As a newly elected councillor in Hove I used my first ever speech at the full council meeting this week to make it clear to the chief executive of Brighton and Hove City Council, Geoff Raw, that our city needs a robust contingency plan for the terrifying eventually of a no-deal Boris Brexit.
I believe that the risks to the people of Brighton and Hove as laid out by Sussex University among many others – such as the loss of 4,000 jobs in a “negative shock to employment” – demand that our council be as well prepared as possible to protect residents from these shocks.
I am encouraging the chief executive in the strongest of terms to ensure we have applied for all government funding available so that we can shield ourselves as best we can from the worst effects of no deal.
As the research from Sussex University made clear, a no-deal Brexit would place huge burdens on the 30,000 small businesses in the city, will put those in need of urgent medication at risk and jeopardise the housing and education sectors.
Inevitably, a lot of the work to help those affected will fall on the voluntary sector so I am shouting loudly that this sector in our city needs support and money.
And they need to start building and planning now. A delay is not acceptable.
Finally, I used my speech to reach out to Brighton and Hove’s Conservative councillors.
The best way that we can avoid shocks to our economy from a Boris Brexit is to stop Brexit altogether.
That is why I strongly believe that every councillor in the city should be campaigning for Boris’s deal to be presented to the public in a confirmatory vote.
I hope for the sake of the residents in our city that we can unite as a council and stop the disaster that would be a Boris Brexit.
Chris Henry is Labour councillor. He represents Westbourne ward on Brighton and Hove City Council.
I couldn’t agree with you more Chris. Realistically, however, the only real chance of ensuring the second public vote we deserve, in which all polls suggest Remain would prevail, is for the current leader of your party to step down and for a moderate leader (such as Yvette Cooper) to cooperate with the Liberal Democrats in the general election that must inevitably precede it. It is obvious that Brexit will decide such an election, that there is a real likelihood of cooperation between Johnson and Farage Ltd and that if the bulk of the Remain vote remains split between Labour and Liberal Democrats we will all end up losing. Please don’t underestimate the Dominic Cummings machine.
So your version of democracy is to ignore the referendum result.
The EU is holding us to ransom by offering us a poor deal, knowing the only alternative is a no deal. They don’t want us to leave the EU because we put in more than we get back meaning France and Germany will probably have to pay the surplus caused by our exit.
We have no current option but to now leave with no deal instead of being held to ransom.
You are frightened because of ‘trumped up’ research by the pro EU cretins at the Uni.
You and many others like you are too gullible, stupid, naive and totally lacking in business and common sense to be in your roles and should resign immediately.
Please don’t publicly humiliate yourself any further by writing any more utter garbage like the above.
“Pro EU cretins at the Uni”. Step back, take a look at this and other of your raging phrases, and ask the obvious question: what does that make you?
That’s what they are – purveyors of lies that they make up to suit their bankrupt and probably your corrupt views.
Look at the state this place has become – a broken, run down, fragmented dump caused by successions of idiots being voted in with no clear strategies and planning implementations for things like affordable housing and creating a nice environment to live in.
That makes me someone who can see the wood from the trees unlike you.
The people voted out ,the political parties that are currently coursing these problems to remain in should be tried for treason ,this is a democratic country not a communist country ,get on with it boris
Well said Chris. Brexit will kill our wonderful innovative economy. I hope all of our Labour Cllrs support you.
So where does The University of Sussex magic up these figures from? As with Whitehall they just appear to pull figures out of their closets.
As somebody that spends equal amounts of tbe year in both England and France please could somebody explain why the cost of living in France has become so expensive?
Could Monsieur Macron be taxing the French to get ready for life after Brexit?
Where are the 4000 job losses going to come from?
Could somebody tell Cllr Henry that whilst we have been in the E.U the South has been deemed too rich to receive funding just ask those in the International funding department at the Council like I did a few years back.
In the “democracy” we once thought we had, the public vote meant something, even when, as in this case, our self-appointed “masters”, the politicians, disagreed.
Now it’s a case of keep the public voting until they (the politicians) get the result they want, as was the case in Southern Ireland.
WE (meaning a clear majority) voted to LEAVE the EU.
We survived as an Independent Nation for our entire history up to 1971, and we’d survive just as well if the politicians would start acting like our servants rather than our masters and GET US OUT of Europe, as we so clearly instructed them to do.
A “democracy” in which the will of the people is ignored is no democracy at all, and a “parliament” that passes control of the country to a foreign power renders itself redundant, so why are we still paying “lawmakers” who have given up the right to make our laws?
I’m not surprised that some people are using words like “treason” over the politicians’ refusal to respect the expressed desire of more than half the population to make Britain FREE again.
‘Preparing Brexit: No Deal’ Highly recommended, published yesterday by the Institute for Government. It’s a gripping read.
https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/preparing-brexit-no-deal-final.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0awLAjKYpjShM1J1Kpl9Mx6lKXWldF1DpkV-pB2dJIHjmOQlSyivmi7i0
It pains me to say it, but Boris Johnson is right to aim to leave on or by the end of October, regardless of whether we have a deal. Brussels has behaved badly, although the Theresa May Government was barely any better.
Leaving without a deal is not brilliant, but it’s not a catastrophe either. There will be glitches, but we have hiccups in trade already, from time to time.
The current uncertainty is one of the biggest problems for businesses (employers), and Theresa May’s non-communicative approach exacerbated the potential downsides.
At least Boris Johnson has actually set out his position and appears to be handling matters with energy and zeal.
I understand the desire by Chris Henry and Peter Kyle to put any deal to a public vote, but it sits uneasily with me and, I suspect, many others.
The referendum result was clear and, while my belief was that the result was partly down to those who have been ‘left behind’ wanted to give the Establishment a kicking, in a democracy we really should respect the result and enact it.