Rodney Atkinson
The UK must immediately leave the EU, trade freely under international rules and then negotiate with the EU – but not on its own. It must include all non EU countries and the British Commonwealth. Already the US Congress wants a swift trade deal with the UK and 11 other countries are lining up to conclude deals.
The British Commonwealth (excluding the UK) now has a share of world trade exceeding 15% while the 1973 EU (ex UK) has fallen to less than 10% of world trade in an historically unprecedented economic disaster. Equally disastrous for the EU as a whole is the rapid decline in population – another indicator of poor growth for the future. Between 2015 and 2050 the population of the British Commonwealth is expected to rise by 30.4%, whereas the Eurozone population is expected to fall by 1.9%. Since 1971 the EU (1973 definition) has had average annual growth rates of about 2% while the Commonwealth has an annual growth rate average of about 4%.
Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, who has been President of Iceland for 20 years, expects Iceland and Norway to become participants in the UK’s Brexit negotiations “It is enlightening for anyone to look at a map or a globe and study this part of the world, the magnificent Greenland, the North Atlantic, Iceland, Norway, and then south to the British Isles. And then consider, ….. the key position this area will enjoy in the 21st century.” To this array of international interest we must add other (very wealthy) non EU members Switzerland and Liechtenstein and of course that group which now has a larger share of world trade than the EU – the British Commonwealth.
Indeed we could go one step further and add the North Atlantic Free Trade Area (NAFTA) whose annual GDP exceeds that of the EU by $3 trillion with whom a purely free trade agreement could be concluded.
The UK’s relationship with the European Union has been an unmitigated disaster – our trade with other EU nations today accounting for no more of our trade with all leading economies than it did on joining the EEC in 1973. And UK membership of the EU has been no benefit as far as foreign investment is concerned with Foreign Direct Investment into non EU members seeing higher rates of growth than into the UK.
ALREADY THE WORLD IS COMING TO BRITAIN
Since the Leave vote many corporations and countries have given a vote of confidence in the UK:
– Chinese technology corp Huawei maintains commitment to UK of £1.3billion investment
– Online retail giant JD.com China expects boost to UK trade. A lower pound they say means “the Chinese trade relationship will get stronger… we are optimistic”
– HSBC having been identified by the BBC as going to take up to 2,000 jobs from the UK now says they are very unlikely to move bankers to France. HSBC Chairman Douglas Flint said the brief Brexit crisis where currency trades were 5-6 times greater than normal had easily been absorbed in London’ large and sophisticated markets.
– Barclays chairman John McFarlane also said the bank had no plans to move staff and their crisis plans had been cancelled – but they were sticking to their plan to sell a French bank!
– The British Hovercraft Company, based in Kent, has reported a wave of new inquiries from abroad over the past week. Its owner, Emma Pullen, is now planning a worldwide export drive, saying Brexit has opened up a “brave new world” for UK exporters
– And in Ireland, who have suffered so much from EU membership (and whose consumers are now crossing the border into Northern Ireland to buy cheaper goods) a member of Parliament Catherine Connolly TD said: “Brexit: the first step in exposing the EU for what it is. I thought it was exposed when we were forced to rerun the Nice Treaty; I thought it was exposed when we were force to rerun the Lisbon Treaty; I thought it was exposed during the financial crisis. It’s exposed again and now it is open for us to grab the opportunity.”
Even in stolid Germany things are changing with Angela Merkel appointing her own chief negotiator for Brexit talks, bypassing the EU establishment! Even German voters are angry – with 62% of now wanting decision-making powers transferred from Brussels back to Berlin.
As Freenations predicted here many years ago – the UK has shown how corrupt and economically and socially disastrous the EU is – and shown by her example what can be done to defeat it.
