The now-enacted will of (some of) the people

[Chindie]

5 hours ago, ml1dch said:

While Messers Davis and Hammond are off in Germany telling everyone how silly it would be to do anything that might make it harder for financial services firms to operate.

Demonstrating a massive lack of self-awareness, in Davis's case at least.

In move they will shock no-one with an inkling of how the EU works and has been saying it will work for over a year, the Germans have reiterated they will be working in line with the rest of the EU, meaning Davis and Hammond will presumably either be doing lots of begging in vain or lots of finger twiddling in Berlin.

[snowychap]

1 hour ago, Chindie said:

Full contents of the hamper are supposed to be as follows 

 

...Christ.

I mean... For **** sake. The idea is bad enough in the first place but that is the best they could do? PG Tips? Biography of Churchill? It's like a joke.

You've got to laugh, surely. Otherwise, you'd just never stop crying.

Edited January 10, 2018 by snowychap

[tonyh29]

The gift has prompted Twitter to users to complain that it contained few products from Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland

 

you can't make this shit up

[fightoffyour]

1 hour ago, Chindie said:

Full contents of the hamper are supposed to be as follows 

 

...Christ.

I mean... For **** sake. The idea is bad enough in the first place but that is the best they could do? PG Tips? Biography of Churchill? It's like a joke.

Yorkshire Gold might have swayed it.

[tonyh29]

seems the crap gift thing is traditional though , like a secret Santa thing at work where you think what the **** do I get this clearing in the woods who I don't like and don't want to spend too much effort on it  ...It is all designed to build trust and generate bonhomie. Or in this case to also generate some publicity for a fairly run-of-the-mill meeting

 At the first round of talks Barnier was presented with a vintage climbing book by Davis ( He gave Davis guest an antique walking stick )

Corbyn brought Barnier a personalised Arsenal football shirt  ... clearly not PM material and fit to inhabit number 10  

[bickster]

3 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

The gift has prompted Twitter to users to complain that it contained few products from Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland

 

you can't make this shit up

They’d have a point, the Whisky Industry dwarfs most of that shit in sales but then again the hamper was designed to play to their little englander core vote not the Europeans 

[Chindie]

18 minutes ago, snowychap said:

You've got to laugh, surely. Otherwise, you'd just never stop crying.

It kinda reiterates this backwards viewpoint Brexit comes from, longing for this, at best, long dead (and perhaps having never existed) vision of England (not Britain). So you get the stereotypes, the quaint, the food stuff that isn't going to have anyone quaking in their boots.

I'd also like to know how much of that hamper actually is British. I'd bet something there is (the brands?) there is foreign owned. And famously Britain is crawling in orange trees and tea plantations.

Edited January 10, 2018 by Chindie

[tonyh29]

38 minutes ago, bickster said:

They’d have a point, the Whisky Industry dwarfs most of that shit in sales 

Wasn’t really the point though

 

[snowychap]

4 hours ago, Chindie said:

 

[Chindie]

Remains one of the best moments in British politics. I never fail to at least smirk.

[Seat68]

12 hours ago, tonyh29 said:

The gift has prompted Twitter to users to complain that it contained few products from Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland

 

you can't make this shit up

Well they should have voted leave then!

[Davkaus]

13 hours ago, tonyh29 said:

The gift has prompted Twitter to users to complain that it contained few products from Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland

 

you can't make this shit up

What did they want included, an A-Z of Swansea, some heroin, and a hand grenade?

[tonyh29]

guess this have gone in numerous threads (Economic , Tory  ones etc )  but here seems as good as any as it's a more active thread  ... not that anyone here will agree with it mind you  

Something's gone badly right with the worlds economy

It is only a few months since gloomy economic commentators were confidently predicting that the world was about to plunge into a dark era of protectionism. Yet the global economy begins this year in its healthiest state ever, growing faster than any time since 2011. There has been a change in political rhetoric, but not in the willingness of people around the world to trade with each other. According to the OECD’s most-recent projection, made in November, world trade grew at 4.8 per cent last year. Something seems to be going badly right.

Negative sentiments about the world economy echo those which have hung over Britain’s economy ever since the Brexit referendum. A month before that event, it should never be forgotten, a Treasury paper signed by George Osborne forecast that ‘a vote to leave would cause an immediate and profound economic shock’, causing a recession with half a million more on the dole. Instead, employment has risen by almost 400,000 — and a lack of workers has become one of the UK economy’s biggest problems. Britain’s biggest jobs website says vacancies are up 20 per cent year-on-year, while unemployment sits at a 40-year low. These are the conditions for pay rises to accelerate.

