current
situation:
How
has the UK economy done since joining the EU?
The cost of being in
the EU annually for the UK is about 9 billion pounds after the rebate
(about 11 billion dollars). The British GDP is 2.3 trillion pounds
nominal (about 2.8 trillion dollars or 3.03 PPP). So annually the
cost of being in the EU is 0.4% of GDP. If you bought a house and got
a mortgage for 0.4% annually you would be doing very well. What are
the benefits of being in the EU? Is it worth spending that money? See
the article below from a group of Oxford Professors.
OF course, if the economic benefits of being in the EU have not been shared fairly that is the UK government's fault, not the EU's.
OF course, if the economic benefits of being in the EU have not been shared fairly that is the UK government's fault, not the EU's.
What
about before joining the EU?
The
growth effect
Britain
joined what was then the European Economic Community in 1973 as the
sick man of Europe. By the late 1960s, France, West Germany and Italy
— the three founder members closest in size to the UK — produced
more per person than it did and the gap grew larger every year.
Between 1958, when the EEC was set up, and Britain’s entry in 1973,
gross domestic product per head rose 95 per cent in these three
countries compared with only 50 per cent in Britain.
After
becoming an EEC member, Britain slowly began to catch up. Gross
domestic product per person has grown faster than Italy, Germany and
France in the more than 40 years since. By 2013, Britain became more
prosperous than the average of the three other large European
economies for the first time since 1965.
Brexit
2017-18-19
I
hesitate to put this on my blog because of all the swearing. You
will definitely need to switch the subtitles on. It's intention is to
make you laugh but I think that it is also fairly accurate as a basis
for a summary of the current situation and a Brexit essay.
Background
EU Position
British Position
The Pound and the exchange rate
Brexit and Italy
Macron
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/26/profound-transformation-macron-lays-out-vision-for-post-brexit-eu
Germany
old material on the vote in 2016 and
after
Racism after vote:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/brexit-eu-referendum-racial-racism-abuse-hate-crime-reported-latest-leave-immigration-a7104191.html
Staying
after all?
https://www.statista.com/statistics/281744/gdp-of-the-united-kingdom-uk-since-2000/
How
much does EU membership cost Britain?
The
conclusion of the article above is that, taking
account of the EU abatement for the UK and money that comes back to
the UK for EU public programmes, Britain in 2018 gave roughly £11
billion to the EU.' If we include EU transfers to the UK private
sector, the figure falls to £7.8 billion. If we take the final
figure and accept the following figures,
Government
spending in 2018 was £864.9 billion (see the article at the start)
then
the British contribution to the EU as a rough percentage of its GDP
in 2018 was
0.28%
and
of its government expenditure
0.91%
Some Questions
Some Questions
- Are the Brexit negotiations based on making decisions on questions one at a time or is nothing decided until everything is decided?
- Was the March 2019 ever a realistic deadline?
- What exactly does Britain really expect to gain from Brexit? Can a country the size of Britain really be independent? For example, doesn't Britain's security ultimately rest on NATO?
- What kind of cooperation should continue between the EU and Britain after Brexit?
- How can Britain hope to remain part of the EU single market for trade but not for the circulation of labour given that this is not a negotiating point but part of the EU's basic structure?
- How can the Irish border question be resolved?
- What can Britain do to reassure the financial markets and to deal with the weakening of Sterling in exchange rates? Will there be a growing flight of capital?
- Is there any possibility of a second referendum given that the first was a close decision and so uneven across Britain?
- Do you think that the 'Leave' campaign was based on false information? Is so, would demonstrating that invalidate the referendum result and would those responsible be legally liable for misleading the public?
- The EU institutions have often been vilified in the British tabloid press. How can diplomats expect to conduct fair and rational negotiations on Brexit against this background? And how can Britain avoid giving the impression to Europeans of Perfidious Albion?
More on Brexit September 2018
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