The Reader: Economy is suffering in UK’s Brexit uncertainty

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Growing pains: Boris Johnson at the G7
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3 September 2019
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WITH uncertainty over a no-deal Brexit, the UK falls to bottom of the G7’s growth table. The cumulative effect has led to car manufacturer Toyota pausing car production in the UK and house price growth halting in August, while business confidence is low and there is a steep fall in lending to businesses. This includes the “worst decline” in the car industry since 2001.

All other advanced economies outperformed Britain in the second quarter of 2019. Out in front was Canada, top with growth of 0.9 per cent in the second quarter. The US and Japan posted growth of 0.5 per cent and 0.4 per cent respectively.

It has been reported that the UK’s second-quarter contraction was partly due to stockpiling ahead of the original Brexit deadline in March.

The solution for the downturn of the economy is the unresolved and lingering issue of no-deal Brexit. No one knows whether we are coming or going. It is time to take the bull by the horns and sort it before October 31, otherwise we face mayhem.​
Baldev Sharma

EDITOR'S REPLY

Dear Baldev

YOU are absolutely right that Brexit uncertainty is hurting the economy. Figures yesterday showing business for factories is at its weakest state in seven years merely serve to reinforce your point.

The current impasse is damaging commerce, forcing potential investors to delay putting money at risk here and making companies in the European Union source goods formerly made in the UK from elsewhere.

That, combined with broader wobbles in the global economy, is costing jobs and making us all poorer.

However, the pain would be far worse if we collapsed into a no-deal Brexit. Do that, and it wouldn’t just be broad economic data we’d be discussing, but shortages of fresh food, medicines and equipment for critical infrastructure.

If we must Brexit, surely it’s better to get the terms right than crash out just for the sake of meeting a self-imposed deadline.

Jim Armitage, City Editor

Memorial choice ticks all the boxes

We SUPPORT the planning application, to be considered imminently by Westminster City Council, for the new Holocaust Memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens.

All three of us sat on the architectural jury, along with colleagues of various faiths and no faith. Our unanimous choice was the Adjaye/Arad design. Not only was it eloquent in form but of all the entries it was the most sympathetic to the existing gardens. It leaves most of the amenity untouched, it does not threaten the trees and it respects the existing installations — chiefly, the Buxton Slavery Memorial and Rodin’s Burghers of Calais.

We believe in this project because, via the most terrible episode of the 20th century, it will reassert civil values of tolerance and respect for democracy. Its positioning in the shadow of Parliament could not be more apposite. 
Sir Peter Bazalgette (former chair of Arts Council England)
Dame Julia Peyton-Jones (former co-director of the Serpentine Gallery)
Sarah Weir, OBE (CEO, Design Council)

Show us you really want a deal, Boris

It SEEMS to have been forgotten, or possibly was never noticed, that the majority of MPs who voted against Theresa May’s proposed deal did so not because they objected to the Irish backstop but because they wanted a closer relationship with the EU by way of a customs union.

It follows that if Boris Johnson is serious about wanting a deal, the way ahead for him is obvious. If instead he follows the anti-backstop minority, which he knows the EU will never agree to, his real agenda becomes obvious.
Alan Pavelin

MPs trying to block a no-deal exit are hindering Johnson’s negotiations.
John Ward

Landlines start at 020, not 0203

Further to your story [“London calling: capital to get 10m new landline numbers,” August 30], while Ofcom’s media release does state that the London area code is 020, the regulator did not make it clear that the presentation of London’s numbers should be in the manner, for example, of 020 3367 7000 or 020 7981 3040 — not 0203 or 0207 or 0208 … many of London’s telephone numbers are presented incorrectly.

Within the London 020 area, one does not need to dial 020 if calling another London landline.
Lester May

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