Re: Today on Brexit Central, Austin Mitchell Nails it Again !

What are you on about ? I have no idea what your point is.

The uk buys german cars because we can.... probably something to do with choice perhaps ,?

Re: Today on Brexit Central, Austin Mitchell Nails it Again !

You claim that we are a soft market. An easy sell for the EU products. That being in the EU means we are flooded with EU stuff. That is the argument of the economically dumb. The UK buys products it likes and wants. That ain’t going to change post Brexit. Leaving the EU will not change how UK buyers see good products. Again, you seek a solution through the wrong action.

Re: Today on Brexit Central, Austin Mitchell Nails it Again !

Your arguing with yourself.

I never said that.

Read what I wrote - we buy out of choice.

Re: Today on Brexit Central, Austin Mitchell Nails it Again !

it is little to do with trade it is all to do with the money that the EU won't be getting from the UK. this means that people living in the EU will have to pay more taxes to make up the difference. This is the only reason the EU are panicking
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The UK pays more into the EU budget than it gets back.

In 2018 the UK government paid £13 billion to the EU budget, and EU spending on the UK was forecast to be £4 billion. So the UK’s ‘net contribution’ was estimated at nearly £9 billion.

Each year the UK gets a discount on its contributions to the EU—the ‘rebate’—worth about £4 billion last year. Without it the UK would have been liable for £17 billion in contributions.
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that money could go into out NHS or other worthy places not to money grabbing- money wasting foreign beaurocrats who sit on their arses bringing up pointless laws to justify their positions

Re: Today on Brexit Central, Austin Mitchell Nails it Again !

We most likely pay a lot more than that - the net figures that are quoted (the 10 billion / 12 billion) are what are "on the books" of the EU mafia finance ministers.

There are other "off book" projects where billions more are allocated for things such as Turkish refugee camps and African welfare projects.

The true figure will most likely never be known.

Re: Today on Brexit Central, Austin Mitchell Nails it Again !

Ok, we buy out of choice and buy what we like - that seems to be german cars (or pressure washers or whatever). Yet the implication of your claims that the UK is a captive market (1) does not infer consumer choice, (2) implies some form a unfair advantage bestowed on EU manufacturers (although I've not seen you explain how this works). You stated that this is what leads to an imbalance of trade. You stated that this is a good reason to leave the EU. But you can't seem to see that leaving the EU won't solve this. Nor can you grasp that this is not a problem with the EU, its a problem with two things: the alternatives to those EU products we do buy, and the lack of things we produce that the other EU countries want to buy. Which might actually be the same thing - but both are UK problems. Not EU problems. Leaving the EU does not make this go away.

Re: Today on Brexit Central, Austin Mitchell Nails it Again !

We buy from the EU more than we export - there is a trade deficit of around £80 billion per year.

The EU is based on 2 things ... French agriculture and German manufacturing.

For German manufacturing, the majority of the exports are cars (VW, Audi, Skoda, BMW, Mercedes) and the 2nd biggest export market in the world (after the USA) is the UK. We buy around 800,000 German cars per year and should tariffs be put on them if we leave on WTO terms, this will make them more expensive to buy and less competitive (against Japanese cars and American cars). In addition to this, should the EU continue to act like vindictive children, then the UK buyer will exercise his choice on what to buy - and simply go elsewhere. If this happens then Germanys economy would take a complete nose dive, with the knock on effect to the EU being huge - Germany is the EU's biggest net contributor, then us (we are leaving) and then France.

When the UK leaves the EU, we are not only able to make our own trade deals with other 3rd countries, we can also remove a lot of the non-tarrif barriers (and increase quotas if needed) that are put in place by the EU to prevent food from coming into our country from elsewhere. This means that we can buy much cheaper food from (say) commonwealth countries than we could from the EU zone. This would also have a huge hit to Frances economy (it's 3rd biggest contributor) and have a knock on effect to the rest of the EU member states. If this happens expect a lot of tractors blockading Paris like they normally do when their industry is threatened ...

If you think that the EU has the upper hand - with its biggest post Brexit single market, defence capability (leaving only France with a nuclear deterrent in the 27), security, financial services and net contributions walking out the door then think again. The removal of the EU regulations on our finance industry is enough to make Paris and Frankfurt implode overnight - that means all your Eurozone trade goes through London, New York and Singapore - none of it through an EU member state ... bad bad bad news for the failing Euro.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Re: Today on Brexit Central, Austin Mitchell Nails it Again !

