The sprawling site near Sunderland of the giant Japanese car manufacturer Nissan is a fine-tuned product of Britain’s participation in the European Union. Phillipson has lamented the gaps in public knowledge about the advantages conferred by EU membership, among remainers as well as leavers. Britain’s membership of the EEC was central to her sales pitch to the Japanese. Nissan chose the north-east principally for its ports, giving easy access to and from the European mainland. To argue that the British public did not understand EU membership when fatefully asked to pronounce on it in a referendum is not to dismiss people as stupid.

Source: The Guardian February 04, 2019 19:34 UTC