I tend to take the view a high pound is not a symbol of the nation's virility, in fact it hits exporters and UK tourism so a relatively low £ for a short while is hardly a disaster
1) We haven't had a high pound for quite a while. A high pound is the Noughties £1=$2.1. Even the £1=$1.5 when the polls shut was pitiful. 2) £1=$1.3 is not relatively low. £1=$1.3 is extraordinarily low.
The statement also seems like a bit of a non-sequitur to me. A floating currency is one of the economy's automatic stabilisers. Of course a weak currency has some positive side-effects. That's the whole point! But when the currency is weak, the nation is by definition poorer.
We're nailed on as the #6 global economy in dollar terms now. Still within spitting distance of France though. We'll get the buggers. India coming up fast on the rails, so we'd better enjoy it while we can.
Mind you, if you want to feel sorry for anyone, feel sorry for Italy. No appreciable economic growth for 16 years.
Eh? Can anyone explain why the BBC are saying: "The three remaining contenders are due to face a second MPs' vote on Thursday, followed by a final round next Tuesday - unless any of the candidates has dropped out by that time - to whittle the field down to two."
Surely we only have one more round on Thursday and the bottom candidate is knocked out?
I tend to take the view a high pound is not a symbol of the nation's virility, in fact it hits exporters and UK tourism so a relatively low £ for a short while is hardly a disaster
1) We haven't had a high pound for quite a while. A high pound is the Noughties £1=$2.1. Even the £1=$1.5 when the polls shut was pitiful. 2) £1=$1.3 is not relatively low. £1=$1.3 is extraordinarily low.
Again, unless you are going on holiday to the states or you buy a lot of goods from the states why is a low pound against the dollar of great concern? It may also encourage more Americans to visit London and the UK and help sell more British goods to the US
There are lots of imports we can't do anything about that are dollar denominated: whether the price of oil is $40 or $140, we'll use about the same amount. And the same is true (to a lesser degree, and I know there are substitution effects) of coal, natural gas and the like. Which means - ceteris paribus - that not only will your petrol bill rise, but so will your electricity and gas bill.
Eh? Can anyone explain why the BBC are saying: "The three remaining contenders are due to face a second MPs' vote on Thursday, followed by a final round next Tuesday - unless any of the candidates has dropped out by that time - to whittle the field down to two."
Surely we only have one more round on Thursday and the bottom candidate is knocked out?
They haven't updated their web site to reflect that two candidates have withdrawn.
The roads are only a mile and a half apart, and there's already a couple of minor roads in the area that could be improved. Many people would have benefited from that the other Sunday.
I'd love to see some of our great scientists working on transport problems, it's not impossible to get a Hyperloop or Maglev up and running, and between the two busiest airports in the country would be an ideal place to start.
It seems we're scared as a country of developing new technology, preferring old and tested solutions to pushing the boundaries. Maybe we should ask the F1 teams for advise on how to push technological boundaries, they seem quite good at it from where I'm sitting.
Hopefully Mrs May will have the new runway as her first announcement as PM. We need to show the world we're open for business and that's a good starting point.
Fair go, Mr. Pit,/ On the wider idea of developing new technology, the Uk was once very good at this. However, consider the response of Mr. Jessop upthread - which in this context boils down to "it will never work". Yet Mr. Jessop is one of the few engineers we have on this site.
(Snip)
TBF, I'm not an engineer any more, and I was never *that* sort of engineer. But I nearly was, and still have a keen interest in it.
I'm deeply cynical about Hyperloop. The costings seem rather optimistic, and the throughput of passengers per hour is low (from possibly-faulty memory, 1/10 of high-speed rail). The accuracy of the lines and levitation at the speeds they are going for will be amazing.
I reckon Musk sees it as a good transportation system for Mars (probably correctly), and is getting suckers to develop the tech here on Earth.
Mind you, Musk's proven me wrong before, damn him!
Eh? Can anyone explain why the BBC are saying: "The three remaining contenders are due to face a second MPs' vote on Thursday, followed by a final round next Tuesday - unless any of the candidates has dropped out by that time - to whittle the field down to two."
Surely we only have one more round on Thursday and the bottom candidate is knocked out?
Eh? Can anyone explain why the BBC are saying: "The three remaining contenders are due to face a second MPs' vote on Thursday, followed by a final round next Tuesday - unless any of the candidates has dropped out by that time - to whittle the field down to two."
Surely we only have one more round on Thursday and the bottom candidate is knocked out?
Yes, with only three candidates remaining there will not be a vote next Tuesday, only the one this Thursday which will give us the two names for the membership vote.
I don't really care how much politicians pay in tax. What I do love, however, is seeing which politician's I am richer than!
Alas I am still no where near Boris. Still I beat Cameron and I am 20 years younger than him and grew up in a council house, so I feel pretty smug all in.
I tend to take the view a high pound is not a symbol of the nation's virility, in fact it hits exporters and UK tourism so a relatively low £ for a short while is hardly a disaster
1) We haven't had a high pound for quite a while. A high pound is the Noughties £1=$2.1. Even the £1=$1.5 when the polls shut was pitiful. 2) £1=$1.3 is not relatively low. £1=$1.3 is extraordinarily low.
