//The loss of £115 billion in export trade…//
At the risk of returning this thread to rational debate, here’s the UK’s export figures for the last seven years (figures in £bn):
2016: £297.6 (Goods) £275.3 (Services) = £572.9 (Total)
2017: £337.6 + £301.9 = £639.5
2018: £350.4 + £323.5 = £673.9
2019: £363.5 + £336.2 = £699.7
2020: £307.2 + £309.6 = £616.8
2021: £323.6 + £330.7 = £654.3
2022: £407.8 + £395.0 = £802.8
So, a steady increase before the pandemic and a considerable increase in 2022 (some, no doubt caused by 10% inflation).
And there’s more. These are the percentage increases in export values over the past 12 months:
UK Exports to the EU £330.2 (+24.8%)
UK Exports to the non-EU £447.4 (+23.5%)
So, is this £115bn you mention an annual figure, a cumulative figure or what? If it has materialised would it have increased the 2022 figure to £917bn?
These figures do not come from some geezer on YouTube but from the latest ONS report here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-trade-in-numbers/uk-trade-in-numbers-web-version#export-statistics
When the UK joined the EEC fifty years ago, the members then (nine after the UK joined) were responsible for 20% of the world’s economy. Now, with 27 members, it is 8% and falling. Despite being a member of the Single Market and Customs Union the UK’s value of exports to the EU (adjusted for inflation) has barely changed in 20 years. Four times as much export growth came from UK sales to outside the EU as to within it. The OECD suggests that more than 90% of the world’s economic growth with come from outside the EU.
So after you’ve sorted out what the £115bn you mention means, perhaps you could tell us why should the UK be particularly concerned with its trade with a diminishing, over regulated trading bloc when the opportunities are so much greater elsewhere.
//If every one of the claimed 29% of SNP voters who voted Leave had voted Remain, would the overall vote have changed to Remain?//
Probably not. If half of the Scots who voted to leave (a reasonable approximation of the SNP voters who chose leave) had voted to remain the result would have been 16,901,581 Leave against 16,650,402 to Remain.