Tuesday, January 22, 2013
An "Independent in EU" Scotland Would Lose 144,000 Jobs
Tim Congdon, whose previous report on how the EU costs £150 billion, I reviewed here and found to be, if anything, on the cautious side, is doing another about the europhile's scare that 3 million jobs would be lost by quitting the EU. This is obviously a ridiculous lie since it depends on the EU stopping all out exports to them (illegal under international law) and at the same times us stopping none of their imports.
However this is from the summary:
:The UK’s participation in ‘the European construction’ (i.e., ‘the Common Market’ from 1973 to 1993 and the European Union since then) has reduced employment. If the UK had remained a fully independent nation, employment would now be higher than it is.
- The main reasons for the job destruction are two-fold - restrictive EU employment and labour market regulations, and the opening of the UK labour market to workers from poorer EU countries, particularly since 2004. (See pages 12 and 17 on regulation and Chapter 3 on immigration.)
- OECD data shows that last year the proportion of working-age people in employment was 63.8% in the Eurozone compared with 70.0% in the UK and over 72% in the main Commonwealth high-income countries. (See page 12.) However this is from the summary:
:The UK’s participation in ‘the European construction’ (i.e., ‘the Common Market’ from 1973 to 1993 and the European Union since then) has reduced employment. If the UK had remained a fully independent nation, employment would now be higher than it is.
- The main reasons for the job destruction are two-fold - restrictive EU employment and labour market regulations, and the opening of the UK labour market to workers from poorer EU countries, particularly since 2004. (See pages 12 and 17 on regulation and Chapter 3 on immigration.)
- EU labour markets are highly inefficient compared with those of other high-income countries, mainly because of excessive regulation.
- If the UK were to be become more like the Eurozone, because of yet more regulation and ‘harmonization’ with the Eurozone average, 1.8 million jobs would be destroyed.
- In the first 20 years of Common Market membership (i.e., the 20 years to 1993), the number of men in employment in the UK fell by almost two million. (See pages 14 and 15.)
- In the Great Recession employment in our country of UK-born people fell by 800,000, whereas employment of foreign-born people rose by 400,000. (See page 19.) About half of the increase in foreign-born employment was of immigrant workers from Eastern Europe, allowed in because of our EU membership.
The underlined bit is of particular importance for Scotland concerning the "independence in Europe" debate. It seems now acknowledged that a separate Scotland would have to apply as a new member. New members are not allowed opt outs.
Thus a separate Scotland would indeed have full regulation and ‘harmonization’ with the Eurozone average. That means, with 8% of the UK population we should expect the loss of 8% of 1.6 million i.e. 144,000 jobs.
For obvious reasons this is something the "official, no UKIP members need apply" No campaign will be reluctant to mention but is vital.
Labels: EU, Scottish politics, UKIP
