{"id":13787,"date":"2017-10-20T14:53:49","date_gmt":"2017-10-20T13:53:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=13787"},"modified":"2017-10-20T14:53:49","modified_gmt":"2017-10-20T13:53:49","slug":"insanity-no-deal-brexit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=13787","title":{"rendered":"The insanity of a no deal Brexit"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gavin Robinson, the DUP MP for East Belfast, didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go as far as was trailed by his local media when he asked in parliament whether business secretary Greg Clark had made any approach on the Bombardier crisis.<\/p>\n

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His intervention asked for a ministerial statement on the spiralling situation, which we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re still waiting for. But his pledge to tell the government it needed to \u00e2\u20ac\u015bstep up to the plate\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t materialise.<\/p>\n

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The DUP can do so much more than make polite parliamentary points of order. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time its MPs proved they are worth every penny of the \u00c2\u01411bn Theresa May shook from that mysterious magic money tree in order to cling to power.<\/p>\n

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They need to work with Unite to fight for and save the jobs of Bombardier\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 4,500 Northern Ireland workers, and the thousands more working in the firm\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s supply chains.<\/p>\n

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Mr Robinson telling the press that the government must \u00e2\u20ac\u015bup the ante\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bold. But a public reminder to ministers that their \u00e2\u20ac\u0098confidence and supply\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 arrangement means his DUP colleagues can, and will, remove the props holding that government in its unsteady place would be.<\/p>\n

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The \u00c2\u01411bn extra funding for Northern Ireland over two years will be used, according to DUP leader Arlene Foster, to boost the economy and invest in new infrastructure, among other measures.<\/p>\n

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Unite is the biggest union in Northern Ireland and I welcomed this investment for our members in one of our poorest regions, although I believe it should be found for all our nations and regions.<\/p>\n

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Many of our members there supported the DUP at the general election. But they did not vote to prop up a government that fails to defend their jobs and stand up to the corporate bullying of Boeing.<\/p>\n

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Destroyed<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Westminster\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s austerity has destroyed Northern Ireland\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s economy, with workplaces decimated and thousands of manufacturing and other jobs lost. There was no \u00c2\u01411bn additional money when Michelin, Gallaher and Bombardier were shutting sites and shifting work elsewhere two years ago.<\/p>\n

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Supporting Unite in our campaign to protect our members\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 jobs would be unequivocal evidence that the DUP will put that money where its mouth is. If anyone can raise the stakes and speak for Bombardier workers now, it is they.<\/p>\n

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Because \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 is on the lips of so many of the firm\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s workers whose jobs are threatened by this escalating transatlantic trade dispute.<\/p>\n

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They don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how their families and their communities can support themselves without an economy with a manufacturing base.<\/p>\n

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As one Unite member said at last week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lobby of parliament: \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf those jobs were lost, it would be beyond devastating for our community \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it would be catastrophic.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Justin Trudeau has reportedly told Donald Trump that he will block Canadian air force purchases of Boeing aircraft if the US imposes 300 per cent import tariffs on Bombardier planes. We still don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what Theresa May has said to Trump, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear that pleading with him to lift the tariffs will achieve nothing.<\/p>\n

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And what prospects for her\u00c2\u00a0government even contemplating sanctions on Boeing, when the transport secretary Chris Grayling refused to so much as engage with his shadow, Andy McDonald, about the role of the company in the financial engineering of Monarch during the parliamentary debate on the collapsed airline?<\/p>\n

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Asked why the government had made no criticism of Boeing\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s role in the loss of 2,000 jobs in Luton, Grayling could only boast of the operation to bring home Monarch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s stranded customers, as if he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been part of an heroic effort to rescue them from a terrible natural disaster. And to attack McDonald and others linking Brexit to the troubles of the aviation sector for \u00e2\u20ac\u015btalking down\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Britain.<\/p>\n

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If Grayling had provided support for Monarch, as the German government did with Air Berlin and the Italian with Alitalia, at least to avoid sudden administration, he would have earned our members\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 support.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Evidence\u00c2\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But surely the Bombardier-Boeing debacle stands as evidence of the insanity of a no deal Brexit? It shows up the asymmetrical trade relationship with the US, as does the crushing setback for the government in one of the only areas it is has seen progress in during the EU negotiations: that of post-Brexit agricultural tariffs.<\/p>\n

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The agreement, which would have seen the EU\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s WTO quotas for international agricultural products reduced, with Britain taking a share of them after Brexit, was swiftly rebuffed by the US, along with a number of non-EU countries including New Zealand, and, ironically, Canada. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a painful setback for the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ambitions to achieve favourable trade deals with the Trump administration and commonwealth countries.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Monarch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s collapse too, for all Grayling\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s denials that Brexit was a factor, was at least in part due to other carriers, initially interested, being unwilling to bid for it amid deep uncertainty over the future of the Open Skies agreement. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a volatile sector at the best of times and, Monarch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tangled funding arrangements aside, the weak pound pushing up fuel prices was another nail in the coffin.<\/p>\n

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With deadlock in the Brexit negotiations, the predatory behaviour of Boeing and a protectionist \u00e2\u20ac\u0098America First\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, a failure by the government and its DUP allies to actively defend UK manufacturing jobs, even by demonstrating a preparedness to ditch a trade deal with the US altogether, will signal that any ambition ministers have for a coherent industrial strategy is effectively in tatters.<\/p>\n

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But we know there never was a coherent industrial strategy. And we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to look over this precipice. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a government in waiting, one with a vision for the UK and the values needed to stand up to bullies, to protect our members\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 jobs and deliver a Brexit that works for everyone.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As Jeremy Corbyn said, if Theresa May can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t lead, she should leave.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This comment first appeared in Tribune, October 19<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gavin Robinson, the DUP MP for East Belfast, didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go as far as was trailed by his local media when he asked in parliament whether business secretary Greg Clark had made any approach on the Bombardier crisis.   His intervention asked for a ministerial statement on the spiralling situation, which we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re still waiting for. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13725,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[801,486,219],"wps_subtitle":"Bombardier-Boeing debacle is surely evidence enough, says Len McCluskey","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13787"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13787"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13788,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13787\/revisions\/13788"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}