Who is right? Ms Fairbairn, Director General, CBI or Mr Carney, Governor, Bank of England?

It was quite remarkable to hear Carolyn Fairbairn, Director General (sounds a bit of a pompous title in today’s world) of the Confederation of British Industry announce that only 4% of her Membership were ready for the so called no deal BREXIT.  Only 4%!  Good grief.  They have had almost three years to prepare yet 96% are not ready.  What an admission.  What have they been doing?  What kind of leaders have they got leading these so called important companies to the economy?   

The interesting thing is, the Bank of England reckon that 80% of UK businesses are ready to leave with the WTO alternative, also known as the cliff edge by Remainers.   

Ms Fairbairn’s statement bears no reality to the data from this wider survey which showed that around 80% of British businesses believe they are ready for a no deal Brexit as the Bank of England revealed that the economy is accelerating ahead of the UK's scheduled departure from the EU.     

Ms Fairbairn has been rebuked by one of her own Council Members, Simon Boyd, managing director of Reid Steel, a 100 year old business that should know what it is talking about you would have thought. They have been manufacturing and erecting large commercial buildings, aircraft hangars, grandstands, bridges, process plants, car parks and many other steel structures worldwide for over 90 years.  Impressive.

Mr Boyd said no deal was not a “cliff edge” for most companies.  “We should be leaving on Friday night under WTO terms with all the side deals.  It is not BREXIT that has caused the damage to British business but the political classes.  There is no cliff edge, no crashing out.  Some will have to make adjustments but the majority of British businesses will be unaffected.”  Well said that man man from the productive side of the UK economy.