Largest non-EU countries to have NOT YET declared that they want a free trade deal with the UK after we leave the EU: Russia (world #12) Iran (#27) Egypt (#29)* Nigeria (#30) Hong Kong (#35) * However, Egypt has said it wants a relationship, whether bilateral or multinational.
HK will. Nigeria and Egypt will. Iran will eventually. Russia can **** off and stop poisoning people.
The EU will put the squeeze on us and will play hard. This was due to the crap approach by our government and the treacherous remoaners from within. Our weak stance will come back to haunt us. The World is a big place however and growing economies around the globe will grow faster than Europe. At the end of the day it will all be about money.
Our government has been doing all the giving in the negotiations so far, but no more. May's latest speech plots a reasonable way forward, and financial services have to be part of any trade arrangement. Otherwise no deal. Brussels are not as strong as they like to pretend. The member states that will have the ultimate say, want a fair deal with the UK, they want access to finance in the City of London, they want our £39 billion and they want our trade since they sell to us more than we sell to them. And I want Michael Heseltine to spend a day in the Tower of London, a psychiatric nurse and zimmer frame to be provided at tax payer's expense.
Donald Tusk looks a shadow of himself. He seems gutted about Brexit. Maybe if they had listened to concerns a few years back they wouldn't be in this position.
The World is, as you say, a big place - but the truth is that the EU. already has preferential access to a large part of it. As members of the EU. the UK. already has access to around 50 trade deals with other countries which will be lost after Brexit, and will have to be renegotiated. We will be spending years simply recovering lost ground on this. The big lie of Brexit is somehow selling the idea that we were unable to exert our influence in the EU. yet will somehow be a dynamic force outside of it. The government is between a rock and a hard place - between tearing up a referendum result which was not binding and facing an uproar from the carrot crunchers of middle England, on the one hand, and committing the UK. to about 20 years of steady decline on the other. I, for one, would rather face the uproar. What Brexiters appear to forget time and time again is that they did not just vote to take Britain out of the EU. but also to take all Britons out of it, wherever they happen to be - and I was not asked, and, consequently, do not accept the result. I am a citizen of the EU. which is over and above being that of the UK. and intend to fight tooth and nail not to have that citizenship taken away.
A few points... on the one hand, and committing the UK. to about 20 years of steady decline you don't know that and you are speculating. I was not asked, and, consequently, do not accept the result. Plenty occasions throughout history where things happened and not all agreed. I never voted Labour or an illegal war yet it happened. I am a citizen of the EU. which is over and above being that of the UK. Good luck with that one. I am English and that is it. I don't need to identify myself with countries I have nothing in common with. I like Europe but I don't want to be a citizen of a failing organisation that causes more problems than good things.
I'm no Boris apologist. He's academically bright but often too lazy to master detail, leaving it to his minions, and hence he puts his foot in his mouth regularly. He gets by, by using his personality and humour, and that takes him a long way with some people, be it voters or foreign dignitories. As for black women, they are at a disadvantage in the UK politics, but largely because there has yet to be a black woman of such talent and obvious political ability that it shatters the suspicion in some of the electorate, that black women generally may not be up to it. The failings of Dianne Abbott and Dawn Butler merely reinforce these suspicions. We have yet to find a Condoleezza Rice.
I'm not sure I really get all of this (in fact I'm sure I don't), but it's rather interesting.... http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/...ts-it-there-never-was-a-reason-for-austerity/ Anyone care to offer a rebuttal?
You are picking on me now because you know John Redwood is our MP and is family friends with Mrs Ellers.
My hands are tied as I think sometimes he talks a load of old crap but Mrs Ellers is a friend of the family so what can I do?
Policeman in a serious condition in hospital as a result of, what has now been confirmed as, a nerve agent, with the Russian and his daughter targeted. Getting more serious...