POLITICS CORNER

[Stanley]

You're all being pragmatic and reasonable but on the quiet I think you all veer towards my camp. Nothing will change. The Brexiteers have got the bits they want, the ability to run the English economy in the most profitable way with no restrictions from Brussels. The 'Treaty' is actually an agreement to go on negotiating forever whenever either party does anything the other doesn't like.
Meanwhile watch the firms and funds that have been getting all the outsourcing contracts and opportunities despite their bad track records. Many of them US and many up to their oxters in tax avoidance or failed previous contracts. They were the source of the funding for Brexit, guess why!
'Levelling up' is a convenient catch phrase not a policy. London and the SE will continue to get higher subsidies for transport, housing whatever and anywhere North of Luton will do worse, the disparity being greater the further North you go.
Watch what Ireland and Scotland do as soon as the truth about the situation dawns on them, I fear the Union could be in trouble.
Above all watch Sunak, I am convinced that he is a dangerous man. Nothing has been done to adjust the hideous discrepancies in Income Distribution. A rising tide does not float all boats. Piketty was right, the only route is a global wealth tax but don't hold your breath on that one! Specifically, I distrust his enthusiastic attitude to free-ports which I believe have been tried and found wanting i n other countries.
Income distribution is the gold standard for us Tory Watchers and my prediction is that far from any levelling up, the gap between the rich and the poor is set to grow. We are still Two Nations. D'Israeli was right!

[plaques]

The levelling up process has already started. Tesco boss says that increases to food prices will be 'modest'. Sun Rises will be far less than the 3 to 5% of the No Deal forecast but there will be some addition administrational charges but as we all know from the decimalisation fiasco these will used as an excuse for general increases. Those at the bottom of the pecking order will now have the pleasure of paying more for their cheaper items as those that used to shop at Harrods.

[Tizer]

Above all watch Sunak, I am convinced that he is a dangerous man.

Not just freeports, it's `the City' too - a bonfire of regulations perhaps?...
`We’ll make the City best for business post-Brexit, vows Rishi Sunak' LINK
`Rishi Sunak promised to make London the best place in the world to do business yesterday after Boris Johnson admitted that his deal fell short on provisions for the City.

[Tripps]

I distrust his enthusiastic attitude to free-ports which I believe have been tried and found wanting in other countries.

And here too - if my half a memory is working. There were Freeports set up at Fleetwood and Braintree (maybe more?) in 1995 under John Major. The idea then was that raw materials could be imported - have 'value added' then be re-exported without troubling the Customs at all.

It seems that is long forgotten - if it ever happened, though the 'Freeport' name lasted quite a while. and they are now 'Outlet' centres trading as Affinity.

Last mention I remember from the media was a section of an airport doing the same thing. Can't remember where (Holland?). Seems to have ended up as a transit depot and repository for stolen works of art - untroubled by the 'authorities.

Anyway - they can go back to fishing now we we have got our waters back, and the first week's £350 million will arrive for the NHS - in a very timely manner - soon.

PS - Found it - yes Holland - Schiphol Airport. Freeport

[Whyperion]

Now we have thrown off the shackles of the EU or has Boris Johnson says in the summary..[

i]We will regain the ability to wield powers that have for too long been the sole preserve of Brussels. (such as, ..... that could be dangerous)

We will now take up these tools to deliver the changes that people yearn for (which people, and which changes ?)

in so doing, we will restore faith in our democracy. (so wait till the undeserved get screwed one way or another)

'leveling up' that over the years will wither away and disappear into the long grass. ( or lost in higher unaffordable house prices in the cities, certainly compared to incomes).

[Stanley]

Evidently the problem with the freeport concept now is the fact that 'traders' have got a lot more inventive in their use of the privileges.
Otherwise, apart from Gove struggling to answer questions on Today yesterday politics is on hold. We are a rabbit in the headlights.

[Tizer]

Lots of groups, not just Labour rebels, are lining up to vent their anger but it won't change the way things are going. They've left it far too late. Mind you, we still won't be 100% out of the EU on 1st January: `The European parliament is delaying its vote until February or March, when it is hoped MEPs will return to Strasbourg to complete the formal EU ratification process.'
`Starmer faces high-profile Labour rebellion before Brexit deal vote: MPs including John McDonnell say party must not ‘fall into trap of rallying around rotten deal’ ' Guardian

Meanwhile the Daily Express front page headline screams....