Again, unless you are going on holiday to the states or you buy a lot of goods from the states why is a low pound against the dollar of great concern? It may also encourage more Americans to visit London and the UK and help sell more British goods to the US
There are lots of imports we can't do anything about that are dollar denominated: whether the price of oil is $40 or $140, we'll use about the same amount. And the same is true (to a lesser degree, and I know there are substitution effects) of coal, natural gas and the like. Which means - ceteris paribus - that not only will your petrol bill rise, but so will your electricity and gas bill.
S&P were forecasting inflation to rise to 2.2% in 2017 (based on ~$1.29). That Mark Carney is a lucky sod, isn't he? He'll be the first BoE wallah to hit the inflation target since....I can't remember when.
Eh? Can anyone explain why the BBC are saying: "The three remaining contenders are due to face a second MPs' vote on Thursday, followed by a final round next Tuesday - unless any of the candidates has dropped out by that time - to whittle the field down to two."
Surely we only have one more round on Thursday and the bottom candidate is knocked out?
Yes, now we are down to three there will only be one more round. There is no necessity to hold a round to select the final two when there are only two contenders.
Thanks. The tories really can't afford to stitch up the referendum result or try to ignore it on the basis of England having a ten point lead for leave
May will undertake Brexit but it will be Brexit lite, keeping us in the EEA and the single market, UKIP are so heavily pushing Leadsom partly for political advantage, they know she will almost certainly lose and they will then try and hammer May for alleged betrayal
From what Ive heard from Leadsom on Climate Change and the issue of giving EU citizens the right to stay here before negotiations start, she appears to be quite Cameroon and May ought to be far more to their liking (both UKIP and Tory members)
I tend to take the view a high pound is not a symbol of the nation's virility, in fact it hits exporters and UK tourism so a relatively low £ for a short while is hardly a disaster
1) We haven't had a high pound for quite a while. A high pound is the Noughties £1=$2.1. Even the £1=$1.5 when the polls shut was pitiful. 2) £1=$1.3 is not relatively low. £1=$1.3 is extraordinarily low.
Again, unless you are going on holiday to the states or you buy a lot of goods from the states why is a low pound against the dollar of great concern? It may also encourage more Americans to visit London and the UK and help sell more British goods to the US
It's fantastic if you get paid in dollars but have a mortgage in Sterling
More seriously, it will encourage exports and inward tourism, might even encourage a few Brits to take local holidays rather than going abroad this summer. I paid £9 a pint yesterday in my local bar, so it will only be the rich British tourists that come here next winter if the exchange rate stays so low.
£9 a pint! Good grief! Where is this Sandpit?
Good job Theresa May is teetotal with alcohol prices like that. By my calculations her net earnings after tax would limit her to just 23.5 pints a day. Hardly enough to see a Hague through to early evening.
Eh? Can anyone explain why the BBC are saying: "The three remaining contenders are due to face a second MPs' vote on Thursday, followed by a final round next Tuesday - unless any of the candidates has dropped out by that time - to whittle the field down to two."
Surely we only have one more round on Thursday and the bottom candidate is knocked out?
They haven't updated their web site to reflect that two candidates have withdrawn.
Thanks - typical Beeb - it's on the Crabb withdraws story though. Their web editors should have read the updated piece to the end before posting.
Still, The Independent website today on Ken Clarke's indiscreet remarks quoted him as saying Leadsom had a "poor line conversion" on the EU.
"There are even reports that Nicolas Sarkozy, the previous President of France, is preparing to move to London with his wife Carla Bruni for economic reasons."
Don't believe it for a minute. But it's a lovely thought.
"There are even reports that Nicolas Sarkozy, the previous President of France, is preparing to move to London with his wife Carla Bruni for economic reasons."
Don't believe it for a minute. But it's a lovely thought.
Dated 2013
Oh my lord. I am sorry, that's a total clanger on my part. I normally check links very carefuly. I do apologise!
*edit Lesson learned: do not link to stories from Louise Mensch's twitter feed! She drags up all manner of ancient history. Still my fault though!*
I tend to take the view a high pound is not a symbol of the nation's virility, in fact it hits exporters and UK tourism so a relatively low £ for a short while is hardly a disaster
1) We haven't had a high pound for quite a while. A high pound is the Noughties £1=$2.1. Even the £1=$1.5 when the polls shut was pitiful. 2) £1=$1.3 is not relatively low. £1=$1.3 is extraordinarily low.
Again, unless you are going on holiday to the states or you buy a lot of goods from the states why is a low pound against the dollar of great concern? It may also encourage more Americans to visit London and the UK and help sell more British goods to the US
There are lots of imports we can't do anything about that are dollar denominated: whether the price of oil is $40 or $140, we'll use about the same amount. And the same is true (to a lesser degree, and I know there are substitution effects) of coal, natural gas and the like. Which means - ceteris paribus - that not only will your petrol bill rise, but so will your electricity and gas bill.
There have been plenty of significant rises in fuel and electricity and petrol prices over recent years, the impact of the exchange rate is not going to be a particularly significant one.
And why does her bank have anything to do with her self-assessment?
Does that mean that Coutts acted as her accountant also?
Part of their wealth management service, no doubt.
The changes to dividend taxation will actually see her better off due to the perverse new £5k dividend allowance... basic rate taxpayers no better off...
