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Comment by fenk85 | Hacker News Reader

There seems to be a push lately in UK media of running newstories about "making Britain Great again", just last week we had a story about a new spaceport, this week there is stories without source about EU caving in to all brexiteer demands and so on

All while the country is teetering on edge and could drag down its neighbours into another recession (selfmade this time), the NHS and local authorities remain in crisis, pound is weakening and inflation keeps going up.

It sucks being stuck sort of speak between 2 of your good neighbours undergoing a mental breakdown and self harming

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This isn't the "UK media", this is a university trying to sell itself as doing some cool research / coming up with ideas (which, incidentally, is their job).

If you really want to rant about the media spinning brexit lies then go ahead - you'll find plenty of willing listeners, but at least try and do it on a news story that actually fits your argument?

What does this have to do with the article?

Not much, but I'd rather hear the pros and cons of Brexit discussed here than on most of the rest of the internet. At least here there are some clever people and the moderating system works well.

There's plenty of discussion on articles discussing Brexit. It's not really related to particle accelerators.

https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fnews.yc...

I would say there is push lately to picture UK situation in very black colors and I believe many of those claims are not really justified.

Firstly, inflation is not going up, at least I couldn't find any evidence of that.

Secondly, looking at the UK trade partners (for instance here http://www.worldstopexports.com/united-kingdoms-top-import-p...) I see that UK has trade deficit will all EU countries, given the fact that UK has well develop economy they can in fact gain on leaving UK and relaying on bilateral deals (and I guess those who are bashing UK most will be first in the queue to start trading with them - Germany approach to Nord Stream that can be potentially dangerous for EU energy safety shows that when it comes to money, EU "unity" is thrown away quickly).

Third, weakening pound is actually good for UK, the goods they produce are cheaper, so event if imported goods are more expensive at some point this will come to equilibrium.

Fourth, UK has still hidden gems like tax havens here and there, including the one at the very center of London - quite convenient for all the rich people who, accidentally, have also a lot of political power and surely they would not like UK to be hurt too much.

The only danger I see is that Scotland might try to gain independence and walk away with the oil taken from the North See, this would shrink UK domestic market and could indeed do some harm.

>I see that UK has trade deficit will all EU countries... they can in fact gain on leaving...

This is an absurd fantasy. If trade deficits on their own made you poorer, the UK and US would have been reduced to third world status decades ago. The Uk has very low unemployment, there just isn't a free labour pool available to move into manufacturing. Hands up anyone from the UK here who wants to give up their job to go on to a production line, or wants that for their children? Forcing people out of better paid more valuable jobs into low end manufacturing, driving up costs for UK consumers, to serve some mercantilist daydream won't make the UK any richer.

> there just isn't a free labour pool available to move into manufacturing

Does the government care about manufacturing? They closed the mines and moved towards a "service economy" last I heard..

> who wants to give up their job to go on to a production line, or wants that for their children? Forcing people out of better paid more valuable jobs into

There are northern towns that would love those jobs. Their children are currently at lidl checkout counters and behind pub bars.

So we’re going to close all the Lidls and pubs? You’re not making any sense. By definition those people are already employed and whatever happened in manufacturing or any other sector, those jobs would still need to be done.

Maybe those jobs would pay more if there weren't 4 people applying to each role - enough to buy more options.

>The only danger I see is that Scotland might try to gain independence

Hey , Ireland here, you're completely ignoring cutting our island in two again which will very likely lead to a resurgence of the IRA.

>Third, weakening pound is actually good for UK, the goods they produce are cheaper, so event if imported goods are more expensive at some point this will come to equilibrium.

Yeah and the young generation brexitors have screwed over will be old by then.

Look out for a resurgence of paratroopers then

Firstly inflation is still over the 2% target and shows no sign of coming down - an entirely self-inflicted own goal caused by the post-Brexit drop in Sterling.

Secondly, the UK is primarily a service economy, and Brexit will devastate large swathes of the service industries.

Third, this is a standard talking point, and is unsupported by facts - one reason (there are others) being that increased import costs for physical goods from tariffs and a declining currency balance out any possible gain from extra income.

Fourth - I don't think trying to turn tax avoidance into the UK's primary economic activity is a terribly good idea. You may disagree, of course.

Scotland will indeed walk away. Ireland will... change. Gibraltar will turn into even more of a mess than it is now.

And so on.

There is in reality absolutely no upside to Brexit. Except for traders shorting the pound, there are no non-imaginary opportunities - only massive costs and disruptions.

And propaganda and PR won't change that. There's certainly been an uptick in British flag waving in the UK, but it takes more than that to run a modern economy.

The irony being that Brexit will destroy the industries the UK is a world-class player in - financial services, law, tech research, engineering, science research, and the arts.

"Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia."

Sorry your comment just really made me think about the book 1984.

I’ve had the same impression as of late. Alas, in a very English fashion, please be advised we don’t talk about those things in public, as you should know already. Same for racism, bigotry, xenophobia and the rest of virtues our great country is well known for.

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