[Stanley]

What a load of crap! I didn't realise that Andrea Leadsom was Business secretary! God help us.... Her prediction that sunlit uplands are on the horizon is her sycophancy poking though in that she is following her Leader.
Of course I may be wrong but the scene in six months or even less could be very different.
Let's wait and see before we clap hands.
The elephant in the room as we watch the NHS being slowly swamped by the demands placed on it by the Coronavirus is that nobody is talking about the cuts and wage caps imposed on the NHS since 21010. Basic subsidies for training have been scrapped. Surprise surprise we are now at a point where we are short of beds and staff. Nobody is talking about the Nightingale hospitals because everyone realises that they can't be staffed so the equipment from some might as well be relocated. Now is the time to point out to this lousy austerity obsessed government that this is just one example of how wrong and indeed lethal their policies are proving to be.

[Tizer]

I agree with you, there's a lot wrong and needs mending...but I see and hear very little push back from Labour. They need to get themselves heard and seen more by the public in general, but in a more positive way than at present.

At least we we shouldn't have a shortage of sausages now...
`Brexit: UK sausage makers face EU export ban' LINK

[PanBiker]

I agree with you, there's a lot wrong and needs mending...but I see and hear very little push back from Labour. They need to get themselves heard and seen more by the public in general, but in a more positive way than at present.

[Stanley]

It's not solely a lack of awareness and opposition from Labour. All MPs including the Tories should be agitating to see genuine support for a service and staff that have proved (if any proof was needed) how essential they are. Time to row back on outsourcing, improve staff wages and conditions and make it easier for trainees to enter the system. In particular we should pay nursing and medical trainees maintenance and housing grants.
Any MP who cares about his constituents should be agitating for these common sense improvements no matter what Party he or she belongs to, it is not down to 'leaders'!

[plaques]

After seven years of negotiation the EU has signed a trade agreement with China. This could be good news for the UK with a bit of fast footwork and we could piggy back on the same agreement and compete on a level playing field with the EU. Of course we wouldn't be concerned about China's slave economy we can easily compete with that. its called the gig economy. The advantages are obvious, we by stuff from China, build it in our products and sell it cheap to the EU. Just one problem, those sneaky buggers in the EU have built in an 'origin of product ' clause into our agreement making our stuff more expensive than their's. So repeat after me.. Its a fantastic deal... Its a fantastic deal........

China Deal

[Tizer]

I agree with you, there's a lot wrong and needs mending...but I see and hear very little push back from Labour. They need to get themselves heard and seen more by the public in general, but in a more positive way than at present.

I wasn't referring to knocking on doors and leafleting, that's not the way to reach people, especially the young, in these modern times. It's internet, TV, radio and, yes, even still newspapers - I know several papers are outright anti-Labour but the Guardian, Times, the `i' would all love to hear more from any political party. They're crying out for news and interviews but Labour seems to believe they're all against them. As for the leader alienating half the members, the previous leader was alienating the other half; but the Tories seem to be in a similar situation, of course. Thanks for the suggestion I join the party but I wouldn't hitch my wagon to any of them. If someone like Farage or a British Trump turned up with a new party and promised to drain the swamp and make the trains run on time I wouldn't vote for him or her* either - but I'll bet a lot of disenchanted Brits would do so now, like the Americans did. Something will have to
happen to break the deadlock and stem the tide of populism.

*Oh no, I got a sudden mental picture of Priti Patel in jackboots, standing on a podium in Wembley Stadium!

[PanBiker]

That's weird, my reply to your post has disappeared, the quote is there but the reply is not although you have clearly seen it?

[Tizer]

Sorry, my fault Ian. I made the mistake of clicking on the edit button of your post instead of the quote, wrote my bit and didn't realise until I'd posted it and saw something odd had happened. I worked out that I must have used Edit so went back and tried to rectify it. I don't know what happened to your reply, I'd assumed it was included but now see that, as you say, it's disappeared. I guess it's gone forever.

[PanBiker]

Even if you edited it and appended your bit at the end or even in-between my bit should still be there, strange but not the end of the world. The butterflies will still flap their wings and the trees will still fall in forests making a noise or not, depending on your viewpoint.

