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Brexit

to agree with the positive Brexit plan below?!

658 replies

MenMust · 29/08/2016 20:27

Having watched a documentary recently about the making of the London Olympics 2012 Opening Ceremony, I was reminded of the sheer skill, innovation and creativity possessed by this nation. This left no doubt in my mind that the UK is completely capable of making a huge success outside the EU.
The first thing the people of the UK need to do is to focus on positive outcomes and opportunities created by the historic decision to leave the EU. Everyone, including those who voted to remain, need to put aside all negativity and differences and anger. Whether you voted to exit or not, it is now going to happen and so all thoughts of doom and disaster are wasted energy and need to be put aside. Pessimism is a self-fulfilling prophesy and if you concentrate on what you think are the negative consequences of Brexit, you will drag the UK down.
Of course there is a risk to exiting the EU. However, there was always a risk to staying in the EU as it is a changing entity. A vote to remain was not a vote for the status quo. The UK will face challenges as it has always done and there will be those who lose out because of Brexit but there will also be those who gain. The EU however also faces an uncertain future. The Euro is in trouble and requires fiscal and budgetary union for any chance of survival. The EU’s economic performance has been poor and its share of world GDP is set to fall. It has failed to keep up with 21st Century globalisation and emerging markets. Further integration is not popular. The EU needs to change radically if it is to survive.
Now the UK has a new PM, Theresa May in place as well as a new Cabinet, the Government needs to appoint the best advisors and negotiators in the land who can help secure the UK the best deal with the EU. The Government should take its time to work out what the best outcome is for the UK before declaring article 50. The UK is in a good position to secure a favourable deal with the EU. We are the biggest importer within the EU and in fact import more from the EU than the USA. It is in the EU’s interest to work with us rather than against us.
The Government needs to ensure that our fishing industry regains rights of fishing areas that it has lost previously under the EU Common Fisheries Policy. EU laws that have had the effect of closing down fishing businesses and communities need to be reviewed.
It is important to remember that, although we have voted to leave the EU, we are still friends with our European neighbours and will continue to maintain a close relationship with them and support them in whatever way we can.
We should now open up to the rest of the world.
Our Government should secure and enhance friendships and relationships with other countries. They need to look at trading partnerships and free trade agreements (FTAs) with all countries we wish to trade with. Australia has already announced it wishes to look at trade deals with the UK. China and India are set to be the future trading powers so we need to start discussions with them. We could possibly forge a link with NAFTA (North American free trade bloc). We should look at our relationship with the Commonwealth and foster trade and agreements with our Commonwealth partners. The EU is the only trading bloc in the world that requires such stringent conditions on its members and this has stifled competition and productivity over a number of years rather than promoting it. We are the sixth largest economy in the world and so other countries will want to do business with us.
Our Government should ease its focus on achieving a balanced budget by 2020. Reducing our debt is still important but should now be done over a longer period and the Government should spend more money on capital projects to help counteract the slowing of growth. It should also look at reducing the tax burden further.
Our police and legal system should stamp down and eradicate racism and racist attacks on our fellow migrants as this is not acceptable. The UK is still a society that welcomes people of all ethnicities, cultures, religions and countries. Racism was not what Brexit was about.
The Government needs to ensure that all project funding commitments by the EU shall be stuck to until we have left the EU. Also, it should ensure that UK organisations and individuals are not discriminated by the EU leading up to our exit.
Once we leave the EU, the Government should commit to funding existing projects previously funded by the EU for at least another three years until it has a department or system in place to make decisions about continuing or ending project funding.
The amount that the UK paid towards the EU budget should be used for capital investment projects within the UK and also for improving and supporting the NHS. The capital projects to improve our infrastructure such as roads will help boost aggregate demand in the UK and help counteract any negative effects on GDP of leaving the EU. The Government should spend money to improve areas of our country that have been neglected or just need fixing.
UK exports will be cheaper due to the reduced value of Sterling. This is an opportunity to promote and increase what we sell to the rest of the world. We must take advantage of this.
UK imports will be more expensive due to the reduced value of Sterling and possible import tariffs. The Government could provide tax breaks to ease the burden on companies that import.
We should focus on buying British goods and supporting our businesses.
We have many of the greatest universities in the world and the Government should invest more via research grants to help boost our universities success even more.
The City of London has great financial institutions and London is one of the world’s top financial centres. It is renowned for its flexibility, resourcefulness, connections, highly skilled workforce, experience. The City with the support of the Government should ensure that it does everything so that it remains one of, if not the most attractive centre for finance in the world.
Finally, we, the UK need to stop underestimating what our country can achieve. Our history has shown what we can do. We still do and will continue to do. We were the pioneers of the industrial revolution. We invented the train, the telephone, the computer, the internet for example. We discovered penicillin, DNA, the laws of gravity. We have Shakepeare, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Charles Darwin, Stephen Hawking, The Beatles, Florence Nightingale, just to name a few! Football, rugby, cricket all came from our country. Our reach and influence is global. We are not a great empire anymore and we have no desire to be but our systems of politics, law, finance are duplicated around the world. So let’s not underestimate ourselves. I have great confidence in our younger generation to continue what previous generations have done. They are bright, intelligent, skilled, energetic, creative. They and older generations have the ability to make a success of our exit from the EU. We all just need to believe in ourselves and remain calm and confident.
We have been in the EU for 43 years, not really a long time in the scheme of things.
So let’s not be afraid and let us take this challenge on and show what we can do!

