“Based on the most recent data, the value of all goods & services exports per employed person in RoI was €126,630 per year, compared to just €17,627 in the UK. Total trade in Ireland was 178%of Ireland’s gross domestic product, higher than the EU overall (77%) and the UK (54%)
“In the meantime, London’s new Brexit strategy is to inflict as much commercial damage on Ireland as possible. Given that Ireland didn’t ask for, or vote in, the Brexit referendum and, in recent decades, has been an impeccable neighbour...
3/. “and a calm, dependable partner in the British-created tinderbox that is Northern Ireland, this new aggression seems unjustified. However British sensitivity towards Irish concerns has never figured highly in Anglo-Irish affairs.”
4/ “Part of the new British approach has been a relentless campaign to paint itself as the victim of Irish inflexibility, simultaneously emboldened by a Rule Britannia assurance that Ireland can, and will, be brought to heel.”
5/. “This unstable combination of whingeing victimhood twinned with pompous self-regard has characterised much of Britain’s negotiations thus far. What has been absent are economic facts.”
As we have seen with some remarkable & gross errors from Rees-Mogg & Digby Jones recently
6/. On a conservative estimate, the Irish are now over 25 per cent richer than their UK counterparts. Irish income per capita rose from €13,934 in 1995 to €40,655 in 2018 — growth of 192 per cent.
7/ “In contrast, UK income per capita rose from £21,716 in 1995 to £30,594 in 2018 — growth of roughly 41 per cent. Ireland is growing nearly five times faster than the UK every year.”
And whilst the U.K. TALKS about being “Global Britain” Ireland is doing it.
In. The. EU.
8/ Ireland & England are in competition with one another.
“Which looks more attractive, the country that is open to everyone, with fully free access to the EU & no barriers to work,...
9/ “...or the country that needlessly erects tariffs & borders against the trading bloc with which it does half of its trade?
Ireland can’t stop the UK if it intends to go down this route, but the EU single market and customs union are far more important for us.”
10/.
“We understand the yearning for sovereignty, identity and independence, believe me. But just one piece of advice: the first 70 years are the hardest, after that it gets easier.”
Ouch. But fair.
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