The Hard Data: "Brexit" Means Catastrophe and Anarchy for Britain...
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Nearly one in three British businesses are planning to relocate some of their operations abroad or have already shifted them to cope with a hard Brexit, according to a leading lobby group.
A third of British firms are either considering, or actively planning on, moving operations abroad because of Brexit:
Activated relocation plans or planning to 16%
Considering relocation 13%
Relocating but not because of Brexit 6%
No Brexit-related relocation plans 62%
Don't know 3%
Source: Institute of Directors (IoD).
The Institute of Directors (IoD) warned that 29% of firms in a survey of 1,200 members believed Brexit posed a significant risk to their operations in the UK and had either moved part of their businesses abroad already or were planning to do so.
More than one in 10 had already set up operations outside the UK as the prospect of a no-deal Brexit becomes more likely amid Westminster gridlock. Most firms considering a move were looking to open offices inside the European Union, said the IoD, which represents 30,000 firms.
Each day the news gets worse, not forecasts, but actuality. Today it’s the UK motor manufacturers reporting a 50% drop in investment last year and Barclays whisking £166bn of assets off to Dublin, joining a torrential outflow, including Jacob Rees-Mogg’s own investment company.
The Welsh assembly declared yesterday that if Westminster can’t agree, “the only option which remains is to give the decision back to the people” and “work should begin immediately on preparing for a public vote”. No sign of that sentiment in the Commons – but referendum campaigners always knew it would only be the last option when all else finally fails.
Ford says no-deal Brexit would mean costs of $800m in 2019 alone.
Parliament begins to look like it’s on a self-destruct mission which will take the whole country down with it.
But outside there are plenty of supporters egging them on waving cheery “No Deal – No Problem” placards. No bad news shifts them or the Brexit fanatics within. Certainly not the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, warning EU leaders yesterday to “prepare for the worst”.
Today it looks crystal clear that delaying withdrawal beyond 29 March is utterly unavoidable, as the foreign secretary confirmed on Radio 4’s Today programme.
The Institute for Government (IFG) lists six crucial bills that cannot pass in time, let alone more than 500 statutory instruments. Most haven’t begun in the Lords, where the government doesn’t control the timetable and each needs serious scrutiny. Flashing red on the IFG implementation charts is unreadiness at the borders, with 10 out of 12 border computer systems unready.
There are red flashes for how farmers and fishers can sell their produce to the EU in eight weeks’ time.
Red too for medicines and medical supplies.
Red again for security: no swapping fingerprints, data or DNA, so will criminals escape across the channel? A legal vacuum is actual – not metaphorical – anarchy.