The "White" Commonwealth
I am far too angry to comment on the racist riots and how the Brexiteers broke Britain, so instead let me dissect an article in the Daily Express on Friday.
To be fair this article said that you cannot blame Labour for trying to row back on Brexit because they were always remain but that the Tories had let them do this by not implementing Brexit properly. It then gave the classic Brexit example that we should have taken the opportunity to re-build our relationships with the Commonwealth and especially Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
The complete lack of knowledge and the fantasy involved in this claim are so huge that it is difficult to know where to start but it is important that we try.
The Empire was dead by 1950, and even if it still existed we always traded far, far more with the rest of the world than we did with the Empire. At its peak imperial trade was 35% of our total; which is obvious if you think about it. As the most advanced industrial country in the world, what could we sell to dirt poor colonies that they wanted?
Then there is the wet dream of re-building our relationship with the “white” Commonwealth. These countries are collectively much smaller than just Germany let alone the EU. We did trade deals with two of them, very bad deals but deals. Canada and Australia are our 18th and 19th largest trade partners, NZ is our 43rd.
All these countries have spent 50 and more years changing their economic focus away from the UK and the Anzac pair are exporters of huge amounts of raw materials which we do not need, but China, India and the rest are in desperate need of.
We could increase our trade with these countries multiply times and it would not come close to matching our trade with the EU.
In short, it is all a fantasy of trading with “White” countries like our own, funnily enough it was the pathetic argument used in the 1975 referendum; it stank then and is still utter rancid tosh now.
This is the level of argument that won the referendum, the lack of knowledge, the desire to return to the 1950s, it makes you despair. Remember the governments’ of these countries told us we would be mad to leave the EU.
Well they won and we are returning to the 50’s, we are the sick man of Europe again and it is only going to get worse.
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.
By Jonty Bloom Media
I think most people in Britain don't have direct or easy access to the information that was publicly available prior to the 1975 (Remain/Leave) referendum. This has made it so much easier for UK news media and politicians to fantasise and fabricate about what the issues and options were in 1975.
Back in 1975 I bought a small booklet titled: "BRITAIN and E.E.C. STAY IN OR PULL OUT? An independent view - by DAVID HOTHAM". It covered all the issues, including Britain's trade with the Commonwealth.
I kept the booklet and in 2018 decided to scan and re-typeset it, to distribute to my friends and anyone else who might be interested to know exactly what was discussed in 1975 (without the filter and framing of 21st century commentators).
So, if it's ok with you, I'll leave this link here... https://mega.nz/file/w0MG0CbQ#x1JBC5jiGWzthTYnjC8S1-AYG0Jj7BZ4piPoxc4T80o