By and large, the US and the EU have very similar average tariff levels, which are typically just below WTO requirements.
China, India, Japan, and much of Africa and South America are very protectionist, and have quite a lot of tariffs well above WTO levels.
Singapore and a few other places have very low tariffs.
The place where the EU shows very clear protectionist tendencies is in agriculture. In goods and services it's actually got a very open economy.
As measured by tariffs, yes. But the main protectionist instruments are not tariffs, but NTBs - the effect of which is considerable and not just in agriculture.
Which are the specific NTBs that you are thinking of?
When I last read through the Doha round minutes (https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dda_e/dda_e.htm) there were very few outstanding issues with EU NTBs. (And, for that matter, there weren't that many with the US.)
Almost all the NTB issues related to India, China and Japan,
Robert - have a look at the estimates by Scott Bradford (2003) which Patrick Minford also used in his recent work.
Ecorys have some interesting estimates as well p.15
Maybe we could be an associate member of the EU, like Turkey.
This wouild mean free trade and visa free travel but not having to go along with the rest of the rules.
And no right to work or settle?
There are plenty of Turkish workers in Germany.
"If visa requirements are lifted completely, each of these persons could buy a cheap plane ticket to any German airport, utter the word 'asylum,' and trigger a years-long judicial process with a good chance of ending in a residency permit." — German analyst Andrew Hammel.
How stupid is that quote ? Turkey's economy is in the top 15 in the world. The Turkish per capita income is far higher than many EU countries.
Genuine question. Unless I miss my guess, chauvanist, religiously fundamentalist, nationalist, folk with very old-fashioned ideas on the role of women in society would be very low down your food chain.
What exactly is it about them being from over a border that makes you like them so much?
Dave viewed less favourably than any of his 2011 ratings, even though he's improved from last time. The inevitable "pendulum" swings against the incumbent. Whether it'll get there by 2020 is another matter !
Imagine if Boris had a more focused take down of Obama intervention....
I personally think Obama would have been wiser to do a Liz style intervention...i.e. it is up for the British people to decide, but one should consider the decision very carefully. The "back of the queue" stuff was way over the top. As the Queen parody account put perfectly...
Mr. Layne, stopped clocks are right twice a day. Boris remains an oaf.
His latest offering is quite remarkable
@BorisJohnson: We remember with undying gratitude the Anzacs who gave their lives for freedom (1/2)
Ok, so far... But then this
@BorisJohnson: Amazing to think that we discriminate against Australians + NZers who want to come to this country + in favour of those from the EU (2/2)
As for data showing the Obama intervention isn't as popular as it was initially, the feeling changed when his tone went negative. When he was talking up the benefits of being in the EU to the UK/US relationship he was more dangerous than when he went negative and started talking about threats and waterboarding the British economy for having the temerity to vote to leave.
It's one thing for the British PM and chancellor to give out warnings about leaving and what it would do to the economy etc... but foreign nationals doling out threats against this country isn't going to be well received by all but a few sycophants that were probably already in the remain camp.
The last thing remain need is a visit from Mutti telling us that Germany will decide to send in the Luftwaffe if we vote to leave and having Dave stand by grinning at the idea of this.
Whilst in this country Germaine Greer and Peter Tatchell[sp] get no-platformed for not being PC enough, in Bangladesh the first editor of an LGBT magazine has been hacked to death: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-36128729
Eurozone current account surplus came in at €11.1 billion in February of 2016 compared to an upwardly revised €8.3 billion surplus in the previous month. The surpluses in balances of goods (to €25.5 billion from €13.6 billion in January), services (to €3.1 billion from €1.9 billion) and primary income (to €6.3 billion from €2.6 billion) widened while the secondary income deficit increased (to €-23.9 billion from €-9.9 billion). Current Account in the Euro Area averaged 2.93 EUR Billion from 1999 until 2016, reaching an all time high of 44.20 EUR Billion in December of 2015
I'm no economist but that simply doesn't make sense. 11bn in a month? Come on, what's the catch?
The catch is that Germany does very well because of a structurally undervalued currency (the Euro is a lot weaker than the DM would have been). The cost is that it stifles the exports of the PIGS on the basis on an artificially high exchange rate. But the Germans seem unwilling to pick up the price - in the form of fiscal transfers - which are needed to square the circle.
