BREXIT - Is This Really Still Rumbling On? 😴
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Maybe optimism isn't the best policy. And so much for Brexit being "done".
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Ha, too many good barbs in this piece to quote them all, but I did enjoy "Frosty the Strawman".
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/25/stab-in-the-back-nasty-old-myth-brexiters-exploiting-to-explain-away-the-disasterThe career of Frosty the Strawman makes my point for me. By 2016 he had left the diplomatic service behind after a characteristically unimpressive career in the Foreign Office, to work for the Scotch Whisky Association. He opposed leaving the EU, as David Cameron, Liz Truss and most of the Tory mainstream did, and warned audiences with surprising prescience that Brexit would cost each citizen about £1,500 a year.
When the Tory mainstream charged right, Frost charged with them, scrambling over the bodies of his comrades to get out in front. As he rose without trace, his Brexit boosterism earned him commissions from the Telegraph, a seat in Johnson’s cabinet and a peerage in less than four years.
The conspiracy theorist’s choice of targets tells you how they see the future as well as the past. In the 1920s, the German far right’s stab-in-the-back attack on democrats, socialists and Jews established the hit list for the Nazis. In 2012, when Vladimir Putin began accusing Russian NGOs of “serving foreign national interests”, you could smell the paranoia that would lead to today’s wars.
The refusal of British Conservatives to accept responsibility predicts a future in which they go all out to destroy the independent institutions that failed to make Tory dreams come true. Lord Frost has already resigned from Johnson’s cabinet so he can urge Conservatives to go further and faster to the right. He may be an unscrupulous mediocrity, but that does not stop him clearly seeing the Conservative party’s final terminus.0 -
Him again, but you're not listening to the host...
We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
- @ddraver0 -
Boris seems to have invented the EU and invited Turkey to join
(This may be better suited in the Irony Thread)
“New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason!0 -
Claimed paternity? That doesn't sound like him.2
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Is... he actually... is he now bored of cosplaying Churchill and decided he wants to be Caesar? Has he forgotten how that ends?1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
Was my first thought on reading it. Obviously didn't think it would required any of his time or personal money.kingstongraham said:Claimed paternity? That doesn't sound like him.
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"Too late to do anything about it" doesn't seem to stop people changing their minds about how it's going. If this stays as a trend, don't rule out people changing their minds about how much co-operation the UK should have with the EU.
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Your logic is faulty as 52% thought £4K a price worth payingbriantrumpet said:"Too late to do anything about it" doesn't seem to stop people changing their minds about how it's going. If this stays as a trend, don't rule out people changing their minds about how much co-operation the UK should have with the EU.
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The UK’s trade performance has fallen to its worst level since records began in 1955. Sterling is tanking.0
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Presumably imports have held up as we don’t check them?skyblueamateur said:The UK’s trade performance has fallen to its worst level since records began in 1955. Sterling is tanking.
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I would assume so. Business as normal in that regards. The dollar is killing things atm though and will only fuel inflation.surrey_commuter said:
Presumably imports have held up as we don’t check them?skyblueamateur said:The UK’s trade performance has fallen to its worst level since records began in 1955. Sterling is tanking.
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this is where it is going against conventional economic theory, the FX should be helping exports and strangling importsskyblueamateur said:
I would assume so. Business as normal in that regards. The dollar is killing things atm though and will only fuel inflation.surrey_commuter said:
Presumably imports have held up as we don’t check them?skyblueamateur said:The UK’s trade performance has fallen to its worst level since records began in 1955. Sterling is tanking.
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Yep, Brexit goes against all conventional economic norms though?surrey_commuter said:
this is where it is going against conventional economic theory, the FX should be helping exports and strangling importsskyblueamateur said:
I would assume so. Business as normal in that regards. The dollar is killing things atm though and will only fuel inflation.surrey_commuter said:
Presumably imports have held up as we don’t check them?skyblueamateur said:The UK’s trade performance has fallen to its worst level since records began in 1955. Sterling is tanking.
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not really. From an economics point of view it was always an act of self-harm and it has pretty much played out that way. It is a shame it is the UK as it is fascinating case study.skyblueamateur said:
Yep, Brexit goes against all conventional economic norms though?surrey_commuter said:
this is where it is going against conventional economic theory, the FX should be helping exports and strangling importsskyblueamateur said:
I would assume so. Business as normal in that regards. The dollar is killing things atm though and will only fuel inflation.surrey_commuter said:
Presumably imports have held up as we don’t check them?skyblueamateur said:The UK’s trade performance has fallen to its worst level since records began in 1955. Sterling is tanking.
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It could do that (for services) and also fuel inflation (for products).surrey_commuter said:
this is where it is going against conventional economic theory, the FX should be helping exports and strangling importsskyblueamateur said:
I would assume so. Business as normal in that regards. The dollar is killing things atm though and will only fuel inflation.surrey_commuter said:
Presumably imports have held up as we don’t check them?skyblueamateur said:The UK’s trade performance has fallen to its worst level since records began in 1955. Sterling is tanking.
