Yes, every time I think I see the tax I pay being pissed up against the wall. Edinburgh trams and Scottish Parliament building spring to mind. It's not a perfect world we live in but that's not all down to Westminster or Brussels. Neither is my world black and white. I'm not 100% against the idea of an independent Scotland, far from it, I'm just not more than 50% for it.
funded by the Scottish budget with the help of the under spend the previous labour/liberal coalitions had been sending back to the westminster treasury. dicks.
Well, it is the best time for a Labour coup as there is bound to be a general election in the near future and the geography teacher is not going to cut it. It doesn't matter about his mandate from some students, he hasn't got a snowflake's chance in hell of being elected PM. So that means that he, through his stubbornness, is ensuring that the country is absolutely guaranteed another Tory government - a superb own goal. He has to go because he is a completely useless leader. He doesn't seem to have done much in the way of leading and uniting and it shows. He is truly dire. He may be a decent guy with some admirable politics (he may be...) but as a party leader he is a disaster. Most people would get the hint when 40 of their appointees tried to maroon them on a desert island, but not Geogs. I was suspecting he wasn't very bright - intellectually challenged, if you prefer. He finished school with 2 A levels at grade "E", and then didn't finish his course at North London Polytechnic. So yes, probably not the sharpest knife in the drawer. You'd want him weighing in with the EU?
But Militant, now known as Momentum, have hijacked the Labour party, successfully this time, and with their 1 member 1 vote the PLP can do nothing about it. It would be hilarious if it wasn't so serious. Labour is about as credible a party of government as UKIP, and they have only1 MP.
Bright enough to have the likes of Milne pulling his strings. Harks back to Degsy, Militant and Kinnock days. Alain Tolhurst on Twitter: "Amateur hour https://t.co/mm5kCklsJ6"
I didn't write this,but I wish I had: “Why does the UK leaving the EU necessitate a global or UK financial meltdown?” she asked. And then it hit me, this was the question the world’s largest financial publications were failing to ask, or at the very least to answer honestly. The answer to this question can be as complex as you would like to make it, but the clear and simple answer is this: the UK leaving the EU fundamentally necessitates neither of these things. To justify this simple answer we need only consider what affords a national economy its productivity. The intellect of the talented people of the UK that create value, the infrastructure, the primary institutions, and the capital goods that allow individuals to turn their time into valuable outputs have not changed. It is not as if London’s financial district or the many manufacturing industries around the UK were decimated by a meteor and must be rebuilt from the ground up. Physically and intellectually the UK is the same today as it was the day before the vote to secede. So, what then is causing all of the commotion? Once again, the answer can be as complicated as we would like to make it, but without foolishly trying to perform an accounting measure by forecasting what the cost and benefit of each change in tax and trade policy might be, we need only admit that the real cause of the hysteria is purely political in nature. The uncertainty that has put the fear of god into some economists and financial analysts is only a matter of petty political gamesmanship. As Mises so astutely observed, “Economic progress is the work of the savers, who accumulate capital, and of the entrepreneurs, who turn capital to new uses. The other members of society, of course, enjoy the advantages of progress, but they not only do not contribute anything to it; they even place obstacles in its way.” The EU, with thousands of laws seeking to govern each detail of economic activity, such as the power efficiency of toasters and tea kettles, is nothing more than an obstacle for entrepreneurs and their employees across Europe. By threatening greater taxes and tariffs as a result of a vote for a more sovereign, less centralized and bureaucratic system of governance, the EU is demonstrating the very sort of tyrannical attitude toward trade arrangements that the Brexit advocates sought to escape. Economists have been fixated on the costs of the loss of trade the UK will suffer, ignoring the benefits and the fact that a trade deal is simply a handshake and a signature on a piece of official government paper. There is nothing that prohibits mutually beneficial voluntary trade between two people or two nations other than an oppressive government body. The many trade complications that have been presented over the past month are much less economic conundrums and much more scare tactics that sound as if they came from Lord Vader giving an ultimatum to join the Galactic Empire. They can be summarized by something like, “You can choose to be independent but you will feel our wrath.” It is this fear that drives uncertainty about the future and the uncertainty that drives turbulence in markets. To reiterate, this turbulence is entirely unnecessary, as trade deals can and would be struck between two mutually benefiting nations barring some greater despotic governmental force like the EU holding at ransom some other portion of their economy. Logically and economically speaking, if both Germany and the UK benefited from trading with one another last week, why wouldn’t they continue to trade with one another today? The only reason that this arrangement would not take place is if the cartel called the EU, of which Germany is a member, prohibited them from doing so. It is clear in this example that it is not the UK’s independence that is the problem but instead the power that the EU has over policies to which its member states are subject. If there is one thing that the EU should hope for it is complete economic catastrophe as a result of this vote; that their threats and fear mongering leads to action resulting in a self-fulfilling prophecy. Otherwise, if the UK proves that you can leave the union, maintain friendly trade relations and continue to be a dominant global economy, it would signal the beginning of the end of the EU. If other nations see proof that you can escape the Brussels bureaucracy with only minor short-term complications it will surely lead to an exodus from the destined-to-fail union.
