In response to Rolf Norfolk: Out of the EU and on to a hard road ahead
salus populi wrote:
Like many things said by many pro-Brexit politicians, the WTO slogan was facile and wrong. They didn’t ‘speak for Brexit’, and they certainly didn’t speak for me.
Our first and foremost aim as a net importer should be greater self-sufficiency, meeting more home demand ourselves and the industrial regeneration to make that possible. Like our farmers our manufacturers need protection.
Tariffs, and the specifications WE require as customers, need to apply across the board, and the state will need to support industry, certainly indirectly but also where necessary directly – in contravention of WTO (or at least of those members that don’t already break the rules).
And if that diminishes the capitalist citadel of the City of London with its false claims to lasting prosperity, bring it on.
Far too much hype over trade deals. They’re not necessary. We buy and sell according to need and capacity. And the customer must decide the rules. If people like what they see they’ll buy it.
But what hope from the Tories? None, of course. It will have to come from elsewhere.JohnB replied:
I agree, but there’s one other thing that has to go along with this. Britons, and the middle classes in particular, need to get used to lower living standards. For too long, some people have been living it large off the backs of cheap imported labour and goods. To become more insular and self sufficient will require some sacrifices, in the short to medium term at least.Sackerson replied:
I think you’re right. We have been significantly poorer in material terms before now, yet still OK. How many changes of clothes did we have in the 1970s? I remember being flabbergasted and envious when the (American) father opened his press in ‘Kramer vs Kramer’ (1979) to reveal shelves of extra shirts, sweaters etc. But in those days we were more equal and I could walk into any Oxford college without passing Checkpoint Charlie. Relative v absolute poverty, eh?
