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Comments
We import £11.1bn of fruit and veg, we export £1.2bn
We import £6.7bn of meat, we export £1.8bn
We import £3.9bn of cereals, we export £2.1m
Dairy & eggs, £1.8bn out, £3.2bn in, fish £1.9bn out, £3.2bn in.
The only categories we export more than we import is beverages, £7.4bn to £5.7bn, and that's mostly due to sales of Scotch whiskey.
Some Brexiteers say we could import food from countries outside the EU which would mean more travel not less.
Aslef, your figures above are shocking. It doesn`t have to be this way though. Brexit should be seen as an opportunity, for British farmers, British producers and British manufacturing and ingenuity. Just because we have taken the easy (cheapest) route in the past doesn`t mean we have to continue. Failing that there are worse things to live on than salmon and scotch....................
In order to be economically viable they'd have to increase their prices to a level whereby their businesses would be sustainable which would mean massive prices for the consumer.
There's also the question of where farms get their workers from, they are currently reliant on EU migrants, some of who work seasonally then go back home.
Unless we're going to reverse the shift of people into urban areas with a Pol Pot type cleansing of cities and a "return to the land" then this is how its going to be.
As for British Farmers, we have had campaigns to buy local to support British Farmers, but when Supermarkets can blow the average butcher out the water. It just isn't going to happen, not to mention Farming in the UK barely produces enough food to feed London let alone the rest of the country.
The circumstances when British farming and British manufacturing were more flourishing than they are at present cannot be recreated. Not even by leaving the EU.
The world is a different place now.
There will be lots of opportunities for our youngsters in seasonal, low paid agricultural jobs like picking strawberries and lettuces.
And do you think it will have abetter answer if we leave the EU?
Its not about giving up its about preparing for what the future is likely to be. The UK will never compete with India / China in producing mass quantities and attempting to do so is futile. If the UK wants to prepare for tomorrows world it needs innovators and to cultivate for the climate ahead. Education is key. China and India will run into their own problems once they find out a large portion of their labour workforce is not needed due to automation. The UK needs to recognise this and get ahead of the curve.
What goes around comes around.
Blair and Brown's "soft touch" on financial regulation allowed "innovation and entrepreneurship" in the City, as a consequence the UK suffered more from the recession in 2008 than France or Germany where regulations were stricter.
The 1% would love to cut rules, regulations and red tape. Do you think Rees-Mogg wants Brexit to makes things better for the 99%?
Its own govt reports show that some 50,000 Britons die prematurely each year from illnesses associated with pollutants that these new regs are designed to reduce.
You don't get ahead of the curve dragging around an oxygen tank so you can breath, either.
Point of order, re. UK's manufacturing. It's actually done okay. We have maintained its value and are still among the top 10 manufacturers in the world.
What has happened is that the rest of the economy has grown much more, meaning manufacturing is now only just over 10% of the economy. Employment in it has reduced both relatively because of this and further because of automation. This is what gives the perception that manufacturing has faded away badly, because relatively speaking it has, but in absolute / real terms (i.e. even accounting for inflation), it's done fine really.
With a 'Pop', he was gone again...
Does it matter what happened 150 years ago?
If the protections are good, and we have evidence the UK govt won't enforce them but the EU will, isn't that a point in favour of EU membership?
Are there other ways of measuring it that give a less rosy picture?
Eg, the % of manufacturing output that is consumed by the domestic market, and how much exported? What did it use to be, what is it now?
I'm not sure what 'maintained its value' means and -fair enough -we are still in the top 10 (since when - over what period - what is the highest we have ever been) but what is the gap between the top and us, and how has this changed? A scale like that can only show so much of the picture, and I suspect it's a bit more complicated.....
They would have claimed that victory even if it wasn't their victory, even if it doesn't represent the rest of the people who voted to Leave. That doesn't mean people who want to leave shouldn't feel entitled having their wish delivered but I don't accept that everything now is empowering them and it would've all gone away if we had a no deal Brexit.
I don't think appeasing fascists is a good idea.
They haven't been on the periphery of British life.
At the end of the day, at the time of the vote the UK enjoyed the fifth largest economy in the world, US, China, Japan and Germany were the only economies larger that ours, soooo, despite the inefficiency and bureaucracy associted with being a within the EU, the UK was doing rather well.
I failed to see a comprehensible argument that leaving would make life better for us, why was it thought that a stand alone UK could realistically expect to negioate better and truly favorable trade deals with the rest of the world.
I also believe, (albeit no doubt foolishly by some) that the necessary bureaucracy and pure cost associated with trying to establish totally new trade, operational and diplomatic relations with the rest of world would probably exceed the so called cost of membership in any case.
Whatever the outcome from this moment, it is clear that the Government cannot hope to please everyone, but I think that a second referendum is the only real option now to provide hope in appeasing the majority, there seems to be a good chance that the prior vote to leave may not just be overturned, but crushed.
In that event, even the leavers would have to accept the vote, if the leavers win narrowly again then guess what, we leave, the only real threat Is if the result is another closer call, say 51-49 in favor of staying, that would create a situation where it Is clear that the people are stubbonly divided.
If that was the result, despite the resultant uncertainty, I think that we should formally announce our intent to stay and set in stone a third round in 2 or 3 years time, the time would allow feelings to cool whilst keeping a route to leave open.
It seems ridiculous to even suggest a 2 out of 3 approach but it seems no more ridiculous that the situation we currrently find ourselves in.
Overall I believe manufacturing is following a typical economic development curve like agriculture before it - now only 2% of the economy, but more importantly producing as much if not more food than ever. Other areas will follow once automation and machine learning really kicks in - less labour, same or more output.
We all know that China has grown but living here in the US, you would be forgiven for believing that the US does not make anything anymore and yet they make nearly twice the manufacturing product of Japan in third place.
I think it is clear that China and the US have cornered the automatic promotion spots for some time to come, :-)
To be fair to our supreme leader, Donald seems to be doing a decent job in looking to apply the Fair play rules with the league leaders but I think that the new managers from the less fashionable teams are likely to overtake him with their new ideas on tactics. :deadhorse:
Socialists got stuff done while anarchists were sitting around endlessly debating the finer details of Kropotkin. If cooperation is the predominant human trait then its the predominant trait of the EU's bloated bureaucracy and Mr Juncker. That's not what I said, is it. What I said was Blair and Brown's "light touch" on regulation meant that the UK suffered a deeper recession than other countries like Germany who had stricter regulations.