Brexit Britain

David Davis' statement to the House. We have a special programme going to

Nottingham for Brexit Britain, the Discussion.

Hello. Welcome to Nottingham. We're here by the banks of the River

Trentment you can see the famous Trent Bridge in the background.

We're here for a special joint broadcast to see how Britain feels

now about Brexit. Yes, we are ten weeks on then from the referendum.

How have our attitudes changed towards Brexit and are the divisions

as deep today as they were before the vote? I'm Anna Foster with

Christian Fraser and we will be talking about the pace of change and

whether or not enough progress has been made and if people think it

should have happened more quickly and how will Brexit, what did

Theresa May and the Government need to do to make sure that our exit

from the EU works for everybody? Well, before Anna introduces you to

our panel. Let me tell you about the county. There are 1.1 million people

in Nottinghamshire. And when you look at the city of Nottingham, it

is young because they've got two universities here. The big

employers, the industries such as manufacturing and health care, Boots

who have been here for 130 years have their headquarters down the way

in Beeston. They are the biggest employer. With regards to the vote,

Nottinghamshire voted in favour of Brexit. 58%, there were regional

variations so the market town of mans tealed, 70%. The big surprise

was that Nottingham itself, a city, voted for Brexit albeit narrowly. In

terms of what they have had from the European Union along the way, well

they estimate ?100 million in funding since 2000. A good

percentage of that going to the universities for research and about

45% of exports here from the East Midlands as a whole going towards

the European Union. Anna. For some expert insight, Professor Liver

Morrissey. Let's talk about the survey that showed six in ten people

felt positive about Britain's future in the EU. Let's put it to the test

with our audience. It doesn't matter how you voted in the referendum,

whether you wanted to leave or wanted to remain. Who feels positive

about the future? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Less

positive than the poll in general. Let's get quick views on how you

think it has gone. Andrew Baxter you are a student. You voted for leave.

You campaigned for leave. How did you think things would look at this

point ten weeks on? About where we are now to be honest. Did you? Yeah,

I mean, this was never going to happen quickly. Realistically I

would want us to start the process to leave at the end of next year,

because we need to have the European elections, French elections, until

that's resolved it will be difficult to negotiate anything that we really

want. You're patient? I'm patient because this has to be a patient

process. We're coming out of something we've been in for 43

years. We're not cing out in a year or two years, it will be a very long

period of time because we are fully extricated, if we want to, from a

lot of things. I would like to see us stay in the single market in the

short-term for instance. That's not something I want to see us come out

of. You are a business consultant. Now, the morning after, you

apologised to your 14-year-old daughter for the result. Why did you

feel the need to say sorry? There is not going to be significant change.

I have concerns about where we are going to be in four or five years'

time. She is 14 now. By the time she hits 18, 20, coming out of

university or looking for jobs I think the financial and the economic

fall-out from Brexit maybe clearer. You think it will damage her chances

then? I think there is a real risk she maybe. Does she think that? Yes,

she does. She is aware enough to know a lot of younger voters were

keen on remaining than leaving, but at the moment, it's a very unknown

quantity, but yes, there are some concerns about that, yes, certainly.

Danielle, you are from Mansfield. It is one of the top ten leave voting

areas in the country, more than 70% of people in Mansfield voted to

leave. You have been away and come back. You voted to remain, what kind

of mood have you seen on the streets in Mansfield? How do people feel?

