Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
The UK has the fifth largest economy in the world, and ranks 8th in global competitiveness.
It isn't going to become a basket case because of Brexit. |
No, the UK has been a basket case since 1918, at various times the descent has been breathtaking, 1925 and the Gold Standard (an act of hubris and mistaken belief in the UK's place in the world that cost the country 30% of its GDP and set up the rest of the 20th centuries decline) , 1945 to 1975 and the wholesale loss of major manufacturing lock step with the loss of empire, membership in the EU has slowed the decline, not stopped but slowed. What little is made in the UK is made by foreign companies using the UK as an offshore base for their EU operations, the UK has become over the last 40 years a high tech Bangladesh, making things for offshore companies.
Auto manufacturing, the UK's largest industry, its single largest export both within and without of the EU, its single largest non government employer, and yet not a single British company making cars at scale, every car company in the UK beyond the few exotics is Japanese French German or Indian, every company has stated they cannot survive in a non EU UK.
In that sense you are right, the UK isn't going to become a basket case because of Brexit, it has been a basket case for many many decades before the EU was formed.