Thread by @uk_domain_names

Nissan is going to announce next week that it's cancelling plans (announced in 2016) to manufacture its X-Trail model in Sunderland. Worth repeating that EVERY SINGLE MAJOR CAR FIRM has warned strongly and frequently about the negative impact of Brexit.
news.sky.com/story/nissan-c…

This follows a blunt warning from Prime Minister Abe of Japan last month that a no deal Brexit was a nightmare scenario: "That is why we truly hope that a no-deal Brexit will be avoided and, in fact, that is the wish of the whole world."
asahi.com/ajw/articles/A…

All this is compounded by the fact that the EU and Japan just ratified the largest free trade deal in history (we get to share in it, but only until Brexit Day). Amongst other things, it cuts tariffs on Japanese-made cars entering the EU to 0% by 2027.
bbc.co.uk/news/business-…

It also comes as new investment across the whole of the UK auto industry halved in 2018, to just £589 million for the year. That's 90% down on 2014 (nearly £6 billion back in those heady times) with year-on-year falls every single year.
europe.autonews.com/automakers/uk-…

So you can be as rah-rah-rah and pro-Brexit as you like. The steamroller of reality just doesn't care. Facts are facts, regardless of how little you want them to be true. And the facts of Brexit are that it will gut the car industry and leave it flopping and gasping.

Worth noting that the UK Government sent Nissan a confidential letter in 2016 offering Brexit reassurances. It was so sensitive that 2 years later they still adamantly refuse to disclose its content. And Nissan's walking anyway. *That's* how bad Brexit is!
theweek.co.uk/98497/nissan-b…

Feels somehow appropriate to sign off this thread with my nod-and-a-wink Brexit reference to Planet of the Apes...

Added: here's the report from October 2016, when Nissan confirmed it would make the X-Trail in Sunderland. "The support and assurances of the UK government enabled us to decide that the next-generation Qashqai and X-Trail will be produced at Sunderland."
bbc.co.uk/news/business-…

Here's a discussion held just after the referendum, in which David Miliband specifically raised Nissan as an issue. Eerily prescient.
charlierose.com/videos/28290

And here's the 2016 referendum result celebration. Hasn't aged well...