Dear John,

In the week where Brexit had its fifth birthday, Rachel Reeves announced plans for the fabled third runway at Heathrow, and DeepSeek sent shockwaves through the American stock market, here is your weekend wire…

 Take-off for growth?

Your writer for Weekend Wire had just turned one year old when Heathrow called for a third runway in 2003, now your writer is a wizened 22 years old and we’re still talking about it . However, this time it does feel different, with Rachel Reeves outlining plans for that fabled construction to begin. 

The project has proven a challenging point of conflict between pro-environment and pro-growth politicians for more than two decades. Quoting Frontier Economics analysis, Reeves highlighted that a third runway might raise GDP by 0.43% by 2050 while  Ed Milliband, the current Minister for Energy Security and Net-Zero, reportedly voiced his opposition to the move at a Cabinet meeting this week. Ed had threatened to quit Gordan Brown’s government in 2009 over the issue. 

The announcement on Heathrow came in a speech from the Chancellor in Oxford on Wednesday where she also announced plans to create ‘Europe’s Silicon Valley’ by improving the infrastructure between the intellectual powerhouses of Cambridge and Oxford. The plan is projected to add £78 billion to the British economy within a decade and is a further illustration of Reeves’ plan to drive growth via planning reform and infrastructure construction. 

But with the time lag between these projects being announced and spades in the ground, Best for Britain CEO Naomi Smith highlighted the opportunity for growth with our nearest economic partners;

“Unlike a new runway at Heathrow, beneficial regulatory alignment with our largest market and a EU-UK youth mobility scheme won’t take a decade to deliver and can drive growth for all parts of the UK.”

Five years on…

Half a decade, 1,830 days and countless failings later and Brexit celebrates (in the loosest of senses) its five-year birthday. The five-year anniversary of Brexit is like remembering when you embarrassed yourself at the Christmas drinks party with work and every year get a precautionary email from HR. We all know how damaging Brexit has been for our economy, our freedoms and our nations standing in the global order. From curtailing investment to visa-restrictions and higher energy prices, Brexit has been an unmitigated disaster.

But! With all the doom and gloom of today, and with the nagging sense of pain in our proverbial feet, it is an important time to take stock. Let us not mourn the past but knuckle down and focus on bettering the future. Best for Britain’s Director of Comms wrote a fantastic piece this week on the ‘Five reasons to be optimistic after five years of Brexit’ which is well worth a read. 

Niall is right, we must approach this new year with renewed optimism about our future relationship with the EU. With a new government, fresh incentives for a closer relationship for both sides of the channel and a clear opportunity for economic growth, now is the time to roll up our sleeves and secure the future Britain needs.

An unholy alliance

Across the English Channel, or the American Channel as Donald Trump will probably soon be calling it, and mainland Europe has had a busy week of elections and campaigning. Over in Belarus, in a not-so-shocking turn of events,  Alexander Lukashenko won his seventh term in office. Remarkably, the man some have called Europe’s “last dictator” won a resounding 86.8% of the vote. It really is amazing what you can do when your political opponents are either endorsing you or in prison!

More significant than the result in Belarus was the political manoeuvrings in Germany this week. Those with a keen awareness of German politics may be aware that in just over three weeks the largest economy in Europe will be heading to the polls. Worryingly, the last couple of weeks has seen an uptick in support for the AfD hypercharged by wanton social media algorithms and the malign meddling of a certain South African egomaniac. 

However, more concerning still is the actions of the (still favourite to win the election) centre–right Christian Democratic Union party, who despite repeatedly disavowing the AfD and committing to never enter coalition with the far-right party, have this week combined to pass a law targeting asylum seekers…forgetting love thy neighbour and welcoming foreigners. It is a remarkable moment in German politics and breaks a longstanding taboo in the Bundestag about collaborating with the AfD. After the vote, Olaf Scholz cast doubt over a prospective SDP / CDU grand coalition by claiming that he could no longer trust the CDU leader, Freidrich Merz. Expect plenty more twists and turns as we near election day in Germany…

Trick or Seek

It was a particularly tough week for American tech bros this week as the bullishness of the AI market came crashing down and left the American stock market bruised. Enter stage far-East, the new darling of the AI world; DeepSeek. The Chinese company, comprising around 140 people, shocked the world by unveiling an open-source model, similar to ChatGPT but much much much cheaper. Just don’t ask about Tiananmen Square...

DeepSeek apparently spent just $6 million on developing the software, although many have expressed doubts about the validity of that figure. However, what is not up for debate is that the Chinese company has caught the markets by surprise and dispelled the myth of superiority that had driven up the value of companies like Nvidia and OpenAI.  Nvidia lost an eyewatering $600 billion of value in a day.

Best for Britain secured our first (and certainly not last) front page of the year last Sunday as our polling showed that the British public want the Government to prioritise trade with the EU over America. 

The poll and analysis of almost 15,000 people undertaken by YouGov on behalf of Best for Britain shows that across England, Scotland and Wales, almost one in two people (46%) would say the EU should be the Government’s top priority when it comes to trade whereas less than half this number (22%) would opt for the US. 4% would think the Government’s focus should be China while 6% favoured another country.

Prioritising the trading relations with the EU is the top choice in every constituency in Great Britain, and of more than 50% of voters in 73 constituencies. Interestingly, those who had voted for Conservatives in 2019 & Labour in 2024 were more supportive of prioritising the EU than the average, hammering home the confidence that Starmer and his government should have as they approach the negotiation table for the UK-EU reset.

Back again!

This week marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a poignant occasion for reflection and for learning from the sins of the past. A reminder that we must never forget, nor let such hate poison our human condition again.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and I look forward to speaking with you this time next week,

Joshua Edwicker
Best for Britain