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Godders Speaks Out!

Brown\’s job loss claim "nonsense"

Claims by Gordon Brown that Britain needs to be part of the EU or 3.5 million people risk losing their jobs were dismissed today as "mind bogglingly dumb."

UKIP MEP and economist Godfrey Bloom said the claim was so daft he didn\’t know where to begin pointing out its nonsense.

"I will give Gordon Brown £1000 if he could point to any private sector job which would be lost as a consequence of Britain leaving political union with Brussels and joining EFTA" he said.

"Such a statement as his is on par with someone addressing the NASA conference and claiming that the moon was made of green cheese.

"Apart from the fact that we have a trade deficit with the EU, does he really think that companies such as Mercedes would stop trading with Britain if we governed ourselves?

"We have a trade surplus with America and yet we aren\’t in political union, and I\’m sure I\’ve seen people driving Japanese cars and yet we don\’t let them make our laws for us.

"Mr Brown really needs to go back to his book on \’economics for dummies\’ because the man does not have a clue."

"Given that the Commission have estimated that the cost of EU regulation on business is £405 billion a year, I would say that businesses would weather the storm better without that millstone around their neck."

5 thoughts on “Godders Speaks Out!”

  1. OTOH, I’d give Godfrey Bloom £1000 if he could name one EU ‘millstone’ that UK business would lose if we joined EFTA and continued to trade with the EU.

    *Either* our business is bound by EU regulations, *or* we stop doing the majority of our trade with the EU. Our own EU membership is almost entirely irrelevant to the economic debate.

    Tim adds: I’m not Godders (obviously) but within your statement above lies the point. Those goods which we export to the EU (note, less than a majority of our export trade in goods and services, once transhipment through Rotterdam etc taken into account) will still be bound by the regulations for the sale of goods in the EU. As our exports to the US are bound by the rules there, to China by the rules there etc. However, our domestic consumption (the majority of our economy I think still?) would be free of such EU impositions. Thus I claim my £1,000.

  2. “However, our domestic consumption (the majority of our economy I think still?) would be free of such EU impositions.”

    But if we’re in EFTA we’re still bound by EU rules on trade and on goods production anyway! It’s only the political/free movement/CAP aspects of EU that we’d escape (along with any ability to help shape policy in these areas).

    If we don’t join EFTA, then we’re indeed only bound by EU rules (plus tariffs) for our EU exports – but that’s not the case that Bloom made.

  3. “3.5 million people risk losing their jobs” So now we know how many Polish plumbers there are in the UK.

  4. There is no particular reason why we should join anything when we come out of the EU. We can have trading agreements. The problem with the Single Market, as Tim points out, that its rules apply to every part of the economy, whether it trades with other countries in it or not. That means that about 92 per cent of the economy, which does not trade with other EU countries for whatever reason has to implement the rules.

    As for the 3.5 million jobs, even if the figure is accurate, at most they will be lost if we stop trading with the Single Market countries and cannot trade with anyone else. Nothing to do with EU membership. Is this the best argument Brown can manage after all these years?

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