OK, to summarise. What we didn't necessarily know about Brexit in 2016, but we are fairly sure about now. (Most projects would expect you do your due diligence - and have a project plan, and clear objectives) BEFORE starting work).
1. There will be a medium-term shortage of medical isotopes (diagnostic and therapeutic). Medicines, especially temperature-sensitive ones like insulin, hormones, and targeted immunotherapy, will be in short supply. People could have their health put at risk, and some may die.
2. There will be shortages of food, especially fresh foods such as salads, vegetables, fruit and milk. The UK has not been self-sufficient in food since 1850. Tight-budget items such as school meals, hospital and care home food will suffer most.
3. British companies will find it harder to export due to the sinking £ and to new tariffs which the EU must impose to be compliant with WTO rules. International companies that can move abroad may do so, cutting UK jobs. Those that can't move, may go under.
4. British companies importing raw materials will suffer from inflation, which they will pass on to consumers. If their offer is "discretionary" e.g. cafes, florists - things consumers can cut back on - their businesses will suffer and they may have to close or to lay off staff.
5. Farmers, especially those on marginal hill farms, will suffer not only from high tariffs but from loss of EU subsidies. Roughly half of farms are predicted to fail under a No Deal Brexit. And UK fishermen will lose their biggest export market.
6. We will lose European Structural Development and Social Fund grants to our poorest regions.
7. We will lose Horizon 20/20 and successor funding for collaborative scientific projects. Scientists are mobile, they will get work permits overseas - there will be a brain drain.
8. Fuel refineries may have to close, again due to our export countries imposing tariffs on UK fuel. This will leave us dependent on foreign fuel from lovely friendly countries, like Russia, for example. Oh, and our services industry, 80% of the economy, is already affected.
9. Our EU27 friends, family and work colleagues may not be able to stay in this country, where they bring up their British kids, work in our schools, hospitals and companies, pay their taxes, live their lives. The stress on them is evil. EU countries are watching us with horror.
10. We will break our agreed responsibilities under the Good Friday Agreement, a solemn peace treaty lodged at the United Nations. Borders will have to go up across the island of Ireland, identities will be threatened, a rise in violence and death is likely.
11. Northern Ireland and Scotland will feel rather less minded to stay in the United Kingdom. and who can blame them?
12. Our neighbours in the Republic of Ireland will have their economy shafted almost as badly as ours, although the EU will no doubt try to increase their imports of Irish goods. You might think that previous British governments have done enough harm here, but no.
13. British people will lose hard-won rights and freedoms - FOM, but also a lot of our rights as consumers and workers, and our rights to a clean, unpolluted environment. Unscrupulous governments (we already have one) will have fun with that.
14. Austerity will have to be maintained for generations. With a shrunken economy, permanently low wages, and fewer protections, we will become the most oppressed population in the developed world. We might even become economic migrants. I hope other countries are kind to us.
15. Britain has lost its reputation for good governance, stable government, tolerance, fair play and being "men of our word". Who will trust us as a trade or political / diplomatic partner? Best leave us to our splendid isolation.
16. But it's all worth it, for "Sovereignty". We give up being an influential member of the world's biggest economic community, where we have a say in policy and strategy, to become dependent on the US, Russia and China, where we partake in their parliamentary... oh, wait...
17. So let's not stop being angry. Let's not stop being outraged. Let's ask our government every day - "WHY ARE WE DOING THIS AGAIN". There is NO good reason for Brexit. #StopBrexit.
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Ten things the Labour Party could talk about that would be popular with a large proportion of UK voters. We could start talking about them now.
1. There are some institutions in our society that ought not to be sources of private profit: e.g. NHS, Schools, Prisons and Probation.
2. Britain is one of the most unequal of the developed nations. We need to reduce inequality and make the country fairer with opportunities for all.
3. British territories should not be tax havens. Everyone needs to contribute to the nation's resources. Tax in itself is not a bad thing - you get what you pay for, you just have to make the paying bit fair.
Today on our #PeoplesVote street stall I got complaints about rubbish on the streets, austerity, homelessness, high pay for executives, and money wasted on HS2. Every time I gently suggested that these things were not due to the EU, and that Brexit wouldn't make them any better.
It was pretty clear that all the anger and frustration over 40 years of neglect in our smaller northern towns, the lack of decent jobs, the general feeling of hopelessness, had all been weaponised by the leave campaign. The EU has been used as a scapegoat.
I sympathised with those who thought we did ok before the EU (although our living standards were nowhere near today's) but then asked them if they thought leaving the EU would take everything back to how it used to be, and people realise it will not.
Thread: Lots of Labour voters, who know their fave party have stitched us up, are nevertheless struggling with the idea of voting LibDem in the upcoming elections. 'But the tuition fees!' they say. I hope they consider this carefully. It sounds very like that line Trump used...
so successfully; 'But her emails!'. Smart campaigning. Pick on something your opponent got wrong, and make sure it outweighs everything good about them. If tuition fees is the first thing you think of, you're being played.
The argument works because we think political parties have to be pure, but if what happened under a coalition in 2010 is so important, then you can't vote Labour either, because they took us into an allegedly illegal war! But wait, you say, that was under a different leader so...
1. Thread. I'm going to go on a bit of a rant now, if you don't mind.
It looks like we are going to have an EU election. Whether or not the people we elect actually sit as MEPs, the results of that election will be taken as a proxy referendum on the EU. Remember the GE of 2017?
2. Labour led us up the garden path with its "constructive ambiguity" AKA "fence sitting", so millions of pro-EU voters were induced to vote Labour. It was Peak Corbyn. Afterwards, that was construed as "88% of votes were for pro-Brexit parties so the "People" must want Brexit".
3. If we do the same again in the upcoming EU elections, the same wrong conclusion will be drawn. So I told my Labour MEPs, @Jude_KD and @PaulBrannenNE (who do a GREAT job, btw) that as things stand I can't vote for them this time and Jude replied...
Dear @BBCNews. If you are tired of sourcing your Brexit vox pops from pool halls in Luton and markets in Lancashire, could I suggest some alternative sites where you could obtain the views of the British public? Here goes...
An NHS hospital in London
A science park in Cambridge
A pharmaceutical factory in Hertfordshire
A university campus just about anywhere
A language school in Eastbourne
A livestock market in Cumbria
A wine bar in Edinburgh
A chemical works on Teesside
A dairy farm on the Irish border
A car factory in Swindon
A car components factory in Durham
A pharmacy in Nottingham
A school gate in Oxford
I'm told my "memes" are not memes, because memes have variants. Like this one did. So what I have is not a "meme stash" but a "Cellar of Infographical Awesomeness". I've got some more.
Here's a summary of what we actually expect MPs to do. Hold them to account!
Here's how well the UK economy is doing, compared with other EU member states.