When the European project comes along, we don't want to be a part of it because how it affects our relationship to the Commonwealth and the Sterling area.
@PKBook22@heywoodbill@tconnellyRTE We want to be part of a political union, but when it comes to a Common Market, that means a Common Currency and a Customs Union, that's a double whammy.
We want a free trade area that maintains our Commonwealth ties.
@PKBook22@heywoodbill@tconnellyRTE When negotiations for that fail, we feel forced to join the Common Market to solve our economic problems.
@PKBook22@heywoodbill@tconnellyRTE Needless to say, when Labour take power and announce they want to join the Common Market, they are now saying that they want people to pay more for food, to abandon the Commonwealth, and there is no guaranteed economic return.
They don't make the economic argument.
@PKBook22@heywoodbill@tconnellyRTE Labour focus on talking about the "Common Market" as a project which we are joining for the political benefits of building a future Europe.
When they refer to "The Common Market" the actual economic machinery is incidental to the argument.
The term "The Common Market" is contextualized to what it actually is. A political project, not a common market.
@PKBook22@heywoodbill@tconnellyRTE But before the Conservatives can take over the negotiation, we have the devaluing of the pound, food inflation, and that is expected to get worse because of CAP.
@PKBook22@heywoodbill@tconnellyRTE The British public aren't too keen on this Common Market concept of a Common Agricultural policy and what it does to the price of butter.
@PKBook22@heywoodbill@tconnellyRTE When Labour give up the ghost, the political side had been the entire argument for 3 years. 'The Common Market' is a political project we are joining for political reasons, and the economic argument was barely mentioned.
@PKBook22@heywoodbill@tconnellyRTE And now Heath takes over when discussion of the economic argument gets people very angry about the inflation, so the economic argument, is not the focus of the sales pitch.
@PKBook22@heywoodbill@tconnellyRTE The pro-Marketeers act to distance themselves from the idea that we are going into it economically by saying "This is not about the price of butter".
@PKBook22@heywoodbill@tconnellyRTE Nobody sells the Common Market as a Common Market, because that means selling something that puts people's prices up in the shops and abandons the Commonwealth by design.
Literally nobody wants a Common Market.
@PKBook22@heywoodbill@tconnellyRTE The economic case was that we pay more money, abandon sterling, abandon Commonwealth, redivert the trade for economic benefits that only half the economists in this country believe will come.
This is not something to sell the European project on.
@PKBook22@heywoodbill@tconnellyRTE If the economists are split down the middle, it's really not a winning argument. Especially when there are upfront economic costs.
@PKBook22@heywoodbill@tconnellyRTE Indeed, Duncan in your clip refers to the size of the market, but not in the absence of the arguments that make it clear that this is a United Europe project, not an economic project.
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Just as people have moved on and want to talk about the pain our industries are suffering, the prospects the people have lost, and the way our country has been damaged, Brexiteers like Jacob can only argue amongst themselves and repeat their lies of 2016.
The irony being they voted to live in the past, and now they are permanently stuck in 2016, when we were in the EU.
When someone tell you we need to wait 40 years to see the benefit, ask them what specific milestones are required and when will each of them be achieved.
All that democracy of having less votes, and FPTP in a two party system with all those safe seats. Along with a parliamentary system that creates laws further away from the people than in the EU system...
This seems like a good day for it to happen. The only reason the Johnson administration is still in existence is that we don't get long enough to focus on one story before another story occurs and the news cycle moves on.
I have opinions about this rebuttal of @DavidGauke claiming he: "simply looks at the timeline of what has happened post-Brexit and ignores the broader context of trade policy"