Today we see that the European Parliament has passed a resolution saying that the UK must pay for “financial costs arising directly as a result of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal”. We also find out today the unsurprising news that the European Banking Authority and European Medical Agency are going to have to leave London and relocate. Now it is quite possible that this is going to incur a financial cost, that is directly as a result of the stupid decision to leave the EU. No doubt this will be described as a massive unwelcome surprise to the government and press. It will not however actually come as a surprise to Jeremy Hunt or DExEU because I wrote to them in September pointing this out.
Thursday 8 September 2016
Dear Jeremy Hunt,
Could you please ask DExEU which department budget will be called upon
to fund the relocation of the European Banking Authority and the
European Medicine Agency should they have to be moved to a different
country and the UK is found to be liable for relocation costs. I do
hope that as minister for health you would resist the EMA relocation
costs being paid from the NHS budgets.
Yours sincerely,
Alan Bell
I should probably include his reply, hardly seems worth it though:
Many thanks for your email regarding UK withdrawal from the EU. We are about to begin these negotiations and it would be wrong to set out further unilateral positions in advance. At every step of these negotiations we will work to ensure the best possible outcome for the British people.
Thank you once again for writing to me.
Best wishes
Jeremy Hunt
I can’t see that the decision to leave the EU is anything to with intelligence or stupidity. Isn’t it mainly about whether you or I prefer to live in an independent country or in a collective of nations? Why would a preference for the former be stupid?
Andrew
I am perfectly entitled to take the view that it was an utterly idiotic choice to leave the EU. You may have a different view, which is fine, but there is a very high cost to your choice.