The media continue to try and blow up stories out of all proportion. Lately it has been on the likely terms of a Brexit deal with the EU, and Boris Johnson’s claims about the £350 million per week paid to the EU at present.
The reality on the latter is that the Daily Telegraph article by Boris claimed we would “regain control” over £350 million paid to the EU (which was based on a Treasury paper on the full EU membership fee (£19.5 billion per annum, which I think everyone will agree is a lot of money). However, that’s not the net cost to the UK because we get a rebate on membership as negotiated by Mrs Thatcher which reduces it to £14.6 billion, plus we get a lot back in the form of subsidies and grants – for example from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). A rough estimate is that we get back between £5 and £6 billion from those. So the net figure is more like £9 billion per annum, but that’s still a lot of money. For example, the NHS budget for this year is £124 billion, so you can see the impact that an extra £9 billion might have.
But Boris was accurate in the sense that we have little control over the £5 to £6 billion of grants and subsidies. The UK has long wanted to reform the CAP which is more designed to subsidise inefficient continental European farmers than keep food prices low in the UK. Subsidies of some kinds to some farmers might continue in the UK post Brexit, but in a different form and possibly lower. But only with Brexit will the UK regain control so we can manage these matters more rationally. What most “remainers” seem to ignore is that a lot of the Brexit voters voted to leave because of wanting to get out of the undemocratic EU where UK voters had no significant influence, we were a small fish in a big pond, and likely to be outvoted on any major issues. Mr Juncker’s recent speech made it clear that the EU was headed for a closer political and economic union which many UK voters have found abhorrent. Historically most UK voters supported joining the “common market”, but they never wanted to join a “United States of Europe” with EU laws and bureaucrats dominant and were misled by UK politicians who did. That certainly applied to the existing EU structure and calls for democratic reform have gone nowhere.
There was a very good article in the FT yesterday by former Chancellor Nigel Lawson (no relation) on Brexit where he points out that the Office of Budget Responsibility forecasts the cost of EU membership to fall from £12.6 billion in 2018/19 to zero in 2019/20. Nigel also said “Those who say that a good trade deal is in the best interests of the EU and the UK alike fail to understand what the EU is about. It is not about economics at all. It is a political enterprise, dedicated to the achievement of full political union”. He discounts the problem of “no trade deal” based on the ability to trade under WTO terms. James Dyson recently indicated he saw little problem with that also.
Should we pay to access the Common Market, in a “transition” phase or permanently? It obviously depends on what deal is put on the table, but the attitude of the EU Commission so far suggests it won’t be a good one. In my view the UK can prosper without close involvement with the EU and without paying anything other than contractually committed minimums as part of the exit process. The UK can prosper based on its own resources and the trade with other international partners than the EU, so if they don’t want tariff free access to the UK, then we can give up tariff free access to theirs. It might just stimulate UK manufacturing so we don’t have to rely on buying German cars, washing machines, refrigerators, et al.
Ryanair
One of the folks complaining about the possible impact of Brexit is Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair. He suggests flights from the UK to Europe may be halted unless a deal is done to cover flight access.
But Ryanair has been hit lately by problems with crew scheduling that have resulted in cancellation of many flights. The service to the affected passengers has also generated numerous complaints. It just looks like an operational cock-up, compounded by abysmal management responses thereafter to mollify customers.
Now I have a motto of never flying Ryanair after an event over 15 years ago. I was booked to fly on Ryanair out of Stansted but a hijacked plane was diverted to land there. The radio news said the airport was closed so I diverted to another airline via City airport to get to Dublin on time for a business meeting. Ryanair claimed Stansted was never closed (not true I believe) and refused to pay compensation.
Anyone who follows the news will know of repeated complaints from passengers about the behaviour of Ryanair. Being low cost surely does not justify the low quality of service. It’s the kind of company I would not just avoid flying with, but also investing in.
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson )
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