Publish and be damned.
When the latest Chancellor arrived at his office for the first time, he must have asked ”Where has all the money gone?” Surely, he must have asked that?
Are we seriously to believe that not one of those bright young things, the brightest and the best that the Treasury employs, mentioned the B word? That HM Treasury has not calculated how much more money it would have if the UK were still in the EU or even how much more it has now the UK has left?
Because they did one in the run up to the referendum, it must have taken a couple of days, at most, to knock together.
Perhaps, if we get a new government they should break an old Whitehall rule and publish the advice that this government’s ministers have received?
Not just the Treasury’s Brexit economic costs and benefits one but the ones on ag. and fish, labour shortages, under investment, cost of red tape, risks of importing swine fever, benefits or costs of tearing up EU regulations, cost to the NHS, the City, inward investment, trade, the Foreign Office appraisal of UK influence, the cost of cutting foreign aid, the NIP, those dispatches from the Washington embassy, Horizon, data transfers, energy security and all the rest.
They are out there and ministers must surely be making rational decision based on their evidence, aren’t they?
Let them see the light of day, after all maybe they all show Brexit has been a triumph.
Or would it be a case of publish and be damned?
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.
By Jonty Bloom Media