The UK Politics & Brexit Thread

[Petrol Pete]

Meanwhile, in the "Truth is Stranger than Fiction" pile, we have a new entry...

Impressionist Rory Bremner 'saved Sir John Major's bacon' amid MPs revolt

Newly released historical files show the comedian impersonated the then-PM in phone calls with Tory MPs.

www.bbc.co.uk

I read this just this morning , and thought WTF !? Not the first time a politician has taken a 'call' from a imposter. But if Bremner had discussed the weather in these calls to 'test' his impersonation it might not have been important. Very odd indeed.

 

[st13phil]

Windbag Blackford excelled himself in the House debate on the Brexit deal today when he asserted that “Scotland was a European trading nation cut off by the Act of Union”.

Not only is it comical, it’s also historically illiterate drivel - but then the SNP have form for that.

Just in case he's reading this, I’ll help him out: Scotland was bankrupt after the Darien disaster. However, once in the Union it boomed, to the extent that it actually ran much of the Empire. But don’t let facts get in the way of the SNP's “repressed Scots under the yoke of England” revisionist nonsense.

 

[flowrider]

Do MPs debating in Parliament really think that the deal should have included every nuance anyone can imagine or do they think the deal is a good start and will enable future negotiations and deals in areas not yet covered. It appears most think the former! I think Kier Starmer is right when he states that those voting against the deal are hiding behind the votes that will be placed in favour of the deal. Even now some parties (SNP, LibDem, Plaid Cymru) can't put country before politics.

 

[markjay]

Indeed the United Kingdom was being run by a pair of Scots (Brown and Darling) as recently as 2010.

 

[DSM10000]

Indeed the United Kingdom was being run by a pair of Scots (Brown and Darling) as recently as 2010.

I would take exception to "run", more limped along....

 

[AltonAnt]

I would take exception to "run", more limped along....

And yet still they were leagues ahead of this current pantomime parliament.

 

[markjay]

And yet still they were leagues ahead of this current pantomime parliament.

"They" were the PM and the Chancellor... Parliament is Parliament.... did you mean to say that "Brown and Darling were leagues ahead of Johnson and Sunak"?

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

And yet still they were leagues ahead of this current pantomime parliament.

So true: Brown really was the man who claimed to have "Ended That Cycle of Boom and Bust"

Well, he did until 2008.

This government are just cruising: 80 seat majority, and then "slam dunk" Brexit deal with Europe, accepted 521-73: a majority of 448.

I mean, these guys are having such an easy life.

And, the UK started vaccinating British people weeks before the EU, with a schedule of 100 million jabs to be done in just three months. This Government is just ....lucky.

 

[AltonAnt]

Although a deal is better than no deal, it is seriously lacking in any detail at all regarding ‘services’ which account for 80% of our actual trade.

Ever feel like you’ve been mugged and not noticed immediately? Bravo

 

[st13phil]

Meanwhile the exodus from Brexit Britain accelerates:

"Aldi has announced plans to increase the amount of food and drink it buys from British suppliers by £3.5 billion a year. The retailer is investing £500m in new & upgraded stores, distribution centres and its supply chain in 2021, which will create over 4,000 jobs"​

Linky​

Oh, hang on...

 

[geraldrobins]

Meanwhile the exodus from Brexit Britain accelerates:

"Aldi has announced plans to increase the amount of food and drink it buys from British suppliers by £3.5 billion a year. The retailer is investing £500m in new & upgraded stores, distribution centres and its supply chain in 2021, which will create over 4,000 jobs"​

Linky​

Oh, hang on...

This was announced in July if not sooner. I dont think Brexit affects it.

 

[st13phil]

I dont think Brexit affects it.

Precisely. Brexit happened in January 2020.

 

[C240Sport97]

Although a deal is better than no deal, it is seriously lacking in any detail at all regarding ‘services’ which account for 80% of our actual trade.

Ever feel like you’ve been mugged and not noticed immediately? Bravo

no deal doesn't mean services can no longer be provided in EU, just more bureaucracy and in financial services, more pain and expense.

nothing fatal.

