Leave means leave is a pro-Brexit lobby group that came from the Vote Leave campaign. They have written a letter to Mrs May (HERE) pushing a hard Brexit with not the slightest regard for the interests of millions of ordinary consumers and workers in this country who rely on trade with the EU either as suppliers or customers.
The letter is signed by what they self importantly say is The Board of Leave means Leave. They cannot manage a brain cell amongst them. None of them have a background in manufacturing or cross border supply chains but they urge the prime minister to ignore the CBI (Confederation of British Industry) and prepare for a no deal exit. Indeed, they are "confident" the government is "actively preparing" for it. If they are, it is being done in the strictest secrecy presumably with invisible workers building invisible buildings to house all the additional customs facilities that we will need in just eighteen months time, to say nothing of the new computer systems.
The CBI and virtually every other business organisation and economist says leaving without a deal would be a catastrophe for the UK but Leave means Leave think they know better.
The board is made up of a number of VSPs (Very Stupid People) and they have collectively signed the letter. Here they are along with links to their Wikipedia entries.
Richard Tice is a property developer and fund manager who has a degree in construction economics and quantity surveying (basically counting things). Clearly no European manufacturing experience whatsoever. He is rich and won't be affected by a hard Brexit.
Simon Heffer is a journalist and has a PhD in History. This is useless in industry but it doesn't prevent him parading his ignorance regularly in the press
Peter Bone was an accountant apparently known for paying a trainee 87p per hour. He is now an MP and pays his wife £45,000 a year out of his parliamentary allowances.
Sir Gerald Howarth MP A banker (no, a Banker) and very right wing even down to supporting the Vietnam war. He was in banking from 1971 to 1983 when he entered parliament. He was a junior minister at the Environment department at the end of the nineties. Knowledge of real life = 0. Known for his homophobic opinions. Really, a model for swivel eyed, war mongering right winger.
David Jones solicitor from Ruthin, North Wales and also an MP. Thinks that Conveyancing qualifies him to offer advice on the whole of British industry.
David Campbell Bannerman former UKIP deputy leader wrote the 2010 party manifesto that Nigel Farage described as "drivel". He was an accountant and a UKIP MEP. Enough said I think.
Owen Paterson MP and former Secretary of State for the Environment. He has a degree in history, and before entering political life was sales director for leather goods then MD of another leather business. What is it with people with History degrees?
John Longworth. Former CEO of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) until he was forced to stand down for giving his own views of Brexit rather then the BCC's I have written about him so much in the past that I can't think of any more to say. A complete headbanger.
These people are the bovver boys of Brexit. They say that unless the EU begins serious trade negotiations by Christmas, we should inform them we will leave by March 2019 and trade on WTO terms.
After March 2019 we become a third country and almost whatever happens, apart from getting a transition period where nothing changes at all - something Leave means Leave is adamantly opposed to - there will be disruption to a great part of our trade. Even with a trade deal, and in the time left this is vanishingly unlikely, our exports will be subject to customs procedures and checks of various kind. There may not be tariffs but the non tariff barriers and delays will cause friction and trade will be hit.
But if we do as Leave means Leave suggest and quit with no deal under WTO terms we may face food shortages and a massive hit to trade with Europe. And as someone pointed out the other week, no government is ever more than three meals from revolution and anarchy. A report out in the last few days (HERE) suggest exports to the EU by key sectors in the UK economy could fall by 40% in a hard Brexit and the BCC now headed by sanity after Longworth's departure is calling (HERE) for a three year transition at least.
But Leave means Leave isn't interested in experts is it? All that matters is their hatred of our nearest trading partners across The Channel. What a mess. 542 days to go.
But Leave means Leave isn't interested in experts is it? All that matters is their hatred of our nearest trading partners across The Channel. What a mess. 542 days to go.
