Tim Martin's viewpoint continued.. .
An example (see below) is the Sunday Times headline:
‘Sainsbury’s boss David Tyler warns a ‘no deal’ Brexit would raise the cost of shopping’.
According to Tyler, the UK could face an average tariff of 22% on foodstuffs we import from the EU.
I’m afraid, Mr Tyler, that that is an outright fib. Even if the government were to decide not to opt for free trade and to impose retaliatory tariffs on the EU, the average tariff would be far lower than you say.
Perhaps Tyler (Cambridge University) and the journalist (Oxford University) didn’t understand WTO rules and forgot to mention that ‘no deal’ and the free trade option would result in lower food prices than we have today? You can decide, dear reader.
A Guardian editorial (Editor, Katharine Viner, Oxford University) of 7 July made the same misrepresentation: “… no deal would mean a reversion to WTO rules…
It would mean, as Monsieur Barnier points out … customs duties of 29% on drinks, and an average of 12% on meat and fish.” Wrong, Ms Viner.
The Guardian must surely favour the lowest-possible food prices, and those are obtainable by a combo of no deal and the free trade option. Contrary to what you say, food prices would actually fall.
Mislead
The same misinformation was peddled in a Financial Times interview in October 2016, in which Henry Mance (Oxford University) interviewed Nick Clegg (Cambridge University). The headline, ‘Clegg warns ‘hard Brexit’ will lead to 22% EU food tariffs’, says it all. How could you mislead the public so, gentlemen?
Another scare story in the Evening Standard quoted the British Retail Consortium and its chairman, Richard Baker
(Cambridge University): “… failure to reach a trade deal … would see tariffs of 12% slapped on clothes … and up to 27% on meat … Chilean wine would be hit by a 14% levy … meaning higher prices for consumers.”
Do you believe in free trade, Richard, or are you really a closet protectionist?
A final example involves a spate of articles in various newspapers, quoting an organisation called the Resolution Foundation.
Its appallingly biased ‘Key Findings’, widely reported, are that “in a no-deal scenario … tariffs on footwear, beverages and tobacco will rise by 10 per cent … tariffs on dairy products by 45 per cent and by 37 per cent for meat products.”
The director of Resolution Foundation is Torsten Bell (Oxford University), formerly an adviser to arch Remainer Ed Miliband (Oxford University).
Project Fear failed in the referendum, and Project Food Price Spiral is also destined to fail.
The associated attempt to persuade the public to stay in the undemocratic EU and accept a transitional deal is a scam – around 90 per cent of companies in the UK do no trade with the EU anyway.
Even those, like Wetherspoon, which do so, don’t need two extra years.
We’re ready to leave tomorrow, in reality, and little or no preparation is needed.
The groupthink and bias of the elite minority are stunning.
More democracy, lower food prices and savings of £200 million per week are the attainable realities.
We’ll all drink to that, surely…
Tim Martin
Chairman