Separately, @rcs1000 is wrong that there is no inflation - it's just asset price inflation rather than consumer or retail inflation this time. It's more worrying, in my mind, because monetary policy is distorting the price setting mechanism.
And growth in sclerotic at the point where monetary policy is running out of room, and there's little scope for fiscal activism given the structurally high levels of government spending.
At some point the shoe will drop. But it could be a long time coming.
Mr. Layne, stopped clocks are right twice a day. Boris remains an oaf.
His latest offering is quite remarkable
@BorisJohnson: We remember with undying gratitude the Anzacs who gave their lives for freedom (1/2)
Ok, so far... But then this
@BorisJohnson: Amazing to think that we discriminate against Australians + NZers who want to come to this country + in favour of those from the EU (2/2)
WTAF?
Well neither of those statements is false. Stick to retwatting other people's thoughts/ideas, you're not very good at original thinking.
@BorisJohnson: Amazing to think that we discriminate against Australians + NZers who want to come to this country + in favour of those from the EU (2/2)
Eurozone current account surplus came in at €11.1 billion in February of 2016 compared to an upwardly revised €8.3 billion surplus in the previous month. The surpluses in balances of goods (to €25.5 billion from €13.6 billion in January), services (to €3.1 billion from €1.9 billion) and primary income (to €6.3 billion from €2.6 billion) widened while the secondary income deficit increased (to €-23.9 billion from €-9.9 billion). Current Account in the Euro Area averaged 2.93 EUR Billion from 1999 until 2016, reaching an all time high of 44.20 EUR Billion in December of 2015
I'm no economist but that simply doesn't make sense. 11bn in a month? Come on, what's the catch?
The catch is that Germany does very well because of a structurally undervalued currency (the Euro is a lot weaker than the DM would have been). The cost is that it stifles the exports of the PIGS on the basis on an artificially high exchange rate. But the Germans seem unwilling to pick up the price - in the form of fiscal transfers - which are needed to square the circle.
Separately, @rcs1000 is wrong that there is no inflation - it's just asset price inflation rather than consumer or retail inflation this time. It's more worrying, in my mind, because monetary policy is distorting the price setting mechanism.
And growth in sclerotic at the point where monetary policy is running out of room, and there's little scope for fiscal activism given the structurally high levels of government spending.
At some point the shoe will drop. But it could be a long time coming.
All the PIIGS run current amount surpluses, and exports from Spain are up 55% in the last five years. It's about 40% for Portugal and Greece, and 30% for Italy. I'll drag out the exact numbers when I'm back in the office tomorrow.
The biggest current account surplus in EU is the Netherlands, the biggest deficit is us.
Mr. F, so far, so am I. But what matters it how it affects things on polling day. Will people remember being annoyed/angry, or the underlying message?
Mr. Herdson, a fair point, it was politics that cost Caesar. Alexander really did fall to bad luck though. [Mind you, he had, quite a short time beforehand, survived being shot in the lung whilst trapped in a city with just two men protecting him from a horde. One of those (maybe Peithon) went on to be an extra Bodyguard, and became a satrap and rubbish Diadochus].
Mr. Eagles, during WWII, the Germans made jests about adding new words, such as 'coventrated', in anticipation of what the Luftwaffe would do to the city. Hence me choosing Coventry.
That was a "grown-up" speech from Theresa May but I wonder how many people listened to it? SKY cut away and as far as I'm aware the BBC didn't cover it. It's a pity more of the "senior" women are not more prominent - there are too many male egos in play. Nigel Farage is just itching to be "top dog."
SkyData Will Obama make you more or less likely to vote Remain? Age 18-34: 26% more (-14), 18% less (+9) Age 55+: 16% more (+1), 41% less (+15)
what are the changes from?
The last time they asked the question which was just after the Obama article in the Telegraph which was widely reported as "UK stronger in EU, US relationship with UK stronger with EU membership". It was when he went negative and started doling out punishment for leaving that opinion started to turn against him.
Mr. Layne, stopped clocks are right twice a day. Boris remains an oaf.
His latest offering is quite remarkable
@BorisJohnson: We remember with undying gratitude the Anzacs who gave their lives for freedom (1/2)
Ok, so far... But then this
@BorisJohnson: Amazing to think that we discriminate against Australians + NZers who want to come to this country + in favour of those from the EU (2/2)
"Coventry's a lovely city... it'd be a shame if anything happened to it."
