People continue to complain that there are no benefits to Brexit.
Three recent projects have caught my eye.
Great British Railways
British Steel
0% VAT on electricity bills
Now read this bit very carefully. None of these projects would be legal under EU law as proposed.
Yes, yes - other EU countries have state-run railways, but none of them are allowed to operate track infrastructure and train operations simultaneously, which is both sensible and what GBR plans to do.
They are also legally mandated to offer slots on the track to private competition.
The EU doesn’t like subsidised industries that affect the level playing field, so British Steel nationalisation is out too. Plus, the EU doesn’t like anything other than green steel getting subsidies.
British Steel will likely be run at a loss for national security and strategic reasons. These justifications have not been accepted in the past.
Finally, zero rate VAT isn’t possible because the floor is 5% VAT for any country that has fossil fuels as part of the energy mix.
Zero percent is well below that floor, and therefore illegal under EU law.
Are we finally seeing some true benefits of Brexit?
These are three big projects which couldn’t go ahead as planned under EU law.
This is largely because the UK no longer has to care about the primacy of the Single Market.
And if we’re really honest, most EU law is about just that. The primacy of the Single Market.
Even the stuff that made people feel all warm and cosy, such as free movement of people, was really just about ensuring people were part of that Single Market.
I suppose it begs the question. What’s more important?
Cheaper Marmite for ex-pats or getting to decide how your essential services work.
I was referring to a simple visible in the stores - Produce, clothing, drinks, all quantifiable numbers that have gone and not been replaced by trade agreements with Vanatu or wherever a Minister went on holiday.
Ask the young Mother with screaming kids in a,queue to come back from her package holiday for 4 hours if it was worth it.
At the moment a chat gpt request can show data backing both arguments
But the key promised published benefits immigration and zillions for the NHS still sit there as a visible Con trick
One of the main reasons British Steel runs at a loss is the loss of frictionless trade with the EU, the imposition of quota’s and the extra bureaucracy because of Brexit and the lack of subsidies from the EU to aid investment in building EAF’s for the future of steel production. It left our steel industry in trouble at a time that they had to battle against oversupply from Asia and the US as well as rising energy costs.
Well, like all steel producers, we’ll produce steel to sell for use at home and sell for use abroad. Brexit made the latter more difficult to do with our biggest purchaser of steel. Not a benefit and has been a legacy issue. That was my point. No sane person would suggest we don’t need the capacity to produce steel domestically.
Well whatever the ‘need for Britsih made steel, as an industry it was worth around 2.2bn or 0.3% of GDP BEFORE Brexit, and today is about 1.8bn or 0.2% of GDP
So not exactly sure how a business worth less to UK economy post Brexit is a benefit of Brexit…
As for the trains… well I am glad they are to be nationalised, but in the EU the infrastructure is interconnected with need for consistent specs etc so more integration for more effective infrastructure. I suspect that had we been in the EU and wanted yo nationalise rail, they would not have put up too many barriers to us doing so…
The Germans hae realised the pitfalls of split ownership
Late era capitalism exists to reduce costs and maximise profits for shareholders and CEO’s in UK water companies raping the infrastructure as if they were hedge funds
In Germany The Infrastructure of the Railways reduced costs so that the whole system is decaying and unreliable - France dictating how Polish Trains can run - all drivving towards changes
Selective numbers British Steel will not make all the types of Steel UK PLC want - it can’t. Brexit didn’t kill Sheffield Steel, Stainless Steel Steel Wire etc Poland & then china (reduce costs) did that. Nationalisation didn’t keep it alive & prospering before and like here in Poland, the Indians are cutting costs and closing furnaces
Private Equity & Hedge Funds are/have done more damage to Industry than the EU ever managed
I fully respect Pap’s Brexit love as its based on some very traditional socialist values of decentralised and local governance and sovereignty… however, I will always maintain that it matters not how or where decisions are made that are important, but what those decisions are and how they impact on local people. For example, (Non EU) I dont think anyone really believes that being protected by rights under ECHR is a bad thing. And if those exact same rights Plus additional ones were enshrined in our constitution then we would not need them…But as we see with the numbers voting for the cunt Farage, plenty of folks happy to get rid just to be able to deport brown people much quicker. Obviously ECHR has nowt to do with the EU and Brexit, but its an example of how its teh legislation that is important, not where its made…
The worst aspect of Brexit, is not even the economic shite its seeded, but the way that from day one of campaigning it empowered and ‘legitimised’ racist and bigoted propaganda that has grown with Farage’s Reform and now Restore. Now with it no longer being possible top blame EU workers and Brussels legislation for the countries ‘issues’ the great British public freed of of being shamed by their racism, needed someone else and found a convenient one in brown and black asylum seekers and migrants. Sensible debate about immigration, does not start with intimidation, painting roundabouts and generally being a cunt… Thank’s Brexit…
Yep, my Brexit love does come from socialist principles, and they boil down pretty easily.
