Off Topic The Politics Thread

So to summarise.…….you are promoting how indebted the Eurozone is as a reason for the UK to leave the EU whilst failing to notice that the UK is as indebted if not more indebted. That is what I call on own goal.

 

Not promoting anything

As of Q1 (the first quarter of) 2018, UK debt amounted to £1.78 trillion, or 86.58% of total GDP, at which time the annual cost of servicing (paying the interest) the public debt amounted to around £48 billion (which is roughly 4% of GDP or 8% of UK government tax income). Approximately a third of this debt is owned by the British government due to the Bank of England's quantitative easingprogramme, so approximately 1/3 of the cost of servicing the debt is paid by the government to itself, reducing the annual servicing cost to approximately £30 billion (approx 2% of GDP, approx 5% of UK government tax income).

I wish I was paying myself a third of what I pay in interest

 

I don't see the UK's £1.78 Trillion debt mentioned and Ireland doesn't owe 865 billion.

What is the point of posting this rubbish Kiwi???????????????????????

 

What happens in the race to the bottom with corProrate tax

'Leprechaun economics'

Reading the true state of the Irish economy has been tricky in recent years. Ireland’s favourable corporate tax regime has been controversial. Nobel prize winning economist Professor Paul Krugman coined the term “leprechaun economics” to describe the effect on GDP.

 

So, where did you copy and paste that from and what does that mean?

What about the £1.78 trillion UK debt? Is that high compared to Italy or other countries?

Please tell us what you think.

 

Copy and pasted from the world economic forum

 

Italy recorded a government debt equivalent to 132.20 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product in 2018. Government Debt to GDP in Italy averaged 111.63 percent from 1988 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 132.20 percent in 2018 and a record low of 90.50 percent in 1988.

 

What does it mean?

You love telling us how indebted other countries are and using that as a reason for the UK to leave the EU. Tell us how indebted the UK is by comparison.

 

But they only owe 1 trillion. The UK owes nearly 2 trillion. Did you forget that?

 

What's a trillion among Friends

 

The OECD forecast Italy’s public finances to worsen as fiscal measures are not boosting economic growth.

In its latest economic survey, the OECD projects that Italy’s deficit will rise to 2.5 per cent this year and to 3 per cent in 2020, both higher than government forecasts. Italy’s public debt will reverse its declining trend and it is expected to start to rise again.

 

What about the U.K. debt? We are waiting to hear.

 

What about it
They have lots of it
Paying themselves piles of interest on the money they owe themselves
What a business to be in


See post 35778

 

So, at the end of the day, all countries have debts, Posting things to a football message board exaggerating other countries debt levels and ignoring your own to justify Brexit is a bit stupid.

 

Seems the UK owes a lot of its debt to itself
Seems like a good model
Wish I could owe my mortgage debt to myself

 

I see Gove is bemoaning the fact that the EU is 'refusing to negotiate'. The fact is, Mr Gove, they did negotiate - for three years - and finally reached an agreement which was subsequently rejected by zealots in your party and the DUP. If they feel there is no more negotiating to be done, I really can't blame them.

Meanwhile, former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers states the blindingly obvious in that Britain will be in a desperate and weak position in any trade negotiation with the US, and will consequently get the rough end of any deal agreed. Still, at least we'll have chosen to take it up the arse.

 

McDonnell not singing off the same songsheet as the rest of his party? Do these politicians just spout any old rubbish, depending on their audience....

Labour government 'would not block' indyref2

• 6 August 2019

please log in to view this image

John McDonnell said it would be for the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish people to decide on whether to hold another independence vote

A future Labour government would not block a second Scottish independence referendum, according to shadow chancellor John McDonnell.

In an interview at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, he said any decision about holding a vote would be up to the Scottish Parliament.

His view contradicts that of Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard.

Earlier this year, Mr Leonard said the party would refuse to grant Holyrood the power to hold another vote.

• Will Brexit break Britain, and would England care?
• Will indyref2 happen before May 2021?
• Sturgeon: Indyref2 'more essential than ever'

Mr McDonnell's comments follow the publication of an opinion poll suggesting the majority of Scots could back independence.

