| Dan Hannan Day tomorrow then 15:09 - Jun 23 with 1182 views | artsbossbeard |
It just gets better with each read.
What Britain looks like after Brexit
Daniel Hannan
Jun 21, 2016
It’s 24 June, 2025, and Britain is marking its annual Independence Day celebration. As the fireworks stream through the summer sky, still not quite dark, we wonder why it took us so long to leave. The years that followed the 2016 referendum didn’t just reinvigorate our economy, our democracy and our liberty. They improved relations with our neighbours.
The United Kingdom is now the region’s foremost knowledge-based economy. We lead the world in biotech, law, education, the audio-visual sector, financial services and software. New industries, from 3D printing to driverless cars, have sprung up around the country. Older industries, too, have revived as energy prices have fallen back to global levels: steel, cement, paper, plastics and ceramics producers have become competitive again.
The last thing most EU leaders wanted, once the shock had worn off, was a protracted argument with the United Kingdom which, on the day it left, became their single biggest market. Terms were agreed easily enough. Britain withdrew from the EU’s political structures and institutions, but kept its tariff-free arrangements in place. The rights of EU nationals living in the UK were confirmed, and various reciprocal deals on healthcare and the like remained. For the sake of administrative convenience, Brexit took effect formally on 1 July 2019, to coincide with the mandates of a new European Parliament and Commission.
Financial services are booming – not only in London, but in Birmingham, Leeds and Edinburgh too. Eurocrats had never much liked the City, which they regarded as parasitical. Before Brexit, they targeted London with regulations that were not simply harmful but, in some cases, downright malicious: the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive, the ban on short selling, the Financial Transactions Tax, the restrictions on insurance. After Britain left, the EU’s regulations became even more heavy-handed, driving more exiles from Paris, Frankfurt and Milan. No other European city could hope to compete: their high rates of personal and corporate taxation, restrictive employment practices and lack of support services left London unchallenged.
Other cities, too, have boomed, not least Liverpool and Glasgow, which had found themselves on the wrong side of the country when the EEC’s Common External Tariff was phased in in the 1970s.
Shale oil and gas came on tap, almost providentially, just as the North Sea reserves were depleting, with most of the infrastructure already in place. Outside the EU, we have been able to augment this bonanza by buying cheap Chinese solar panels. In consequence, our fuel bills have tumbled, boosting productivity, increasing household incomes and stimulating the entire economy.
During the first 12 months after the vote, Britain confirmed with the various countries that have trade deals with the EU that the same deals would continue. It also used that time to agree much more liberal terms with those states which had run up against EU protectionism, including India, China and Australia. These new treaties came into effect shortly after independence. Britain, like the EFTA countries, now combines global free trade with full participation in EU markets.
Our universities are flourishing, taking the world’s brightest students and, where appropriate, charging accordingly. Their revenues, in consequence, are rising, while they continue to collaborate with research centres in Europe and around the world.
Unsurprisingly, several other European countries have opted to copy Britain’s deal with the EU, based as it is upon a common market rather than a common government. Some of these countries were drawn from EFTA (Norway, Switzerland and Iceland are all bringing their arrangements into line with ours). Some came from further afield (Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine). Some followed us out of the EU (Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands).
The United Kingdom now leads a 22-state bloc that forms a free trade area with the EU, but remains outside its political structures. For their part, the EU 24 have continued to push ahead with economic, military and political amalgamation. They now have a common police force and army, a pan-European income tax and a harmonised system of social security. These developments have prompted referendums in three other EU states on whether to copy Britain. |  |
| Please note: prior to hitting the post button, I've double checked for anything that could be construed as "Anti Semitic" and to the best of my knowledge it isn't. Anything deemed to be of a Xenophobic nature is therefore purely accidental or down to your own misconstruing. | | Poll: | Raining in IP8 - shall I get the washing in? |
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| Dan Hannan Day tomorrow then on 15:12 - Jun 23 with 1122 views | bluelagos |
A Lord and a Baron no less. |  |
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| Dan Hannan Day tomorrow then on 15:18 - Jun 23 with 1090 views | bsw72 |
Well, maybe everything will change in the next 8.5 hours to make it all come true . . . |  | | |
| Dan Hannan Day tomorrow then on 15:25 - Jun 23 with 1042 views | NthQldITFC |
| Dan Hannan Day tomorrow then on 15:12 - Jun 23 by bluelagos |
A Lord and a Baron no less. |
More like a Count, with nothing taken away.
