Current Affairs EU In or Out

In or Out

  • In

    Votes: 688 67.9%

  • Out

    Votes: 325 32.1%
  • Total voters
    1,013
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Bluerover said:
No I am not. Rather I am highlighting that HMG buying up produce is no answer in the medium to long term, and illustrates the complete lack of thought that has gone into this at Government level.

What happens next??

By the way, it is probably little known but Ireland takes 34% of UK beef exports and is the main market in the EU. That is likely to collapse post a no deal Brexit, never mind what happens to exports to the rest of the EU.
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Beef exports around the Eu are going to be in turmoil anyway when the Mercosur deal kicks in......
 
peteblue said:
You are assuming that all trade with the EU will cease.......
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It's not about if it ceases it's about whether the UK is competitive in that market.

Presumably your stance is that this is solved with a trade deal. My questions would be how long do you think such a trade deal would take to facilitate and will the government subsidise farmers the entire time? What alternative market are we selling into in the interim?
 
JEBUS_LIVES said:
It's not about if it ceases it's about whether the UK is competitive in that market.

Presumably your stance is that this is solved with a trade deal. My questions would be how long do you think such a trade deal would take to facilitate and will the government subsidise farmers the entire time? What alternative market are we selling into in the interim?
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Well the U.K. imports more food than it exports, in terms of meat products we export less than £2Bn and import about £7Bn, this happens right across the food spectrum. So perhaps we can start gearing up to feed ourselves, this should provide the farmers with the incentives to diversify where required. A good friend of mine runs a beef herd, pigs and a variety of crops, he is the most vociferous supporter of Brexit that I know......
 
JEBUS_LIVES said:
It's not about if it ceases it's about whether the UK is competitive in that market.

Presumably your stance is that this is solved with a trade deal. My questions would be how long do you think such a trade deal would take to facilitate and will the government subsidise farmers the entire time? What alternative market are we selling into in the interim?
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And perhaps more importantly, if farmers are likely to suffer to that extent as exporters, then you can only imagine the impact consumers will experience. Consumers are far and away the more important group, especially at a time when so many still struggle to put food on the table.
 
peteblue said:
Well the U.K. imports more food than it exports, in terms of meat products we export less than £2Bn and import about £7Bn, this happens right across the food spectrum. So perhaps we can start gearing up to feed ourselves, this should provide the farmers with the incentives to diversify where required. A good friend of mine runs a beef herd, pigs and a variety of crops, he is the most vociferous supporter of Brexit that I know......
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Lets be honest though Pete, for generations farmers have been opposing operating in a free market environment, so your farming chum probably just thinks the subsidised trough he can stick his snout into will be bigger outside of the EU than inside it where other countries have proven more effective at lobbying. I dare say he would be just as vociferiously opposed to the no tariff, free market utopia that you've espoused as he would being a member of the EU.
 
Bruce Wayne said:
Lets be honest though Pete, for generations farmers have been opposing operating in a free market environment, so your farming chum probably just thinks the subsidised trough he can stick his snout into will be bigger outside of the EU than inside it where other countries have proven more effective at lobbying. I dare say he would be just as vociferiously opposed to the no tariff, free market utopia that you've espoused as he would being a member of the EU.
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Very probably, but we import 50% of our food. I’m not sure he is after handouts and would rather just take a bigger market share, but either way he strikes me as someone who will work out the best way forward.....
 
So Boris wants to stay in CU/SM for another two years. Typical Johnson the politician with many faces, bet the ERG, Brexit Party what's left of UKiP are clacking their buttocks. ;)
 
peteblue said:
Very probably, but we import 50% of our food. I’m not sure he is after handouts and would rather just take a bigger market share, but either way he strikes me as someone who will work out the best way forward.....
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I've no doubt, and I've no doubt he works exceptionally hard, but protectionism isn't exactly a Tory trait, yet you've hinted more than a few times that you oppose the Mercator deal because you don't want Argentinian produce in Britain. It seems to run completely counter to your views on tariffs more generally, where you've advocated for them to be removed. We have 60 million consumers of food in the UK, versus less than 0.5 million people who work in agriculture. Why should the tail wag the dog?
 
peteblue said:
Well the U.K. imports more food than it exports, in terms of meat products we export less than £2Bn and import about £7Bn, this happens right across the food spectrum. So perhaps we can start gearing up to feed ourselves, this should provide the farmers with the incentives to diversify where required. A good friend of mine runs a beef herd, pigs and a variety of crops, he is the most vociferous supporter of Brexit that I know......
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Again Pete, how long is this shift going to take?
 
JEBUS_LIVES said:
Again Pete, how long is this shift going to take?
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JEBUS_LIVES said:
Again Pete, how long is this shift going to take?
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Its been over three years since the vote so if UK primary and secondary producers have not already got well-developed Plans B by now, I really fear for them after 31 October.

Ireland produces enough food to feed something like 38m people and the Republic has a population of about 6m. We import lots too and, as I posetd earlier, we are UK's biggest beef export market in the EU.

This is how the common economic market works at its best, and is tariff free.

Everything changes once a country leaves the EU, but for all its many bureaucratic faults, from an economic point of view it is madness to leave a tariff free Union with a potential customer base of well over 500 million people..
 
Bruce Wayne said:
I've no doubt, and I've no doubt he works exceptionally hard, but protectionism isn't exactly a Tory trait, yet you've hinted more than a few times that you oppose the Mercator deal because you don't want Argentinian produce in Britain. It seems to run completely counter to your views on tariffs more generally, where you've advocated for them to be removed. We have 60 million consumers of food in the UK, versus less than 0.5 million people who work in agriculture. Why should the tail wag the dog?
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Actually he does work incredibly hard, and I don’t particularly oppose the Mercosur deal. I’m sure that he would find a niche or produce a product that sells on quality or price. The Mercosur deal would probably hit France and ROI rather than the UK tbh, which is why the French have already taken to the streets. I would like to see tariffs removed as they are just another tax and defensive in nature. You are in favour of free movement of people, I am in favour of free movement of goods.....
 
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