Project Fact

I have no holidays planned for this year. Having spent the first 7 months of the year fighting elections, there was no time for getting away. While I yearn to see the rest of the world, the lack of a vacation may actually turn into a financial blessing in disguise. Boris Johnson's first gift to the nation as PM is the sinking pound. What immaculate timing! Just as people (not me obviously!) are heading off on holiday. It isn't just Brits abroad who will be impacted immediately. Watch out for the rise in petrol and diesel prices over coming weeks. Crude oil is prices in dollars so any fall in sterling quickly catches up with you on the forecourt.

The prospect of No Deal Brexit pressing down on the pound will lead to increased consumer prices. We import about half our food. An even higher proportion of animal feeds are imported. There may, of course, be sudden gluts. The lamb that will no longer be exported to the EU because of 42% tariffs under WTO could be dumped on the market. An while the nation chomps its way through cheap chops, within a year the lamb producing agricultural sector could be dying as it is no longer viable.

Brexit fanatics tell us the drop in the value of the pound will make our exports more competitive. The experience of manufacturing exporters since the referendum does not support such claims. The low value of the pound needs to be taken alongside the collapse in investment in machinery and plant as businesses have awaited over the past three years the form that Brexit will take.

We are told this is all Project Fear but the reality is that this is Project Fact.