Fraser Nelson, a man who knows as much about industry as I know about astrophysics, has a piece on the Spectator Blog (HERE) about Liam Fox's description of many British exporters as fat and lazy. In the main he defends it but says trade deals alone won't solve the problem we have of exporting far too little. We have the lowest ratio of exports to GDP in Europe (27%).
All of this is true but Brexit is like entering a very obese asthmatic for a marathon. It might do them a lot of good and lead them to lose weight, slim down and begin to take up marathon running as a hobby. Or it might not.
What Brexiteers like Mr Nelson have done is commit to a drastic solution without thinking through the impact. We don't manufacture enough world class products. If we did customers would beat a path to our door - instead we ourselves choose imports because they are cheaper or better than our own stuff. This is the truth and we haven't even got to the point of recognising the root of the problem yet let alone how to solve it.
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