'Lovely' is stretching it a bit..
The cathedral (and the old ruins of the last one) are quite nice, and Spon Street shows the city as it was pre-luftwaffe. For an otherwise creative decade though, architecture in the 60s was an utter shocker - and Coventry got more than it's fair share of dire buildings in the rebuild.
SkyData Will Obama make you more or less likely to vote Remain? Age 18-34: 26% more (-14), 18% less (+9) Age 55+: 16% more (+1), 41% less (+15)
So it looks like the "clown" Boris was smart to keep Obama's lecturing in the news after all.
As I said, I've been surprised by the amount of annoyance over Obama's interevention.
Yes, a surprising number of metropolitan/trendy friends using the "who the hell does he think he is" tone about Obama. More than I thought there would be, loads in my work Whatsapp group wondering what Dave was trying to achieve by having Obama go negative, loads of remainers worried back then it wouldn't work.
Higher dissatisfaction among Tory voters but overall +3, the likes of surbiton and other Labour voters happy with Dave on PB. I'm not sure about you guys, but it doesn't seem like a sustainable situation for Dave or the party at the moment, something has to give.
71% of Tory voters are still satisfied with him, is all relative. Ignore the noisy minority
Not looked at it in detail, but in April 2012, when these last elections were fought, Cameron's absolute satisfaction rating amongst Tory voters was 68% and his net rating was +39% So on both scores, he's doing better today than he was in April 2012.
"Coventry's a lovely city... it'd be a shame if anything happened to it."
'Lovely' is stretching it a bit..
The cathedral (and the old ruins of the last one) are quite nice, and Spon Street shows the city as it was pre-luftwaffe. For an otherwise creative decade though, architecture in the 60s was an utter shocker - and Coventry got more than it's fair share of dire buildings in the rebuild.
Higher dissatisfaction among Tory voters but overall +3, the likes of surbiton and other Labour voters happy with Dave on PB. I'm not sure about you guys, but it doesn't seem like a sustainable situation for Dave or the party at the moment, something has to give.
71% of Tory voters are still satisfied with him, is all relative. Ignore the noisy minority
Not looked at it in detail, but in April 2012, when these last elections were fought, Cameron's absolute satisfaction rating amongst Tory voters was 68% and his net rating was +39% So on both scores, he's doing better today than he was in April 2012.
"I'm absolutely bloody furious with my bank manager. He didn't believe my business plan. Said it didn't make sense. What a stupid git."
"So are you going ahead?"
"No, of course not, I couldn't get the loan."
Well it's not really the same, Richard. People still have the option of voting to leave. Obama hasn't taken the option off the ballot paper.
My point is that people telling an opinion pollster that they don't like Obama 'interfering' does not at all mean that his intervention hasn't had a dramatic effect in undermining the Leave case. There may even be a small move towards Leave in the opinion polls, as it's a cost-free way of being indignant.
But no sentient being is seriously more likely to vote Leave as a result of being miffed, are they? Whereas a number of sentient beings will appreciate that it rather blows a hole in Leave's case.
"Coventry's a lovely city... it'd be a shame if anything happened to it."
'Lovely' is stretching it a bit..
The cathedral (and the old ruins of the last one) are quite nice, and Spon Street shows the city as it was pre-luftwaffe. For an otherwise creative decade though, architecture in the 60s was an utter shocker - and Coventry got more than it's fair share of dire buildings in the rebuild.
We should discriminate in favour of people that fought with us, unless they speak Polish...
WTAF?
I didn't think even you were that stupid, but apparently you are.
We currently discriminate in favour of the Poles by virtue of them being in the EU, and against the Australians and New Zealands because they are not, and yet all three countries helped us generously. But you know all this.
Ideally we should discriminate against no one and in favour of no one because of where they come from, or what color their skin is, but whether they can contribute usefully to the country, and with a reasonable chance of fitting in. But you know all this as well.
But you can't resist creating little pointless facile little arguments and scoring the cheapest most pointless points because you think it helps your cause, which to be honest it doesn't. Still keeps you off the streets I guess.
"Coventry's a lovely city... it'd be a shame if anything happened to it."
'Lovely' is stretching it a bit..
The cathedral (and the old ruins of the last one) are quite nice, and Spon Street shows the city as it was pre-luftwaffe. For an otherwise creative decade though, architecture in the 60s was an utter shocker - and Coventry got more than it's fair share of dire buildings in the rebuild.
