Social Europe

politics, economy and employment & labour

  • Projects
    • Corporate Taxation in a Globalised Era
    • US Election 2020
    • The Transformation of Work
    • The Coronavirus Crisis and the Welfare State
    • Just Transition
    • Artificial intelligence, work and society
    • What is inequality?
    • Europe 2025
    • The Crisis Of Globalisation
  • Audiovisual
    • Audio Podcast
    • Video Podcasts
    • Social Europe Talk Videos
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Dossiers
    • Occasional Papers
    • Research Essays
    • Brexit Paper Series
  • Shop
  • Membership
  • Ads
  • Newsletter

Brexit Thoughts From The Lake District

by Charles Enoch on 18th September 2017

TwitterFacebookLinkedIn
Charles Enoch

Charles Enoch

Walking across the Lake District, we were many miles from the South-East England “bubble”. But the realities of possible Brexit were as stark here as anywhere, although few news items seem to have been given much national prominence.

In the principal local newspaper, the Westmoreland Star, it was reported that Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK) will review and postpone its earlier-announced doubling of output and expected increase of 350 jobs in the area. Further details make clear that this is due to the uncertainty caused by possible Brexit. GSK, as one of the world’s leading bio-pharmaceutical companies, would have been providing particularly high- quality jobs in one of the most promising sectors. In this as in many sectors, Brexit uncertainty reflects questions as to whether the UK would maintain regulatory standards equivalent to those of the EU (a far more important issue than relative tariff levels), with a canary indicator in the bio-pharmaceutical sector being the prospective move of the European Medical Agency from London.

In the Cumbrian village of Orton, and elsewhere, there are signs from BT advertising that the village has high-speed fiber optic connections. In a corner of the sign is the EU flag and the information that this was part financed by EU regional funds. This is just the sort of infrastructure enhancement that benefits communities – provided successfully most often by the EU.

Another potentially popular technological issue largely by-passed is that thanks to an EU decision, as of this summer, mobile roaming charges across the EU have to match those domestically. Thus, all the Brexiteers on their Mediterranean holidays have been able to use their cellphones as though they were in the UK. This is a significant demonstration of the benefits of the single market. I missed the big “thank you” that must have been offered in the national media.

Get our latest articles straight to your inbox!

"Social Europe publishes thought-provoking articles on the big political and economic issues of our time analysed from a European viewpoint. Indispensable reading!"

Polly Toynbee

Columnist for The Guardian

Thank you very much for your interest! Now please check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

Powered by ConvertKit

Meanwhile, walking across the Lake District, one sees endless hillsides with grazing sheep. We are told that the UK will negotiate free trade agreements across all sectors if we leave the EU. It is the case that government money is being used to train future trade negotiators, given that this was an extinct profession in the UK. But it is hard to think that a free trade agreement in agriculture with two of the favorite go-to partners, the United States and Australia, can be designed in such a way that they could not flood the UK with sheep products, in which they (particularly Australia) have a comparative advantage. The English countryside would never be the same again.

So, what was in the newspapers? The Daily Mail was leading with horror stories about plucky British holidaymakers having to undergo four-hour security checks in Spanish airports, and opining that this was Europeans “punishing” Britain for voting for Brexit. (Even the Daily Express did not go along with this nonsense: it pointed out that the delays were due to recently enhanced security procedures across Europe, but criticized the Spanish for implementing without first building up staff resources.)  Leaving aside the question as to why these uber-Brexiteers were holidaying in foreign parts anyway, one could say: “Welcome to Borders”. This is what you have voted to introduce for yourselves and for everything that you buy from the rest of the EU. Think of the queues of lorries that will back up in northern France as they each wait for inspections of every item—from fresh foods to motor vehicles—that now race through to fill our supermarkets and our showrooms. It is not punishment. It arises from the resurrection of a resource-heavy activity (border controls) that is bound, for conventional economic reasons, to be underfunded for the foreseeable future.

And the final craziness: to still think that a decision made narrowly at a single point in time cannot in a democracy be reversed as new information comes in and old information is exposed as having been deliberate lies. Endless repetition does not make a nonsense a reality, whether in the Lake District, on the intra-Ireland border, or in the UK as a whole.

TwitterFacebookLinkedIn
Home ・ Brexit Thoughts From The Lake District

Filed Under: Politics

About Charles Enoch

Charles Enoch is director of the political economy of financial markets programme at St Antony's College, Oxford. He was previously a deputy director at the International Monetary Fund.

