My first remark here is to remind you that this debate is about the Corona crisis and not about Brexit. But seeing as you have brought the subject up (surprise, surprise) I will bite to it (just this once ). You cannot possibly be serious in saying that you think Brexit could be good for the environment - you did not vote for it with the environment in mind - how could you have done when part of your project Brexit involved a free trade deal with the USA, the biggest environmental blackspot on this planet and the influx of chlorinated chickens en masse - in short the import of everything they have which fails EU environmental standards. Apparently the whole World would be lining up to do lucrative trade deals with the UK - quite the reverse of 'local production' I would say.
There will naturally still be supply chains in operation, we need to think about those countries less fortunate than ourselves who desperately need to trade to survive. I have detailed some benefits due to Brexit from possibly cutting some supply chains. The car industry will change dramatically, good and bad. I expect many lucrative free trade deals will be signed by the UK.
I was thinking about the extra benefits of bringing production home from the Far East. Less demand for container ships. Less container lorries delivering bulky finished stock. Other benefits include increased local jobs not just in production but also creating work for local support businesses, i.e. graphic designers, printers, cleaners, builders, quality inspectors, etc. The Chinese might have shot themselves in the foot by temporarily halting supplies of stock like PPE for selfish reasons.
The trouble is that brexit, coronavirus and the environment all overlap one way or another. It would be nice to think that when this is all over then environmental benefits we see now will continue, but I am far from sure that they will. How have we come to rely on importing vital PPE equipment? Simply because some middle men have found the cheapest places to buy it over the years and made it uneconomic to make it in the UK. Once it is all over will the UK be paying wages similar to those in the far east so that it suddenly becomes competitive. Will these middlemen simply disappear? Some items might be able to made by machine, but not all. The very fact that we don't wish to carry on with tariff free trade with the nearest countries means that we will be trying to source food as an example from countries that are further away, hence an increase in the distance that food will travel. Why do I pick out a handful of haricot vert in a box from France or Spain, when if I go into Tesco or Sainsbury are they neatly trimmed and packaged, and have been flown in from Kenya? Holiday makers are already being told that they might be able to travel abroad, so hand over your deposit please. SH is the last person to be telling us about foreign holidays after he tried to defend his constant travelling on short flights, the worst thing for the environment. Somehow I cannot see him swapping a warm country for a holiday on the east coast of England six times a year. As for trade, we have been told that there is an oven ready trade deal with the EU just waiting to be put in the oven. As we have seen today we cannot even tell the truth about trade between England and N. Ireland. I am afraid that when it is all over everything will go back to what it is now with only minor benefits and lots of losses.
Of course he would say that... I would suggest those sent in with inadequate equipment who died will be the heroes.. Given that Winston is all over the media this week and BoJo aspires to him.. Seems quite appropriate metaphors.. Let your daughter polish her shiny gong...
The UK and every country in the world relied on the Far East to mass produce PPE equipment because nobody wanted to produce or buy stock at a much greater price than the norm. When we started our business nearly 20 years ago all multinational companies, mainly from Germany and the US, were producing their products in the same few very factories in China. Now Vietnam and several other countries offer alternatives. My daughter is now setting up her own £20 million manufacturing base in the Midlands to produce masks by buying machinery from Germany. As the process is heavily mechanised, labour costs are not so important which makes it a viable proposition. However, I cannot imagine anyone in the West being able to set up a viable business manufacturing drapes and gowns as the production of these require lots of reasonably priced labour. Under normal times, the West is not able to compete on price with the Far East. If the Western countries demand a domestic supply they must be willing to pay the increased cost which could be substantial. Even without a deal the UK will still trade with the EU, tariffs are not so important, sometimes only 2-3 %. The benefits of being a free nation is not sometime that is tied to finance, it is liberating. I expect the UK to do well after the transition period is over. The EU is looking decidedly sick at the moment. I will be resuming my European holidays as soon as allowed to support the inhabitants of those EU countries suffering acute hardship at the moment.
He would say that because her company is the main supplier to the UK of respirators and does everything possible to keep a constant supply, as she has done for the NHS for nearly 20 years. Unfortunately the supply chains breaking down let in all sorts of scumbags trying to make a quick profit, often with useless products. She dosen't need sarcasm from people like you while she is working 20 hours a day trying to safeguard her stock supply from predators.
