Dyson for Brexit! Cracking article....

[Spinflight]

www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/sir-james-dyson-so-if-we-leave-the-eu-no-one-will-trade-with-us/

Some excerpts...

"“When the Remain campaign tells us no one will trade with us if we leave the EU, sorry, it’s absolute cobblers. Our trade imbalance with Europe is running at nine billion a month and rising. If this trend continues, that is £100bn a year.”

Dyson exports far more to the rest of he world (81 per cent) than Europe (19 per cent). “We’re very pleased with the European market – we’re number one in Germany and France – but it’s small and the real growing and exciting markets are outside Europe.”

He produces another staggering fact. “Sixty per cent of engineering undergraduates at British universities are from outside the EU, and 90 per cent of people doing research in science and engineering at British universities are from outside the EU. And we chuck them out!” He gives a trodden-puppy yelp.

"“It’s just that on this issue I think they’re ( Cameron & Osbourne) fundamentally wrong. I don’t just mean from the business point of view, I mean from the point of view of sovereignty and our whole ability to govern ourselves. We will create more wealth and more jobs by being outside the EU than we will within it and we will be in control of our destiny. And control, I think, is the most important thing in life and business.”

He says what he fears is staying in. “There is no status quo. Europe’s going to change. We all take risks, but they’re very calculated risks. The last thing I would ever want to do is to put myself in somebody else’s hands. So for me the risk is in putting ourselves in the hands of Europe. Not just the other countries, but the Brussels bureaucrats. What I simply can’t understand is why anyone would want to put themselves under their control.”

The Brussels he describes sounds like Franz Kafka adapted by Monty Python. “Really, you wouldn’t believe it.”"

I never knew that about Dyson not having manufacturing in UK. Interesting article from Telegraph 2003, can't seem to link it.

"The joint general secretaries of Amicus, the engineering union, Roger Lyons and Derek Simpson, vied in their condemnation. Mr Lyons said Mr Dyson was like pop star Britney Spears singing "Oops I did it again" after last year's vacuum production decision. "He has no commitment to his workforce and is a desperately bad example to the rest of the sector."
Mr Simpson commented: "This latest export of jobs by Dyson is confirmation that his motive is making even greater profit at the expense of UK manufacturing and his loyal workforce. Dyson is no longer a UK product."

Another article about the move. www.theguardian.com/business/2003/nov/08/4

Said his labour costs were too high in a zero unemployment area, Swindon. Didn't move to other part of the country though. So, a brexit argument is EU labour are keeping wages down and they will rise if UK leaves. In this non-theoretical example, high labour costs is given as a reason to move overseas to an area of low labour costs.

On something different, Dyson seems to be recipient of 16million pounds from public funds in 2016 budget to fund research into an electric car battery. I don't know if more is in the pipeline for future budgets. However, the private company is worth billions, so interesting it's research receives public money. The research and development jobs are in the UK, but I guess any potential manufacturing will be going to low wage areas like other Dyson manufacturing.

www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/23/dyson-developing-electric-car-government-documents

www.somersetlive.co.uk/Budget-16-million-grant-Dyson-s-battery-research/story-28936414-detail/story.html.

Flibbidy, I haven't heard about acid rain in aeons. It used to be a huge thing, in the news all the time.

Pangurban - that's because it's well on the way to being resolved in large part due to EU legislation.

Spring - I barely know where to start but your main inaccuracies are:
RSPB and WWF cannot protect sites without legislation. Otherwise what they say doesn't have weight, particularly when in a Local Plan Inquiry or similar when developers are pretty persuasive. The Habitats Directive is by far the strongest piece of nature conservation legislation that we have and it only covers the very best sites. The wording isn't about balancing up of need for development, it's about showing no adverse effect. So RSPB, WWF make use of it but they couldn't conserve sites without it.

In terms of air quality you are right I am pleased the UK Government is being challenged by the EU on NO2 emissions because I would like us to have clean air. I have a ds with brittle asthma and air quality has a massive impact on the quality of his life.

The surfers against sewage campaign played a role in cleaning up our seas and you'll be delighted to know that they back Remain largely because of the Bathing Waters directive.

The leader of the Green Party, Natalie Bennett and the two deputy leaders plus their one MP, Caroline Lucas all back Remain. The group to which you refer is pretty marginal within the party.

That will do for now in response.

I will just add that the EU ban on neonicotinoids, the insecticides that are responsible for bee mortality, was challenged and campaigned against by the UK Government.