I spent a week with 4th RTR in Osnabruck once upon a time. It has a truly lovely but tiny altstadt - the bit the RAF missed. Apart from that modern Osnabruck is a horrific concrete Germanic monster of a place. Same is true of Darmstadt, which I made a small detour to visit last year purely on the grounds that it was one of the cities that the RAF managed to get a firestorm going in - I wanted to see if anything nice had survived. Not really.
Reading Theresa May's speech, I have to say it is a far more honest and respectable argument than Cameron's and Osborne's campaign of cheating and fabrications. But after Cameron's euro scepticism turned out to be nothing beyond a marketing pitch. If May wants to be leader, she needs to prove she can get immigration down to 100,000 inside the EU, and a bankable commitment to no more EU expansion and exit from the ECHR and CFR. She must also oppose any Eurozone deal being waved through without the UK negotiating hard to return powers.
Reading Theresa May's speech, I have to say it is a far more honest and respectable argument than Cameron's and Osborne's campaign of cheating and fabrications. But after Cameron's euro scepticism turned out to be nothing beyond a marketing pitch. If May wants to be leader, she needs to prove she can get immigration down to 100,000 inside the EU, and a bankable commitment to no more EU expansion and exit from the ECHR and CFR. She must also oppose any Eurozone deal being waved through without the UK negotiating hard to return powers.
Who are you to tell her what she must and must not do?
"I'm absolutely bloody furious with my bank manager. He didn't believe my business plan. Said it didn't make sense. What a stupid git."
"So are you going ahead?"
"No, of course not, I couldn't get the loan."
Well it's not really the same, Richard. People still have the option of voting to leave. Obama hasn't taken the option off the ballot paper.
My point is that people telling an opinion pollster that they don't like Obama 'interfering' does not at all mean that his intervention hasn't had a dramatic effect in undermining the Leave case. There may even be a small move towards Leave in the opinion polls, as it's a cost-free way of being indignant.
But no sentient being is seriously more likely to vote Leave as a result of being miffed, are they? Whereas a number of sentient beings will appreciate that it rather blows a hole in Leave's case.
"But no sentient being is seriously more likely to vote Leave as a result of being miffed, are they?"
"I'm absolutely bloody furious with my bank manager. He didn't believe my business plan. Said it didn't make sense. What a stupid git."
"So are you going ahead?"
"No, of course not, I couldn't get the loan."
Well it's not really the same, Richard. People still have the option of voting to leave. Obama hasn't taken the option off the ballot paper.
My point is that people telling an opinion pollster that they don't like Obama 'interfering' does not at all mean that his intervention hasn't had a dramatic effect in undermining the Leave case. There may even be a small move towards Leave in the opinion polls, as it's a cost-free way of being indignant.
But no sentient being is seriously more likely to vote Leave as a result of being miffed, are they? Whereas a number of sentient beings will appreciate that it rather blows a hole in Leave's case.
Well anyone who has even two brain cells to rub together will realise that we don't have a trade deal with the US right now and we do just fine. Front or back of the, err, line won't really make any difference in a Brexit scenario.
Anyway, it isn't about switching people to Leave or Remain it is about turnout, the indignance may lead more people to stay home on the remain side and motivate more leave supporters to come out to vote.
This is all about who actually turns up and that's where Obama's intervention is probably less helpful than Remain are hoping for.
Mr. Hopkins, the Third Punic War kicked off because the Romans imposed such stark terms that even the meek, humbled and even craven city decided it couldn't take any more.
Rome did win the war, but what should've taken an afternoon (it was the Empire versus a city) lasted about four years.
Reading Theresa May's speech, I have to say it is a far more honest and respectable argument than Cameron's and Osborne's campaign of cheating and fabrications. But after Cameron's euro scepticism turned out to be nothing beyond a marketing pitch. If May wants to be leader, she needs to prove she can get immigration down to 100,000 inside the EU, and a bankable commitment to no more EU expansion and exit from the ECHR and CFR. She must also oppose any Eurozone deal being waved through without the UK negotiating hard to return powers.
Agree with all of that. Her record on immigration is simply woeful. I suspect part of that is due to Osborne's budget restrictions and meddling. But she has made a stand here against the end of days nonsense from that pair of twats.
