At 0816 today, Lord Stuart Rose claimed 50% of UK exports go to Europe, and implied that our exports to the Non-EU BRIC countries don’t really matter. Stuart, the UK hasn’t relied on the EU for half our exports since 1992! Exports to the EU are only 43% and still falling. The rest of world now takes 57% of our exports – and we have a £27 billion surplus with the BRIC and non-EU countries. By contrast, we have a £62 billion DEFICIT with the EU.
Unilever says its 7,500 UK jobs will not suffer in case of Brexit – Unilever, the consumer goods group behind Persil and Magnum ice-creams, has said it will not scale back its UK operations if Britain votes to leave the EU. The comments from Paul Polman, the chief executive of the Anglo-Dutch business, echo those of Akio Toyoda, his counterpart at Toyota, who said the Japanese carmaker would continue to produce cars in Derbyshire even if Britain left.
Rocco Forte of Forte Hotels says today he believes an EU exit would increase, rather than diminish, Britain’s world role. “If we could opt out of the EU’s social policy and be sure we could keep control of our tax system into the future, I could change my mind – but all in all, I believe we’d be better off with just a trading relationship,” he is due to say. “If we went it alone it would increase our reputation and clout in the world, not reduce it. The president of China came here because we’re Britain, not because we’re part of the EU.”
Today the Head of the pro-EU ‘Britain IN’ campaign, Lord Stuart Rose says EU business is worth £133bn to 200,000 ‘British’ exporters would be at risk. But for every £3 of trade UK firms do in the EU, foreign EU companies sell £5’s worth to the UK. That means if the EU discriminates against an independent UK, approximately 333,000 EU exporters would lose £220bn worth of business in the UK. No wonder Lord Rose refused to take any questions from journalists at the media launch of the pro-EU ‘IN’ campaign on 12 October 2015.
| EU politicians are still failing to act to stop to stop the dumping of Chinese steel from a country that is not a market economy. This failure to act in the face of the jobs carnage is intolerable. This why GMB is joining a protest in Brussels outside the next EU talking shop to demand action not endless meetings – Micheal Blench, GMB regional officer. |
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