She's also right in the 'sweet spot' for making additional pension contributions to minimise the damage of losing her personal allowance - 62% marginal rate of tax - needs to have a word with her wealth managers perhaps!!!
What is interesting is that i am at the LGA conference and have met a lot if people who voted remain but would vote leave now after the ridicolous antics of the remainers over the last week.. These are both Tory and Labour.. The lib Dems i am not sure
Is Carney costing us dear? Mervyn King certainly seemed to have an inkling; this from a pre referendum Telegraph
The Treasury's report estimated that the British economy would be 6pc smaller by 2030 if Britons voted to leave the EU on June 23, than if the country were to remain a member. Lord King's successor, Mark Carney, said on Tuesday that he believed the economic techniques used to produce the report were to his mind an example of a "sound analytic process".
However, Lord King said that the issue of the EU's membership was a "big, big question", and one that "cannot be reduced, simply to the simple-minded level of a cost-benefit analysis". He continued: "I'm old enough to remember the referendum in Britain in 1975 on exactly the same issue. The one thing that both sides of the argument then were wrong about was that it would make a dramatic difference. It didn't.
IIRC King also said that Carney was wrong to have involved himself in such a sensitive debate, putting himself so clearly on one side of the argument. How right King was. Just as one would expect him to be as an old school central banker rather than a …… You supply your own description of Carney; I don’t trust myself to do so.
Carney, by implication if not explicitly, shat on Brexit from a considerable height, with the weight of a world renowned financial institution behind him. He claimed “duty”, in the face of accusations that he was serving the political needs of his political masters. The emphasis then of his own and BoE independence only served to compound the problem he created for himself (either wittingly or stupidly) when we voted Brexit.
Having put the fear of god into the markets regarding the consequences of Brexit, we now have the unedifying sight of him trying to undo the weight of his previous Project Fear message to the maximum extent possible, so that he can do now what he should have been doing then, reassuring the markets.
His self-fulfilling prophetic chickens have now come home to roost. Markets trade on sentiment. No one knows where the markets will be tomorrow but lots of people think (or pretend that) they do. Which Carney runes are to be believed, the pre or post referendum ones? Carney has greatly diminished his ability to serve the UK’s best interests in the matter of calming markets. Come back Mervyn.
"There are even reports that Nicolas Sarkozy, the previous President of France, is preparing to move to London with his wife Carla Bruni for economic reasons."
Don't believe it for a minute. But it's a lovely thought.
Dated 2013
Oh my lord. I am sorry, that's a total clanger on my part. I normally check links very carefuly. I do apologise!
*edit Lesson learned: do not link to stories from Louise Mensch's twitter feed! She drags up all manner of ancient history. Still my fault though!*
The telltale sign was that it quoted the French economy minister... and it was the old guy, not Macron.
I tend to take the view a high pound is not a symbol of the nation's virility, in fact it hits exporters and UK tourism so a relatively low £ for a short while is hardly a disaster
1) We haven't had a high pound for quite a while. A high pound is the Noughties £1=$2.1. Even the £1=$1.5 when the polls shut was pitiful. 2) £1=$1.3 is not relatively low. £1=$1.3 is extraordinarily low.
Again, unless you are going on holiday to the states or you buy a lot of goods from the states why is a low pound against the dollar of great concern? It may also encourage more Americans to visit London and the UK and help sell more British goods to the US
Virtually everyone buys lots of goods in dollars. It's what oil is priced in.
The cost of the average supermarket shop does not depend on the value of the dollar
I tend to take the view a high pound is not a symbol of the nation's virility, in fact it hits exporters and UK tourism so a relatively low £ for a short while is hardly a disaster
1) We haven't had a high pound for quite a while. A high pound is the Noughties £1=$2.1. Even the £1=$1.5 when the polls shut was pitiful. 2) £1=$1.3 is not relatively low. £1=$1.3 is extraordinarily low.
Again, unless you are going on holiday to the states or you buy a lot of goods from the states why is a low pound against the dollar of great concern? It may also encourage more Americans to visit London and the UK and help sell more British goods to the US
It's fantastic if you get paid in dollars but have a mortgage in Sterling
More seriously, it will encourage exports and inward tourism, might even encourage a few Brits to take local holidays rather than going abroad this summer. I paid £9 a pint yesterday in my local bar, so it will only be the rich British tourists that come here next winter if the exchange rate stays so low.
£9 a pint! Good grief! Where is this Sandpit?
Good job Theresa May is teetotal with alcohol prices like that. By my calculations her net earnings after tax would limit her to just 23.5 pints a day. Hardly enough to see a Hague through to early evening.
Dubai, UAE. The only bars are in 4* and 5* hotels, and there's LOTS of tax on them. No direct income tax here though, so I think of it as being 40% cheaper really We also chase the happy hours around town, if you can call £6 a pint in any way happy - mildly amusing hour maybe!
Singapore is even worse, it's £12 or £13 a pint there now with the recent drop in the pound.
On the positive side, petrol in Dubai is 33p a litre!
I tend to take the view a high pound is not a symbol of the nation's virility, in fact it hits exporters and UK tourism so a relatively low £ for a short while is hardly a disaster
1) We haven't had a high pound for quite a while. A high pound is the Noughties £1=$2.1. Even the £1=$1.5 when the polls shut was pitiful. 2) £1=$1.3 is not relatively low. £1=$1.3 is extraordinarily low.
