Brexit makes us so weak that we will pander to bullies, such as Donald Trump. It’s bad for trade, bad for the NHS, bad for our pride and bad for our influence in the world.
The US president is playing with us. In an interview with Nigel Farage on LBC, he said he couldn’t do a trade agreement with us because of the divorce deal Boris Johnson had already cut with the EU. In virtually the same breath, he said that we could do four or five times as much trade with America after Brexit.
Both statements are nonsense. There’s nothing in Johnson’s divorce deal that stops an agreement with America. That’s because our Prime Minister hasn’t reached any deal with the EU about trade, with the exception of his decision to turn Northern Ireland into an EU colony. Trade for Great Britain, 97% of the population, is to be discussed in future talks that could grind on for years.
Meanwhile, Trump is plucking numbers out of thin air to seduce Brexiters into a trade deal that’s great for America but bad for Britain. It’s all about farmers and pharma. He wants to pry open our markets to US food such as chlorine-washed chicken – and to push up the price the NHS pays for US-made drugs.
The US president told Farage it was “ridiculous” to say he wanted anything to do with our health service. But drug pricing has been discussed in six initial meetings between US and UK trade officials, according to an investigation by Channel 4 Dispatches.
If Brexit goes ahead, we are not just going to have to put up with nonsense on trade from Trump. We’ll be under pressure to kowtow on geopolitics, even when he doesn’t have our interests at heart. Remember how the US president is resisting action against the climate crisis, goading Iran and weak on Russia.
What’s more, we’ll have to suck up to bullies elsewhere. We’ll be so desperate to cut trade deals with other countries that we’ll turn a blind eye to their human rights abuses or bad environmental practices. By contrast, if we stay in the EU, we will have the clout to stand up to bullies everywhere and will be able to hold our heads high.
The US president wants Johnson to team up with Farage to fight the election, calling the two of them an “unstoppable force”. Although the Brexit Party leader is keen on such a deal, the Prime Minister is so far resisting.
Whatever happens with this putative pact of the devils, one thing is clear. Brexit is bad for Britain – and the only way to stop it is to make sure Johnson doesn’t get a majority on December 12. Vote for the candidate in your constituency with the best chance of beating the Tory.
Edited by James Earley
It looks like the Tory and Brexit parties have got off to a flying start – such warm intelligent praise and criticism to boot from air-head Trump in one breath, followed up by a Nigel-loud-voice-Farage tantrum with Alex hmm Boris Plonker about the Tory’s Brexit deal being not what he wants. Aw.. what a shame .. dumdy … dumdy ..
No one has yet measured the influence of this on the population. Nevertheless most Brits don’t like Trump in any shape or form or what he stands for. Regarding Nigel’s threat to compete with the Tories in all 650 constituencies is not exactly the cleverest of strategies when the Brexiters of this world are trying to win an election.
Let’s have more of this – it’s great sport!