Higher dissatisfaction among Tory voters but overall +3, the likes of surbiton and other Labour voters happy with Dave on PB. I'm not sure about you guys, but it doesn't seem like a sustainable situation for Dave or the party at the moment, something has to give.
71% of Tory voters are still satisfied with him, is all relative. Ignore the noisy minority
Not looked at it in detail, but in April 2012, when these last elections were fought, Cameron's absolute satisfaction rating amongst Tory voters was 68% and his net rating was +39% So on both scores, he's doing better today than he was in April 2012.
"Coventry's a lovely city... it'd be a shame if anything happened to it."
'Lovely' is stretching it a bit..
The cathedral (and the old ruins of the last one) are quite nice, and Spon Street shows the city as it was pre-luftwaffe. For an otherwise creative decade though, architecture in the 60s was an utter shocker - and Coventry got more than it's fair share of dire buildings in the rebuild.
I spent a week with 4th RTR in Osnabruck once upon a time. It has a truly lovely but tiny altstadt - the bit the RAF missed. Apart from that modern Osnabruck is a horrific concrete Germanic monster of a place. Same is true of Darmstadt, which I made a small detour to visit last year purely on the grounds that it was one of the cities that the RAF managed to get a firestorm going in - I wanted to see if anything nice had survived. Not really.
I was horrified by a recent visit to Ingolstadt. It's a lovely German city with an entirely intact medieval core.
"I'm absolutely bloody furious with my bank manager. He didn't believe my business plan. Said it didn't make sense. What a stupid git."
"So are you going ahead?"
"No, of course not, I couldn't get the loan."
Well it's not really the same, Richard. People still have the option of voting to leave. Obama hasn't taken the option off the ballot paper.
My point is that people telling an opinion pollster that they don't like Obama 'interfering' does not at all mean that his intervention hasn't had a dramatic effect in undermining the Leave case. There may even be a small move towards Leave in the opinion polls, as it's a cost-free way of being indignant.
But no sentient being is seriously more likely to vote Leave as a result of being miffed, are they? Whereas a number of sentient beings will appreciate that it rather blows a hole in Leave's case.
Well anyone who has even two brain cells to rub together will realise that we don't have a trade deal with the US right now and we do just fine. Front or back of the, err, line won't really make any difference in a Brexit scenario.
A large part of the Brexit case was that, yes the economy would take a hit from leaving, but due to all the extra free trade deals we would be able to sign once freed from the shackles of the EU, our economy would be just as strong in the long run.
Reading Theresa May's speech, I have to say it is a far more honest and respectable argument than Cameron's and Osborne's campaign of cheating and fabrications. But after Cameron's euro scepticism turned out to be nothing beyond a marketing pitch. If May wants to be leader, she needs to prove she can get immigration down to 100,000 inside the EU, and a bankable commitment to no more EU expansion and exit from the ECHR and CFR. She must also oppose any Eurozone deal being waved through without the UK negotiating hard to return powers.
Who are you to tell her what she must and must not do?
Well anyone who has even two brain cells to rub together will realise that we don't have a trade deal with the US right now and we do just fine. Front or back of the, err, line won't really make any difference in a Brexit scenario.
Odd, then, that a central plank of the Leave campaign's case has been that it will give us more freedom to sign trade deals.
There's no getting arouind the fact that Obama's Exocet (even though it was a statement of the obvious, and indeed a restatement of long-established US positions) has blown up the engine room of the good ship Leave.
Comments
Ecorys have some interesting estimates as well p.15
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/198115/bis-13-869-economic-impact-on-uk-of-tranatlantic-trade-and-investment-partnership-between-eu-and-us.pdf
What exactly is it about them being from over a border that makes you like them so much?
The inevitable "pendulum" swings against the incumbent. Whether it'll get there by 2020 is another matter !
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/vote2012/council/england.stm
I personally think Obama would have been wiser to do a Liz style intervention...i.e. it is up for the British people to decide, but one should consider the decision very carefully. The "back of the queue" stuff was way over the top. As the Queen parody account put perfectly...
https://twitter.com/Queen_UK/status/724295307287248896
@BorisJohnson: We remember with undying gratitude the Anzacs who gave their lives for freedom (1/2)
Ok, so far... But then this
@BorisJohnson: Amazing to think that we discriminate against Australians + NZers who want to come to this country + in favour of those from the EU (2/2)
WTAF?
