14,000 Germans French and Italians applied for British citizenship in the year to the end of June 2017 compared to only 4,500 to June 2015. Maybe some of them are fleeing the European parliament which The Times exposed as “a hotbed of sexual harassment” or have seen a new German army war game – the break up of the European Union as “more states have left the block”.
BREXIT GOOD NEWS
The economic news for Brexit Britain remains excellent. UK unemployment fell by 52,000 in the three months to August. The unemployment rate of 4.3% remains at its lowest for decades!
Activity in the services sector (accounting for two thirds of the economy) rose to 55.6 in October from 53.6 in September – where anything over 50 signifies growth. The manufacturing index in October rose to 56.3 from 56 in September – the fifteenth consecutive month of expansion. More than 50% of manufacturers said they expected output to be high in a year’s time.
The UK’s industrial output grew at its fastest pace so far this year in September, according to official figures with production rising 0.7% compared with the month before. It has risen for six consecutive months, a feat last achieved 23 years ago.
The City of London remains, as we showed in a recent article, the leading world financial centre. Nowhere in the EU comes near to matching it. If there is a threat from a “no deal” scenario then that threat is to the EU. The Bank of England (continuing under Mark Carney to play the political “project fear” game) recently suggested 75,000 jobs could leave London in the event of a Brexit “no deal”
But 60% more EU financial institutions are passported into the U.K. from the EU than UK institutions into the EU. So in the event of no deal, with both sides seeking access to the other’s market by moving jobs to the other’s jurisdiction the net result would be a big gain in jobs for London. But of course that is not the way the BBC reports the “Remainer unwelcome” truth! It has also emerged that UK banks provide loans equivalent of around 9 per cent of the EU’s entire economy so any restrictions on the City would be suicidal for the EU!
In insurance London is the 4th largest market in the world and in the high value “insurtech” market where innovative insurance models are being developed the UK is second only to the USA. When it comes to company flotations (Initial Public Offerings as they are called nowadays) London is far ahead of the European competition. In 2017 year to date London flotation values stood at $7.2bn, second was that other non EU member Switzerland and Frankfurt was a poor 5th at $2.2bn.
Meanwhile the US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross welcomed the prospect of a swift trade deal with the USA, pointed to the already “huge trade” between the US and UK and accused the EU of “extreme protectionism”. In fact we have known for years (but the British media never cover the fact) that the worst trade crook in the world is the European Union. The EU is accused of flouting World Trade Organisation rules more than any other State.
REMAINER ARROGANCE, IGNORANCE AND SNOBBERY
The Labour MP Barry Sheerman caused an uproar on social media by claiming that “better educated people voted remain”. It reflects the left wing judge’s wife whom we quoted on this website after the Brexit vote saying her children’s future had been jeopardised by “northern working class trash”.
And I note that that perennial joker Richard Branson has said that the UK will rejoin the EU “after the old Leave voters have died off”. As usual the “special needs child” Branson (“there were some subjects that I just had a complete blank about. I mean (unintelligible) mathematics – for years I haven’t been able to work out the difference between gross and net”) shows extraordinary ignorance. A recent opinion poll showed that a massive 74% of the public agrees that “no deal is better than a bad deal” and amongst 18-34 year-olds the percentage was even higher at 75%.
The pollsters Opinium found that 37% backed a “no deal” with only 25% supporting a transition period in the single market and just 23% who still think Brexit should be abandoned.
EU TROJAN HORSE – IMPERIALISTS EXPLOIT 3 MILLION EU CITIZENS IN THE UK
As many of us thought would happen, Mrs May’s attempts at giving ground have only led to more demands from the EU for more money before trade negotiations start. Whenever May mentions a higher settlement figure it is derided in Brussels as not enough. Soon even the naive will see that “enough is never enough for the EU” but “enough is enough” for us. We really cannot delay breaking free from this protectionist, controlling, corporatist-fascist EU system.
The studied procrastination of the EU, encouraged by the French Government, is an attempt to delay certainty for business for so long that corporations will leave the UK and – they hope – go to Paris. The EU negotiator Michel Barnier told Les Echos newspaper that the second phase of the talks “will be very difficult and last several years”. The Future UK-EU trade relationship was “the most important thing” – so why have the EU blocked trade negotiations for so long?
The extent of the imperialist attitudes of the EU political class, (as shown by Barnier and Guy Verhofstadt, the anti British eurofanatic negotiator for the European parliament) is clear in the exploitation of the 3 million EU citizens who have fled to the UK to escape mass unemployment in the EU – to the extent that workers live 9 to a semi in London! By demanding special status for them and the continued powers of the EU Court even after Brexit, these “citizens” are being exploited as an imperialist Trojan horse.
TRADE FOR THE EU IS “DEFEAT OR VICTORY”
Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, usually one of the more affable of the top EU functionaries, nevertheless betrayed the “zero sum, controlling ,fortress Europe” mentality of the EU by saying that Brexit was the European Union’s ‘toughest stress test’, and so ‘We must keep our unity regardless of the direction of the talks. If we fail, then the negotiations will end in our defeat.’
Only those who seek confrontation and the “defeat” of the other side would regard negotiations on trade and future cooperation as a battle where one side must “lose”. Inside the Fortress of corporatist imperial Europe “outsiders” are not friends but enemies. Power is the key, not democracy or international good will or free trade. As Helmut Kohl said “Might is right in politics and war”.
Britain has for decades been a 16% shareholder in and “beneficiary” of the loans of the European Investment Bank. In fact the loans are worth little since they are packaged in several currencies and any British borrower has to pay extra to cover the exchange rate risk. They were always primarily political – tying commerce and governments into the “European project”. Alexander Stubb, a Vice President of the bank has said that the UK will have to wait until 2054 to get its investment back. The value of the UK’s capital at the bank is worth about £8.9bn. When leaving the EU we will naturally wish to sell this share to the other investors. This the EU seems to want to block.
When the EU claims we have an ongoing liability they demand we pay up front before we leave. When we have an ongoing asset like the EIV they demand we have to wait for nearly 40 years.
MORE EUROPEANS ABANDON THE EU
These continued attacks by the EU are not encouraging people to leave the UK. Rather it is the other way round. Indeed in the biggest commitment that people can make to the UK – applying for citizenship – there has been a rush from EU “citizens”.
14,000 Germans French and Italians applied for British citizenship in the year to the end of June 2017 compared to only 4,500 to June 2015 while applications from Poland, Latvia and Lithuania rose from 6,000 to June 2015 to 9,900 to June 2017
Maybe some of them are fleeing the European parliament which The Times exposed as “a hotbed of sexual harassment” or perhaps they have read of the new war games practised by the German army – in which one of the scenarios is the break up of the European Union as “more states have left the block”.
Quite a realistic scenario!
