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Joined March 2011
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Simon Medhurst retweeted
Any fool country can unilaterally drop its pants to more imports (the other's exports)..
Cutting (low EU level) tariffs (import standards & especially border controls) is only necessary because the UK has to now import across the much more costly regulatory (SPS) & customs borders it has against the whole world (it added 31 of the former & 28 of the latter by leaving the EU)..
Simon Medhurst retweeted
The Brexit supporters lied and lied and lied.
There were no benefits to Brexit, except for the super rich tax avoiders.
Itโs time to rejoin the European Union urgently.
Simon Medhurst retweeted
Thanks Clive...
More here if anybody interested. Threads
This report fails to tell truth this because GB no longer part of same single market under mutually recognised legal authority. Instead GB now needs border controls it hasn't got the extra capacity for. "How Britain became dumping ground for illegal meat"
telegraph.co.uk/business/202โฆ
Simon Medhurst retweeted
A point Mike has been making for years. Itโs a big deal. I suspect few understand (I only do because I follow him) & none of those will be Brexit fans who live in a fantasy.
Actually, come to think of it, @vivamjm has taught me more than anyone else on this platform. Heโs threatened to give up more than once. Iโm glad he hasnโt. And grateful.
I wonder how many realise the Brexit import checks were never done and never will be. ..? It'd be too much (Mogg's words) "self harm".
thus from Brexit date 1/1/21, the unilateral advantaging of the EU (their exporters over UK counterparts)... & smugglers ...will continue.
The only solutions are rejoining the EU (SM & CU),
or (the incumbent Govt's apparent plan) extending the Windsor Framework to the whole UK.
This latter *will* level up the playing field for GB producers & remove the worst of the GB/NI border controls, but also make the whole UK a genuine vassal state to the EU, which the Brexiters always lied we were when an EU/ECJ member, with full representation
bbc.com/news/business-612598โฆ
Simon Medhurst retweeted
๐ We could be heading towards another huge election argument over Brexit.
So we need to start explaining what a genuinely closer relationship with Europe could actually restore for Britain. @andyburnham
๐ฅ Freedom to live and work across Europe again, opening up opportunities for British people across the EU and wider EEA.
๐ฅ Freedom from work visas and their costs, including for European workers coming to help British farms, hospitality and other sectors struggling to recruit.
๐ฅ A level playing field for British farmers and businesses, competing inside a common European regulatory framework rather than from outside it.
๐ฅ Far fewer trade barriers with our largest neighbouring market,
particularly if Single Market participation is combined with the customs and food/SPS arrangements needed to remove agricultural friction.
๐ฅ A route back to the Common Agricultural Policy if Britain ultimately rejoins the EU, restoring British farmers to the same support framework as their European competitors.
๐ฅ Stronger food security,
reconnecting British farming and food production with the European supply chains on which we depend.
๐ฅ Closer energy integration,
improving resilience against geopolitical and supply shocks.
๐ฅ The freedom to retire across Europe again.
๐ฅ Easier pet ๐ถ travel again moving back towards the simple European pet-passport system.
๐ฅ Full European opportunities for young people: Erasmus, study, training, ski seasons, hospitality work and careers across the continent.
๐ฅ Less friction for Gibraltar ๐ฌ๐ฎ
๐ฅ Deeper police ๐ฎ and security cooperation.
๐ฅ Potentially easier travel through European borders, depending on the mobility and border arrangements negotiated.
This debate should not be reduced to another argument about whether people were right or wrong in 2016.
The question now is much more practical:
Which freedoms, protections, opportunities and security arrangements does Britain want back?
โI would like to see that happen in my lifetime.โ
Prime Minister Andy Burnham tells Good Morning Britain he believes Brexit has weakened the UK economy and its control over immigration.
But he insists the British public must have the final say, ruling out a move to rejoin the EU during this Parliament.
#brexit #uk #politics
Simon Medhurst retweeted
EU Freedom of Movement is NOT an unconditional right under EU law: it is conditional on finding a job or being self-sufficient i.e. not being a burden on taxpayers. Otherwise they have no right to stay.
#BBCLauraK
Simon Medhurst retweeted
So true.
Here's an extraordinary comparison.
Economists estimated that Brexit was costing the Treasury at least ยฃ40 billion a year in lost tax revenue.
And how much did Rishi Sunak announce in tax increases in March 2022?
ยฃ46 billion.
Think about that. Britain lost ยฃ40 billion in annual tax revenue through Brexit, while the then Chancellor announced tax rises worth ยฃ46 billion.
That's almost the same amount.
We were promised Brexit would make Britain richer and free up money for public services.
Instead, we made ourselves poorer โ and taxpayers were left facing the bill.
This was a direct result of leaving the single market.