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Fair pointsurrey_commuter said:
not really. From an economics point of view it was always an act of self-harm and it has pretty much played out that way. It is a shame it is the UK as it is fascinating case study.skyblueamateur said:
Yep, Brexit goes against all conventional economic norms though?surrey_commuter said:
this is where it is going against conventional economic theory, the FX should be helping exports and strangling importsskyblueamateur said:
I would assume so. Business as normal in that regards. The dollar is killing things atm though and will only fuel inflation.surrey_commuter said:
Presumably imports have held up as we don’t check them?skyblueamateur said:The UK’s trade performance has fallen to its worst level since records began in 1955. Sterling is tanking.
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I should probably have emphasised "theory" as the £ has been on the slide since 2016 and yet it has not sorted out our trade inbalancekingstongraham said:
It could do that (for services) and also fuel inflation (for products).surrey_commuter said:
this is where it is going against conventional economic theory, the FX should be helping exports and strangling importsskyblueamateur said:
I would assume so. Business as normal in that regards. The dollar is killing things atm though and will only fuel inflation.surrey_commuter said:
Presumably imports have held up as we don’t check them?skyblueamateur said:The UK’s trade performance has fallen to its worst level since records began in 1955. Sterling is tanking.
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Whilst I hate people constantly talking British industry down... Wouldn't sorting the trade imbalance require growing our industrial capacity in addition to a sliding pound?0
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there are all sorts of things you can do to help UK companies to export.Jezyboy said:Whilst I hate people constantly talking British industry down... Wouldn't sorting the trade imbalance require growing our industrial capacity in addition to a sliding pound?
You would need to grow industrial capacity in areas that could be exported0 -
Who could have seen this coming?
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
I had a thought about that this morning. We didn't own Hong Kong we basically rented it. You don't get to tell Avis how to treat their car once you return it.rjsterry said:Who could have seen this coming?
The above may be fact, or fiction, I may be serious, I may be jesting.
I am not sure. You have no chance.Veronese68 wrote:PB is the most sensible person on here.0 -
The Telegraph, at least, isn't in total denial:Living beyond our means has long been a national habit, so it shouldn’t perhaps come as any surprise. The sheer size of the addiction is nonetheless quite a shock.
According to the latest national accounts, published last week, Britain’s current account deficit widened in the first quarter of this year to an astonishing 8.3pc of Gross Domestic Product, easily the biggest such deficit ever.
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It is hard to be certain about the exact causes of this deterioration. Certainly the soaring costs of imported energy and food were a major factor. But the UK also exports quite a lot of oil and gas, so there was a big offset in this regard.
The main factor was instead a big leap in imports of finished and semi manufactured goods. There was also a marked deterioration in exports of goods, though not as large as the increase in imports. Whatever ministers say to the contrary, it is hard to escape the conclusion that this is at least in part a Brexit effect.
As demand came surging back, post the pandemic, the flaws in Boris Johnson’s “oven ready” trade deal with the EU have been cruelly exposed.
The EU trades pretty much freely with us - our choice, by the way, so as not to further add to inflation with increased bureaucratic restrictions on trade - but our exports to them are already encountering the full panoply of barriers that afflict non EU members that are not part of the single market.
The surge in imports may also have something to do with acute labour shortages in key sectors. British companies may as a consequence have found it harder to satisfy domestic demand than otherwise.
In any case, there is no denying where the balance of power in our new trading relationship with Europe lies; it is predictably with the much larger jurisdiction - the EU. So much for the much touted claim that because we import far more from them than they do from us, Britain would maintain the whip hand in any ongoing relationship.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/07/02/track-currency-crisis-bankruptcy/0 -
"So much for the much touted claim that because we import far more from them than they do from us, Britain would maintain the whip hand in any ongoing relationship."
This logic always eluded me. 🤔The above may be fact, or fiction, I may be serious, I may be jesting.
I am not sure. You have no chance.Veronese68 wrote:PB is the most sensible person on here.0 -
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I lost count of the amount of points made but.....
I'll give them a score of 0/x.The above may be fact, or fiction, I may be serious, I may be jesting.
I am not sure. You have no chance.Veronese68 wrote:PB is the most sensible person on here.0 -
A spot of realism from Tony Blair.
https://telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/06/30/brexit-wont-overturned-least-generation-admits-tony-blair/
Quotes:
Tony Blair has admitted that Brexit will not be overturned for at least a generation but insisted Britain needs to “fix” its trading relationship with Europe.
The former Prime Minister, a leading advocate of a second referendum, conceded that the argument over the decision to leave the EU was now settled.
“However passionately I opposed Brexit, I understand we’ve done it,” Sir Tony told a conference in central London organised by his think tank.
“We’ve done it legally, we’ve done it politically and it’s not going to be reversed any time soon – let’s say any time in this generation."
When the Brexit trade deal was agreed in October 2019, he said MPs should extend Britain’s membership of the bloc and hold another vote on staying in.
But last year he dropped his calls for a re-run, saying that although he had not changed his mind about leaving “we must make the best of it”.
He also has an unpopular on here (but correct) view that Brexit is done
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
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It's only the government that thinks Brexit isn't done.
Now we are agreed that we have left the EU, can we start thinking about joining the single market?0 -
Labour positioning as 'Make Brexit Work'“New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason!0
