As DG of such a prodigious club you would expect him to know the rules and standards pertaining to his position.
If he speaks against the official stated position of that club,
AND in such opposition to 60% of the members, I would have expected him to have resigned prior to making such a contradictory and confrontational speech.
Emma Jones, founder of rival business trade group Enterprise Nation, said: ‘As head of British Chambers, it was John’s responsibility to speak on behalf of members.
‘He clearly expressed a personal opinion – and a position with which many of his members were not in agreement.
His suspension is a result of that. When speaking on member platforms, the role should be to speak on behalf of members and to represent their view.’
From your linked article.
I won't bother going in to too many details of his comments, except to point out a few notable points, from the same article:
Longworth, 57, isn’t speaking off the cuff. He has spent the last three years researching the effect on Britain if it were to leave Europe.
‘I have lived and breathed this issue,’ he says. ‘I’ve spent a lot of time looking at economic reports, consulting with countries that we trade with within and outside Europe, with economists, think tanks, the Bank of England.
So he knows what he's talking about?
'We won’t have access to decision-making, but we’ll have to pay into a budget. We’ll have to apply free movement of people, but we’ll have no say.
Well clearly he either doesn't know what he's talking about or he's confused or he's intentionally causing confusion.
If we're IN we cannot be forced to accept the Schengen Agreement. If we're OUT, well that depends on the Trade Agreement.
Of course, if we leave then our future will be determined by whether we get a good negotiated deal with the EU after leaving.
Hmm, maybe he does know what he's talking about.
We are Germany’s biggest export market. They’re hardly likely to want to stop selling us stuff.’
Or maybe he doesn't know what he's talking about. We've explored this and found that of course the EU (not just Germany) will continue to export to UK. It will depend on our import tariffs on how that works out.
‘There will be short-term disruption, there’s no use ducking that issue.
‘But are we prepared to bear that short-term disruption for the bright future? That’s the real question.’
‘The worst-case scenario if we left is that the EU applied all of the tariffs they now apply to other foreign countries.
'The current drop in the value of our currency has already compensated us for most of those tariffs overnight.
‘So our goods now are going to be as cheap as they would have been before the application of the tariff.
So he's accepted that the GBP will lose value, and with the current EU subsidy, that will magically pay for the EU import tariffs.
He forgets to mention the soaring cost of imported goods and services to UK, the soaring cost of foreign travel, holidays, etc. So we'd be considerably worse off, unless we're content with only UK made goods, foodstuffs and Blackpool holidays.
Well, we are an island nation after all.
