Three years since Brexit, the dire warnings of financial decline are coming to cross. The UK’s economic system is shrinking, and Brexit job losses are biting.
My get together, Plaid Cymru — the get together of Wales — is firmly a pro-European get together. We did not need to permit the Conservatives to gamble with our economic system in 2016, and our long-term purpose continues to be for Wales to rejoin the European Union as a member state in our personal proper.
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Liz Saville Roberts MP is the Westminster chief of Plaid Cymru, the Welsh independence get together, which has three MPs at Westminster, 12 seats within the Welsh parliament in Cardiff, and round 200 native councillors in Wales (Picture: Plaid Cymru)
We sadly misplaced the argument in 2016 — the Brexit wreckers tapping right into a deep disillusionment amongst a inhabitants uninterested in their companies being stripped of funding, and their opinions discarded time after time.
Having narrowly voted to go away the EU in 2016, nonetheless, Wales has now decisively swung in opposition to Brexit, with a latest ballot by Focaldata displaying that the variety of individuals regretting their resolution to go away outnumbering supporters in each Welsh constituency.
The scars of the vote have left their mark in communities throughout Wales. The Menai mussel industry within the north-west has skilled a pointy decline having as soon as been a staple in fish counters and eating places throughout Europe; its enterprise mannequin wrecked by post-Brexit guidelines.
The near-collapse of the Welsh metal trade within the south is being accelerated by a commerce coverage that — intentionally — strains provide chains.
The UK authorities’s so-called Levelling Up fund has seen 11 Welsh native authorities denied funding altogether; a far cry from the £1.1bn [€1.23bn] of funding Wales would have acquired underneath earlier EU schemes.
The antidote to this malaise is to rejoin the EU single market and customs union. Commerce with the EU has tumbled by 15 p.c, productiveness is down by 4 p.c, and the NHS is 4,000 European docs quick since Brexit. Whereas these figures make for grim studying, rejoining the only market presents a tried and examined answer to points inflicted on our economic system by the UK Authorities itself.
We needn’t look far for outcomes both; Northern Eire stays within the single marketplace for items and its economic system vastly outpaces Brexit Britain.
Whereas a majority voted to go away the EU in 2016, the calamitous results on our public companies and economic system can not be denied.
Certainly, Folcdata’s polling reveals that many citizens now share that view. Although not alone in our pragmatic method to the only market, it’s disheartening that the Labour management can not be thought of allies on this struggle.
Remainers cannot rely on Starmer
As soon as a principled pro-European, Labour chief Sir Keir Starmer now insists that no “political case” exists for rejoining the only market.
Whereas Labour grips onto disproven lies for political expediency, Plaid Cymru is unwavering in our dedication to a practical and pro-European financial and commerce place. It can’t be proper that the Conservatives and Labour refuse to acknowledge the harm that Brexit has induced to our communities and our economic system.
The Worldwide Financial Fund not too long ago forecast that the UK would be the solely G7 economic system to shrink in 2023. Whereas British prime minister Rishi Sunak is a dedicated Brexiteer, now could be the time for him to alternate ideology for honesty. Single market membership gives a easy answer on our very doorstep for the 1000’s of struggling households enduring the cost-of-living disaster; we in Plaid Cymru passionately imagine that obstacles to commerce and abilities shortages are deepening this disaster.
Whereas the Labour management stays opposed to those calls, murmurs of dissent exist inside each of the foremost events.
Final yr, Tory MP Tobias Ellwood argued that points together with shrinking European exports and the Northern Eire Protocol would “disappear” have been the UK to rejoin the only market. Labour mayor of London Sadiq Khan not too long ago known as for a “debate on whether the UK should rejoin the European single market.”
Voters and politicians throughout the political spectrum are more and more conscious that “getting Brexit done” was nothing however cynical sloganeering. Solely a complete rejection of the Brexit lies can restore our damaged communities, and tumbling help for politicians. Any sincere politician would and should take a look at our financial prospects and recognise {that a} change of coverage is required.
Single market membership supplies an instantaneous and clear answer to the issues wrought by latest Conservative failures. Within the longer-term, we’re constructing the case for an unbiased Wales on the prime desk of the European household.
Plaid Cymru was represented within the European Parliament for the final twenty years of the UK’s membership, and in that point developed shut bonds with our allies throughout the continent, making the case for a social democratic and inexperienced Europe.
Rejoining the only market is a primary step in therapeutic our damaged communities and re-establishing decades-long financial connections shattered by the hubristic recklessness of Westminster politicians.
Three years on from our departure, our message to Europe is: Wales remains to be an outward-looking European nation. It might take some time, however we’ll be again.
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