UK would be so much better off without EU tariffs of 20%

[lljkk]

On food, clothing & footwear, says the co-chairman of Leave means Leave (Radio 5 live tonight, 6:20pm). By going to WTO rules on 1 April 2019 (John Longworth continued). He said 20% off b/c no external tariffs that EU imposes on food, clothing, footwear.

So, maybe the Leavers can explain to me ... Won't that make British-grown food suddenly 20% more expensive than imports? How exactly will a flood of cheap imported food help British farmers stay financially viable?

(I presume there is too little British manufactured clothing & footwear to worry about their impacts, at least.)

I would like to understand "WTO rules" much better, too. I got impression from MN that there is no such thing as "WTO rules". "WTO rules" for each member state have to be negotiated painfully and it can take decades , and can only be agreed with consent of all other WTO members (is that because negotiating with EU27 is sissy work, so instead Leavers want to try to charm 100+ world countries at once?).

Also, once we are in WTO, UK must agree to WTO arbitration. Why was European court of justice too remote a court that didn't decide enough in UK favour but WTO arbitration is acceptable and will make fairer decisions... can someone explain?

Quite so bear. This is what makes me angry about Brexit - if we had been making some proper plans and a realistic programme of how to implement them, I would feel less angry. We haven't had that - we have had pie in the sky. And still have pie in the sky dressed but anyone who dares to say this is accused of talking Britain down.

So, let's train more of our own health care professionals - there is enough demand from well qualified candidates but how long would it take to build/expand medical schools to cater for an increased demand? Even if we started a programme of expansion now, with buildings, staffing and admitting the first intake it would take at least 10 years before any candidates were fully qualified. What stopped us doing that 10, 20, 30 years ago? We preferred to poach staff from elsewhere. We haven't got 10 years now, so what will we do? Poach staff again, almost certainly from places like the Indian sub-continent where the people can sorely afford to lose trained health professionals.

My point is just because nothing has been done yet doesn't mean we shouldn't start doing something now.
As for food production I have only a limited knowledge of my local area and know of a few new projects going on. One local farmer has completely changed to growing tomatoes in greenhouses where there were none before. He sells to all the local supermarkets and greengrocers. A relative of mine is bottling his own rape seed and selling the oil direct to the supermarkets. He has taken a % of the imported oils business. It need private individuals to sell an opening. If and when the price of imported food goes up then I'm sure locals will sell an opening for them.
I think there is a sea change in attitudes of the consumer. Aldi does very well selling more and more local produce and the co op has recently changed to only using British meat in all their products.

Quite so bear. This is what makes me angry about Brexit - if we had been making some proper plans and a realistic programme of how to implement them, I would feel less angry

One of my flashpoints about Brexit is how every single thing the Leavers accused the EU of bringing about were actually a gift from HMG in the UK.

The UK has been systematically starved of infrastructure investment - and it's associated investment in people through education and training - by a bunch of sharp (and not so sharp) dresses spivs who repeatedly engineered themselves a get-rich-quick-scheme.

Now the pigeons are all coming home to roost, they've managed to deflect any serious investigation into their activities by the mantra "it's the EU, stupid".

And in the same way that everything that was going wrong in 2009 was still the fault of "the Tories" from 1997, then anything going wrong from here to Domesday will be fault of "the EU".

I almost fancy a punt that if we were to go back to the 1930s, we'd still find people blaming everything on "old Boney" ....

Should read - it needs private individuals to see

My point is just because nothing has been done yet doesn't mean we shouldn't start doing something now
I agree, but where is the will to do so? Only the Lib Dems promised in their manifesto a guaranteed 1p in the pound income tax increase to fund the NHS and a national strategy so that there would be no more workforce shortages (but nothing explicit about training up our own). They and Labour promised to reinstate bursaries but no increase in training places. And any Conservative manifesto isn't worth the paper it's written on.

My point is just because nothing has been done yet doesn't mean we shouldn't start doing something now.
So how is this going to be funded with a tanking economy?

Many of you seem to be fixated with the idea that it is up to political powers to do things.
That is not what I mean at all. I mean that farmers and other producers will diversify when they see an opportunity when it arises. Opportunities are arising now. Especially in my example area of agriculture. The changes to buying British made by several retailers and the opportunities in growing more variety for longer with new technology coming on stream.
Which parts of the economy are 'tanking' born?

Some farmers may well be able to afford to diversify. Others will not be able to afford to and will go out of business.

I do think it's up to the political powers to take a lead - the Referendum was their idea to solve differences in the Tory party; there was no real desire for a Referendum among 90% of the population. It now behoves the politicians to put in the necessary investment to make things work, the majority of whom seem to be astonishingly reluctant to do so. They are quite happy to preach, but actually roll up their sleeves or start spending their own wealth on investing? No fear!

Peregrina - in order to reduce the amount of food imported to this country. Every farmer will not need to diversify! We will still be eating potatoes and carrots! That's hardly going to mean farmers going out of business, in fact the opposite.