People like financial journalist Matthew Lynn don't understand the EU. He writes that Europe is intent on regulating business out of existence (HERE). He confuses the creation of a level playing field with over-regulation. What he is arguing for is something akin to having football played without rules. Want a few more players on the pitch? No problem. What about several balls? Easy! No offside rule, tackling where anything goes? Stop complaining, you'll regulate the game out of existence.
What Europe is doing is creating a better world where people aren't worked to death and the environment is protected. Once, you begin pursuing a strategy where regulations are seen as a burden, you are in a race to the bottom. This might be OK for Mr Lynn but what about the people competing with a workers in India or Bangladesh? They might not be too pleased.
Thankfully, Mr Lynn's opinions aren't worth much. In 2016 he wrote a piece in The Spectator blog (HERE) saying the Bank of England's cut in interest rates just after the referendum risked what he called a "Brexit boom". At the time we were at the top of the G7 growth table. We are now at the bottom. Some boom.
Here's what he said on 4th August 2016:
"Here’s a prediction. Within a year, growth in the UK will be far ahead of the rest of Europe, and even our exports to the rest of the continent will be up. In fact, the real danger now is that the Bank has just taken us back to the old British vice of over-stimulating the economy with a demand-led blow-out. Very soon we will have forgotten about the Brexit bust – and be worrying that the Brexit boom has gotten out of control and will have to be reined in".
And he gets paid for this stuff.
