Communities Council in NI is now calling for a reopening of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

    No matter what you think about NI, the EU, or the GFA, this is something to take very seriously, because this is not just a matter of politicians expressing an opinion.

    This statement is coming from people who decided decades ago that their political voice was being ignored, and that only direct action would be effective. And the vote in the GFA Referendum pretty much vindicated them, because it showed that when given a secret vote, the people in NI would choose to stay in the UK, despite years of assertions to the contrary in the UK, ROI and Washington.

    I believe that we ignore people like this at our peril.

  25. a-tracy
    March 21, 2021

    “But more importantly, I think a lot of experts are saying that we need to be prepared for other variants because we know that the UK variant has spread widely and it harder to treat.” McGuiness EU

    The UK identified the variant it doesn’t mean it started here, the fact they’re repeated this to cause bad feeling in the EU when the UK has effectively been locked out of the EU since 23rd December with negative covid testing required from everyone is just a lie, how do the EU claim it spread from here. These lies need stopping, changes are in came across the channel into Kent from the EU because Boris was lax in demanding testing of people coming into the UK and kept flights and crossings open too long. This whole virus came into the UK from the EU and when everyone went off on EU holidays last summer they came back with another dose for us and if you don’t stop people this year it will happen again.

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