Being upbeat about Brexit.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

Dear oh dear, Mr Hammond is ,according to brexiteers, being a bit gloomy about Brexit.
But isn't it brexiteers duty to be upbeat about brexit?
What they need is a jolly looking frontman who can tell a joke or two and with a track record of being able to belt out a patriotic song with great gusto.
Who else but John Redwood?

[wigginhall]

Well, obviously that figure of £60 billion as a borrowing cost for Brexit, is not only too gloomy, but is probably concocted by pro-Remain mandarins who still lurk in Whitehall.   What we need are some robust stats, such as the £350 million a week for the NHS, now those are stats that have that wholesome flavour that you can trust.

More austerity, eh?  Still, I prefer to be poor but white.

[floo]

There is nothing good about Brexit, and I reckon the UK will rue the day it voted to leave the EU!

[wigginhall]

You have to relax, and enjoy the spectacle of Brexiteers running around like headless chickens, and denying that any bad news is anything to do with Brexit.

Hammond did a particularly clever balancing act yesterday.   On the one hand, Brexit would cost £60 billion in extra borrowing, but look on the bright side, petrol is going up less quickly than it might.    Oh, and if you have to go to A & E, your wait there might be a bit longer, but there are shiny new TVs with ads on, for you to watch. 

[Jack Knave]

Well, obviously that figure of £60 billion as a borrowing cost for Brexit, is not only too gloomy, but is probably concocted by pro-Remain mandarins who still lurk in Whitehall.   What we need are some robust stats, such as the £350 million a week for the NHS, now those are stats that have that wholesome flavour that you can trust.

Now you're talking!!! 

[Jack Knave]

There is nothing good about Brexit, and I reckon the UK will rue the day it voted to leave the EU!

When the EU crashes and burns you'll be glad we got out.

[L.A.]

If Hammond had any courage he would just come out and say it:

"Brexit has buggered the economy . . . and there is a lot worse to come !"

[jeremyp]

When the EU crashes and burns you'll be glad we got out.

No we won't. We'll be kicking ourselves that we didn't stay and help save it.

The EU can't collapse without causing major problems for the UK.

[Harrowby Hall]

If Hammond had any courage he would just come out and say it:

"Brexit has buggered the economy . . . and there is a lot worse to come !"

I think that he actually has. But the constraints that Mrs May has put on the Cabinet prevent him being explicit. The next interesting developments will be the difficulties that Davis, Johnson and Fox find themselves in while being totally committed to leaving the EU.

[Hope]

If Hammond had any courage he would just come out and say it:

"Brexit has buggered the economy . . . and there is a lot worse to come !"

I thought that was what he did say, but slightly more diplomatically.

[Hope]

When the EU crashes and burns you'll be glad we got out.

But the EU will 'crash and burn' partly because the UK and some other nations won't be there to have worked to improve it beforehand.  There won't be a ripple effect on the British economy - even an independent British economy - if the EU crashes and burns.  It'll be nearer a tsunami effect.

[L.A.]

I think that he actually has. But the constraints that Mrs May has put on the Cabinet prevent him being explicit. The next interesting developments will be the difficulties that Davis, Johnson and Fox find themselves in while being totally committed to leaving the EU.

They are in total denial aren't they? They will just blame the devastation on Brussels.

[Jack Knave]

No we won't. We'll be kicking ourselves that we didn't stay and help save it.

The EU can't collapse without causing major problems for the UK.

It can't be saved , it's a lost cause.

[Jack Knave]

But the EU will 'crash and burn' partly because the UK and some other nations won't be there to have worked to improve it beforehand.  There won't be a ripple effect on the British economy - even an independent British economy - if the EU crashes and burns.  It'll be nearer a tsunami effect.

We've been there for 40 odd years and it has sailed straight towards an iceberg, so I can't see how we could do anything especially as the people from our governments over the years have all been blindly EU-philes. The whole place, the whole project is in denial about the mess they are in.

[Gonnagle]

Dear Lapsed,

Kenneth Clarke was on radio 2 today, some have called him the Best Prime Minister we never had, others said if he had been the Prime Minister we would not be in the mess we are in just now.

Wonder why some people think that, would he have made a better Prime Minister than Cameron, would he have totally misjudged the mood of the country and then handed the country the means to say, up yours establishment.

Funny! but I can't shake the thought that this whole mess lies at the feet of Cameron and the Tory party and I can't help but think, all those people who voted Brexit, did they have just cause, Brexit and Trump, is it just one huge protest vote.

Gonnagle.

[Nearly Sane]

Nothing wrong with a protest vote.

[jeremyp]

It can't be saved , it's a lost cause.

No it isn't

[jeremyp]

We've been there for 40 odd years and it has sailed straight towards an iceberg

No it hasn't

so I can't see

Yes

how we could do anything especially as the people from our governments over the years have all been blindly EU-philes. The whole place, the whole project is in denial about the mess they are in.

No, you are in denial about the mess we are in and it hasn't even officially started yet.

[jeremyp]

Nothing wrong with a protest vote.

It depends if you are protesting about the thing the vote is about. If you were protesting about the EU as Jack presumably was, then fine. If you were protesting about David Cameron, using our membership of the EU and hence our whole future just to give him a slap would have been irresponsible to put it mildly.

[Humph Warden Bennett]

Dear oh dear, Mr Hammond is ,according to brexiteers, being a bit gloomy about Brexit.
But isn't it brexiteers duty to be upbeat about brexit?
What they need is a jolly looking frontman who can tell a joke or two and with a track record of being able to belt out a patriotic song with great gusto.
Who else but John Redwood?

Redwood is a creep. He is my age group's version of the even more loathsome Jacob Rees-Mogg (do they clone the fluckers)?

[Harrowby Hall]

Because of his - supposedly - high level of intelligence, Redwood used to be known as "the Vulcan". (I lived for a while in his Wokingham constituency.)

I have never seen evidence of his intellect. I am more inclined to believe that the epithet relates to the colour of his blood - he certainly does not have long pointed ears.

[floo]

When the EU crashes and burns you'll be glad we got out.

Tiny little Britain is much more likely to crash and burn out of the EU!

[L.A.]

There was an interesting program about the positive side of Brexit a few weeks ago on Radio 4. The interview that caught my attention was with an executive of Tate and Lyle.

He made a strong case that his company could do very much better post Brexit. Tate and Lyle mainly produce sugar from cane and the EU currently place quite high tariffs on the import of sugar cane while actually subsidise sugar beet production. If Britain abolished these restrictions on the import of sugar cane, Tate and Lyle could expand and create jobs (his argument went). Of course (as the interviewer pointed out) this would not be good for other sugar producers OR the farmers who grew the beet.

A point that occurred to me (but apparently not the interviewer) was that if we are to really go down the free-trade route, the logical thing to do would be to have a whole lot more processing done overseas close to the source of the product where labour is cheaper. Much better for Tate and Lyle's profits - not so good for the rest of the UK.

[Udayana]

True... but also good for sugar farmers and processors in India and the Caribbean etc where many people have been driven to poverty, despair and suicide partly because of market manipulating EU trade policies.
 

[wigginhall]

https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/styles/story_large/public/thumbnails/image/2016/11/24/09/voteleavebus.jpg