THE CBI (Confederation for British Industry) has called for “binding Brexit transition terms” to be thrashed out by the end of the first quarter to protect jobs and investment in the UK, writes Scott Wright.
Carolyn Fairbairn, the CBI’s director-general, urged politicians to provide “unity, clarity and certainty, not a different opinion every day” as she set out the group’s New Year priorities for 2018.
Her message comes after a year during which Ms Fairbairn said the impact of uncertainty has “taken its toll”, citing slowing economic growth, faltering business investment and the impact on living standards from surging inflation as the UK felt the fall-out from the Brexit process.
She noted that 2017 did end with “some good Brexit news” when the EU Council signalled in mid-December that trade talks could begin after a “status quo transition” was agreed in principle. But, looking to 2018, Ms Fairbairn said: “Even harder work lies ahead. To keep jobs and investment in the UK, binding Brexit terms by the end of the first quarter need to be accompanied by progress on a framework for a final deal that delivers barrier free trade with the UK.”
Meanwhile, the Federation of Small Businesses has called on the UK Government to end the late payment culture it says devastates thousands of firms every year at the top of its domestic agenda for 2018.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here