Best Of

Great idea. Need to get a piece of that excess GDPR, over regulation, economic micro management and low GDP growth we are sadly missing out on.

And what's our growth been like in the past ten years? Also the last time I looked the UK has GDPR*

* I don't think this is a bad thing, but opinions vary.

I said excess, I didn’t say we didn’t have any.

Our growth has been moribund so how would joining a trading bloc, with whom we already trade and have an agreement with, turbocharge it ?

But there's a disconnect if you say, don't join the EU because of low GDP growth and GDP growth in the EU has been materially faster than the UK over the same period.

* Google AI so perhaps check sources but I get 46% UK versus 63% EU growth GDP 2016 to 2025 current USD and 48% UK versus 86% EU GDP per capita PPP growth over the same period.

Should add UK GDP growth was similar to or better than EU while the UK was a member

2016 is dodgy data because the referendum played havoc with the currency markets in 2016.

Taking a more recent benchmark (eg 2019/2022) or a more distant one, shows that the UK has outgrown the EU per capita.

Both GDP measures I put forward are internationally recognised and valid. GDP per capita PPP in principle compensates for currency volatility and that one has the big gap with the EU

There are numerous regions of Poland now richer than not a few regions of the UK.
However Barry likes to explain it away, the last decade has seen remarkable economic growth in Poland.

Meanwhile the regional funding our poorer regions used to receive was not (as was promised) matched by post Brexit governments.
Which cheated many of the areas which voted most heavily for Brexit.

Opinion polling has been very clear for some time. Most of the electorate believe Brexit to be a crock.
Brexiteer cope used to be that there is no majority for rejoin.
Now there seems to be that too, they are struggling to explain it away.

Rachel Reeves and Sadiq Khan do NOT speak for me.
If I .have something to say I will say it myself. I wouldn't trust either of them with anything. Both have no.idea of the truth. Khan is even worse than Reeves if that's possible.

What are you talking about? When did they ever say they speak for you?

Erm, the thread header?

FWIW I have never opposed closer economic links with the EU. At the time we left the EU were as offended as a betrayed spouse and were not willing to offer it. If they have calmed down to the point that they are I would be delighted. We have a lot of mutual interests, probably more since the US went insane.

I would be astonished if this resulted in us rejoining but anything short of that that improves our terms of trade is no problem at all for this leaver.

Good morning

I just hope labour are not that stupid to replace Starmer with Rayner when we are in the middle of an existential crisis

And as for Starmer agreeing to be demoted to Foreign Secretary we are really on fantasy island

I have no faith or trust in Starmer but this is not what the country wants or needs right now

Have you seen the price of petrol? This is on Starmer's watch.

He took a phonecall from the Putin shill at Mar a Lago yesterday. We will have ships in the Gulf by teatime tomorrow. Get rid.

I understand you would prefer the Churchillian Boris Johnson to the fishwife Rayner, but Johnson is a) not inside Parliament or b) the Party of Government. We need a Peter Wright style coup before we get Big Dog back in the driving seat.

What on earth have you had for breakfast ?

I have had years of battles on here with @HYUFD over his devotion to Johnson who I even voted against in the members ballot

Spraying unfounded allegations around and even using 'fishwife' Rayner indicates you are losing it

Either way Starmer needs to go. Do you trust him not to fold for Trump?

In fairness to the "fishwife" she would have no qualms about telling Trump to do one.

My wife comes from fishwife stock in Arbroath and Auchmithy. Strong independent women who worked with their men in a tough trade, who knew their own mind and were not shy in expressing it. Any man would be fortunate to share their life with such a woman. I certainly have been.

I have no doubt your good, lady, wife would have no qualms about telling Trump "to do one" too.. Perhaps one of Starmer's manifold faults is he is no "fishwife". Is this morning's Cobra meeting a confirmation of capitulation?

Fishwife is a derogatory term as you can see from both @DavidL and my wives heritage, and indeed they were amongst the most hard working women in their communities

It’s just his unfunny, affected, self pitying style. He doesn’t really think of her as a fishwife, he’s parodying a caricature of people he disagrees with.

I took a decision in November to neither respond to your posts or comment on posting characteristics of yours I find offensive. My only interaction has been to defend comments you have made directly to me or about me.

You have decided you despise someone you have never met on a random blog. How bizarre.

That’s just because you are embarrassed of your Instagram activity, and would rather deflect. No need to make it look like a high minded stately decision

I couldn’t care less, I’m glad you are spending less time trolling me. I don’t despise you. You were an irritant that I’ve managed to get rid of, everyone’s a winner

Let's not relitigate the past. I have absolutely no embarrassment for my Instagram account. I have not changed the way I use Instagram and I have absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about. I have subsequently made my account private because I am simply shocked that a complete stranger who has taken a dislike to me on political betting blog would want to trawl through my Instagram and Facebook pages, like someone rifling a stranger's underwater drawer.Your account pops up on my account being as you decided to engage. I haven't looked. I have no interest in who you are or what you do.

TSE did ask for this debate to be curtailed back in November. I have kept my side of the bargain, so this defence is my last word.

Thank you.