this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2025
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UK Politics

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34
Wes Streeting: Britain needs to join customs union with EU (www.thetimes.com)
submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by mannycalavera@feddit.uk to c/uk_politics@feddit.uk
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Archive link for those of us in the customs union.

Uh oh ๐Ÿ˜ณ. It's Wes Streeting whom we all hate because of NHS. But he wants us to rejoin the Custom's Union. Fuck! How do we choose? Will it be a path to rejoining or will it be in fighting and dogma? ๐Ÿซ ๐Ÿ˜œ.

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[โ€“] moderatecentrist@feddit.uk 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Increasing our trade with Europe (whether it's with a customs union or some other measure) would be good for two reasons:

  1. It would grow the British economy, create more good jobs, increase wages, and increase the amount of money raised in taxes for public services
  2. It would annoy Brexiteers
[โ€“] deHaga@feddit.uk -1 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (1 children)

The UK specialises in services exports, which are unaffected by a customs union.

Perhaps the EU should become less protectionist, it might help their stagnant economic performance.

[โ€“] moderatecentrist@feddit.uk 1 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I don't know if the right solution is a customs union, or participation in some areas of the single market, or something else. I just read that the UK's post-Brexit arrangements "will reduce long-run productivity by 4 per cent relative to remaining in the EU", so presumably if we boost trade with Europe in certain ways, it should increase British productivity

[โ€“] deHaga@feddit.uk 1 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

Returning to common law for regulations more than offsets an annual 0.26% loss of productivity.

And the UK's productivity problems occured while in the EU anyway.