It's one thing for the British PM and chancellor to give out warnings about leaving and what it would do to the economy etc... but foreign nationals doling out threats against this country isn't going to be well received by all but a few sycophants that were probably already in the remain camp.
The last thing remain need is a visit from Mutti telling us that Germany will decide to send in the Luftwaffe if we vote to leave and having Dave stand by grinning at the idea of this.
"Coventry's a lovely city... it'd be a shame if anything happened to it."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-36128729
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-36128729
Separately, @rcs1000 is wrong that there is no inflation - it's just asset price inflation rather than consumer or retail inflation this time. It's more worrying, in my mind, because monetary policy is distorting the price setting mechanism.
And growth in sclerotic at the point where monetary policy is running out of room, and there's little scope for fiscal activism given the structurally high levels of government spending.
At some point the shoe will drop. But it could be a long time coming.
Sounds like something Frank Nitti would have said to a corner shop owner.
WTAF?
The biggest current account surplus in EU is the Netherlands, the biggest deficit is us.
Mr. Herdson, a fair point, it was politics that cost Caesar. Alexander really did fall to bad luck though. [Mind you, he had, quite a short time beforehand, survived being shot in the lung whilst trapped in a city with just two men protecting him from a horde. One of those (maybe Peithon) went on to be an extra Bodyguard, and became a satrap and rubbish Diadochus].
Mr. Eagles, during WWII, the Germans made jests about adding new words, such as 'coventrated', in anticipation of what the Luftwaffe would do to the city. Hence me choosing Coventry.
It's a pity more of the "senior" women are not more prominent - there are too many male egos in play.
Nigel Farage is just itching to be "top dog."
Where is it?
"So are you going ahead?"
"No, of course not, I couldn't get the loan."
They'll be getting on a bit now won't they?
What an arse.
It should work it's way out in time..
http://i1.coventrytelegraph.net/incoming/article2976630.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/spon-street-in-coventry-city-centre-670038000.jpg sums it up in a photo.
https://twitter.com/vote_leave/status/724604686196678656
http://www.conservativehome.com/parliament/2016/04/theresa-mays-speech-on-brexit-full-text.html
I'd argue the Germans fought with us, while the Poles fought alongside us
Of course Australia and New Zealand discriminate against immigration from the UK...
April 2012 Con VI 35%
April 2016 Con VI 38%
But no sentient being is seriously more likely to vote Leave as a result of being miffed, are they? Whereas a number of sentient beings will appreciate that it rather blows a hole in Leave's case.
I'm in favour of a points based system of immigration.
On the plus side, it set me up for Glasgow!
We currently discriminate in favour of the Poles by virtue of them being in the EU, and against the Australians and New Zealands because they are not, and yet all three countries helped us generously. But you know all this.
Ideally we should discriminate against no one and in favour of no one because of where they come from, or what color their skin is, but whether they can contribute usefully to the country, and with a reasonable chance of fitting in. But you know all this as well.
But you can't resist creating little pointless facile little arguments and scoring the cheapest most pointless points because you think it helps your cause, which to be honest it doesn't. Still keeps you off the streets I guess.
Reasonable, and completely at odds with Boris' message.
And Leave is overusing the NHS. Particularly this week.
Something that must, it seems, be denied to Britain at all costs.
Best day ever.
"But no sentient being is seriously more likely to vote Leave as a result of being miffed, are they?"
I'm not sure you understand people !
http://order-order.com/2016/04/25/blundering-bbc-broadcast-hillsborough-verdict/
Anyway, it isn't about switching people to Leave or Remain it is about turnout, the indignance may lead more people to stay home on the remain side and motivate more leave supporters to come out to vote.
This is all about who actually turns up and that's where Obama's intervention is probably less helpful than Remain are hoping for.
With that I really must get some work done!
Rome did win the war, but what should've taken an afternoon (it was the Empire versus a city) lasted about four years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_Air_Force
Dragon Rapide
Vampire
Venom
Gloster Meteor
EE Canberra
The business plan seems to be sound. The regional manager doesn't want to make the local manager look like a complete idiot in his own branch.
There's no getting arouind the fact that Obama's Exocet (even though it was a statement of the obvious, and indeed a restatement of long-established US positions) has blown up the engine room of the good ship Leave.