(one for the Daily Mail cryptic crossword bods) |  |
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| Dan Hannan Day tomorrow then on 15:30 - Jun 23 with 995 views | ElderGrizzly |
I think Mystic Meg's job is safe |  | | |
| Dan Hannan Day tomorrow then on 15:31 - Jun 23 with 1000 views | Dubtractor |
And the leave campaign had the gall to complain about 'project fear' from remainers. |  |
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| Dan Hannan Day tomorrow then on 15:45 - Jun 23 with 911 views | Herbivore |
Just through pure random chance you'd have expected him to manage to get at least one thing right. To have been wrong on absolutely everything really is quite something. |  |
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| Dan Hannan Day tomorrow then on 15:51 - Jun 23 with 861 views | Kievthegreat |
| Dan Hannan Day tomorrow then on 15:31 - Jun 23 by Dubtractor |
And the leave campaign had the gall to complain about 'project fear' from remainers. |
Well TBF they did a lot of fear mongering about risks of global conflict, food price inflation and energy prices soaring, poor economic growth..... |  | | |
| Dan Hannan Day tomorrow then on 16:37 - Jun 23 with 737 views | SitfcB |
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| Dan Hannan Day tomorrow then on 17:51 - Jun 23 with 582 views | tcblue |
| Dan Hannan Day tomorrow then on 16:37 - Jun 23 by SitfcB |
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"I am masturbating as I write this...."
Edit: this was supposed to be on the OP [Post edited 23 Jun 17:55]
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| Dan Hannan Day tomorrow then on 17:53 - Jun 23 with 559 views | Basuco |
| Dan Hannan Day tomorrow then on 15:51 - Jun 23 by Kievthegreat |
Well TBF they did a lot of fear mongering about risks of global conflict, food price inflation and energy prices soaring, poor economic growth..... |
Queues at border controls as well, we won't have to queue for an hour or two to get into or out of the UK. |  | | |
| Dan Hannan Day tomorrow then on 19:09 - Jun 23 with 425 views | NthQldITFC |
| Dan Hannan Day tomorrow then on 17:51 - Jun 23 by tcblue |
"I am masturbating as I write this...."
Edit: this was supposed to be on the OP [Post edited 23 Jun 17:55]
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You are masturbating on the OP? | |
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| Dan Hannan Day tomorrow then on 22:22 - Jun 23 with 278 views | Guthrum |
To be fair, we could have had some bits of that, if things had been properly organised. Instead we got "Brexit means Brexit", Chequers backstabbing, David Frost v Michel Barnier and Johnson's "No Deal" wibbling. |  |
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| Dan Hannan Day tomorrow then on 22:26 - Jun 23 with 260 views | bazza |
| Dan Hannan Day tomorrow then on 19:09 - Jun 23 by NthQldITFC |
You are masturbating on the OP? |
Well at Least he didn’t put oap |  | | |
| Dan Hannan Day tomorrow then on 23:29 - Jun 23 with 173 views | StNeotsBlue |
| Dan Hannan Day tomorrow then on 22:26 - Jun 23 by bazza |
Well at Least he didn’t put oap |
Ageist. |  | | |
| Dan Hannan Day tomorrow then on 07:10 - Jun 24 with 50 views | Swansea_Blue |
| Dan Hannan Day tomorrow then on 15:12 - Jun 23 by bluelagos |
A Lord and a Baron no less. |
Sums it all up doesn’t it. The undeservedly overconfident architects of the mess getting rewarded while normal people get poorer, lose jobs, etc. |  |
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