In terms of GDP, we're one of the wealthiest nations on the planet, yet our health service is underfunded & there are large 'vacancy-factors' for most of our public services.
If we're so good, why can't we actually afford to fully-fund our public services & better-fund the NHS in the position we're in now & who thinks things are actually going to improve the instant we leave the EU.?
I wouldn't have joined the EC all those years ago, because of what we lost & who we turned our backs on,
BUT now that we've done it,
I certainly wouldn't be looking to leave it now & turn our backs to the trading block we do almost 50% of our business with.?
It's not in the EU's interest to give us a good deal on exit fees or trade deals for 2 reasons;
1. They must, by their own constitution, do the best deal possible for their member states, of which we will no-longer be one.
2. As was mentioned earlier, the collective EU needs to send a signal to other member states, that there can be no easy-ride for leavers.
Boris & others of his ilk, who said the EU is bound to give us a good deal, is talking out of his hat (which may actually be covering his butt.?) if he thinks that ONLY the UK can supply the EU with the products & services we currently do.
We have a reputation for quality goods & services, but with a 25% WTA tariff on those products, it will be in the interest of venture-capitalists to look at the low wage economies of Portugal & Greece, to see if companies can be set-up there to provide the EU with what we currently do, but at lower overhead costs AND tariff-free.?
We do send around £350 million week to the EU, but they send us around £150 million a week to pay for various projects which they fund.
I would imagine that we'll still be paying around the £200 million mark to the EC, should we end up with a Norway-style associate partner status wit them.
So we won't be any better off financially & we'll no-longer have a say in how the rules & laws are made nor involvement in future planning.
IF I was in charge of Brexit & I really wanted to make it work, (which I'm not & I don't) I'd have been using EC development funding to improve our infrastructure & looking to regenerate mass-manufacturing over the last 10 years, so that we're in a position to hit the ground running, once the exit door closes behind us.
Instead we've got about a year to plan it, but because the final deal isn't yet arranged, businesses & government can't even do that properly yet, because what they're actually planning for isn't yet nailed down.?
My last point is that Northern Ireland voted Remain overall, but because it's attached to an EU nation, it looks like the effective border will be 'fudged' out into the Irish Sea. Making the island of Ireland almost one nation & if it's actually successful in that form, it makes the unification of Ireland much more likely.
Also, Scotland voted overwhelmingly to Remain, not long after it narrowly voted to remain in the Union. Once Brexit happens, it's very likely that they will hold another referendum, citing the substantive changes in the status-quo since their last vote. Should that vote happen, I believe that they will leave the Union.
With both the Scots & probably the Northern Irish gone, it will have fallen to the supposed party of the Union, to have presided over the break-up of the Union, just to satisfy the original problems of internal squabbling within the Conservative party.?
If you've bothered to read to the end of this rant,
I'm truly sorry for inflicting it upon you,
but at least I feel better for it.
(& to be honest, I'd be very, very happy to be proved wrong,
but I fear that we've gambled the house, car & farm on this, so there isn't really a fall-back position, if it looks like it's not working out as we'd hoped.?)