Still fighting the last battle ...

It's evidently a slow news day. Some pro-remain papers had a retrospective go at the Leave campaign this morning over their exaggerated claim during the referendum last year that the UK sends £350 million a week to the EU.

Not to be outdone, the BBC fact checkers had a go at both sides, saying,

"EU Cost: why £350 million and £156 million per week are both wrong."

The BBC is right to say that we do not "send to Brussels" either of these figures in the sense that the former is the approximate value of a purely notional gross contribution, and Maggie Thatcher's rebate is deducted before anything is paid.

£156 million a weeks was the net contribution - Britain actually sent £252 million a week to the EU in 2016 but received back £96 million of EU spending in the UK.

The net contribution is a far more representative measure of the net cost to the UK of payments to the EU than a notional gross contribution millions of pounds of which was never actually paid, but if you are going to nit-pick over the exact words used the amount we "sent to Brussels" was the actual gross contribution e.g. £252 million a week.

But come on guys, the referendum was more than a year ago.

And since then we have had a general election in which the two main parties standing on a platform of implementing Brexit increased their share of the vote and got well over 80% of votes and seats between them, while the anti-Brexit parties (the Lib/Dems and SNP) both did very badly.

Isn't it high time for both sides to stop fighting the last battle and concentrate on making the best of the present situation?

Whether we like it or not Brexit is going to happen.

I don't, but as a democrat I respect the decision of the electorate.

Let's try to get the best and fairest deal for everyone on both sides that we can.

Comments

Jim said…
yes, it is, been saying that since 24th June last year.

how do you solve a problem, well you look at what is possible, then you try to negotiate it. it really is that simple.

You can never get 10 people in a room to agree what they want, you just have do what is do-able.

many many moons ago, Dr Richard North decided to enter a competion from the IEA. Now he turned immediatly to his blog and commenters to aid him. Sure the IEA changed the rules following the quarter final round, ruling out his plan, but it grew and grew anyway and became Flexcit (Flexible approach and Continuous Development). Now it started out asking what people wanted, this went no where as no one could agree, so instead it tried the approach of what is possible and workable, from there it grew and grew.

Flexcit is not exactly what I personally want, but it leads us in the direction of that over time. That is the key point, its workable, and would not wreck the country over a whim of "brexit means brexit, and no free movement of people, and no EEA" which to be done overnight is silly.
Chris Whiteside said…
I think things are moving in that direction - even if the Chancellor is getting a lot of flak from the, shall we say less adaptable wing of the Brexit movement, for pushing us towards it.

Popular posts from this blog

Nick Herbert on his visit to flood hit areas of Cumbria

Quotes of the day 19th August 2020

Quote of the day 24th July 2020