If you believe that markets shouldn’t have primacy in everything, then the EU is not going to help you with that. It essentially exists so that markets have guaranteed access of anything in the Single Market.
I think the frustrating thing from my point of view is that so many who’d call themselves progressive fail to spot this. Even the fluffier and friendlier incentives are about the primacy of the market.
Freedom of movement is a great example. It’s something that we all feel is a sood thing but the driving force behind it isn’t benevolence or malice.
It’s simply about making people movable goods within the Single Market, a fringe benefit being less hassle at airports for EU citizens’ within the EU.
As with all things capitalist… you have to acknowledge its not the system of generating wealth that is the issue, its what you do with it when you have it… to paraphrase ‘with great wealth comes even greater responsibility’ - When many EU markets prosper, there is within the European culture if not a genuine sense of socialism, but generally a sense of social responsibility, higher taxes paid, for better healthcare, education and social care, and better standards of living. UK problem was that this was almost totally eroded even from the working classes by Thatcher who in effect said, ‘fuck that, I’ll cut your tax and you spend it on what you want’ - making tax and spend a cursed policy (despite that being the whole reason for tax), yet sticking duties, taxes and VAT on everything so it made fuck all difference to the working man, apart form him thinking he was better off… he chose to smoke, drink and drive a car and heat his house etc… so it was his choice how he contributed to the revenues coffers… so I concede that because culturally we don’t have the same working ethic as our best EU cousins, the benefits of the economics were not as obvious to us as they are to the French or Germans
Same as above… if you have no wealth you have nothing to share… see former USSR etc. The problem is again not the system, but the exploitation of it by greedy cunts in some countries such the UK…
Arguably… its born out the principle that you go where workers are needed and that the ‘over supply’ ensures minimal wage inflation… at once both shitty and understandable - but also on opportunity to move to markets that pay better. As many did to the UK… since Brexit, the hospitality industry has really struggled… not because it has to ‘pay more’ but because it can’t get folks to do the work even if paying more than they did to the Bulgarians on minimum wage… Young people, travelling, earning and learning for a few years is not a bad thing. If they are paid too little its the fault of local legislation and enforcement there of, not the freedom of movement…
That is a very cynical view IMHO… we call it ‘Human Resources’ because human resource is needed and it’s not always static, but usually highly dynamic, especially these days were so many roles are now service based - There is a big difference between seeing a requirement for specific skills as a ‘resource need’ versus how those individuals are treated within their employment. You go work in Germany or France and you are instantly granted the employment benefits of the local citizens (well we were when in the EU) and they were MUCH HIGHER than what we had /have in then UK… so again any ‘exploitation’ of foreign workers was mostly by ‘BRITISH’ firms looking for cheap labour with minimal protection to improve competiveness within the EU markets… the direct access to which we have now lost… and are being fucked without lube by China. A situation that we were able to operate within despite EU legislation as we have ‘opted out’ of many of the workers rights afforded to those working in EU countries…
So I await any tangible benefit from Brexit, beyond the jingoistic nonsense, or the principles that offer nothing… Have workers rights and conditions improved? No. Have opportunity for young people to work and learn improved? No…
