And to achieve their goal, they are, as Gauke puts it, "ripping up a far more advanced trade deal with a far more important market with far greater benefits to producers and consumers."
Brexit is, in my opinion, simply Europhobia dressed up as free trade. Things are very different now compared to when the corn laws were repealed. If there is to be any social progress on the environment, climate change, animal welfare, poverty, inequality and all the other things we need to change and improve and sustain the planet, there has to be regulation. And regulating costs money.
If we try always to do things in the cheapest way possible, there will never be real progress. Unless someone takes a lead and makes laws to force us to recycle more plastics, burn less fossil fuel or avoid the overuse of antibiotics, nothing will happen. The EU are trying slowly to make a difference. Let's face it, left to individuals and multi-nationals we would still be behaving as if it was 1960.
And if Brexiteers think there is some sort of deregulated Utopia waiting for us, I think they will soon have a shock. Gauke says:
"Deep down, the more realistic free-trading Brexiteers know [the EU gives far more benefits than any Australian FTA]. Perhaps they are comfortable prioritising “sovereignty” over minimising trade barriers or maybe they tell themselves that non-tariff barriers don’t really matter and therefore we do not need regulatory coordination to eliminate them. But they found themselves arguing for a course of action – leaving the EU – that was inconsistent with their sincere belief in free trade."
And he ends with this:
"If you see yourself as a bold economic reformer – whether a Peel or a Thatcher – what is your economic justification for Brexit? There is no viable deregulatory agenda and the £350m a week promised for the NHS was always bogus."
I think once this thought begins to dawn - that there is no crock of burdensome regulations waiting to be burned at the end of the Brexit rainbow - we will begin to see the folly of it all.
The Telegraph are perhaps beginning to see what they have unleased on The City of London with an article about how the European Central Bank is starting to turn the screw: The City refuses to back down as Brussels piles on the pressure. It claims that City bankers are increasingly voicing their frustration and many have chosen to quit rather than relocate to the Continent.
I think this may well be true, but it is not going to stop. The pressure to shift more staff and more assets into the bloc where they can be properly supervised for risk will be relentless. So far only about 7,600 jobs have gone and about £900bn in bank assets, roughly 10pc of the UK banking system, have been moved out of the UK as a result of Brexit.
But, the article says this is only the “day one” plans. Another wave of moves is coming – and the ECB has said banks can’t use the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to delay their plans any longer. The EU have been warning for years that they are not going to tolerate 'brass plate' operations.
“EU supervisors will want to ensure that banks relocate what they have already agreed with the ECB,” says William Wright, of think tank New Financial. “Second, they want to ensure that the substance of EU activity is conducted under the supervision of EU authorities.
"This is why we think the numbers so far are only the beginning. It is not hard to imagine these numbers doubling or tripling in the next few years. That said, let’s keep some perspective – if 10pc of the City were to have to relocate, that would be about 35,000 jobs, out of 1.1m in UK financial services.”
And laughably the Bank of England has warned Brussels against "plotting a protectionist power grab aimed at stealing business from the City" - this is presumably as opposed to the protectionist BoE trying to prevent more banks and financial institutions from moving out.
The article admits that in private conversations with Whitehall, bank executives say the talk largely ignores the elephant in the room: that more bank jobs and assets could be forced to go. They want the government instead to focus on ways UK financial services can become more competitive going forward.
The inescapable truth is that the EU is the bigger market and any lingering hopes that the ECB will allow it to be serviced from outside when they have the power to force companies to relocate or face being excluded, will soon be extinguished. Why would they not?
So, now the talk is not about how Brexit can make Britain more competitive by lifting the yoke and thus become suddenly wealthier with little effort, but how Britain will need desperately to find ways to become more competitive to counter the negative impact of Brexit and limit the damage.
The City apparently hope that impatient EU regulators are not about to make life harder. Personally, I wouldn't bank on that.
