The UK economy still can’t cope with the consequences of Brexit

by marketrent

6 comments
  1. The UK inflation rate is the highest in the G7, with consumer prices rising 6.8% in July compared with a year ago. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pledged to halve inflation this year to around 5%.

    Notably, the UK government on Tuesday delayed implementation of some rules so as to “give stakeholders additional time to prepare for the new checks.”^1

    >The UK government has delayed health and safety checks on food imports from the European Union for the fifth time in three years amid fears that the extra controls will push up food prices and disrupt vital supplies.

    >The latest foot-dragging demonstrates that Britain is still struggling to come to terms with the painful consequences of leaving the European Union in January 2020, which has piled costs on UK businesses and weighed on trade, investment and, ultimately, economic growth.

    The London School of Economics previously released their findings that Brexit was responsible for about a third of UK food price inflation since 2019, adding nearly £7 billion (US$8.8 billion) to Britain’s grocery bill.

    ^1 https://edition.cnn.com/2023/08/29/economy/uk-food-imports-safety-brexit

  2. At some point the UK is going to need to own its problems. What did we do with the oil money? squandered it lowering rich peoples taxes. What did we do with our social housing? sell it and refuse to build more. Our largest trading partner? we left them. The NHS? privatised and sold off as much as possible.

    The article is about food imports, something that has been directly impacted by Brexit. But the attitude of our political class, it’s just shockingly bad. As long as they continue to rule, it’s just going to keep happening. There will be further decline and more state assets striped off and sold for pennies.

  3. What kind of buzzword nonsense is “cope” in this context… is inflation higher potentially because of it? Maybe, is the country in recession and crippled, no. What inane nonsense.

  4. The reason for these delays is not that they fear the UK economy can’t cope with these new costs (i.e. whether UK consumers could afford the higher prices). If that had been the case then the UK government would be trying to negotiate a single market agreement right now. They are not. They are merely seeking to delay the moment when the costs become apparent.

    The actual reason for these delays is that the UK government can’t cope with the political fallout of the consequences of Brexit. Hence why they simply delay, ensuring that these new problems only become apparent after the elections. Whether they win or lose them, it won’t be their problem.

    The UK government doesn’t really care about the economy, otherwise it would not have implemented Brexit. It merely cares about the optics of the economic damage, the political effect on their chances for re-election. This probably mirrors their reason for supporting it in the first place. Fundamentally, the UK government and the party that controls it is mendacious, irresponsible and self-serving, which is reflected in the handling of issues such as this.

  5. I think we need a change of govt to finally acknowledge the harsh reality of Brexit. it is a Tory project and they cannot admit the mess they have made.

    once that change happens only then we can start to work constructively to solve the issues.

    but it won’t happen whilst the govt is in denial.

    Also EU will likely be more accommodating once we stop treating them as an adversary and sending idiots like Frost to represent us…

  6. This is what the Leavers voted for but they’ll never admit it. Parroting the continued propaganda that they wanted to take back control of our laws, not even researching that 98% of pan-European laws were passed by our own Parliament or realising if it was always about sovereignty we’d actually be leaving NATO. Sovereignty is all they have left, sufficiently complex and unquantifiable to placate the gullibles.

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