Again, unless you are going on holiday to the states or you buy a lot of goods from the states why is a low pound against the dollar of great concern? It may also encourage more Americans to visit London and the UK and help sell more British goods to the US
There are lots of imports we can't do anything about that are dollar denominated: whether the price of oil is $40 or $140, we'll use about the same amount. And the same is true (to a lesser degree, and I know there are substitution effects) of coal, natural gas and the like. Which means - ceteris paribus - that not only will your petrol bill rise, but so will your electricity and gas bill.
There have been plenty of significant rises in fuel and electricity and petrol prices over recent years, the impact of the exchange rate is not going to be a particularly significant one.
We can devalue.. A lot if those poor countries in the Eurozone cant and they are stuffed!!
I tend to take the view a high pound is not a symbol of the nation's virility, in fact it hits exporters and UK tourism so a relatively low £ for a short while is hardly a disaster
1) We haven't had a high pound for quite a while. A high pound is the Noughties £1=$2.1. Even the £1=$1.5 when the polls shut was pitiful. 2) £1=$1.3 is not relatively low. £1=$1.3 is extraordinarily low.
Again, unless you are going on holiday to the states or you buy a lot of goods from the states why is a low pound against the dollar of great concern? It may also encourage more Americans to visit London and the UK and help sell more British goods to the US
It's fantastic if you get paid in dollars but have a mortgage in Sterling
More seriously, it will encourage exports and inward tourism, might even encourage a few Brits to take local holidays rather than going abroad this summer. I paid £9 a pint yesterday in my local bar, so it will only be the rich British tourists that come here next winter if the exchange rate stays so low.
Yes certainly if you work for a US bank or law firm and live in London it is great news. As you say it will also boost exports which badly need a boost and will boost the UK tourism industry which will bring money into the economy on both fronts. Not many people will be booking breaks in Florida or New York for a few months, they may take a break in Bath or Cornwall instead
Is Carney costing us dear? Mervyn King certainly seemed to have an inkling; this from a pre referendum Telegraph
The Treasury's report estimated that the British economy would be 6pc smaller by 2030 if Britons voted to leave the EU on June 23, than if the country were to remain a member. Lord King's successor, Mark Carney, said on Tuesday that he believed the economic techniques used to produce the report were to his mind an example of a "sound analytic process".
However, Lord King said that the issue of the EU's membership was a "big, big question", and one that "cannot be reduced, simply to the simple-minded level of a cost-benefit analysis". He continued: "I'm old enough to remember the referendum in Britain in 1975 on exactly the same issue. The one thing that both sides of the argument then were wrong about was that it would make a dramatic difference. It didn't.
IIRC King also said that Carney was wrong to have involved himself in such a sensitive debate, putting himself so clearly on one side of the argument. How right King was. Just as one would expect him to be as an old school central banker rather than a …… You supply your own description of Carney; I don’t trust myself to do so.
Carney, by implication if not explicitly, shat on Brexit from a considerable height, with the weight of a world renowned financial institution behind him. He claimed “duty”, in the face of accusations that he was serving the political needs of his political masters. The emphasis then of his own and BoE independence only served to compound the problem he created for himself (either wittingly or stupidly) when we voted Brexit.
Having put the fear of god into the markets regarding the consequences of Brexit, we now have the unedifying sight of him trying to undo the weight of his previous Project Fear message to the maximum extent possible, so that he can do now what he should have been doing then, reassuring the markets.
His self-fulfilling prophetic chickens have now come home to roost. Markets trade on sentiment. No one knows where the markets will be tomorrow but lots of people think (or pretend that) they do. Which Carney runes are to be believed, the pre or post referendum ones? Carney has greatly diminished his ability to serve the UK’s best interests in the matter of calming markets. Come back Mervyn.
The weasel words are right at the start. He says '6% smaller in 2030'. What he means is '6% less than the OBR's long term forecast'. He deliberately phrased it to sound as if the economy would shrink in absolute terms. That's pretty shitty in my view. In other words, we drop about .4% of trend growth by Brexit.
Labour planning "peace talks", shadow cabinet minister tells me, likening it to Northern Irish disarmament process.
So it'll take about 10 years and only a Canadian general will really know if he's gone at the end of it?
It is so obvious the Corbynites in cahoots with Len and his chumps are playing for time.
And why not. It's a week since the mass resignations and despite all the talk, no-one has come forward with a formal challenge despite the numbers being there to nominate three alternatives. It is a ludicrous position and Corbyn would be mad having survived this far not to be preparing rule changes at conference to enable his side to strike back. The MPs must know that so why haven't they launched their bid? (Because they can't find someone to head it but that too is frankly absurd).