The EU fee was about ยฃ12.6bn a year, whereas the estimated Brexit loss of output is now roughly ยฃ170bnโยฃ230bn a year, with an associated loss of tax revenue of roughly ยฃ65bnโยฃ85bn a year. That makes the fee equivalent to only about 5โ7% of the estimated annual GDP loss. #BrexSHIT
Simon Medhurst retweeted
UK offering Freedom of Movement would be the game changer for conversations with the EU, one of the trio of people, pounds and positivity I identified earlier this year as crucial to any significant move to removing barriers.
thetimes.com/uk/politics/artโฆ
Simon Medhurst retweeted
This is key. Outside EU, UK will follow most EU rules, with no say and without the benefits. Inside, we'll have a leading role + UK business will have a level playing field with EU partners/competitors. Re: free movement -we need workers, in or out. Brits need opportunities in EU
Simon Medhurst retweeted
Here we go with the "they're all coming here" floodgates thing ๐
1 Poland today has a 3.5% growth rate, so not likely they'll "all be coming here" again. In fact maybe quite a few British people might want to "go there" to a booming economy like Brits did to Germany in the 80s
2 A lot of Poles "all came here" in 2005 because the UK and ๐ฎ๐ช were the only countries which decided ๐ง๐จ๐ญ to apply a 7yr brake on FoM (negotiated by the EU) because Blair wanted cheap labour. It could have, but didn't
3 A whole lot more people "came here" after Reform's beloved Brexit, which quadrupled immigration
4 Over the years millions of us have, also "gone there" - free movement works both ways. How many Spaniards and French people have retired in sunny Clacton compared to the millions of UK pensioners who over decades have done so in the EU, incidentally clogging up their health services and hospitals and not the NHS ?
Simon Medhurst retweeted
What I posted above are not "arguments" ...but "facts*. What is it exactly, specifically here that you're saying isn't ?
"making it harder to access & sell into the EU27 (& EFTA4) without (not in UK's gift to) making it any *equally* compensating easier to access & sell into any other country?" Is fact!
"Economic contraction and (harder to cross) longer border queues/delays are always - funnily enough - a feature of harder borders" is also fact!
Simon Medhurst retweeted
If Britain wants to export more services to Europe, we need to talk about the people delivering them.
Consultants. Engineers. Technicians. Freelancers. Contractors.
Trade in services isn't just about regulations.
It's about whether people can cross borders to do the work.
Simon Medhurst retweeted
Aha. Here's a man who has no idea. We led 2 immense geopolitical changes in Europe: Thatcher's single market and Major's enlargement. This created a peaceful, prosperous continental polity for the first time since the Roman Empire.
And you say we were a nodding donkey. We had weighted voting, not just one among 28. Reflecting the size and wealth of our nation. Equal to France and Germany. The big 3. We won nearly every battle because of that and our alliances with like minded members. The fact the British people never knew of our success was due to the narcissistic victim syndrome of tax evading newspaper owners and the supine politicians who feared them.
The fact that our Commissioners, elected MEPs and elected ministers were influential everywhere was simply unreported.
Boris Johnson's nonsense was though. Lies about bendy bananas etc.
We preferred to believe rubbish than understand reality.
And all about just 13% of our laws, mostly goldplated by our own civil service.
It was an historic tragedy.
Simon Medhurst retweeted
๐ HELP BRING MONTY HOME
#WESTON #BRISTOL #BS23
Monty, beloved 5 yr old Cockerpoo missing forย over a monthย after being #stolen from his ownerโs car at Range/Wickes, Weston-super-Mareย 6 Sept
Microchipped, neutered, deeply loved & was wearing ID tag
Please share
#StolenDogHour
#WESTON #BRISTOL #BS23
PLEASE LOOK OUT FOR MONTY #cockerpoo
#Stolen 6 September 2026 from his ownerโs car at the Range/Wickes in #WestonSuperMare
Police aware. He is 5 years old, microchipped, neutered & well loved
Monty had a tag with owners details on
doglost.co.uk/dog/204919
Simon Medhurst retweeted
The "key" is more that Brexit was sold to the UK public as been a panacea. It was sold as something that would economically *improve* the UK & the lives of its constituents, by removing the UK from "the shackles of the EU" with "no downsides"..
Not that the UK would be economically fucked by Brexit,
just a question of "how much"
Thatโs a nonsense argument too. Yes, Brexit has probably reduced UK GDP growth, certainly in the early years. But by how much? Thatโs the key question. Most studies ascribe all UK growth shortfall to Brexit. Nothing to the highest industrial energy costs in the world or the reckless obsession with net zero, which has hollowed out industry. Nothing to the cackhanded economic policies of successive governments. Nothing to heading for European levels of tax and spend, a proven growth killer (as France illustrates all too clearly). Not that really is a nonsense.
Simon Medhurst retweeted
The idea that the British people voted for Brexit always has been gaslighting. Finally, it seems ok to say so.
๐ค Made with AI
Simon Medhurst retweeted
Apart from:
You got Brexit. It was delivered.
None of you can say how it could have been delivered differently to your satisfaction.
And the EU isnโt crumbling - six countries want to join.
Simon Medhurst retweeted
British EUsceptics never accepted 1975 EEC Referendum won on a more convincing Remain majority. Why should Remainers like me accept Brexit won on slim majority & only 37% of electorate, a biased pro Leave franchise including 2 million Commonwealth voters & sold on a pack of lies? โ at Wolfsthal, รsterreich