EUROPEAN INDUSTRY IS CLOSELY INTERWOVEN AND CANNOT EASILY BE UNPICKED

The Guardian has a useful article (HERE) about how intertwined UK and German industry has become and cites an example of Dräxlmaier, a company I had never heard of before but employs 55,000 people worldwide and has a plant in Tamworth to supply car parts for the Mini as well as Jaguar and Land Rover. 

The article demonstrates how interconnected we all are now after 43 years of integration. A director of economic affairs at Bavaria's Chamber of Industry and Commerce says, “British and German manufacturing are so deeply intertwined, untangling these ties is basically impossible, in the 1950s, maybe, but not now. You can bake English bread using only English flour. But you can’t make English cars from English parts. It’s impossible.”

He is keen to keep access to the UK market tariff free because it makes good economic sense but if it comes to this or preserving the single European market, he thinks the single market would win.

Tobias Nickel, Dräxlmaier’s head of corporate communications said, “Britain has to understand that it can’t produce a Rolls-Royce on its own. It would really surprise me if the UK would sacrifice its last remaining industry on the altar of Brexit.”.  Edward Leigh, the anti-EU MP asked the new PM a question in parliament on Wednesday seeking an assurance that we would leave the single market rather than concede the free movement issue, so I think Herr Nickel may well be surprised.