A rabble-rouser? What, someone who just takes part in a debate and attempts to support a point of view? A bit harsh, or is this just symptomatic of the bitterness that seems to have seeped into those who voted Remain? Or maybe just a tongue-in-cheek comment that I hadn't fully appreciated? Your argument seems to be that I'm not in the UK, Eurozone or eligible to vote, so what the hell's it got to do with me? I hope everyone criticizing Trump applies the same criteria - what's it got to do with them? Or maybe one should have no opinion on Assad or Putin. What's it got to do with them? But in this instance, the EU has quite a lot to do with me - almost as much as it has to do with you. The EU offers a free market for goods, but it comes with strings attached. At the very least, this means you must accept free movement of peoples, (i.e. as many EU migrants as want to come to live in your country) and pay the EU a lot of money to finance its project. And that's even if you don't join. But the EU wants you to join. It wants to extend its dominion. Switzerland has many bilateral agreements with the EU, but Viviane Reding, the EU commissioner bluntly told the country that they should be scrapped and that it was time Switzerland should be forced to join the EU, or kicked out of the single market entirely. And of course we have had the usual "no free market without unfettered labour movement" ultimatum shaken at us when we voted for controlling immigration like in the old days. The EU position is that you should not be able to pick and choose, i.e., not just trade freely whilst preserving, or organizing your labour market as you think fit. This is what they will now choose to ram down the throat of the UK. I suppose that if you think the EU is right and that nation states should take a back seat to it, then you think it is fine that it should exercise its power in this way. If you don't think like that, you just see it as bullying. Switzerland has 25% immigrants living here. Only 3/4 of the population is Swiss. The foreigners came by invitation and they are mostly Italians, Spanish, and Portuguese who came to do the jobs that the Swiss couldn't, or didn't want to do (like tunneling through the Alps). They are very integrated and cause no problems. They aren't even thought of as foreigners; it's a non-issue. The Swiss are highly tolerant of foreigners. But that didn't stop them being right about repudiating Schengen and saying that the place is full and that they didn't want to do any more concreting over to accommodate more people just to suit the EU. So for the Brexit vote, I'm not a neutral. I just see the same situation. I don't think most of the Leave campaign are racist and it's sad that they are being branded as such (even if a small minority surely is). I think that the EU is a bullying institution. I don't think it's democratic. I don't like the way it accrues power. I don't think that Schengen is a good plan for most places, nor do I think that the € is a good plan for most countries. I can't see why the Remain side has suddenly fallen in love with the EU in the last few days. If it was already in love with the EU, then Project Fear was deeply misguided. I can't see why, when you don't like Brussels running your affairs, it means you loathe our European friends or that the UK wants to set itself adrift in the North Atlantic. I also think that fear and alarm are being whipped up needlessly and that things will sort themselves out, because it's ultimately in everyone's interest to do so, bar the apparatchiks like Juncker who just gets a kick out of wielding power. Does that make things clearer?
Thing is that Project Fear said that the UK would shrivel up and die if it voted Leave. It has, so investors are thinking, "hmm. This country is going to shrivel up and die. That's what the people in the know said it would do." It's a bit tricky for them to come out now saying "Ha! April Fool! Only joking!" It's not great for investor confidence is it? Thus Project Fear has a become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Corrected for you........at least today seems to have brought some stability (and recovery) to the financial markets as they start to accept that it may not be complete Armageddon (as the Remain camp had been proclaiming). Glad that Osborne has the sense to realise he needs to announce calm statements now and isn't daft enough to try for PM. Jeremy Hunt meanwhile; what a complete martian that man is! (must be from another planet)
It tells you something about the man if he thinks he has a snowball in hell's chance of becoming PM. Unfortunately it is the case that far too many politicians have this over riding self belief that goes way beyond their level of competence. It reinforces the old adage that if you put yourself forward then you are, by definition, unsuitable.
Whilst I have a great deal of sympathy with this and accept that it worked very well in it's day I can't help but feel the economic wheel has rolled on. We no longer rely upon savers to provide investment, we conjure it up out of thin air, and there is now so much of it concentrated in the hands of so few that the rest are placed at an impossible disadvantage. The corporations and their political lap dogs have triumphed and it is they who are the new aristocracy, our lords and masters.
There has to be something or someone to blame, that being leavers are racist it takes away the focus on the real reasons
wee routh the mooth getting a proper cross party dooin today at holyrood. she hasn't experienced that before, think she might just cry. almost feel sorry for her. she should of briefed lord forsyth. not the brightest are they?
