At last week’s Tory Conference, Prime Minster Theresa May confirmed that the government will trigger Article 50, the beginning of the formal two year process by which the UK leaves the EU, before the end of March 2017.
With the Brexit touchpaper now well and truly alight, we asked our readers what the priorities for industry should be.
Topping the poll at 43 per cent was single market access, something that is looking increasingly less likely as the ‘hard Brexit’ option gains momentum. A hard Brexit will in theory give the UK better control of its borders, but could also lead to a loss of inward investment. Almost a quarter of respondents (24 per cent) believe the government’s priority should be to support indigenous industry, in preparation for the reduction in foreign direct investment that is anticipated.
Access to skilled workers was the next most popular option at 16 per cent. The UK has set out immigration control as its major priority, but has also been quick to point out that skilled labour will be welcomed where it is needed. However, it remains to be seen how the post-Brexit economic and political climate will affect the UK’s ability to attract such labour.
Just three per cent of readers thought guaranteeing compensation for potential EU tariffs should be a priority, while 14 per cent voted ‘none of the above’. It’s a debate that is sure to roll on for many months to come, and one that we’ll no doubt be returning to here. In the meantime, please feel free to add your thoughts in the comments section below.
Most TV debates found it hard to get away from the issue of immigration, so wouldn’t it be political suicide for May to negotiate single market access with free movement that is seemingly inextricably attached, in the thoughts of the Euro bureaucrats. It seems to me that the UK will have to accept some form of tariff for this anti-immigration stance that has be placed on our politicians, by the general public.
There is no need to carry-on with this fear campaign. The Brexit path will be long and tortuous, but negotiations cannot be done in the press. The press can assist by reminding our leaders of the manufacturing industry collapse that they have presided over for the last 2 decades and their other numerous short-sighted policies.
I wish that I had more confidence in our civil service, but they can easily cause the same damage whether in or out of the EU…… guess that I’m becoming more cynical.
The main priority should be to abandon the stupid Brexit idea altogether, call a general election and stop pretending there’s a way out which will not cause massive damage to the UK.
The collapse of the euro is much more probable than the collapse of the UK economy. Just be patient. Once the brexit is done, many other countries will follow.
The people have spoken ! end of story.
Are you anti democracy? Accept that the public have voted to leave the EU and do what you can to make it as successful as possible.
We do not need access to the single market, that is an EU institution ‘with strings attached’. we need a suitable trade deal that works equally well for the UK and our EU trading partners.
As one of the worlds biggest free, independent sovereign nations I fully expect that we will get one that works for us as well as our German and French car makers and Italian wine merchants.
Investors will be falling over themselves to get into the new UK PLC and all the free-trade in ROW that will bring.
Accept that this has happened and ‘move on!’
Amazing that you think that we do not need access to our greatest trading partner which represents 45% of our trade and supports the financial services which have crucially underpinned our economy in recent years. Trade deals are not trivial to set up, you know, even for those countries which, unlike us, have the skills to negotiate them.
Myself & my wife voted remain but we believe in democracy so out is out, if you don’t like it move to France or Ireland or Poland. Teresa May and her team will do the best they can we don’t need a general election we don’t have an opposition party worth anything and I have voted Labor most of my life, now retired.
Excellent idea. Kick those skills out who don’t agree with the masses. Good luck.
The best that May and her team could do is to recognise that the minuscule Brexit majority was made up of an amalgam of different misconceptions and prejudices and should not be used as a mandate to put the stability of the country at risk.
Mother Teresa and her team who don’t want to involve parliament in the most important decision this country has faced in a generation. Everything done behind closed doors, no scrutiny of the negotiation process or the eventual deal that will be struck. The hypocrisy is mind blowing. On the other hand the European parliament (supposedly the anti-democracy) that passed a motion on the 28th. June that will give it full access to all information regarding the negotiations and will eventually vote on the outcome.
Where is the sovereignty this parliament was promised. It sounds more like a dictatorship and nothing else.
I believe in democracy too – parliamentary democracy. Not direct democracy which went out with the ancient Greeks and it didn’t work then. If you had a referendum to abolish income tax it would get majority support but that doesn’t make it a good idea!
I am British and proud to be so,however, due to family reasons and work situations I have been an “ex pat” for about 30 years and living and working in Europe, mostly in the Nordic countries. Despite serving 9 years in the British Army (Royal Engineers) I was not able to vote in the referendum. At the moment, due to the Brexit decision, my chances of employ in the EU and even UK seem to be pretty limited, i.e. I am British, so the potential EU employers are sitting on the fence,the potential UK employers do not seem to be interested as I have been out of the UK for so long- even though I have good qualifications in CAD/ CAM(wood industry) and Architectural design. I have considered the possibility of returning to the UK , but as the situation is as it is ,at the moment; I say one thing……. I am Sir, and will remain, an Englishman abroad!