Thanks. The tories really can't afford to stitch up the referendum result or try to ignore it on the basis of England having a ten point lead for leave
May will undertake Brexit but it will be Brexit lite, keeping us in the EEA and the single market, UKIP are so heavily pushing Leadsom partly for political advantage, they know she will almost certainly lose and they will then try and hammer May for alleged betrayal
From what Ive heard from Leadsom on Climate Change and the issue of giving EU citizens the right to stay here before negotiations start, she appears to be quite Cameroon and May ought to be far more to their liking (both UKIP and Tory members)
Leadsom has opposed free movement for future migrants though and has made past statements against the minimum wage and promised to slash regulation
I tend to take the view a high pound is not a symbol of the nation's virility, in fact it hits exporters and UK tourism so a relatively low £ for a short while is hardly a disaster
1) We haven't had a high pound for quite a while. A high pound is the Noughties £1=$2.1. Even the £1=$1.5 when the polls shut was pitiful. 2) £1=$1.3 is not relatively low. £1=$1.3 is extraordinarily low.
Again, unless you are going on holiday to the states or you buy a lot of goods from the states why is a low pound against the dollar of great concern? It may also encourage more Americans to visit London and the UK and help sell more British goods to the US
It's fantastic if you get paid in dollars but have a mortgage in Sterling
More seriously, it will encourage exports and inward tourism, might even encourage a few Brits to take local holidays rather than going abroad this summer. I paid £9 a pint yesterday in my local bar, so it will only be the rich British tourists that come here next winter if the exchange rate stays so low.
£9 a pint! Good grief! Where is this Sandpit?
Good job Theresa May is teetotal with alcohol prices like that. By my calculations her net earnings after tax would limit her to just 23.5 pints a day. Hardly enough to see a Hague through to early evening.
Dubai, UAE. The only bars are in 4* and 5* hotels, and there's LOTS of tax on them. No direct income tax here though, so I think of it as being 40% cheaper really We also chase the happy hours around town, if you can call £6 a pint in any way happy - mildly amusing hour maybe!
Singapore is even worse, it's £12 or £13 a pint there now with the recent drop in the pound.
On the positive side, petrol in Dubai is 33p a litre!
Join the rugby club. Spent many a night tired and emotional there, for considerably less than hotel prices.
I tend to take the view a high pound is not a symbol of the nation's virility, in fact it hits exporters and UK tourism so a relatively low £ for a short while is hardly a disaster
1) We haven't had a high pound for quite a while. A high pound is the Noughties £1=$2.1. Even the £1=$1.5 when the polls shut was pitiful. 2) £1=$1.3 is not relatively low. £1=$1.3 is extraordinarily low.
Again, unless you are going on holiday to the states or you buy a lot of goods from the states why is a low pound against the dollar of great concern? It may also encourage more Americans to visit London and the UK and help sell more British goods to the US
There are lots of imports we can't do anything about that are dollar denominated: whether the price of oil is $40 or $140, we'll use about the same amount. And the same is true (to a lesser degree, and I know there are substitution effects) of coal, natural gas and the like. Which means - ceteris paribus - that not only will your petrol bill rise, but so will your electricity and gas bill.
There have been plenty of significant rises in fuel and electricity and petrol prices over recent years, the impact of the exchange rate is not going to be a particularly significant one.
We can devalue.. A lot if those poor countries in the Eurozone cant and they are stuffed!!
Yes, even if voters suffer a little short term lost in income they have made their decision that they would at least rather be in control
Thanks. The tories really can't afford to stitch up the referendum result or try to ignore it on the basis of England having a ten point lead for leave
May will undertake Brexit but it will be Brexit lite, keeping us in the EEA and the single market, UKIP are so heavily pushing Leadsom partly for political advantage, they know she will almost certainly lose and they will then try and hammer May for alleged betrayal
From what Ive heard from Leadsom on Climate Change and the issue of giving EU citizens the right to stay here before negotiations start, she appears to be quite Cameroon and May ought to be far more to their liking (both UKIP and Tory members)
Leadsom has opposed free movement for future migrants though and has made past statements against the minimum wage and promised to slash regulation
She wanted to scrap all employment legislation for micro businesses...no SMP no SSP no working hours...nothing !
Why not publish the returns rather than a summary? That interest has dropped off a lot since the early years - obviously been stuffed somewhere
or coming out of fixed rate deals paying 5% and facing buttons % instead - it's pretty common.... presumably stuffing ISAs too. Looks like there's a portfolio of shares/funds outside the tax wrapper too seeking to use the CGT allowance most years... very sensible.
I tend to take the view a high pound is not a symbol of the nation's virility, in fact it hits exporters and UK tourism so a relatively low £ for a short while is hardly a disaster
1) We haven't had a high pound for quite a while. A high pound is the Noughties £1=$2.1. Even the £1=$1.5 when the polls shut was pitiful. 2) £1=$1.3 is not relatively low. £1=$1.3 is extraordinarily low.
Again, unless you are going on holiday to the states or you buy a lot of goods from the states why is a low pound against the dollar of great concern? It may also encourage more Americans to visit London and the UK and help sell more British goods to the US
It's fantastic if you get paid in dollars but have a mortgage in Sterling
More seriously, it will encourage exports and inward tourism, might even encourage a few Brits to take local holidays rather than going abroad this summer. I paid £9 a pint yesterday in my local bar, so it will only be the rich British tourists that come here next winter if the exchange rate stays so low.
£9 a pint! Good grief! Where is this Sandpit?
Good job Theresa May is teetotal with alcohol prices like that. By my calculations her net earnings after tax would limit her to just 23.5 pints a day. Hardly enough to see a Hague through to early evening.