Man, you have zero idea of how the world works. Your little diatribe is an anti-EU rant of pure fantasy. Where to start dismantling your notions?
Well, perhaps the issue that the UK is not going to ratchet up tariffs. The opposite will happen. Then there is the issue that after a no deal exit (or to agree a with deal exit) the UK will try make cross EU border trade as easy as possible. Again, not add in tariffs.
Then even if we do as you wildly suggest and slap taxes on german cars (and pressure washers I guess) then we will buy japanese or US cars - which retains the trade deficit, just moves it to other countries. You solve nothing. And don't think those can afford an expensive german car will not buy that expensive german car just because it is a few percent more expensive. It is not binary.
And your grasp of the world's financial markets is clearly limited. De-regulation does not necessarily mean more activity. It means more risky activity. And you welcome that? Don't you recall 2008? There are two global currencies - dollar and euro. That will remain post Brexit. London succeeded because the UK got to trade in the euro and was US banking friendly. Post Brexit we only get the second part of this equation.
Your overall argument is one of "the EU is about to fail". This was hashed over in various forms in 2016 (economic collapse, Frexit & Nexit imminent, etc.). All of which was shown not to be true. You need a better argument to leave the EU than "look, I've a crystal ball which shows the EU falling over" and "I'd prefer a trade deficit with another country please".

Re: Today on Brexit Central, Austin Mitchell Nails it Again !

Here come the insults ... how predictable...

anyway ...

Why would we lower tarrifs on car imports when we make Toyotas, Nissans over here and want to protect our UK workers. In fact we make more cars out of the Nissan factory in Sunderland than the whole of Italy ... incidentally, Sunderland, voted leave

That's the WTO for you - thats what its for - to protect markets, enable fair trade and to facilitate trade disputes.

As for financial deregulation - you're going from one extreme to another. The deregulation is mostly getting rid of EU red tape and beurocracy, making financial services to take true advantage of fintec, making them more agile, leaner and efficient. You can't do that when you are in the EU and bound by their rules. Remember, the Eurozone still hasn't recovered from 2008 which is why Draghi and (convicted criminal) Christine Lagarde (she's new !) are saying "whatever it takes" - meaning more QE to stop the currency imploding, while wages will stay low becuase inflation will stay low - a recipe for stagnation, more QE, more debt and no solution to your unemployment woes. The tragedy of having a common currency with no central treasury ... another brilliant idea from people who apparently "know how the world works" (and try saying that to Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain)

Marine Le Penn is more popular that Macron according to French polls, and the biggest national party in the EU Parliament is the Brexit Party. Sweden, Italy, Hungary, Denmark, Greece take huge leaps towards eurosceptisism and this means, unfortunately for you, the writing is on the wall - it has been since 2008. The UK is already leaving the EU and the new joiners to the EU will be Macedonia and Albania ... no wealthy countries here to pick up where the UK left off. I can't see them buying 800,000 German cars a year either

But fear not, here comes Ursula van der Leyen, the most unpopular politician in Germany, graduating to the most unpopular politician in Europe who promises to make the next 5 years of EU membership way more miserable for the 27 and more expensive than under Mr Juncker

When a single market wants its own army, its not for war. Its for controlling its people. Just bear that in mind when your national vetoes get replaced by QMV and the common asylum policy comes into force. It will be Denmark next, then Italy, then Sweden.

We will be watching from the sidelines ... laughing

Re: Today on Brexit Central, Austin Mitchell Nails it Again !

Once again your fact free posts demonstrate that you have no knowledge or insight. You simply dislike the EU. Just come clean - there is no benefit from Brexit apart from the exiting the EU itself.
For your info, Japanese car companies are pulling out of the UK due to the trade deal with the EU. This will accelerate with Brexit - most of their cars are exported to the EU. And so you know, Nissan plant turns out 500,000 cars a year. Italy builds three times that. Facts are not your friend are they?
Now explain the comment about 'sidelines'? I do not understand it. It assumes that the UK will be successful out of the EU (just how long is that going to take?) and that the UK is unaffected by problems in neighboring countries (to which we send almost half our exports). How are we simply on the sidelines?