UK professional qualifications are highly regarded internationally so the chances of non recognition by an EU member state is small .. except perhaps for France

 

[C240Sport97]

Windbag Blackford excelled himself in the House debate on the Brexit deal today when he asserted that “Scotland was a European trading nation cut off by the Act of Union”.

My history is poor, but didn't Scotland agree to unite with England; it wasn't forced to?

 

[Deleted member 65149]

My history is poor, but didn't Scotland agree to unite with England; it wasn't forced to?

With Scotland in self-inflicted financial ruin at the time, I don’t think they had a lot of choice did they.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Although a deal is better than no deal, it is seriously lacking in any detail at all regarding ‘services’ which account for 80% of our actual trade.
Ever feel like you’ve been mugged and not noticed immediately? Bravo

We removed financial services from the trade agreement to keep the Commission out of the process.

If the European nations choose not to access International Finance via the the World's second biggest Financial centre, that's a choice for the individual countries. We've got 1,200,000 people working in Financial Services, earning a fortune from a broad range of skills from Finance to accounting, from Compliance to IT. 7% of GDP, call it £130 billion. From a trade point of view that's £60 billion worth of exports, and £15 billion of imports - a surplus of £45 billion.

If anyone thinks they can transfer that work to Milan or Lisbon, they're welcome to take it. Although those cities have been trying to take it for at least forty years, and arguably two centuries.

Where did Goldman Sachs move into its new 850,000 sq foot European Headquarters last year ? Farringdon Road. Where else in Europe would the millionaire MD's (and their wives and children) want to be based ?

 

[Dryce]

My history is poor, but didn't Scotland agree to unite with England; it wasn't forced to?

It's a little bit more complicated than that.

• Strong countries such as England and Spain and France and Netherlands and Portugal could control trade at that time. Scotland was caught in a squeezed position economically when it came to trade.
• There were strong links between England and Scotland. Shared head of state / crown and a crossover in terms of land pownership and aristocracy.
• There were complications regarding religion and that shared head of state / crown that would come back to cause civil unrest in Britain in the 1700s after the union.

Looking at the 1700s and 1800s and the industrial revolution and the strength of the British Empire then the Union of 1707 was a massive opportunity for Scotland and it flourished.

If you want to see signs of this look at Scottish cities, towns, and villages and the relative lack of pre 1700s buildings and 'modern' grid layouts and planning. England has had similar growth but you'll find more signs of pre 1700s legacy more easily.

 

[Dryce]

My understanding - and I'm open to correction - is that EU accession rules demand that an applicant country has an independent central bank, with control over its monetary policy. While an iScotland could use any existing currency it likes (Sterling or Euro, or even US$) that would preclude them having control over monetary policy as the control of the money supply would lay with the issuing central bank.

I believe you can argue this with a currency board based on a portfolio of currencies because you can control how it is setup.

So you might not control the currencies that you depend on - but you can structure your portfolio and the relative dependence.

(Added to which - I suspect that if a country already used the Euro then it would be nonsense to block it based on some need for independence prior to dependence.)

 

[Dryce]

Same here - I have always travelled abroad covered by travel insurance policy. That said, as we get older, there may be cover exclusions (pre-existing conditions etc), and also I think that at current travel insurance policies do not cover COVID-19, so for these reasons it's probably a good idea to carry an EHIC card (or whatever will replace it) when travelling to the EU.

On any travel policy I have used travel to the EU required that you carried a EHIC card if you were entitred to hold one.

 

[Petrol Pete]

Meanwhile the exodus from Brexit Britain accelerates:

"Aldi has announced plans to increase the amount of food and drink it buys from British suppliers by £3.5 billion a year. The retailer is investing £500m in new & upgraded stores, distribution centres and its supply chain in 2021, which will create over 4,000 jobs"​

Linky​

Oh, hang on...

Damn those German capitalist...damn them to Hell I say !!