16 March 2016

The Guardian: The idea of Brexit is pure Project Fantasy. But the dangers are very real

Clearly, there is some deception going on. Johnson, Farage and the other Brexiters are quick to denounce anyone who spells out the facts about what Brexit would mean for Britain’s prosperity, security or influence as constituting “Project Fear”. But it is increasingly clear that the leave campaign is the one that is reliant upon deception – let’s call it Project Fantasy.

Project Fantasy goes like this. Diminish Britain’s standing by suggesting that Europe is somehow something that is done to us; ignore the ways in which, from terrorism to climate change, we are far more effective working with our partners; label all workers’ protections “red tape” and say the economy would be better off if we could scrap them; ignore the huge economic benefits our EU membership has brought us and try to convince people that there is a land of milk and honey waiting outside the EU without spelling out how to get there.Having seemingly given up on arguing that Britain could gain access to the single market under terms similar to Norway or Switzerland, but somehow pay less into the EU budget and not be required to implement the same rules (including free movement) the Brexiters are now pinning their hopes on what Johnson calls aCanada-style free trade approach. To argue that this would be an improvement on what we have now is absurd; Canada’s free trade agreement with the EU has taken seven years to negotiate and still doesn’t cover all goods and services. That would be a bad deal for Britain. It is also implausible that the UK could strike better trade deals with third countries than with the EU. As the US trade negotiator Mike Froman has said, the US is “not particularly in the market” for a trade agreement with a single country such as the UK.

But the biggest fantasy of all is to deny the huge damage that leaving the largest single market in the world would do to our economy. Look at the facts. Almost half of our exports go to EU countries. Over 200,000 British companies export to the EU. We receive an average of £26.5bn of investment every year from other EU countries. So it’s little wonder that the message from businesses of all sizes across the country is so resounding – a poll published today by the CBI shows 80% of their members think being in the EU is best for their business.

Companies from all over the world choose to build offices and factories in the UK, and recruit staff here, because we are a gateway to the European single market. And though it is difficult to quantify precisely, somewhere in the region of three million jobs are linked to our membership of the EU.

Full article on The Guardian

© The Guardian