OP posts:
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MaudGonneMad · 30/08/2016 12:40

Oh come on Maud, don't be silly. PMs are MPs and as such are voted for by the people.

Only by the ones in their constituency (and they are not elected as PM even by their local constituency). They are not elected as PM by anyone except the MPs in Parliament. And, in the case of Brown/May, not even then!

Not to even mention the awful electoral system in the UK...

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Jonso · 30/08/2016 12:44

I do think that Juncker bears some responsibility for the Brexit vote. Anyone agree?

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Helmetbymidnight · 30/08/2016 12:53

It's absolutely galling the number of threads there are with leavers going 'Guys, guys, YOU need to put this right...'

Fuck off we do. There's 52% of you apparently, and you've got your great leaders and thinkers: Farage, Boris, IDS, Gove. You put it right.

Coming out with The City with the support of the Government should ensure that it does everything so that it remains one of, if not the most attractive centre for finance in the world. is just stupid, empty rhetoric. I mean, what the...? What are you really proposing? Why not give us a proper plan?

And I love that the tax burden should be reduced, while of course we have to commit to replacing EU funding on projects currently underway.

Nice. So where is all this lovely money coming from?

No answers, huh? Oh but I suppose that's my fault for negative thinking.

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GinIsIn · 30/08/2016 12:57

Except the rest of the world will know we aren't ordering from the EU anymore, so will onviously charge us a premium to purchase the same goods we used to buy from the EU because they know we have no other alternatives.

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PNGirl · 30/08/2016 12:57

I work for a company that buys products in euro. Margins tanked overnight. We're already committed to a year's worth of stock. If we go down, so do the European factories we buy from.

I would love to think that some positive thinking and pretending to be happy about this mess will pay my mortgage but I think I'll take the realistic approach of stashing current paychecks and crossing my fingers!

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holeinyourhead · 30/08/2016 13:55

I admire your optimism MenMust but really, there are so few tangible certainties among a quagmire of untruths, fudged stats and outright lies uttered by self-serving men with zero integrity that seriously I question your faith in the new PM. Why should she be any different? Is it because she's a woman that you and the right wing media seem convinced she'll retain her integrity, do an admirable and fair job and make sure everyone on either side of the argument, rich or poor, educated or otherwise, gets a fair deal post-Brexit? Why's that - Margaret Thatcher wasn't exactly remembered for any of the above.

The only thing she has publicly said so far is that 'Brexit means Brexit', which actually - and rather cleverly - means nothing at all.

I am all for being positive now that the dust has settled somewhat but I have grave doubts in a lot of what you say and I am also alarmed by your 'Rule Britannia' style of bigging up the nation's achievements; it's that kind of nationalistic arrogance that gets up the rest of the EU's nose so much and has made our political EU dithering for the last 43 years so intolerable for the rest of the 27 member states. And as such, as someone else pointed out on this thread, this gives us even less bargaining power around the table when the time comes.

Ms May is sensibly waiting to see who wins the German and French elections so she can see who she has to negotiate with, and hopefully she and the rest of Whitehall might have sourced the 750 highly trained trade negotiators necessary to create the kind of dream exit the Leave campaigners envisioned earlier this year (at the moment they have about 150). Sadly I think we have a very long and uncertain decade ahead of us; the NHS will continue to be sapped by the wealthy baby boomers who voted us out in the first place and the financial industry, the creative industries, the universities and all those other great British assets will be treading water for the foreseeable future.

I'd like to think Britain is stronger out but my fear is once Scotland have jumped ship there will be no union in the British Isles, the north of Ireland, not to mention Gibraltar will be FUBAR and we will then be in completely uncharted territory in modern times! Good luck with your manifesto MenMust, keep smiling.

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TheElementsSong · 30/08/2016 14:00

Oh, there are loads on here, Elements, have a look yourself, it won't take long

C'mon, seriously? Surely it is not unreasonable to expect the person making the claim to provide the evidence? Especially as you say there is "loads". Let's see it then, a Remain voter who has written words to the effect that they are willing the country to fail so they can somehow get off on it. Like some kind of negative orgasm, perhaps.

will something to happen- it's like wishing or really hoping

And if these hoards of doom-causing negative thinkers did exist, can anybody care to explain how how how "wishing" or "really hoping" could actually be a mechanistic cause of ? Please? Please? (Consider this to be me, willing somebody to answer - after all, that's all it takes to make something happen, right?)

