Thread by @TonysAngle

Services: 80% of UK economy (architecture, management consulting, legal, creative etc) & big services surplus UK runs with RoW & EU. So why does Govt want to damage economy in #Brexit plan being discussed by cabinet today (focusing on goods only?) ft.com/content/2ce78f… via @FT

And anyway services get bundled in today's global value chains for high-value high-tech goods (c. Aircraft engines & their maintenance) which is what UK government is supposed to be promoting via its (mysterious) industrial policy announced back in 2016.

If you wanted a better trade & industrial policy for UK (which is desirable to create high-paying jobs via higher productivity) you wouldn't put it together in the way that #Brexit is taking us (raising barriers to trading with UK's big EU markets).

"A goods-only #Brexit deal puts UK services sector jobs at risk". Yes, it certainly does: see the excellent @ChrisGiles_
ft.com/content/f3f550… via @financialtimes

As @ChrisGiles_ points out: "More than 40% of exports to the EU last year were services, with a large majority being in areas outside banking services and the City of London". So all this deluded piffle from the Government about the Customs Union & goods is just that: piffle.

Fundamentally UK Govt. is trying to throw up barriers to trade with its largest export market: "The EU ... is the UK’s largest trading partner. In 2017, UK exports to the EU were £274 bn (45% of all UK exports). See: ’Statistics on UK-EU trade” parliament.uk/commons-library #Brexit

Hard to see why a services-based economy like the UK wants to walk away from the single market. But that's what May is proposing. Excellent @csgmoore nails it: politics.co.uk/comment-analys… via @politics_co_uk h/t @DavidHenigUK #Brexit

Services account for some 80% of UK economy. UK economy is more reliant on services than any other G7 economy (Germany: 69% of GDP comes from services). And so UK government has a bright idea: let's leave EU single market in services, which has benefited UK companies! 🤪🤪