If you remember SH he was importing equipment for the NHS and paying in dollars. There might be a small drop in the value of sterling, but it will just be a short dip that will be be worthwhile he told us. I guess he should be feeling the pinch by now, and be looking to up his prices. Great news for the health services.
http://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/james-obrien/which-eu-law-are-you-looking-forward-to-losing/ I wonder how many other plonkers like this voted Leave...
A school in Derby asked the father of a pupil to racially profile his child - this is his clever response -
I like this quote from Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel - it seems to hit the nail squarely on the head... The U.K. wants to have its cake and eat it. Before, they were in and they had many opt-outs; now they want to be out with many opt-ins.
at least with the pound falling like a stone I might be able to afford two weeks in England net year...Flight are the other thing though they have increased so much sine I last went back in 2011
Gone are the days of the Bucket Shops. I used to save a fortune on trips back from Australia by getting relatives to buy London - Brisbane open return tickets for me from a Bucket Shop in England. I'd use the return part to fly to London, then the outward part to fly back to Brisbane . I don't think you can do that these days though - you always seem to have to nominate a flight date.
Deutsche Bank is forecasting that sterling will fall by another 10% yet. "It has fallen off a cliff, only to land on another cliff, that it will fall off yet again." Today we watched politicians of all parties coming together to try and restore some sovereignty of the elected MPs over the government. This going to be a very long running saga.
It has been quite a week one way and another in this saga and I doubt that confidence is at a high with government ministers. Many thought that we might get a deal similar to the one that the Canadians have been talking about since 2009. Today that whole deal has been put on hold by one of the three regions in Belgium. The Parliament in French-speaking Wallonia voted to prevent Belgium's government from signing the draft deal and they cannot without all regions approval. Let us not forget that similar arrangements happen in many EU countries, meaning that it is not just the 27 national parliaments that have to agree to a deal with the UK, but many more. The government came under considerable pressure this week in Westminister and had to agree to a Labour motion, with an amendment, to prevent them losing a vote in the commons. What did become clear however in the debate, is that there are many Tories who will back and vote with all of the opposition parties to prevent this government over riding the commons. The cases that have been brought before the High Court have raised some interesting facts about the law and the relationship with the devolved governments. Looks as if this one could run all the way to the end of the year, and horror of horrors finish up in the ECJ. Now that would be ironic! Finally the Bank of England has said today that prices will rise having the greatest effect on the poorest. They will not be doing anything to stop it as that is outside their remit. Maybe it will only be when people are hit in their pockets that they will realize what they have done. Perhaps the people in Sunderland forgot that Nissan is partly owned by Renault, and the French government would be over the moon to see part of the investment moved to some of the plants here for the new models.
The offshore islands all have the pound as currency, so are affected but we had no say in this situation and there has been very little comment from our Government as to what the potential impact may be on our economy apart from before the vote that it may affect our trade with France.
I think this shighlights perfectly the different attitudes held towards immigration by Westminster and the Scottish Government - it brought a tear to my eye watching it...
The Tory mask slips... Is this what we can expect - democracy to be cancelled? https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/168882
Today was the last day in the High Court where many people had come together to say that this government could not invoke Article 50 without the prior approval of Parliament. During the hearing today there might be a clue as to how the three most senior judges in the land were thinking. Lord Chief Justice Thomas, the most senior judge in the country, said he was "baffled" by this arrangement and suggested that EU citizenship rights, which will be lost once Article 50 is invoked, are a matter for parliamentary consultation. "I'm baffled," Lord Thomas said. "These rights are under treaty. If amending the treaty, parliamentary approval is needed. So, I don't understand why the content of these rights are not controlled by parliament?" The Government had been trying to argue that nothing would change regarding rights of people. It is obvious to even the most avid Brexit fan than their and others rights will disappear, which is what they voted for. If the judges rule in the claimants' favour, Prime Minister May must pass an act of Parliament before invoking Article 50, rather than simply exercising prerogative power. A decision is expected in mid-November.
An interesting document on research into the reasons why people voted Leave. According to its findings, Immigration didn't play the part that the media claims it did - in fact even drastic changes in Immigration levels would probably have made no difference to the outcome. The report states that it was all down to Austerity - and even slightly less harsh spending cuts could have swayed the result. http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/e.../publications/305-2016_becker_fetzer_novy.pdf
While I was in England recently I did find out from some who voted to leave that immigration was not seen as a big problem. Mind you parts of Dorset have never seen an immigrant, so that was not too surprising. It seemed that the biggest thing to sway opinion was the the £350m for the NHS. They are now very sure that they were misled, and wished they had found out more before casting their vote. Today the Chancellor Philip Hammond told a select committee that he felt that "controls on migration wouldn't stop banks from moving highly-skilled workers." That is a strange use of words, but I can only assume that it means he expects the banks to move some of their operations abroad.
Alternatively, he could be suggesting that the controls wouldn't apply to the Finance sector. The government are trying to make London a 'special case' in order to keep financial institutions here. At great cost to, and for questionable benefit to, the British taxpayers.
From what I read, and it is totally muddled at present, it is being suggested that the government is prepared to compensate banks and companies like Nissan for their losses. The UK has already bailed out the banks once, and they realize that companies like Nissan could move to other countries where they already have a presence. Of course the taxpayer will be happy to pay for all this to get back control.