And on Monday Nicola Sturgeon told journalist Iain Dale there was a "growing urgency" for Scotland to become independent "sooner rather than later".

Mr McDonnell was also speaking to the LBC broadcaster when he was asked about the possibility of a second independence vote.

"It will be for the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish people to decide that," the senior Labour MP said.

"They will take a view about whether they want another referendum. Nicola Sturgeon said by late next year or the beginning of 2021."

He added: "We would not block something like that. We would let the Scottish people decide. That's democracy.

"There are other views within the party but that's our view."

please log in to view this image

Richard Leonard is opposed to a second independence referendum

Mr McDonnell's position appears to be in opposition to the leader of the Scottish Labour party.

In March, Richard Leonard told the BBC's Sunday Politics Scotland that if Labour took power in Westminster the party would refuse to grant a Section 30 order.

He added: "What we said in the manifesto at the 2017 election was that there is no case for, and we would not support, a second independence referendum."

However, Mr McDonnell said: "The Scottish Parliament will come to a considered view on that and they will submit that to the government and the English Parliament itself.

"If the Scottish people decide they want a referendum that's for them."

'Utterly irresponsible'

His comments were condemned by his party colleague Ian Murray, the MP for Edinburgh South.

"These are utterly irresponsible comments from John McDonnell that betray our party's values," he said.

"The Labour Party is an internationalist party founded on a vision of solidarity and we should never seek to appease nationalists, whether they be for Brexit or Scottish independence, who want to divide communities and people."

In a post on Twitter Nicola Sturgeon said the Shadow Chancellor's position was "basic democracy".

She added that it made "political sense" as polls suggested 40% of Labour voters support independence.

please log in to view this image

Image Copyright @NicolaSturgeon@NICOLASTURGEON
Report
Meanwhile, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie described Mr McDonnell's comments as "astonishingly irresponsible".

"It's bad enough with Boris Johnson bungling on Brexit and independence but to have the Labour Party's chancellor piling in makes it a whole lot worse," he said.

'We want to change the world'

On Brexit, Mr McDonnell said Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn would "never" step down if other opposition parties demanded it to form a coalition of national unity.

He said: "It won't happen. I think we'd form a minority government, seek to implement our manifesto and we'd expect the other opposition parties and other MPs to vote for those policies and if they don't we'll go back to the country.

"If they want to vote against a real living wage, if they want to vote against £70bn worth of investment in Scottish infrastructure, if they want to vote against a green industrial revolution to tackle climate change then so be it, we'll go back to the people and then let them explain to the people why they wouldn't support those policies."

"We want to change the world, we're not going be held back by other parties."

The senior Labour frontbencher said he was "extremely worried" about new Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

He added: "I think he's reckless and I think he's unstable and I will move heaven and Earth to stop a no-deal Brexit

 

And the U.K. is 1.79 Trillion in debt 86% of our GDP that was in Q1 in 2018 it’s much higher now and without a open and free market in Europe we will increase these figures above 2.5 trillion

Still the country with unite and pay that lot back with our excellent cheese and sausages and market gardens

It can’t ever be about unity I agree 100% as the Churchill’s have killed the U.K.

The Germans and the French of course will lose on the biggest debt market place that is the U.K.

I fully expect them to buy as much of the debt as they can plus anything else worth while

Corporates will very quickly become continental

Watch and Learn

 

This may help. The UK is not in Italy's dire situation. And as for Greece...

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/05/european-countries-with-most-government-debt-chart/

 

What’s the point in this?
I would say that the U.K. is in a very dire situation plus we have no plan after Brexit
People seem to assume things aren’t so bad in the U.K. ... blind hope again imo
Up to anyone what reference they look at but the reality is that the U.K. is behind in a lot of measurements across Europe

We are the number one debt ridden country and a mass consumer . This is the basis of my opinion on Brexit ... £350m savings a week leaving the EU on the side of the bus ... love the fact that the maths has been destroyed on that

The U.K. can’t afford to even pay its interest with the world wonga and still people believe we will get out of this ... it’s rubbish and always has been

U.K. on a knife edge imo