There is probably a sense of smugness because we haven't seen the

Armageddon that the media were reporting was going to happen when

we left and so I think a lot of people are saying, "Well, we told

you so. It is not as bad as you thought it was going to be." You say

smugness, it sounds like an atmosphere then? It is just, "We

told you so." The people who voted Remain are saying we don't know

what's going to happen. Nothing has actually happened yet anyway. So you

can't make that call it. It might be a drip, drip, drip effect over the

next 10, 15, 20 years and we might look back and say what happened in

June was the start of it and where it went wrong. How do you feel when

you see that going on around you in Mansfield? For the first time in my

life I have been really ashamed to be British this year. I'm glad we

did so well in the Olympics because we did awful in the football. It has

been a really shocking year on the international stage. We have really

embarrassed ourselves as a nation. So I just want it to be over with

now. I don't want another referendum. You are not one of the

six in ten feeling positive? No. I don't want it to be bad. We have had

the vote. Let's just get on with things now and let's just try and

rebuild the relationships that we have broken with the other countries

within the EU who didn't want us to leave, let's try and salvage that

and move forward and stop talking about it because I think it is

really embarrassing. Peter, you have got a business. One of the things

that made you lean towards leave was the amount of EU red tape. You felt

it was strangling your business, it wasn't benefiting it. Has anything

changed in those ten weeks since the vote? Not much has changed since the

referendum. Other than the fact that we have seen a decline in the value

of the pound. Business appears to be continuing as normal across Europe

and we live in a commercial world and commercial transactions that

were originally taking place will continue to take place. I don't

think for the sake of Brexit we will just stop trading with our European

partners. We are part of Europe and I'm sure life will continue as

normal. It is interesting, people at this stage, ten weeks on, there are

a lot of opinions, a lot of things that people have felt, but it is

about the facts as well, isn't it? It was pointing back to the advice

we got from the experts at the time of the referendum debate. Of course,

we had experts that lined up on both sides. Let's plug into Oliver

Morris, professor of economics at the University of Nottingham.

Danielle was saying we have not seen the Armageddon we were talking about

in Project Fear, we have had a word of warning from the Japanese

ambassador to Britain, he said if this doesn't work, we are happy to

move our companies to Europe? We haven't seen anything dramatic yet

is because, as Danielle said, the only thing that's changed since the

23rd June is we know the outcome of the referendum. We still don't know

what will happen, how it will happen and when it will happen. But with

multinational companies and Japan is one example, the way multinational

companies operate, they will relocate activities, if it is to

their advantage to do so. And it is quite likely that aspects of Brexit

will certainly reduce the benefits of being in the UK. So if

multinationals do what they want, why don't we renegotiate our way

back into the single market? Well, there is a legal problem of trying

to do it now. But there are also, there is a broader legal problem

particularly if you think of it as multinationals, global trade, it is

a very global system and what a lot of people neglect, it is a

rules-based system. Oliver, for the moment, thank you. We will talk more

about the economy. Let's talk first of all though about one of the

really big issues, something that everybody had an opinion on during

the referendum debate and that's immigration. We'll start with Steve.

Immigration was one of the things that really informed the way you

voted, why? It was one of them. There are a lot of other issues as

well, it was purely the level of migration and it had been high for a

number of years. But that was only one of the issues of sovereignty,

and also the issue of democracy, the control probably was the best, that

feeling that you wanted to have control of your borders, but also

other issues as well. It is interesting because you're training

to be an immigration advisor, aren't you? Yes. Have you seen any

difference in the last ten weeks of the number of people wanting to come

to the UK I don't think there is any difference. What happened, the other

issues like sovereignty and not just about immigration, I think, it has

been an emotional reaction, people feel there is more people in this

country when in fact people come and go. Really what the Brexit has shown

we have not much confidence in Westminster and wants Westminster to

invest more into our own communities and invest more in in terms of

international development so people from poorer countries don't feel the

need to come over here, but we want the rich and diverse environment

that we live in. I have many friends from Spain and many friends from

around the world, their own countries are suffering, but I think

by remaining in the EU it is a better situation than having the

knee jerk reaction to kick everybody out for no real reason. You are

talking about rich and diverse at one end and overcrowded at the

other, how do you reconcile those two views? We are talking about

control. It is about levels. And it is about a level of inward migration

that the country is comfortable with. Do you think it is too much at

the moment? I think at 330,000 it is. Net migration? Again, you are

looking at building a city the size of Nottingham every year-and-a-half.

I think that kind of size, that level is probably too high. I mean,

David Cameron sort of wanted to get it down to the tens of thousands.

