Lessons from seven lean years of Brexit
28/04/2023
Almost seven years on from the Brexit referendum, there remains uncertainty over the future UK-EU relationship. Reflecting on the lessons from the last seven years, Neil Kinnock argues there remains a clear case for the UK being an economic, political, social, scientific and cultural part of the Europe of the future.
Fishing rows notwithstanding, much of Europe looks on at the UK’s plight with astonishment – and even, still, sympathy.
Having been grossly misled in the referendum, Britons’ anger is mounting as the reality of our plight becomes clear.
Is Britain committing commercial suicide?
27/02/2020
A 19th Century trade agenda will decimate the most productive parts of the 21st Century economy.
In Birmingham, the ‘city of a thousand trades’, Brexit is endangering a modern-day renaissance
01/04/2019
England’s second most populous city was revived by EU money but voted to leave the bloc, in a pattern that has become all too familiar, says Patrick Cockburn.
Brexit has been an unmitigated disaster for the economy of Britain. Of course, the people responsible for it, won’t tell the truth or admit they were wrong.
If we are to leave the European Union we want a sensible Brexit. There’s no chance of that just now. / "Brexit has paralysed the system. It has turned Britain into a laughing stock. And it is certain to make us poorer and to lead to lower incomes and lost jobs."
The average household is around £2,000 worse off. But Brexiteer politicians and much of the media are obscuring this truth.
From his booklet, ‘Beyond Brexit: Liberal Politics for the Age of Identity’, Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable explores how the UK can prosper socially and financially in the 2020s.
Higher prices likely in a post-Brexit world
15/05/2018
Food prices are set to rocket once the UK leaves EU, according to John Glen, economist at the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply.
Try and find an instance of the market reacting to tax cuts anywhere else on Earth the way it reacted to the UK’s mere mention of such a simple policy. The market usually loves tax cuts. Not this time. Why?
Great Brexit Con Job
13/04/2021
Get Brexit Done’ has unravelled in a spectacular fashion; a significant knock to the economy, removal of rights and freedoms, more red tape for business and – the most heart-breaking of all – trouble has returned to Northern Ireland. The obvious answer to this foreseeable problem is for the UK to be part of the single market and customs union.
Editorial: The UK’s six-year Brexit hangover
05/01/2023
There's little talk of reversing the decision, but evidence of Brexit-induced harm is piling up.
Political distance from Brussels has been achieved. This is not up for question. However, economically speaking, there is vast room for improvement. The OBR calculates, in its current form, that Brexit is reducing our GDP by four per cent. This compares to around 1.5 per cent caused by Covid.
The UK looks set for a recession and a longer battle with inflation than many of its neighbours. This is why.
Talks between Tories and Labour have collapsed and the focus at Westminster remains inward. / It hasn’t gone away, you know. Brexit has been on a bit of a media break over the last month or two since EU leaders agreed to extend the UK’s departure until October 30th, while leaving the option open of an earlier date.
This is your gentle reminder that in five weeks the economy will go into full cardiac arrest. It will be the worst economic disaster in modern British history. The country will seize up in the short term and decay in the long term. Jobs and lives will be destroyed overnight.
Brexit, two years on – so far, so bad
31/01/2023
31 January marks the two-year anniversary of the UK’s official withdrawal from the EU. Investment Monitor examines how hard Brexit has hit the UK economy so far.
Every negative consequence of Brexit for the UK and the clear advantage for the EU is alerting the British public to the realities of Boris Johnson’s deal. As investment slows and jobs go elsewhere there will only be one person to blame – Boris Johnson.
From the outside, nothing much has changed yet. From the inside, however, the UK has undergone a radical and at times ugly transformation. The June 2016 referendum has helped set off a chain of events that has impacted many aspects of life in the country.
Immediately after the referendum, sterling depreciated. This brought forward the impact on household incomes of what would otherwise be a slow burn change for the UK economy.
When the bell tolls at eleven o’clock tonight, ringing out Britain’s membership of the EU, an entire phase of British history will come to a close. For nearly half a century – from 1973 to 2020 – perhaps the single most important fact about British history was its membership of the European Union (or ‘Community’, until 1993).
But so far, it’s not looking good: a hit to trade of this size entails big structural changes to the British economy, with capital and workers being shifted between sectors of the economy, businesses going bust, and higher prices for imports eroding living standards.
Brexit Chickens Come Home to Roost
07/06/2022
While the picture’s hardly pretty and certainly not what advocates of Brexit envisioned, none of it surprises economists. As a former Bank of England official observed: “You run a trade war against yourself, bad things happen.”
Brexit Britain Confronts Reality
18/08/2022
Britons must look at themselves calmly and honestly, recognizing the tough times that lie ahead and the changes needed to get the country back on track. Unfortunately, the country's political leaders remain unwilling to treat voters like grown-ups.