[Sephiroth]

Interesting article in the Torygraph today that will rankle Ian and other Remainers.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business...paign=DM118944

The key points from this paywall site are:

The European Union, and its most enthusiastic advocates, have long argued that its power as the world’s largest trade bloc means it is impossible to ignore. Anyone who attempted to stand up to it could simply be swatted aside, and countries might as well sign up to its rules because they would have to follow them anyway. Even worse, any country that left, such as the UK, would find itself an irrelevance on the world stage.

Forty years ago, the EU was the largest economic bloc in the world, but now it is in third place behind the US and China, and getting smaller all the time.

And it is a relative industrial failure, too. You can’t hope to regulate technology, for example, when none of the major companies are European. Likewise, while Volkwagen and Renault are trying to compete in electric vehicles, they are nowhere close to Tesla, Ford, or the emerging Chinese competitors such as BYD. Most of Europe has been so poor at creating new companies, or re-inventing old ones, that it is no longer relevant in most major industries.

Add it all up, and there can only be one conclusion. The EU has allowed its position as an economic superpower to slip. As a result, while a country like the UK clearly doesn’t gain any influence by leaving, it doesn’t lose any, either. There is simply nothing to lose.

The EU keeps trying to strut on the world stage, demanding concessions from its major rivals, and threatening reprisals if others fail to listen.

But it is making itself increasingly ridiculous. Joe Biden is courteous whenever he meets the president of the European Commission. But that shouldn't fool us into believing that Washington is taking a great interest in what she has to say.

And we are kidding ourselves if we think that the Biden administration will back down on poaching VW’s battery factories, or any other European assets. The EU's clout is gone – and it is difficult to see how it will claw it back.