I worry that our politicians and the press seem to adopt a simplistic primary-school approach to negotiating new trade deals. They imply that it’s all about import tariffs. Those of us closer to the ‘coal face’ know that it’s chiefly about the hidden non-tariff barriers to trade which generally require a technical understanding of the position.
Remember the time when it was virtually impossible to export to Germany without meeting expensive onerous DIN standards? Millions of hours of negotiations within the EU have now swept away those hidden barriers – much of the work having been led by the UK. Don’t let it all go to waste. Please!
As a German I can help you to comply with German standards – for a fee.
I believed in democracy when I voted to remain in the 70’s But that didn’t stop the Eurosceptics campaigning to change that for the last 40 years. But now the those that voted remain are supposed to shut up. One rule for them and another for us!!
I voted in the 70’s referendum – voting for the European Economic Community not what it became – the European Economic Union and the European Union.
If we were still looking at the option of in or out of the EEC rather than in or out of the EU,
I think we would have remained by quite a margin, but the EU is a political concept which can only work by reaching its end-goal of the United States of Europe with central government
and legal systems.
The priorities for the engineering industry are the same today as they were two weeks ago and last May – to be productive, efficient, and profitable in an attempt to minimise imported products. The fact that a timetable to leave the EU has now been declared is largely irrelevant.
Can someone explain to me why the pound has fallen in value on that announcement considering it was known that it would happen and actual Brexit is more than two years away. This is the real problem in this country, the banking industry and economic forecasts from people using inaccurate models.
The problems ahead; sinking pound will in several months time increase costs and inflation; there will be some loss of globally mobile uk young people; rising worldwide protectionism; instability within the UK vis a vis Scotland/NI , problems will arise re Gibraltar & Falkland Islands, inward investment will drop, borrowing will rise further.
International trade deals will take years and because of the Uk’s position, they will not be good quality deals. I have yet to see anything positive other than the musings of those with rose tinted specs on.
As there is a shortage of skills industry should start with a training program. From apprentice to university internships, holiday jobs for high school students, old hands teach newcomers, training in new technologies for all employees, cross-department training (HR should have a clue what engineers are doing), mentors within the company, etc. etc.
And start improving on the wages. Give living wage even to university interns and student part timers. It’s not a large amount, and costs far less than many ad campaigns, but you’ll build on your reputation. And the students will be able to finish uni faster and come back to work for you.
With regard to trade: maintain sterling at competitive levels.
With regard to skills: new comprehensive partnership between industry, training institutions and the state.
The former can be controlled by the BoE reasonably easily and local heating or cooling via regional taxation.
The latter requires the state and industry to start taking responsibility and not falling back on the cheap and easy importation of immigrant labour. It requires planning, investment and cooperation and coordination. All great things, which industry needs to re-learn.
What people like you don’t understand is the multitude of layers of immigrant labour.
Agricultural industry could not survive without migrants.
The hospitality industry could not survive without migrants.
The NHS could not survive without migrants.
I could go on and list the financial sector and higher education as well as IT.
Numerous studies found immigration to contribute positively to the economy.
It is really sad for a trading nation like the UK to turns its back on foreigners and become inward looking. The UK can easily afford high immigration levels. Compared with Germany which saw one million refugees (on top of ordinary migrants) arriving last year, the UK really hasn’t anything to complain about. The curious thing is that areas with an extremely low level of immigration were the most enthusiastic to vote for Brexit… Of course, it does not help when the British press (Mail, Express and others) have been bashing the EU for a number of decades now. And of course it does not help when a lot of people feel left behind thanks to continued Austerity measures. The EU provides a convenient scapegoat for everything.
Democracy does not mean that everyone bows to the will of a small “majority”. It means that you respect the views of people who disagree with you.
The “majority” for the Brexit vote was minute, especially if you include abstainers. If the dimwitted and unelected Mrs May wants a hard Brexit, the “remainers” in her own party, and elsewhere, will punish the Tories at the next election, as they despatched the Lib Dems last time around.
Bring it on. (Retired and more keen than ever on voting Labour.)
A number of issues seem to be being conflated in the comments above. I was a reluctant remainer in the referendum but I do take issue with a number of things that are being said by people who clearly voted remain.
