Gearing up for a no-deal Brexit

Daily Brexit Update: Wednesday 22nd August 2018

The UK government is due to release the first of the 84 expected papers laying out the contingency plans to deal with a WTO Brexit.

Writing in Market Watch, Bart Oosterveld gives us his opinion on the five main areas to watch in a no-deal Brexit:

The UK fallback position on key issues such as the Irish border and freedom of movement.
Domestic political instability.
The impact on UK trade.
The economic impact on the country.
Financial volatility.

The conclusions do stress the uncertainty etc, but change always brings uncertainty and in this case will also bring the opportunity to lower tariffs and so lower prices for consumers, especially the poorest consumers, as Martin Howe QC points out in an excellent article for Brexit Central.

In his piece he says that many of the scare stories circulating the news are based on a claim that the UK will be putting large tariffs on imports so forcing prices up. But as he points out, we do not have to do that, in fact we do not have to put tariffs on anything at all.

His sensible proposal to which I hope the government is listening, is to only impose tariffs on imports where the UK has a significant production interest. Also, because we would be keeping 100% of the tariffs collected instead of sending 80% of them to the EU, those tariffs required could be quite low.

The International Trade Secretary, Dr Liam Fox, welcomes the recent boost in exports and wants to push it higher:

Last year 🇬🇧 businesses exported £620bn of goods and services – 30% of GDP.
Our new export strategy will help to increase that to 35% of GDP.
Here's how we can help 👉 https://t.co/LSt84QNlPy #ExportStrategy #ExportingIsGREAT pic.twitter.com/5CDRbDU7mq

— Dr Liam Fox MP (@LiamFox) August 21, 2018

The UKIP leader, Gerard Batten, says that the outfit the the former UKIP leader, Nigel Farage, is joining up with, does not have all the answers:

Leave Means Leave's website says what Brexit should be like, but it doesn't say anything about how to achieve it. The only way to fight for real Brexit is to make UKIP an electoral threat again. LML is predominantly made up of Tory MPs who will stay Tories whatever happens.

— Gerard Batten MEP (@GerardBattenMEP) August 22, 2018

While Nigel Farage gives his reaction to the news that UK open borders with the EU are likely to stay open (video):

And the scare-mongering continues! Trying to scare little children that they won't get their medicines! The UK can buy what it wants from around the world when it wants. The sellers will not withhold them! (Video):

Finally, it's well worth reminding ourselves about Superdry: