Another Brexit Bonus !!!

[Eric Cartman]

Yes, we so need the EU, a nation that ruled a quarter of the world 100 years ago trembles at going alone!
How confidence can plummet in just a few generations

So it's added 0.2% to food inlation. Yet we read 'The overall price of food and non-alcoholic beverages rose around 25% between January 2022 and January 2024'. Which per annum is over 12%. This is more than 60 times higher than 0.2%, proving that in the big picture, the main reasons for massive food inflation have virtually nothing to do with the EU at all.

It's not about 'needing them', it's about what is best for UK people, business and jobs, we have made it more difficult to trade with the countries who are geographically closest to us in favour of some imaginary trade deals with places thousands of miles away.

[truthpaste]

It's not about 'needing them', it's about what is best for UK people, business and jobs, we have made it more difficult to trade with the countries who are geographically closest to us in favour of some imaginary trade deals with places thousands of miles away.

Sure, with us having no experience since 1973 in striking deals outside the membership of the common market and later the EU, we were never going to hit the ground running, a deal with Japan was signed in October 2020. It was the first that differed from the existing EU trade deal.

The Australia deal was the first trade agreement negotiated from scratch by the UK since it left the EU. An agreement with Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein was announced in June 2021 and builds on the previous agreement the UK had with these countries. Many other deals including the USA are in the pipeline; so I would agree that while we negotiate the expected turbulence of this current 'season' we have cause for complaint, this transition like childbirth was never going to be pain free.

While a deal with the States is looking no earlier than 2025, we have been told that things are moving forward in certain areas, for example in June 2023, Biden and Sunak announced the 'Atlantic Declaration' to strengthen economic ties between the UK and the US. The agreement included a limited trade pact covering critical minerals needed for EV batteries, a new data protection deal, and easing other trade barriers. The declaration commits both nations to increase research collaboration in future technologies, such as AI, future 5G and 6G telecoms, quantum, semiconductors and engineering biology. Further, these talks led to a commitment in principle to a new UK–US Data Bridge that facilitates the transfer of data by UK businesses to certified U.S. organizations.