Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Trade deals...


Nice simple explanation of international trade deals and how they tend to work from Oxford Professor of Economic Governance, Ngaire Woods, rational, evidence based and makes total sense.

Arguments like this form the platform upon which I base my decision to vote "remain", the woolly, emotionally charged "take back control" argument from the other side seems sketchy, risky and without any concrete basis in fact. To me it sounds like more of a plea for what some people would like to be true with no clear way of determining if "control" is even the problem, let alone the solution. As a business owner with no particular axe to grind in terms of direct revenue from Europe or not I can say with certainty that if we exit, the very best case scenario is that the kinds of big companies we sell to will suspend major expenditure for at least a period of several months, possibly longer, to see what will happen. This will potentially hurt my firm and depending on the timing may even affect the local people that I employ; the exit side have given me nothing to suggest why we'd want to do that or what positive benefits I could expect as a result, other than a highly suspect claim that we might be twenty quid a month better off  (whoopty-doo!)

Vote remain!

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