The EU’s triggering of Article 16 is premature, provocative and sets a precedent that will be cited by those unwilling to accept the consequences of the Protocol.
The new administration will want to look and feel different but, on this issue, it should resist being lured into “compromise”.
Stateside narratives have a tendency to be imported into UK politics – one of the knock-on effects of this messy Presidential election outcome.
As a leading digital economy with new control over its trade policy, Britain is uniquely placed to help shape global rules in this emerging arena.
Post-Covid, the environment is likely to be egalitarian and interventionist. For libertarian, small state Eurosceptics, this must come as a disappointment.
People cannot simply be viewed as consumers or producers – there are other dimensions to policy, including the stewardship of the countryside.
A home-focused industrial policy hardly saved China from this epidemic. And openness and markets ensure diversity of supply – particularly in medicine and food.
Ministers have been asked to push the Government’s priorities – tackling crime, funding the NHS, “levelling up”. How can these be effected without faster growth?
The primary motivation to strike a fair agreement with the UK will be to apply pressure to the EU.
The former Brexit Secretary warns of the danger that MPs will believe the Government has not even demanded the necessary concessions from Brussels.
“The more cheaply we can buy goods and services… the more we free up time for our people to make, and sell, and buy, and invent things.”
Remarkably, sometimes these inconsistent trends both exist within the same tweet – as with a recent viral clip accusing a peer of telling lies when he was in fact correct.
Basically, we need to undercut the world. We can do so if we slash red tape and tax. Within a very short period there would be a pronounced Laffer Effect.
Supporters of a new pro-free trade think-tank will be told that Tories are all behind them in principle. But…
We should seek the closest possible relationship with the EU and an open trade policy. Firms need confidence to invest.