We need the trade so badly that we can give up everything else

Once the argument about peace in our time in Europe for the last fifty or however many years being all the achievement of the EU has been demolished, which takes about 30 seconds, we are left with jobs that will be lost if we are out of the EU and the trade, which is so important that we can and should give up our parliamentary democracy, common law, right to legislate and to defence to preserve it.

Quite apart from the fact that we are unlikely to lose the trade if we are out of the EU there is the question of what is it worth to us.

Lord Stoddart put down a written question:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what are the accumulated deficits or surpluses in the United Kingdom's trade with the other European Union countries between 2000 and 2009 in (a) manufactured goods, (b) services, and (c) goods and services.

The answer came via the Minister from the Director of the Office of National Statistics.

The cumulative trade deficit for total goods with the European Union member states over the period 2000 to 2009 was £283.4 billion. Within this, the cumulative trade deficit for total manufactured goods with the European Union member states over the period 2000 to 2009 was £279.7 billion.

The cumulative trade surplus for services with the European Union member states over the period 2000 to 2009 was £23.2 billion.

One cannot help wondering whether some other arrangement for trade might not be more beneficial to the country.