People tend to think the worst. As a species, we have evolved to focus on what is wrong. We are forever telling ourselves that something dreadful is about to happen, whether it be economic Armageddon or climate catastrophe. As the foreign secretary points out on page 20, mankind has never been richer, healthier or less inclined to fight wars. If you could choose any time to be born, not knowing your social position or even nationality, you would choose now.

It is a wonder that the endless talking-down of Britain’s prospects has not done more harm. As the chief economist of the Bank of England pointed out, the economics profession has had its ‘Michael Fish moment’, referring to the weatherman’s dismissal of the 1987 storm and the damage that did to the credibility of meteorology. Like the weather, the economy is the result of millions of forces, often unpredictable

The global economy does suffer severe reversals at times, but its general direction is upwards because human societies have a natural affinity for economic growth. Almost everyone wants to better themselves, and the vast majority are prepared to work to achieve that outcome. Government works best when it provides low taxes, regulatory restraint and sound money. That is a recipe for a sustained upwards trend in wealth over the medium to long term, whatever hiccups might occur in the short term through banking crisis, inflationary shock and so on. It has worked everywhere that it has been tried.

 

As the Office for Budget Responsibility is fond of reminding us, Britain is statistically overdue a recession — and traditionally, economists are usually blindsided by downturns when they actually strike. We have plenty of problems, chief among them low wages, the result of low productivity. But wage inequality, we learned this week, is at a low not seen for about 30 years: since the 2010 general election, the incomes of the poorest have been rising fastest. The fruits of the recovery are so far being distributed where they are needed most.

This point would be a powerful antidote to Corbynism if the Conservatives could work out how to get the message across. Global capitalism has created a golden era of poverty reduction: never have so many been lifted so fast out of illness, ignorance, squalor, poverty or misery. Fast growth in the developing world means that global trade is increasing at a healthy rate, which ought to provide a pointer for the post-Brexit UK economy. It is with countries such as China and India (whose economies both grew at 7 per cent last year) that the best opportunities to do business exist. Once freed from the parochial, protectionist instincts of the EU, Britain should be in an excellent position to take advantage.

The UK economy recovered from the 2008 crash far faster than others in Europe, and it’s encouraging to see that these are now catching up. The member states of the EU will be Britain’s biggest single trading partner for some time, and they are now starting to address chronic unemployment and sclerotic growth rates that have held them back for so long.

The significant tax cuts just passed in the United States, our largest single trading partner, will accelerate this new chapter of global growth: a potential reflected in recent stockmarket highs.

Brexit, on its own, will not change a thing. It won’t by itself make anything better or worse. But it will hand new powers to ministers — who can use them well or badly or not at all. If Britain does not prosper over the next few years, it will not be because of a lack of opportunity.

[StefanAVFC]

[bickster]

1 minute ago, StefanAVFC said:

Please don't dissuade him against it... it'd be hilarious

[StefanAVFC]

The cynic in me thinks he's seeing the public opinion start to turn and he knows it'll be a shambles and he won't be able to blame the EU for it.

2nd ref, remain wins and he gets to be the voice of the people once again basing an entire career out of being a Eurosceptic.

Also, the sheer nerve of criticising Blair, Clegg and Adonis for whinging about it when whinging about the EU is all he's ever done 

[mjmooney]

A second referendum would be interesting. The received wisdom says that too-frequent elections cause voter irritation and a corresponding drop in turnout. I'll bet that wouldn't be the case here. I think a lot of the previously complacent Remainers who assumed it would be a foregone conclusion would turn out this time. On the other hand, so would the hardcore leavers, outraged at this attempt to 'overthrow the will of the people'. Might be very close again. 

[tonyh29]

tbh if there was a second one I'd imagine a lot of people wouldn't bother voting , but by Remainer logic  , unless all the racists have left the Uk , Leave would still win surely ?

 

 

[StefanAVFC]

Nah thousands of leave voters have died since, and thousands of remainers have turned 18.

[ml1dch]

5 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

tbh if there was a second one I'd imagine a lot of people wouldn't bother voting , but by Remainer logic  , unless all the racists have left the Uk , Leave would still win surely ?

 

 

Maybe, just maybe all the people who believed the lies from last time might be a little bit more critical about the poison that the likes of Johnson and Farage are feeding them.

Edit - not that it matters. This is nothing more than an ugly little reprobate trying to keep his name in the papers for one more day. It's irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

Edited January 11, 2018 by ml1dch