If that's what you think, then no doubt it explains voting Remain. It's where we differ, it seems. I see staying in that protectionist zone as latching ourselves to the stagnating old world, and leaving as facing up the the big, bright future. It'll have challenges, and nobody said it'll be easy, but the opportunities are out there.
There will be further loss of some industries whatever we do. But success is driven by geing ahead of the curve in growth industries, and being there to sell to and service the growing nouveaux affluent in the world outside the EU.
Put it this way. Some industries we simply cannot protect. Simple economics determines that you put industries where you can get plentiful and cheap supplies of essential resources. The mills of the North were located where they were because of resoyrces, primarily running water to drive machinery. But steam changed that and the industrial revolution killed off reliance on water wheels. The same thing has happened in the kast 50 years to labour-intensive activities like hat making in Luton. From, what, hundreds of companies and thousands employed post-war, we're now down to half a dozen or less, and fhose are really just design and sales operations with bulk manufacturing done in the far east. We simply cannot compete with their incredibly low unit labour costs.
Where we go from here has many aspects. We can still compete where we do so on quality, or better yet, the carefully marketed mystique of high-end branding that appeals to the newly affluent consumer segments in, for example, China, by selling aspirational items.
But trying to protect industries where the fundamentals have changed is analogous to the little Dutch boy sticking his fjnger in the hole in the dike. It's ultimately futile, and you risk drowning.
