1 in 5 UK manufacturing jobs at risk because of Brexit: study

[DonViejo]

Source: Politico




Almost two-thirds of manufacturing companies say they would have to raise prices to offset foreign currency costs.

By MARK SCOTT 4/1/18, 11:05 AM CET Updated 4/1/18, 10:30 PM CET

More than one in five British manufacturing companies are expected to lay off workers because of the country’s decision to leave the European Union, according to an industry study published by the Observer on Sunday.

With less than a year to go before the U.K. leaves the 28-member bloc, 11 percent of local manufacturers already have lost contracts because of the 2016 Brexit referendum, based on a survey of 200 British supply chain managers by the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply, a trade body.

Almost two-thirds of manufacturing companies also said they would have to increase prices to offset foreign currency costs, while almost half of those surveyed said they had already passed some of these additional costs on to customers, according to the industry report.

“It’s becoming clear that manufacturers can no longer absorb the costs of Brexit, and so the burden of higher prices is spreading to consumers, to suppliers, to clients and reshaping supply chains,” John Glen, an economist at the trade body, told the Observer.

Read more: https://www.politico.eu/article/brexit-manufacturing-job-losses-chartered-institute-procurement-supply-cips/

[sandensea]

1. Like Thatcher on steroids.

(poor Denis!)

[democratisphere]

2. What a bonehead move for the UK to leave the European Union.

Loss of jobs and inflation will wreck their economy.

[Pope George Ringo II]

3. There's a reason I think Trump was only the second-stupidest election result of 2016.

And I've got nothing kind to say about Trump, but Brexit is based in ignorant xenophobia every bit as bad as Trump's, got an absolute majority of the vote, and has consequences more systemic than Trump's damage.

[riversedge]

4. Trump damage is being done behind the scenes by his Cabinet-to our land, air water,

and women's health etc.

[Pope George Ringo II]

5. The anti-Brexit argument is not a pro-Trump one, even relatively speaking.

So I'm not going to sit here and find nonexistent nice things to say about Trump. But much of Trump's damage could be undone or at least mitigated by a future President, and especially a future Congress. Brexit is just blowing everything up at its foundations as a structural catastrophe. Trump's corruption actively assaults faith in the democratic process, while Brexit not only did that with basically the same Cambridge Analytica shenanigans, but actually destroys the very mechanisms of government on a scale Rick Perry and Steve Bannon can only dream of. And did you see that idiot Sinn Fein minister trying to promise a vote on Northern Ireland joining the Republic within five years? Rest assured the DUP did. Never mind the potential to undermine the Good Friday deals and the CTA which are incompatible with Brexit, or the fact that quite a bit of Scotland would rather be in the EU than the UK, given the choice. Even the environmental consequences aren't as one-sided as you'd think, given the fishing rights being fought over. And if we ever reverse Brexit, it will be at least a generation and then we'll never get the deal we had again. Admittedly, Trump's impact on the Supreme Court is very structural and his legacy there is going to be downright horrifying, but it's just not as bad as blowing up the ties that bound Europe together.

I'm a citizen of the US, the UK, and Ireland. I do concede there are a small number of more informed political junkies out there than myself, but I would argue that 2016 left me with the scars to judge both brands of xenophobic national demolition entirely too closely. Trump is a disaster, but he's simply not going to cause as much damage as Brexit.