You trust China's figures?

On what past reliable metric do you base this upon?

Personally I don't trust the figures of authoritarian regimes on anything. Even the figures of western countries are gathered using different criteria and aren't easy to correlate.

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

Do you honestly think that everything becomes clear in 6 weeks?
This decision will play out - positively I think and hope - over a much longer period.

Mainly financial, yes, seeing as the entire system of governance these days is effectively run and controlled by the financial system, and carries the most socio-economic impact. Has been since de-regulation and now, more than at any other point in history. The things you refer to are directly influenced by the financials. They're not independent of them. An on a weighting basis, objectively, finance and economy is by far the biggest fish.

For example, if Brexit results in the short to medium term decimation of the music industry and ecommerce/export reliant sector of the retail industry, that means immediate and massive economic harm, job losses, the potential destruction or diminishment of thousands of UK businesses.

I don't need to spell out why this makes the financial component of making a decision over Brexit far more important than any other aspect.

If you're looking at it from the stance of a belief system or ideology, then sure, financial might be less important to you. But if you look at it objectively, the financial and economic impacts are the most relevant. Even more so as the apparent bodging of a deal is becoming more and more problematic.

Reducing immigration and controlling borders properly (sometimething I agree with, BTW) becomes kind of irrelevant if the financials are simply sidelined and ignored, and not treated as the main issue.

Also, while I get the 'working class' argument, do those jobs actually contribute the most to the economy anymore? Other than positive employment to prevent social unrest? I'd assume that finance, retail and the service industry etc. do way more, and as such are treated as more important. Now, socially and ethically that's questionable – but, finance now rules the world and holds the real power, so what do you expect?

Ultimately being completely frank low level, low skilled employment is most likely going to severely reduce and disappear over time anyway, so to me complaining about low income people being left behind from an employment point of view is a red herring.

Did you know? 98.0000001% of people are morons.

You're right about dodgy figures, but in fairness the point is valid – Australia was the other example and they're doing well. I'd be surprised if China were doing badly – they're about as authoritarian as it gets when they need to force the population to do something. I highly doubt that they've actually been really lax.

Obvious caveat on Australia tho – they're not an international exchange point like us. So it was always going to be hard to simply close borders and sit tight – the outcome of that is probably worse than where we are now.

Did you know? 98.0000001% of people are morons.

Michel Barnier said it was clear there would be a period of adaptation, but long term it would not be business as usual.

“Brexit means Brexit,” he said, repeating a mantra coined by former British Prime Minister Theresa May.

Nice one, or as the French say 'Touchez'.....

I fully agree with Barnier. The British need to up their game in terms of matching the EU spite. Should have been fully anticipated in advance and that reflected in the negotiating stance.

We need to move to an effective full-on trade war with the EU asap. Assume that the deal is dead in the water. It has not been ratified by the EU so we still have an out and we need to accept that and move on.

"The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." - 1984 - George Orwell.