Dubai, UAE. The only bars are in 4* and 5* hotels, and there's LOTS of tax on them. No direct income tax here though, so I think of it as being 40% cheaper really We also chase the happy hours around town, if you can call £6 a pint in any way happy - mildly amusing hour maybe!
Singapore is even worse, it's £12 or £13 a pint there now with the recent drop in the pound.
On the positive side, petrol in Dubai is 33p a litre!
Join the rugby club. Spent many a night tired and emotional there, for considerably less than hotel prices.
But then are you not stuck all night with a bunch of Tory twat rugger buggers?
I am currently re-reading a very good book on Mao's great famine during the late 50's to early 60's. The language used against people that in any way opposed this is so similar to the language used by the twitterati that abuse anyone that opposes Corbyn within the Labour party it is scary. They are creating a party within a party and a language only they use, call someone a Blairite during an election campaign as an insult and most people will just look at you gone out. Like you had asked them how the microwave works or why Justin Bieber is a thing. The old guard left is back, the guard that proper Labour men and women have opposed for decades, the kind of people that thought Stalin was maligned and a good comrade really. Depressing state of affairs.
Another perplexing evening. Went to the AITO (indy tour operators) summer BBQ in a very dulcet and sunlit Grays Inn. This is, for those not in my industry, people selling foreign holidays to Brits.
In that light, and with regard to the £, I expected despair. Instead there was some generalised tutting about Brexit, but otherwise they were quite relaxed.
Maybe the free and slightly crap wine was swaying them, maybe they haven't quite grasped the ENORMITY, but their attitude was surprising. These are smart people, working in an industry which is uniquely susceptible to currency shocks (and changes in spending power). They seem mildly agitated but not alarmed by Brexit.
Someone will be proved very wrong, quite soon.
Nobody is saying it's going to be a disaster Sean, bar the usual noisy social media warriors.
Even the government's own reports (c.f. Project Fear) weren't saying it was going to be a disaster.
We can screw it up (and we've made a goodish start), sure. But I imagine those clever people might have read some of the financial reports that the banks and institutes produced.
Labour planning "peace talks", shadow cabinet minister tells me, likening it to Northern Irish disarmament process.
So it'll take about 10 years and only a Canadian general will really know if he's gone at the end of it?
It is so obvious the Corbynites in cahoots with Len and his chumps are playing for time.
And why not. It's a week since the mass resignations and despite all the talk, no-one has come forward with a formal challenge despite the numbers being there to nominate three alternatives. It is a ludicrous position and Corbyn would be mad having survived this far not to be preparing rule changes at conference to enable his side to strike back. The MPs must know that so why haven't they launched their bid? (Because they can't find someone to head it but that too is frankly absurd).
Last I heard the problem wasn't finding someone, but that now BOTH Eagle and Smith want the gig. Smith suggested they both go to formal arbitration to resolve what is apparently becoming a heated disagreement between them, but today Eagle has refused. Honestly, you couldn't have made up the mess they are in - as a plot for a novel it is completely incredible. And even if they resolve which of them will make the challenge, neither of them has any sort of national profile or obvious voter-appeal, and neither of them is any more likely to be in touch with the mass of disgruntled labour core voters than are the corbynites!
"There are even reports that Nicolas Sarkozy, the previous President of France, is preparing to move to London with his wife Carla Bruni for economic reasons."
Don't believe it for a minute. But it's a lovely thought.
Dated 2013
Oh my lord. I am sorry, that's a total clanger on my part. I normally check links very carefuly. I do apologise!
*edit Lesson learned: do not link to stories from Louise Mensch's twitter feed! She drags up all manner of ancient history. Still my fault though!*
The telltale sign was that it quoted the French economy minister... and it was the old guy, not Macron.
Eurozone imports have been rising in the last few months, could we benefit in any significant way with a more competitive pound.
1) We haven't had a high pound for quite a while. A high pound is the Noughties £1=$2.1. Even the £1=$1.5 when the polls shut was pitiful. 2) £1=$1.3 is not relatively low. £1=$1.3 is extraordinarily low.
I tend to take the view a high pound is not a symbol of the nation's virility, in fact it hits exporters and UK tourism so a relatively low £ for a short while is hardly a disaster
1) We haven't had a high pound for quite a while. A high pound is the Noughties £1=$2.1. Even the £1=$1.5 when the polls shut was pitiful. 2) £1=$1.3 is not relatively low. £1=$1.3 is extraordinarily low.
Again, unless you are going on holiday to the states or you buy a lot of goods from the states why is a low pound against the dollar of great concern? It may also encourage more Americans to visit London and the UK and help sell more British goods to the US
It's fantastic if you get paid in dollars but have a mortgage in Sterling
More seriously, it will encourage exports and inward tourism, might even encourage a few Brits to take local holidays rather than going abroad this summer. I paid £9 a pint yesterday in my local bar, so it will only be the rich British tourists that come here next winter if the exchange rate stays so low.
£9 a pint! Good grief! Where is this Sandpit?
Good job Theresa May is teetotal with alcohol prices like that. By my calculations her net earnings after tax would limit her to just 23.5 pints a day. Hardly enough to see a Hague through to early evening.