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SukeyTakeItOffAgain · 30/08/2016 14:10

I'm afraid I don't agree with your rosy picture of British youth. I'm an employee and I don't find them energetic, bright and skilled at all. I find many of them lazy, clueless, ignorant and lacking in initiative. It's not their fault of course - they're a product of their society and education system.

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Marynary · 30/08/2016 14:35

Now,I have accepted the result and the whinging reamin voters are getting on my nerves. They are willing the country to fail so they can thumb their noses and say 'I told you so!' Well, rest assured, if things do go wrong it will be the poorest who suffer most. The people who were most likely to vote for Brexit will get their comeuppance and you can all stand round and jeer.

Do you seriously think that anyone wants to go through a recession just so they can win an argument on mumsnet??!!! Yes, the poor are likely to suffer the most but we will probably all suffer as a result of the vote.

Just as, when Jeremy Corbyn is re elected as Labour leader the MP s will just have to get on with it, so must all of us accept get on with exiting the EU.

Well no, they don't have to accept him as a leader as they don't have to stay in the Labour party.Hmm Many will probably leave and not be MPs at all or they could form another party. I

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MenMust · 30/08/2016 16:18

I think some people underestimate our strength. Physically, yes we are a small nation but we are the sixth biggest economy in the world and that does give us bargaining power. I am not saying that Brexit won't be a stormy journey to begin with, but we will come out at the other end strong and able to survive post EU. There is a lot of innovation and creativity and entrepreneurship here. We have business leaders, workers and others who have the skills and acumen to see us through this.

OP posts:
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Bearbehind · 30/08/2016 16:28

menmust, could you please stop talking in sound bytes, slogans and other general bollocks.

Can we have some actual facts on how your miraculous plan will work starting with how it will be funded.

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CanandWill · 30/08/2016 16:29

Services account for 79% of Britains GDP, mainly of course financial services. Manufacturing is only about 15%. Agriculture 6%. Farmers will lose their EU grants. The financial services will lose their passporting. Every single credit agency has rated the outlook for British banks as poor.

Never mind though we have business leaders, workers and others to see us through. So what do you see happening op? I am all ears.

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KatherineMumsnet · 30/08/2016 16:48

We're just going to move this over to the EU Referendum topic.

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53rdAndBird · 30/08/2016 16:55

Christ, if clever people and positive thinking will let us achieve anything we want, why did we settle for Brexit? We could have colonised Mars!

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PNGirl · 30/08/2016 16:57

How does any of that matter if uncertainty causes a drop in consumer spend, so nobody buys goods and services, which causes job losses like mine, resulting in, surprise, no money to buy goods and services? Who is going to pay all these bright young Steve Jobs types you reckon we've got? Who is going to provide investment to develop their ideas? Which banks are going to fund startups and small businesses in a poor economy?

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Bearbehind · 30/08/2016 17:07

I do find it interesting that sufficient people find the need to complain to MNHQ that a thread about the biggest thing to happen in most of our lifetimes needs to be moved because it's cluttering up their threads about wanking monkeys. Says a lot really.

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Helmetbymidnight · 30/08/2016 17:13

We have business leaders, workers and others who have the skills and acumen to see us through this.

This is your positive Brexit plan?!!

Fuck me!

(And isn't it ironic that all those business leaders, economists, creatives and civil servants who only a few months ago were dismissed as the fear-mongering elite are now being called upon to 'see us through this'.)

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Kaija · 30/08/2016 17:38

I'm thrilled that we've got Florence Nightingale on our side, op, but could you flesh this plan out a bit for us?

For starters, are we going for membership of the single market or not?

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Kaija · 30/08/2016 17:54

"I have great confidence in our younger generation to continue what previous generations have done. They are bright, intelligent, skilled, energetic, creative."

Quite so. They also voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU.

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LoveInTokyo · 30/08/2016 18:15

I haven't RTFT, but this is what your Brexit plan reminds me of, OP.

to agree with the positive Brexit plan below?!
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Kaija · 30/08/2016 18:18

Well I'd vote for that.

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LoveInTokyo · 30/08/2016 18:25

Hehe yes, well that's the problem. Wink

I'd vote to win the lottery.

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Kaija · 30/08/2016 18:27

Just realised what the OP reminds me of - it's got a strong whiff of Field Marshal Haig about it.

Over the top, lads.

www.firstworldwar.com/source/backstothewall.htm

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LoveInTokyo · 30/08/2016 18:27

I especially love this part of the OP:

We have Shakepeare, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Charles Darwin, Stephen Hawking, The Beatles, Florence Nightingale, just to name a few!

Does she realise that nearly all of these people are dead, and most of them before the last century?

We've still got Hawking though, I guess. You know, the genius who strongly urged us all to vote remain.

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LoveInTokyo · 30/08/2016 18:28

Haha @ Kaija.

That's reminded me of that bit in Blackadder where it dawns on them what a shit idea all of it is. Sad

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