Public Domain, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
An Octet of academic and professional economists calling themselves “Economists for Brexit” has published a booklet entitled "The Economy after Brexit”. Their purpose is twofold: first to provide “economic logic, clarity and an evidence base” for “the non-economist”; and second to get us to vote Leave. Whether these two aims are mutually compatible is an open question. Since both title and authorship evidence a single purpose, readers could hardly be blamed for suspecting that the clarity and evidence – indeed the logic – on display will point in a single direction. And so it proves. Like so much referendum material, the booklet gives the conclusion before offering the analysis, and thereby will likely discourage seekers of enlightenment from proceeding beyond the introductory paragraphs whose general message is that EU membership has innumerable disadvantages and no redeeming features. Yes, folks, the "E for B" document is pretty heavy on disaffection.
Regulations take the number one spot on the complaints list. For a start, we read that “European governments have been "more emphatic than the global average” about the dangers of global warming; and in consequence the EU has adopted the renewables agenda with “greater zeal” than most of the world’s nations. Proof comes in the form of a warning quoted from the Financial Times that the EU’s energy policies are to blame for the problems of Tata Steel. Professor Tim Congdon, progenitor of this exemplary wisdom, slides over the significance of his own statement that the EU’s renewables “zeal” comes from pressure by national governments; while Tata Steel’s problems are widely attributed to Chinese dumping, and as well as to the UK’s relatively high energy costs compared not with the rest of the world but with other EU countries.