1. The ‘minute majority’ was a majority. I have voted in every general election since I was 17 years old. Some went the way that I wanted and some didn’t. However, I didn’t resort to disparaging the people who voted the other way and demanding a new election. Democracy is democracy and we can’t re-write the rules every time we disagree with the outcome.
2. The people who voted leave were not idiots who were fooled by the leave campaign. They voted leave, in the main, because they felt that the advantages of the EU were doing nothing for them and change was needed.
3. The people who voted leave are, in the main, not racists. They voted for control of their own borders rather than control by Brussels.
We regards to trade deals, single market access, movement of workers, the rights of workers already in the country, etc., a deal or deals will be done. It is in no one’s interest for the 2nd largest economy in Europe to be diminished by the EU. Germany wants to continue selling cars and machine tools into the UK, France wants to continue shipping cars, boats, wine, cheese and clothing to the UK, Italy wants to continue shipping ceramics, shoes, wine, foods into the UK. There is no doubt that a deal or deals will be done.
I started this reply by stating that I had been a reluctant remainer – reluctant because whilst I really value the free trade aspect of the EU and I really don’t value the aspiration for everything to be run from Brussels by faceless bureaucrats. On balance I thought that we were probably better off in. However, the country vote out and we should respect that and get on with it.
You are right, the country voted out, but out of what? Out of the single market? everything at the moment points to a hard Brexit or actually to call it by its true name, chaotic Brexit. All in the name of keeping a few foreigners out. Do you really think people voted for this? This government is hell bent to keep the negotiations as secret as possible. No scrutiny by parliament allowed, not to mention the Lords. This whole thing stinks. The people deciding the future of this country are a bunch of extreme Brexiters who will not compromise for fear of a few foreigners. By the way, this country may currently not be able to stop Europeans coming to this country but what has been conveniently overlooked in this whole sorry debate is the other half of migrants coming to Britain: They include people from India, Pakistan and China. A sovereign country like the UK can impose stricter controls on people from outside the EU at any time. Why is the UK not discussing this issue?
Mathew, I think that you are making the same mistake that most of our politicians made in the run up to the referendum. In the main when people voted to leave the EU they didn’t do it to ‘keep a few foreigners out’. I have asked a lot of people who voted out why they did so, and the answers have been pretty consistent; a profound desire for our politicians to change the way that the country is going. The globalisation of the economy has left many areas of the UK in dire straits – the fact that London and the South East is doing well is no comfort to them. The issue of ‘keeping out a few foreigners’ did motivate some people, but the ones that I have talked to viewed this as a secondary issue. However, they appear to have wanted their elected politicians to be in control of the country’s borders rather than Brussels being in control. The fact that no one is making a fuss about people coming from India, China, Australia, etc. backs up the argument that it is not immigration per se that worries most of the vote leave people, rather it is the ability to control it or not.
Further to what I said above, this is the latest from the German economy minister as reported in today’s press:
Germany’s economy minister Sigmar Gabriel has said that the European Union should try to keep Britain as close as possible in negotiations on their future relationship following the Brexit vote – even keeping the door open to a possible return.
Speaking at an industry event in Berlin on Thursday, Mr Gabriel said it was important to make clear that full access to the bloc’s single market was ultimately linked to accepting freedom of movement.
“But this should not prevent us from trying to do everything to keep the Britons as close as possible to Europe. This must be our goal,” Gabriel said.
“recognise that the minuscule Brexit majority was made up of an amalgam of different misconceptions and prejudices…” So, nothing new there! ‘Our present system (Party dominated) was caused (It was certainly not designed) by the need to ‘send’ members to a Parliament (-parl-from the Medieval French -to talk face to face with each other.) Hence and thence the apparent skills necessary to ‘shout – and harangue’ across the ‘floor’ to force an ‘opinion/view’ to Hon? members: and if that fails rely upon the jury of purchased persuasion ‘elected’ every 5 years or so? to let absurdities through on the nod? And there are still persons who want to continue with this farce: indeed would contemplate ‘nuking’ the entire planet to prove they are right. Lunatics, asylum and take-over come to mind.
“….the banking industry and economic forecasts from people using inaccurate models.”
What in heaven’s name is ‘the banking industry? Is it similar to the Insurance, estate agent, legal, accident claims, accounting, services, financial planning,,,,and other ‘pi**pot’ attempts to give credibility to the manipulation of words and numbers as opposed to fibre, film, field and farm, ferrous, (get those illiterations?) ie: proper industrial activity aimed at greating true wealth as opposed to just profit! Adding value, not just adding a bigger number.