Austin Mitchell: Ignore the fearmongers over Brexit vote

THE Great Brexit terror reminds me of research I did in 1959 about fluoridation of water supplies in New Zealand.
A taxi driver waves their flag in support of Brexit after the June 23 referendum.A taxi driver waves their flag in support of Brexit after the June 23 referendum.
A taxi driver waves their flag in support of Brexit after the June 23 referendum.

Of the first town which agreed to put fluoride in its water supply to prevent tooth decay a terrifying picture was painted of the likely effects: headache, nausea, bone collapse, cancer and blindness.

“F” day arrived and complaints from locals suffering all the foretold symptoms flowed in. Except that the fluoride hadn’t arrived. F day had been postponed.

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It’s much the same with Brexit. Remainers argue that we’ve made a terrible mistake which must be reversed. Their terrifying warnings are all materialising. Trade groups like cars and construction warn of rising prices and falling outputs and every emerging problem, including several that would have happened anyway, is blamed on Brexit.

Yet it hasn’t happened yet, and will not, for two years and more.

The fear manipulators have ignored crucial facts. Any government will take corrective measures when the economy slows.

Theresa May has already abandoned the deficit reduction programme and will borrow to finance essential work. The Bank of England will add even lower, possibly negative interest rates to this, and a new dollop of quantitative easing, though this time the Bank should buy back Government bonds issued to finance infrastructure work.

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The fear-mongers also ignored the fall in the pound from its unsustainably high levels. This is already stimulating exports and creating jobs in exporting industries and has further to go.

A competitive pound makes exports cheaper and imports (and foreign holidays) dearer. That’s the lesson we should have learned from the last Tory devaluation in 1992 when we were forced out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. That triggered growth and gave the economy a boost which lasted for several years.

As for the negotiations: calm down dears.

There’s much less to fear than the nattering nabobs of the media like to pretend. They want to build up tension while the scaredy cats of the City, constantly fearful of it losing its Taxhaven-on-Thames role, prophesize disaster.

It predicted the same in 1992 when we left the ERM and in 2003 when we didn’t join the euro. It was wrong then and wrong now.

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The City is in more danger from the greedy incompetence it showed in the case of shamed former BHS boss Sir Philip Green, and the dishonourable behaviour of the banks over rate fixing, than from any restrictions from the EU.

Its best selling point has to be efficiency and integrity, not its willingness to collude in corporate swindles, tax avoidance and huge fees for selling British assets.

As for manufacturing, it will keep its access to the single market. Britain is in deficit in manufactured trade so any restriction hurts them more than it hurts us, and in the unlikely event that the EU imposes the common external tariff against us, the devaluation will allow manufacturers to take it in their stride.

So all we have to lose is the onus of supporting French agricultural protectionism in every trade negotiation. That will make country by country deals a lot easier.

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This leaves immigration. We need it. It’s a driver of growth but the numbers do strain education, health, housing and social services.

So why not accept freedom of movement on short and (for the skilled) long term permits, provided the EU compensates us for the costs of upgrading the supporting services including housing? That will allow us to cope with the numbers coming with fewer social strains than we now have.

Politically all that would work. The Scots and Northern Ireland will go along if they get a fair deal.

The Tories are already coming back together and Mrs May has given the Brexit boys their chance to implement their dream. If they succeed she wins. If they don’t she can always fudge up a new compromise to be put in a second referendum.

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So the real problem is not whether Brexit will work but whether pro-EU opinion, particularly in the Labour Party, will accept the necessary changes or whether Remainers will attempt to negate the verdict of the people by prolonging the fight over a decision that’s been taken.

Austin Mitchell is the former Labour MP for Great Grimsby.

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