Whether... It is not his job anymore. It is Theresa May's job

now. Theresa May has echoed that, but again, whether there is a

political will to do that we will see. On that topic of diversity, I

want to bring Dan in. You work in a dental clinic. A while ago you had a

lot of Polish people work in that clinic. Did you have more man power,

could you offer more appointments than you would have done if those

people weren't available to you? At the time when I was working in that

surgery, because I'm now a locum, definitely we had lot of patients

that were from particularly the Polish community so we would have

had a lot less people in that area. I think overall most of the patients

that we do see are British throughout the whole of the UK. But

at the time it was that particular clinic that was quite based with

Polish people. Yeah, that's interesting. As a brief thought, do

you think the NHS will still function the way it does? If you

look at Nottinghamshire, you have got 2500 people working in the NHS,

if those people were gone, would the NHS struggle? I don't think the NHS

would struggle at all. I think that to be honest I think that the

immigration and things like that isn't an issue within the NHS. You

were talking to me, you looked at me, you think it would struggle? I

think it would struggle. I think a lot it is putting the blame to

immigrants. My dad is a doctor. This whole culture that we want to blame

other people for our own problems. The problems are about Westminster,

not the EU and I think people need to stop blaming immigrants for all

our problems. A lot of people I meet are immigrants. They work incredibly

hard to feed and fund their families. I want to get a quick

word. You're a student. You are supposed to be going to Spain next

year, isn't it, to study. Is that still happening? Well, thankfully

the programme is still happening and we will have to see if that will

continue for us in the UK. I think it will because other countries

outside the EU, like Turkey, Macedonia are still in the

programme, it sends out a negative message that we are a less friendly

more hostile country for them to study in. People's opinions, we have

positive opinions of immigration and we have negative ones as well? Steve

says it is not about the immigrants, it is about the level of immigrants.

There has been plenty of racism and abuse for those that are here. I

want to introduce you to a Polish minister at a church in Nottingham

and one in Northampton. You have been here for how long? In the UK,

five years. Five years. And because you're Polish, you didn't get a

vote, what was it like the morning after the vote when you found out

which way it had gone? I was crying out loud. You were crying? Yes. I

imagine many of your congregation, many people in your congregation are

from Eastern Europe, from Central Europe? From the world, from

Germany, from Finland, from Slovakia, from the Czech Republic,

from China, Africa, Tanzania, America. A lot of them call their

minister and what do they tell you when they ring up? The situation

changed for many of them after the Brexit because of hate crimes. This

is something we never expected is going to happen like that. What kind

of hate crimes? There are situations in parks or playgrounds when kids

and their mothers and fathers are asked to speak English because they

are in England they shouldn't be speaking Polish anymore for example

and also the kids are asked at school when they are going to go

home? The kids say, "We are home. This is our home." A recent

situation happened for my German parishioner, her trees were cut off

in her own garden at night and put into the bins and she could hear a

few nights one after another Nazis go home. "Nazis go home." ." You

have been here five years... I feel integrated. The Prime Minister tried

to give as much reassurance as she can. Does it make a difference to

you? Do you want to stay? Had isn't about me, it is about my churches.

