Reply To: brexit benefits

[Northumbiron]

Here’s my latest email from Lord Heseltine….

“One pound sterling was worth 1.48 US dollars on 23 June 2016, the day of the referendum. The following day that value plummeted to 1.36 dollars. Yesterday a pound was buying 1.18 dollars. That amounts to a loss of over 20% of the pound’s value against the dollar since 2016.

The London School of Economics has estimated that Brexit alone – before the effects of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine are accounted for – is responsible for a 6% rise in food prices. Put starkly, Brexit means that more people are unable to pay their mortgage or rent, are having to turn to food banks, or are unable to heat their homes.

Brexit affects all of us, in some cases catastrophically. There is no more important campaign than ours – to undo this damage, and rebuild our relationship with Europe.

Post-Brexit, UK exports to the EU fell by 14% in 2021. The Centre for European Reform, has estimated that Brexit had, by the end of 2021, reduced trade in goods between the UK and the EU by 13.6% and left UK GDP 5.2% lower than it would have been had the UK stayed in the EU single market.

These are the judgements of independent organisations and markets and stand in stark contrast to the propaganda of Brexiteers. It was all too easy to promise a bonfire of red tape and demonise Brussels bureaucrats in a cynical exploitation of people’s anxieties and frustrations.

I do not accept that Brexit is irreversible.

The timescale may be unpredictable. The purpose is not.

We must start by rebuilding bridges.

We need a practical compromise over the Irish border that would restore devolved government. We need to end the isolation of our scientists and researchers by rejoining the Horizon Europe research and innovation programme. We should restore the right for our young people to participate in projects abroad under the EU’s Erasmus Plus programme.

In place of a Department for Exiting the EU, we need a Minister with responsibility for Enhancing Relationships with the EU. We should attack the restrictions on musicians and other UK service providers to work for short periods in the EU.

Each of the steps I have set out is realistic. The EU is still there, next door, with its market of 450 million people. We thrive only by working closely together.”