@rowan_johnson yes, something else that #brexiters chose to ignore, and now we all pay the price; will take decades to undo the damage here @craiggrannell
One of the things #Brexit was supposed to free us from was the dead hand of (European) #bureaucracy.... but in the years since we left the EU what has become pretty clear is that actually our bureaucratic problems are mostly homegrown.
From planning to banking, in both private & public sectors, organisations remain adept at making everything harder than it should be...
In one sense the #Brexiters worry about administrators was correct, just they wrongly identified their nationality...
No doubt #Brexiters#schadenfreude is in full effect with the news that #Germany is now in full technical recession, and was the worst performing (in terms of economic growth) major economy.
That said, given that Germany is in the top twenty countries ranked by GDP per capita, while the UK struggles to stay in the top 30... in absolute terms the Germans are having a better time of it than we are...
This may be good news for #Brexiters: #EU plans to wrest the market for #derivatives away from #London & have them cleared in European cities has now, after facing stiff resistance, been scaled back, leaving the London Clearing House the dominant European player in this are of #financialservices.
However, for those worried about the continuing domination of the #financial sector in the UK, this may well merely confirm the continuing #political & #economic power of the City of London!
It now transpires that while #Brexit border controls have finally been instigated, back in November, worrying that the effect of these (required) controls would, as warned, be to disrupt #food supply chains, the Govt. notified ports that the could use a 'timed out decision contingency feature' to reduce queues;
that is, they could wave through medium risk animal-related imports without checks if the queue was too long.
#Brexiters are still trying to avoid the consequences of their actions!
More #BrexitReality... despite the occasional 'reassurance' from #Brexiters (and fulfilling warnings from Remainers), its now clear that where the UK is diverging from the EU on #Environmental protection & regulation, this has been in the direction of weakening or even abandoning green commitments.
The continuing #Tory project of turning the UK into a wasteland continues; our future as a toxic island off the European continent looks (now) assured.
We now have data for #Germany; #GDP has shrunk by 0.3%.
But before the #brexiters starting rubbing their hands, like the UK's figure, this is well within the margin of error to potentially be revised upwards into growth (just like the UK, minuscule 'growth' could end up as a small negative move).
We might also be best to be looking at other figures, like levels of #investment or balance of trade...
Both of which suggest Germany's problems look temporary, while the UK's looked baked-in
#Brexiters will be whooping, I imagine as the EU's European Medicine's Agency, which relocated from its London base to Amsterdam, is saddled with a potential €450mn rent liability on an extended lease on its old Canary Wharf building as its sub-tenants (WeWork) stop paying rent as they've gone bankrupt.
This will cause the EMA some budgeting problems, but Brexiters will see it as one in the eye for the EU.
However, what it also reveals is how soft the commercial property market is in London!
When you leave a trading bloc, there can only be one result; trade into that market becomes more difficult (& no amount of claims around 'new arrangements' will lessen that 'friction').
MakeUK's most recent survey merely confirms that this is the case. #Brexiters may think this is a 'price worth paying' for 'taking back control'; for anyone working in #manufacturing its a bitter pill as customers tell UK firms:
'we know you do a great job, but dealing with the UK is just too much trouble now'!
@killick I think they just want power at any cost - a bit like #brexiters: both have given up any pretence of doing what's right or good for the country...
UK Govt now in the ludicrous position of seeking 2 portray rejoining Horizon as a major step forward when Tory #Brexiters ripped us away from our #EU family. #Sunak says #Brexit is wonderful, then in the same breath says #Horizon is wonderful. Horizon is a wonderful way to cooperate. Sunak faces both ways, there is no logic. These Tories don't know their arse from their elbow. https://cepn-libdems.org.uk/2022-libdem-eu-policy/#SnippetTab#RejoinEU
Some #Brexiters may argue (not completely implausibly) that it is too early to conclude that the UK's replacement for #EuropeanInvestmentBank development support is running at only a third of the level of the EU's provision of #Investment funds, but currently the gap is striking.
For optimists, the start of the UK Development Banks record doesn't look unlike the early years of the EIB's disbursement of funds... for pessimists, every year it falls short emphasises the negative impact of #Brexit