Do you feel welcome? I have many supporters around me and the Church

of England, many friends, British people who are with us in this

difficult time. So we feel supported, but we feel not secure in

many ways. Less welcome than you were? And we can say we feel

rejection. Ricky Cook is sitting next to you. You're Labour. You

voted Labour at the last election and you voted Brexit. It is not just

about the divisions between European people and British people, it is

divisions between those who voted for Brexit and those who voted for

remain and the attitudes they have to people who voted Brexit? I'm

working class. I voted Leave. A lot of my friends and family are working

class and they voted Leave and the abuse that some of us have had on

like social media or even just watching the media and watching

people speak about us and calling us, "Thick, ignorant, racist" It is

just really showing the ugly divisions in society. I don't think

it is just the racism that's a problem, it is that as well, as a

whole, like Brexit has shown all the divisions in society and it brought

them to a head. Do you think the delay in finding some solutions to

Brexit, do you think that's part of the problem? If they could get on

with it quickly it might heal the division? We are going to be having

the same arguments over and over again. We need to come up with a

solution and decide what we're going to do and move forward. OK, Ricky,

thank you very much for the moment. Still lots of division in the

country, isn't there? Yes, so many mixed opinions. We are on Facebook

Live. 3,000 people having a discussion. Gillian Perry says the

UK will be stronger. We won't be bullied by the country. It will open

up other opportunities. Adrian says, "It has been two months. We still

don't know anything. A lot of talk and no action." Keep your comments

coming in. I want to turn to the economy. It is a crucial part of the

debate. Some might say the most crucial. I'm going to bring Peter

back in. Peter you are the MD of DSL Group a company that imports into

the country. You supply petrol stations. You have got other

interests as well in commercial properties. You voted out even

though you have got Eastern European workers and as a consequence of

that, because the pound has suffered, your imports are more

expensive. So what do you need from the Government in the coming weeks

and months? What we need from the Government is a timetable so that as

a businessman we know when things are going to happen and that will

add certainty to our plans and we can then plan accordingly. As things

are, you know, there is a level of uncertainty that doesn't allow us to

plan long-term. Do you think there has been too much drift? I would say

so, you know, certainly, we have, you know, various, varying views and

at this moment in time there is a huge level of uncertainty. Heather,

you are a business consultant. You voted Remain. Do you think it is

possible to have the sort of access we want to the single market with

all the passporting for the financial services that are so

important and at the same time, have the control over our borders that we

want? Personally I think that's a bit cake and eat it. I do not think

that we're going to get everything on our wish-list. If you look at

countries like Norway and Switzerland who have some of those

benefits, but also have to take some of the rough bits along with the

smooth bits, it is inevitable in a negotiation we will have to

compromise some of those issues. I think the tricky part for the

Government is going to be deciding which of those issues they are solid

about and which of those they're going to have to find a way forward,

but it is clearly not going toe suit everyone, but is going to lead us to

a workable economic position because we are going to need to trade and

that's hugely important. As a business consultant, when you do the

rounds are people reserving judgment, are they waiting, are they

delaying decisions? I think there has been anecdotally some delay in

perhaps business development work, marketing work, I think that was

particularly apparent at the start of just after the vote because there

was a feeling that we might end up in a general election very rapidly

if the leadership arrangements with the Conservative Party didn't come

together quickly, we don't know who is going to be leading the Labour

Party at the next general election and I think there is a sense that is

an unknown quantity, businesses are just being a little bit careful

about some of the extra spend and obviously looking carefully at what

the economic outcome of things is going to be. Andrew was shaking his

head at one point about the single market. You voted out. You are a

politics student at Nottingham University. Some might say it was a

risk because you have more at stake in this as a student if it goes

wrong? I also have more opportunities though. But really,

important point, there might be one way, only one way, that we could

still be in the single market and restrict free movement and it is

adopt a position that Norway has and Iceland and Liechtenstein and there

are safeguard measures, this is something that Dr Richard North has

been talking about, if you want to see an explanation of this, you

should Google Richard Forth and we maybe able to -- North. The idea

that we are going to have some kind of bespoke by lateral agreement

where we get everything we want and don't have the down sides, we will

be paying contributions and paying single market legislation, but we

might be able to amend free movement. People who want more than

that, Andrew. Much more than that. We overlook, this generational

divide that there is. Yes, the figures bore that out. Andrew Brown,

you buck the generational trend. You voted to remain? Yes. Over 60% of

income comes from the EU support payments. My cost of production is

what I can sell my products. Can you survive without the EU as a farm

sner I think it will be very difficult. In the next ten years

there will be 30,000 less farmers in this country. Have you thought about

what you'll do then, 2020? Everyone is saying the same thing. Nothing

has happened. Nothing has changed so we don't know what's going to come

forward down the line from the DEFRA and the Ministry of Agriculture, but

it is a massive wake-up call for the Westminster Village and I never did

understand why they called it the Westminster Village because all the

villages around our way only had one idiot in them! Referendums have no

part in a Parliamentary democracy. If you start having referendums for

capital punishment and forced repatriation... You're cross? I'm

really worried for our kids. Is your livelihood at risk? We have got

three young kids and one is just at university and you think what's

going to happen? Old people sending young people into oblivion. I'm

still cross about it. Do you think the Government have promised to make

a success, Theresa May says she will make it work, do you believe the

politicians can make it work? There is no definition of Brexit so saying

that is a sound bite for a politician. Fay Quigley, do you

remember how you voted in 1975 because you are a leaver? I voted

no. You did? Yes. Your views haven't changed? No, they haven't changed.

Like the gentleman next door, I didn't get any money for my

business. I had to pay for new equipment which I didn't need. And

rules and regulations, ticking boxes and filling out forms. That's one of

the reasons I voted and I think a lot of small businesses went that

way because of this form filling that's ridiculous. I have two sons.

One came back from India on business on Saturday and my other son has

gone out to Nigeria on business. There is a big wide world out there

and I think we should use it. Do you think there is anything positive

from the EU, the money that's gone into the areas, the regeneration

money, has that made any of it worth it? There is some positive things

that came out of it, but the money that we save should go back in and

to the farmers if they need it and help other people and businesses.

Where is it coming from? Well, this is the question. That's one thing

that we really see. People have, at this stage, all of you have so many

questions, maybe not so many answers. It is fascinating. I think

the summer bought itself time, but everyone talked about timetable.

They want to know when things are going to happen? And what is going

to happen? Only that is going to heal the division. One show of

hands. When Theresa May says breaks irrelevant means Brexit, how many of

you believe that's what will happen and how many of you believe that's

going to be the end result? More than half, but not Andrew, our

farmer! So many questions, not too many answers. What will Brexit look

like. Thank you very much for being with us in Nottingham. Thank you to

our panel and thank you to our listeners on Five Live and our

viewers on the News Channel. You can have your say on Facebook Live. More

than 3,000 people on there. Thank you for your input for our special

live broadcast in Nottingham. Hello