Dubai, UAE. The only bars are in 4* and 5* hotels, and there's LOTS of tax on them. No direct income tax here though, so I think of it as being 40% cheaper really We also chase the happy hours around town, if you can call £6 a pint in any way happy - mildly amusing hour maybe!
Singapore is even worse, it's £12 or £13 a pint there now with the recent drop in the pound.
On the positive side, petrol in Dubai is 33p a litre!
Join the rugby club. Spent many a night tired and emotional there, for considerably less than hotel prices.
But then are you not stuck all night with a bunch of Tory twat rugger buggers?
I think it was Orwell that suggested dropping a bomb on Twickenham during the Varsity match. He reckoned it would set back fascism in the country by 3 generations.
I tend to take the view a high pound is not a symbol of the nation's virility, in fact it hits exporters and UK tourism so a relatively low £ for a short while is hardly a disaster
1) We haven't had a high pound for quite a while. A high pound is the Noughties £1=$2.1. Even the £1=$1.5 when the polls shut was pitiful. 2) £1=$1.3 is not relatively low. £1=$1.3 is extraordinarily low.
Again, unless you are going on holiday to the states or you buy a lot of goods from the states why is a low pound against the dollar of great concern? It may also encourage more Americans to visit London and the UK and help sell more British goods to the US
It's fantastic if you get paid in dollars but have a mortgage in Sterling
More seriously, it will encourage exports and inward tourism, might even encourage a few Brits to take local holidays rather than going abroad this summer. I paid £9 a pint yesterday in my local bar, so it will only be the rich British tourists that come here next winter if the exchange rate stays so low.
£9 a pint! Good grief! Where is this Sandpit?
Good job Theresa May is teetotal with alcohol prices like that. By my calculations her net earnings after tax would limit her to just 23.5 pints a day. Hardly enough to see a Hague through to early evening.
Dubai, UAE. The only bars are in 4* and 5* hotels, and there's LOTS of tax on them. No direct income tax here though, so I think of it as being 40% cheaper really We also chase the happy hours around town, if you can call £6 a pint in any way happy - mildly amusing hour maybe!
Singapore is even worse, it's £12 or £13 a pint there now with the recent drop in the pound.
On the positive side, petrol in Dubai is 33p a litre!
Join the rugby club. Spent many a night tired and emotional there, for considerably less than hotel prices.
Yes, there are a few exceptions for members clubs and hotels in the old town which are cheaper, but unless you're out for a session you'll only spend the savings on the cab home. The old rugby club was a great night out, as is the annual Sevens tournament.
Labour planning "peace talks", shadow cabinet minister tells me, likening it to Northern Irish disarmament process.
So it'll take about 10 years and only a Canadian general will really know if he's gone at the end of it?
It is so obvious the Corbynites in cahoots with Len and his chumps are playing for time.
And why not. It's a week since the mass resignations and despite all the talk, no-one has come forward with a formal challenge despite the numbers being there to nominate three alternatives. It is a ludicrous position and Corbyn would be mad having survived this far not to be preparing rule changes at conference to enable his side to strike back. The MPs must know that so why haven't they launched their bid? (Because they can't find someone to head it but that too is frankly absurd).
Who are the three? I have the mighty Eagle; thingy, the Welsh guy with specs who looks like a clerk, whose the third?
I tend to take the view a high pound is not a symbol of the nation's virility, in fact it hits exporters and UK tourism so a relatively low £ for a short while is hardly a disaster
1) We haven't had a high pound for quite a while. A high pound is the Noughties £1=$2.1. Even the £1=$1.5 when the polls shut was pitiful. 2) £1=$1.3 is not relatively low. £1=$1.3 is extraordinarily low.
Again, unless you are going on holiday to the states or you buy a lot of goods from the states why is a low pound against the dollar of great concern? It may also encourage more Americans to visit London and the UK and help sell more British goods to the US
It's fantastic if you get paid in dollars but have a mortgage in Sterling
More seriously, it will encourage exports and inward tourism, might even encourage a few Brits to take local holidays rather than going abroad this summer. I paid £9 a pint yesterday in my local bar, so it will only be the rich British tourists that come here next winter if the exchange rate stays so low.
£9 a pint! Good grief! Where is this Sandpit?
Good job Theresa May is teetotal with alcohol prices like that. By my calculations her net earnings after tax would limit her to just 23.5 pints a day. Hardly enough to see a Hague through to early evening.
Dubai, UAE. The only bars are in 4* and 5* hotels, and there's LOTS of tax on them. No direct income tax here though, so I think of it as being 40% cheaper really We also chase the happy hours around town, if you can call £6 a pint in any way happy - mildly amusing hour maybe!
Singapore is even worse, it's £12 or £13 a pint there now with the recent drop in the pound.
On the positive side, petrol in Dubai is 33p a litre!
Join the rugby club. Spent many a night tired and emotional there, for considerably less than hotel prices.
But then are you not stuck all night with a bunch of Tory twat rugger buggers?
You're proving my point about you not being a nice person.
1) We haven't had a high pound for quite a while. A high pound is the Noughties £1=$2.1. Even the £1=$1.5 when the polls shut was pitiful. 2) £1=$1.3 is not relatively low. £1=$1.3 is extraordinarily low.
