What did the uk do before they joined the EU?

[Hellenbackagen]

I'm wondering why people are so keen to stay within the EU?

How does it deliver value for money?

What are the benefits?

What did the uk do and how did it trade before it joined the EU?

Why are people so scared of leaving?

I'd be really grateful if anyone can explain or anyone who remembers why we joined can explain the difference before and after,

Thanks.

Peregrina I can only remember stuff about the white Commonwealth. The idea that these people were more like us than those dodgy continental types.

And few people questioned racism in 1973.

This really screwed them up, especially the likes of NZ
It would be very interesting to look at how NZ came through that and how they had to completely change their approach to agricultural production

No it didn't because NZ with the support of the UK negotiated years of transition in order to have time to diversify/seek new markets.... & is a good example of why no-deal will be such a disaster.

I seem to recall that the brexitiers promised things would improve dramatically post brexit NOT that we would go back in time to the 1970s?

The Black & White Minstrel Show on TV was cancelled in 1978, not for racism but as part of general cutbacks in variety output.

The stage show continued to tour until 1989.

I think the OP has asked some very good questions and there have been some very good answers , but no need for the ones attacking the OP

I asked someone yesterday why did they vote leave , there answer was
because
a )We send 10s of billions of £s to them every week
b ) The EU rulled that bananas had to have a certain bend in them

he then blamed the EU for farmers not being able to sell their wonky veg , and then went on to say Morrisons can only sell wonky veg now because we are leaving the EU

So dont criticise the OP for asking the right questions , there is just no hope for a lot of voters out there

{English speaking Commonwealth pals'.}
Would those be the people from Britain that traded/plundered/extorted things to benefit the UK?
Of course all Europeans did this but you have to wonder where this 'nostalgia' is going.
Australia and New Zealand were handy place to dump those the elite in Britain considered criminals.
After the copper in Britain was mostly worked out, getting it from Rhodesia seemed a good plan to the British.

@Hellenbackagen , a factual non sarky reply, I hope. The UK managed then because we had (the tail end of..) a steel industry that led the world, a mining industry that fed our power stations, we had North Sea gas, tne last if the rich vid fisheries, a British car industry and many other manufacturing industries.

A whole economic infrastructure that no longer exists.
Now we make £££ from the service and knowledge based sector typified by the City in London, and manufacturing investment comes from abroad.

The sectors fleeing the country due to Brexit.

Like it or not, The City makes money for the U.K, and London is the only net contributor city in the country.

I am worried about leaving the EU. But I’m even more worried about the UK becoming some sort of bigger version of Singapore. And ultimately London cutting loose from the rest of us. Because the rest of us are basically up the creek economically.

When Ford built their Dagenham plant, the first purpose-built car plant in the UK, it was an exercise in total vertical integration: Iron ore went in one end off the wharf on the Thames, and finished cars came out the other.

Car production today like so much manufacturing is built on complex logistical routes to finished goods. Components come in, are part-assembled, then go somewhere else to be added to other parts before returning to be fully assembled. Mini gearboxes make six cross-channel journeys before they car rolls off the Oxford line.

Airbus is another case in point. Wings made a Broughton go by flat-trailer onto barges then car ferries to France to be added to finished aircraft along with other parts from Germany, Spain and elsewhere in France.

Even your non-EU trade is dependent on this network. Your imports from North America are flown to Amsterdam or Frankfurt in the first instance before remailing to the UK.

{A whole economic infrastructure that no longer exists.}
Part of this was down to seriously poor management decisions and not modernising and improving technical processes, and considerable negativity by unions who are usually 'against' management in the UK.
Striking and working to rule helped hasten the demise. Minerals were also getting harder (more expensive) to extract as the 'easy' seams were worked out.
IIRC Poland became the preferred source for coal, and then later China and it's manufacturing capability kicked in, and is continuing apace.

But the Chinese economic miracle is based on natural resources and cheap labour. Both of which basically ran out in the UK. All the fantastic management skills in the world weren’t going to help that.

What we have failed to do is to move on and make money in other ways. We are far too reliant on the financial sector.

But the Chinese economic miracle is based on natural resources and cheap labour.
Both of which they are fast running out of

Tinkly forgive my ignorance but what's the worry re becoming like Singapore?

what's the worry re becoming like Singapore?
Singapore is a city state.
It imports all of its food and does not have industry or agriculture or fishing.
It is a one party state
It has no social safety net for the disabled - it has one for the poor but its dire
so if you want to be like Singapore, you have to ignore the human rights and jobs and welfare of a lot of Brits
which Rees Mogg is quite openly happy about

Singapore - human rights not really on the agenda, precarious workers' rights, great if you are wealthy, pretty rubbish if not.

ah, I see, thanks.

Less than two-thirds of the population of Singapore are citizens. The Singaporean Model is dependent on high-paid foreign execs jetting in and out, and low-paid workers with no right of residence.

I think your post is pointless even to discuss. Because regardless of what life was like before the EU, we were in the EU so extracting ourselves doesn’t ever equal going back to what it was like before the EU. It’s impossible. Read below for an explanation.

www.thepoke.co.uk/2018/11/16/you-wont-find-a-better-metaphor-for-brexit-than-this-one-involving-cake/

I wonder where the wonky veg story, as referenced by Peli upthread, has come from? Because a woman told me exactly the same last week.

As someone who has spent quite a lot of time in various European supermarkets (long cheap camping holidays with the kids), one of the first things you notice is that fruit and veg is much less uniform and conventionally perfect there than in the UK, presumably more emphasis being put on taste.

It struck me very much as an argument that would only have any legs amongst people who had not spent much time in Europe.

I wonder where the wonky veg story, as referenced by Peli upthread, has come from? Because a woman told me exactly the same last week.

Sainsburys (other supermarkets are available) actually used the phrase in a marketing campaign instore a couple of years ago. I can see how it could be conflated with Brexit and a fairystory about some mythical EU regulations.

Personally, I think OFCOM should be taking "news" papers to regulatory task for knowingly publishing made-up stories. People paying for news deserve better. Whilst it's probably not good in the long run, the decline of sales of printed "news" papers is good news for consumers. As Oscar Wilde said, The only thing worse than fake news, is having to pay for fake news.

Tinkly "It struck me very much as an argument that would only have any legs amongst people who had not spent much time in Europe."

I don't know what the percentages are but a lot of us haven't spent time in Europe. I question everything I read so I wouldn't think that wonky veg story made sense. But in some ways, your reply sums up the divide - how much does "Europe" mean to many people, I wonder?

And I do see that a vote for economic union wasn't the same as ever closer union etc.

I live in London, I think it's already Singapore here to a large extent. Plus the amount of money some people seem to have just staggers me.

It struck me very much as an argument that would only have any legs amongst people who had not spent much time in Europe

An amusing counterpoint there, to the peoples of ancient Rome (and Greece) being told wild tales of Britain being somehow beyond the seas and a land of mystery . Which was just as much bollocks as bent bananas. Britain has been open for business since the Bronze age. Why else would Jesus have visited ?

And I do see that a vote for economic union wasn't the same as ever closer union etc.

Except the literature at the time specifically mentioned it ...

www.harvard-digital.co.uk/euro/pamphlet.htm

Rossetti you are on a roll on this thread.