Partner Ads

Most Popular Posts

sovereignty Brexit and the misunderstanding of sovereignty Peter Verovšek
globalisation of labour,deglobalisation The first global event in the history of humankind Branko Milanovic
centre-left, Democratic Party The Biden victory and the future of the centre-left EJ Dionne Jr
Covid 19 vaccine Designing vaccines for people, not profits Mariana Mazzucato, Henry Lishi Li and Els Torreele
EU recovery package,Next Generation EU Light in the tunnel or oncoming train? Adam Tooze

Other Social Europe Publications

US election 2020
Corporate taxation in a globalised era
The transformation of work
The coronavirus crisis and the welfare state
Whither Social Rights in (Post-)Brexit Europe?

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

Read FEPS Covid Response Papers

In this moment, more than ever, policy-making requires support and ideas to design further responses that can meet the scale of the problem. FEPS contributes to this reflection with policy ideas, analysis of the different proposals and open reflections with the new FEPS Covid Response Papers series and the FEPS Covid Response Webinars. The latest FEPS Covid Response Paper by the Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, 'Recovering from the pandemic: an appraisal of lessons learned', provides an overview of the failures and successes in dealing with Covid-19 and its economic aftermath. Among the authors: Lodewijk Asscher, László Andor, Estrella Durá, Daniela Gabor, Amandine Crespy, Alberto Botta, Francesco Corti, and many more.


CLICK HERE

Social Europe Publishing book

With a pandemic raging, for those countries most affected by Brexit the end of the transition could not come at a worse time. Yet, might the UK's withdrawal be a blessing in disguise? With its biggest veto player gone, might the European Pillar of Social Rights take centre stage? This book brings together leading experts in European politics and policy to examine social citizenship rights across the European continent in the wake of Brexit. Will member states see an enhanced social Europe or a race to the bottom?

'This book correctly emphasises the need to place the future of social rights in Europe front and centre in the post-Brexit debate, to move on from the economistic bias that has obscured our vision of a progressive social Europe.' Michael D Higgins, president of Ireland


MORE INFO

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

Renewing labour relations in the German meat industry: an end to 'organised irresponsibility'?

Over the course of 2020, repeated outbreaks of Covid-19 in a number of large German meat-processing plants led to renewed public concern about the longstanding labour abuses in this industry. New legislation providing for enhanced inspection on health and safety, together with a ban on contract work and limitations on the use of temporary agency employees, holds out the prospect of a profound change in employment practices and labour relations in the meat industry. Changes in the law are not sufficient, on their own, to ensure decent working conditions, however. There is also a need to re-establish the previously high level of collective-bargaining coverage in the industry, underpinned by an industry-wide collective agreement extended by law to cover the entire sector.


FREE DOWNLOAD

ETUI advertisement

ETUI/ETUC (online) conference Towards a new socio-ecological contract 3-5 February 2021

The need to effectively tackle global warming puts under pressure the existing industrial relations models in Europe. A viable world of labour requires a new sustainability paradigm: economic, social and environmental.

The required paradigm shift implies large-scale economic and societal change and serious deliberation. All workers need to be actively involved and nobody should be left behind. Massive societal coalitions will have to be built for a shared vision to emerge and for a just transition, with fairly distributed costs, to be supported. But this is also an opportunity to redefine our societal goals and how they relate to the current focus on (green) growth.

What targets or objectives should be set and how might they be reached? How can we create a sustainable European growth model? How can we reverse the trend towards growing inequalities? What kind of Green New Deal is a realistic and feasible prospect for Europe? What elements of justice, solidarity and equity constitute a fair and sustainable social foundation? What are the roles of the market, the state, industry and civil society? And what role can trade unions play to build a sustainable future that addresses all of these dimensions?


FOR PROGRAMME CLICK HERE

Confirmed speakers include: Ursula von der Leyen, Mariana Mazzucato, Nicolas Schmit, Dominique Meda, Tim Jackson, Juliet Schor, Frans Timmermans and many more.


TO REGISTER CLICK HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Industrial relations: developments 2015-2019

Eurofound has monitored and analysed developments in industrial relations systems at EU level and in EU member states for over 40 years. This new flagship report provides an overview of developments in industrial relations and social dialogue in the years immediately prior to the Covid-19 outbreak. Findings are placed in the context of the key developments in EU policy affecting employment, working conditions and social policy, and linked to the work done by social partners—as well as public authorities—at European and national levels.


CLICK FOR MORE INFO

About Social Europe

Our Mission

Article Submission

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

Find Social Europe Content

Search Social Europe

Project Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

.EU Web Awards