Well the first part of your post agrees with what I was saying, so welcome to the society of lefties as well as greens. However tariffs of 40% on lamb to the EU. An American company that processes it, employing 350 people from North Wales and Cheshire has already said that no deal and they close down. They know that it becomes unviable to try and sell it. A free nation is quite risible. Every trade deal done with all those small countries will have consequences, and now with just about every single country being weaker financially than the big trading blocks more and more concessions will have to be made. You want dozens of these concessions? Any small country will have to give ground, and the UK with a small population is a small country. If you wish to restart your holidays while proclaiming that you have regard for the environment that just makes you a hypocrite.
The sarcasm is to YOU... who seeks to profit from her and this situation in your aguments on here....
Yes... but do you deserve any more with your one dimenssional self applauding posts...... all you can offer to these boards.....
No, the first part of my post outlined the financial realities why every country in the world used factories in China. Producing mass quantities of single use products was not viable. To go against the rest of the world would have cost the NHS extra hundreds of millions of pounds. There will undoubtedly be winners and losers in Brexit but the Uk is filled with adaptable companies who create new opportunities, and jobs, easily. I was simply pointing out some environmental benefits from the virus and Brexit, it does not turn me into a kaftan and moccasin wearing idiot.
Quite a bigot eh................ So people from indigenous cultures ie. Asian or Native American are Idiots...
What a nasty perspective... might get you thrown out of the Tory party.....but i guess the EDL groom the likes of you.... hanging out with Tommy and Jayda eh???
Before the coronavirus kicked in there were figures showing that the UK had spent more on brexit preparations than the country had spent on membership fees throughout their whole time of being in the EU. The costs to the UK economy of coronavirus are now being estimated as the same as the next 40 years of membership. To spend this sort of money to cut us off from the second largest trading block in the world is sheer madness. As we have seen from the trade figures today it is the service industry that has collapsed the greatest, some 80% of the countries GDP. I am not sure that some of the poorest countries in the world are going to make up this loss in trade. Thatcher closed down large swathes of the countries manufacturing industry in favour of services because the country could not compete with the cheap labour economies. Do you really think that things have changed so much that we can now restart that lost part of the economy? Certainly cheap food coming from the USA will be enough to wipe out large parts of the farming industry in the UK. If the UK became self sufficient in food production then no deal with the USA wouldn't matter.
I am optimistic Frenchie (couldn't be a football fan if that wasn't the case). There may be longer term changes in the landscape as a result of this crisis. Ever since Thatcher and Reagan there has been a general trans atlantic consensus that the free market was the answer to all problems (something about an invisible hand) - now it is no surprise to see that the 2 countries most influenced by these neo liberalistic ideals are also the same 2 countries who are struggling the most with this crisis. We may be seeing the death throes of this fairytale ideology - now, in the time of need, the free marketeers have no answers, and can offer nothing - in fact their ideology has made the whole thing worse. In this time of need the state has had to step in - the 'small' state has had to become a 'big' state - how many firms Worldwide will end up being nationalized as a result of this crisis. Can you expect states to step in with rescue packages without also excerting an influence over such firms, if not full or part ownership ? We could be witnessing the beginning of a new socialist (or at least Keynesian) age - just as World War 2 precipitated exactly the same. The free market cannot cope with emergencies of this type.
The UK voted to leave the EU in a democratic process. This will be fully completed soon. The EU has discovered the days of bullying the UK are well and truly over. The UK will revert to the norm in the world as an independent nation, no longer controlled by overpaid fiddling officials in Brussels. The UK is not the only country unhappy with the EU. Cracks are appearing throughout the single market and many senior players are predicting the end of this alliance. The German courts last week proved something many of us knew all along, that Germany controls the EU. The divide between North and South of the EU, already wide, will become a chasm which will result in a split. If handouts are not received from those that have benefitted from the weakness of the Southern economies, those members which are suffering most will have no alternative but to leave the common currency, and or EU membership. The UK has done the hard bit, it will be easier for others to follow.
