by John Brian Shannon

“Name five benefits of a Hard Brexit” someone asked recently, which conveniently forms the basis of a useful discussion. So then, let’s have it:

1. The UK instantly saves £39 billion pounds.
2. The UK will no longer need to pay a (net) £9 billion per year to the EU.
3. The Northern Ireland border will resolve itself. Which means, ‘It’s on them.’
4. The UK will leave fiascos like the Salzburg meeting and Brussels debacles behind.
5. The UK can sign as many free trade deals as it wants following the official Brexit date.

There are plenty more benefits but in case some feel that’s an overstatement, let’s post five more:

1. Billions of dollars, pounds, yen and rupees would flow to the UK due to newly signed trade deals.
2. Rifts in the UK Conservative Party would heal and the party could again function as one political entity.
3. A major Conservative promise (Brexit) kept — leading to a majority government at the next General Election.
4. Cheaper foods and goods for UK consumers (due to the huge economies of scale of North American agriculture and marketplace)
5. The EU would rightly be put in its place for trying to steal Northern Ireland from the UK using bureaucratic stealth.

Want five more? Easy!

1. UK universities full and expanding due to higher enrollment from new free trade partner countries.
2. UK tourism operators experience record year-after-year numbers as new trading partners boost UK tourism.
3. UK exporters export unprecedented amounts of goods around the world due to new trade opportunities post-Brexit.
4. UK hospitals earn billions in foreign income as patients from new trade partner countries travel to the UK for treatment.
5. UK increases engagement with Commonwealth of Nations countries and dedicates its entire foreign aid budget to Commonwealth countries only, which ‘keeps the money in the family’ so to speak.

The UK is Missing Out Because Theresa May Wants a Polite Brexit

But it appears that for all her efforts she is getting nowhere with the EU.

It’s a waste of time to try reasoning with people who don’t want a solution — and the EU doesn’t want a solution because it doesn’t want lose the UK (the EU’s cash-cow) which is the 2nd-largest contributor to the EU budget.

That’s it in a nutshell, folks! Nothing more, nothing less.

Therefore, the EU tries to bully the British people into giving up the idea of Brexit and it resorts to various plots to try to suspend Brexit like trying to rally weak-willed Britons to support a 2nd referendum (and the EU used that ploy successfully to browbeat the Irish into joining the union in a 2nd referendum attempt) and employs other games and media influencers to further their BRINO Brexit dreams.

And why wouldn’t they try that option? When you’re the spendthrift EU and you’re facing a (net) loss of £9 billion funding per year anything is worth a try.

Still, future relations must count for something. Let’s hope EU leaders eventually see the value of preserving a long-term relationship with the saviour of Europe (twice since 1914) and a major purchaser of EU goods in the present-day.

But if not, let us be on our way…