[Whyperion]

Lots of groups, not just Labour rebels, are lining up to vent their anger but it won't change the way things are going. They've left it far too late. Mind you, we still won't be 100% out of the EU on 1st January: `The European parliament is delaying its vote until February or March, when it is hoped MEPs will return to Strasbourg to complete the formal EU ratification process.'
`Starmer faces high-profile Labour rebellion before Brexit deal vote: MPs including John McDonnell say party must not ‘fall into trap of rallying around rotten deal’ ' Guardian

Meanwhile the Daily Express front page headline screams....

Is that number them selling to us, or us selling to them ? And is it on historical figures, future guesstimates, or actual likely stuff (agriculture, food, minerals, intermediate goods, machinery/aircraft and bits and cars, or does include the services of finance and tourism - mostly London bound?)

[Tizer]

Even if you edited it and appended your bit at the end or even in-between my bit should still be there, strange but not the end of the world. The butterflies will still flap their wings and the trees will still fall in forests making a noise or not, depending on your viewpoint.

I must have lost that part of the text while trying to move stuff about to get it back right. Can't blame it on the computer or the site, just me in a muddle. Have a great New Year's Eve!

Whippy, you can spend lockdown reading the 1200 page Brexit document then tell us the answers.

[Whyperion]

I have a local (neighbourhood) plan to read, sorry)
I thought with the deal there were going to be no tariffs UK<-> EU (though UK VAT would apply), seems this might not be the case, though I can find no direct source for either bit of information (the tariff bit might have been Gove, pre referendum) , the latter a sort of worked example on the BBC for items valued over £135, I could go off into rant on VAT in countries and cross border and registration limits etc but it starts to go into an area where I would have to charge for imparting all that information , enough to say its the small person thats going to get stuffed the most in how BJ has done the 'deal'

[Stanley]

I see Stanley Johnson has made his position quite clear, he's applied for a French Passport.

[Tizer]

It was also mentioned that two of Nigel Farage's children have German passports. Perhaps that's what Boris meant by `having our cake and eating it', what he also called `cakeism'.

I got into a muddle trying to reply to Panbiker earlier but what I really wanted to say was that I've lost all confidence in the UK political system. All the parties are either in great disarray or out of the running. The field is left open to be taken over by extremists. In Britain we've been lucky and the extremists have usually been buffoons and not taken seriously even by desperate voters. But if one comes along who is more clever at conning the electorate we'll be in trouble. Whatever we might think about Trump he knows how to get the votes and managed to make himself President of the most powerful country in the world!

[PanBiker]

I see Stanley Johnson has made his position quite clear, he's applied for a French Passport.

He was born in Penzance which by my reckoning makes him an Englishman. He is applying off the back of his grandmothers nationality I believe. They are a right mongrel lot by the looks of it, German/Swiss/French/Turkish over about three generations, name changes galore. His ancestors are proper Johnny foreigners which is where they get the Kamal and the de Pfeffel bits from but he himself is definitely and Englishman.

[Whyperion]

I see Stanley Johnson has made his position quite clear, he's applied for a French Passport.

He was born in Penzance which by my reckoning makes him an Englishman. He is applying off the back of his grandmothers nationality I believe. They are a right mongrel lot by the looks of it, German/Swiss/French/Turkish over about three generations, name changes galore. His ancestors are proper Johnny foreigners which is where they get the Kamal and the de Pfeffel bits from but he himself is definitely and Englishman.

Perhaps he should wait for Cornwall to get its independence. (will the Bretons get theirs ?)

[Stanley]

Will politics be waiting until Monday before it stirs itself again? Can they afford to stay away that long?

[Tizer]

He was born in Penzance which by my reckoning makes him an Englishman.

Ooh, don't let them hear you say that in Penzance, Ian. Cornishman, please! It's not long ago (in geological terms) since Penwith (the most westerly bit of Cornwall) was an island. The strip of land between Hayle (north coast) and Marazion (south) is low and marshy. If we don't stop climate change it will be inundated again and Penwith will be a real island again, like the Scillies. Dig up the ground on the edges of that strip and you find sand from the past beaches and which was used by the Hayle foundries. The old sandpits at St Erth are now a nature reserve. St Erth