31 January 2018

The Guardian: The transition is toxic for both Brexiters and remainers

he government’s Brexit policy is so chaotic that it is hiding from the voters the results of its own analysis, which predicts a hit to the economy of up to 8% over the next 15 years. Asked why the prime minister was not publishing the study, which has now leaked, a government source told BuzzFeed News: “Because it’s embarrassing.” [...]

But it’s not just the Brextremists who are worried. Patriotic pro-Europeans are also concerned that we would be swapping our current position, where we are one of the most influential players in Europe, for that of a rule-taker. We would lose our votes in the council of ministers, our MEPs, our commissioner and our judge on the European court of justice. That’s losing, not taking back control. [...]

The EU might well agree to these proposals. The snag, of course, is that the Tory Brextremists would have a conniption, arguing that we’d be a vassal state for even longer. We’d also have to pay yet more money for the privilege, as the £39bn divorce deal the prime minister agreed before Christmas only covers our dues until end 2020.

What’s more, we’d probably lose our budget rebate – meaning the extra payment each year would be about £12bn net. Even patriotic pro-Europeans would worry that this amounted to taxation without representation.

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