I tend to take the view a high pound is not a symbol of the nation's virility, in fact it hits exporters and UK tourism so a relatively low £ for a short while is hardly a disaster
1) We haven't had a high pound for quite a while. A high pound is the Noughties £1=$2.1. Even the £1=$1.5 when the polls shut was pitiful. 2) £1=$1.3 is not relatively low. £1=$1.3 is extraordinarily low.
Again, unless you are going on holiday to the states or you buy a lot of goods from the states why is a low pound against the dollar of great concern? It may also encourage more Americans to visit London and the UK and help sell more British goods to the US
It's fantastic if you get paid in dollars but have a mortgage in Sterling
More seriously, it will encourage exports and inward tourism, might even encourage a few Brits to take local holidays rather than going abroad this summer. I paid £9 a pint yesterday in my local bar, so it will only be the rich British tourists that come here next winter if the exchange rate stays so low.
£9 a pint! Good grief! Where is this Sandpit?
Good job Theresa May is teetotal with alcohol prices like that. By my calculations her net earnings after tax would limit her to just 23.5 pints a day. Hardly enough to see a Hague through to early evening.
Dubai, UAE. The only bars are in 4* and 5* hotels, and there's LOTS of tax on them. No direct income tax here though, so I think of it as being 40% cheaper really We also chase the happy hours around town, if you can call £6 a pint in any way happy - mildly amusing hour maybe!
Singapore is even worse, it's £12 or £13 a pint there now with the recent drop in the pound.
On the positive side, petrol in Dubai is 33p a litre!
Join the rugby club. Spent many a night tired and emotional there, for considerably less than hotel prices.
But then are you not stuck all night with a bunch of Tory twat rugger buggers?
I think it was Orwell that suggested dropping a bomb on Twickenham during the Varsity match. He reckoned it would set back fascism in the country by 3 generations.
Good stuff. And dwarf throwers. I think the one thing worse than being stuck in a room with rugger buggers...I've been unfortunate to go into the wrong pub occasionally in Oxford, but coked up City boys in suits. They are worse, if possible.
Thanks. The tories really can't afford to stitch up the referendum result or try to ignore it on the basis of England having a ten point lead for leave
May will undertake Brexit but it will be Brexit lite, keeping us in the EEA and the single market, UKIP are so heavily pushing Leadsom partly for political advantage, they know she will almost certainly lose and they will then try and hammer May for alleged betrayal
From what Ive heard from Leadsom on Climate Change and the issue of giving EU citizens the right to stay here before negotiations start, she appears to be quite Cameroon and May ought to be far more to their liking (both UKIP and Tory members)
Leadsom has opposed free movement for future migrants though and has made past statements against the minimum wage and promised to slash regulation
She wanted to scrap all employment legislation for micro businesses...no SMP no SSP no working hours...nothing !
I tend to take the view a high pound is not a symbol of the nation's virility, in fact it hits exporters and UK tourism so a relatively low £ for a short while is hardly a disaster
1) We haven't had a high pound for quite a while. A high pound is the Noughties £1=$2.1. Even the £1=$1.5 when the polls shut was pitiful. 2) £1=$1.3 is not relatively low. £1=$1.3 is extraordinarily low.
Again, unless you are going on holiday to the states or you buy a lot of goods from the states why is a low pound against the dollar of great concern? It may also encourage more Americans to visit London and the UK and help sell more British goods to the US
It's fantastic if you get paid in dollars but have a mortgage in Sterling
More seriously, it will encourage exports and inward tourism, might even encourage a few Brits to take local holidays rather than going abroad this summer. I paid £9 a pint yesterday in my local bar, so it will only be the rich British tourists that come here next winter if the exchange rate stays so low.
£9 a pint! Good grief! Where is this Sandpit?
Good job Theresa May is teetotal with alcohol prices like that. By my calculations her net earnings after tax would limit her to just 23.5 pints a day. Hardly enough to see a Hague through to early evening.
Dubai, UAE. The only bars are in 4* and 5* hotels, and there's LOTS of tax on them. No direct income tax here though, so I think of it as being 40% cheaper really We also chase the happy hours around town, if you can call £6 a pint in any way happy - mildly amusing hour maybe!
Singapore is even worse, it's £12 or £13 a pint there now with the recent drop in the pound.
On the positive side, petrol in Dubai is 33p a litre!
Join the rugby club. Spent many a night tired and emotional there, for considerably less than hotel prices.
But then are you not stuck all night with a bunch of Tory twat rugger buggers?
You're proving my point about you not being a nice person.
Comrade, spend a sober night in a pub with a bunch of pissed up rugger buggers. You might change your tune.
"There are even reports that Nicolas Sarkozy, the previous President of France, is preparing to move to London with his wife Carla Bruni for economic reasons."
Don't believe it for a minute. But it's a lovely thought.
Dated 2013
Oh my lord. I am sorry, that's a total clanger on my part. I normally check links very carefuly. I do apologise!
*edit Lesson learned: do not link to stories from Louise Mensch's twitter feed! She drags up all manner of ancient history. Still my fault though!*
The telltale sign was that it quoted the French economy minister... and it was the old guy, not Macron.
Eurozone imports have been rising in the last few months, could we benefit in any significant way with a more competitive pound.
It's consumer and business sentiment that's more at issue than the currency (yes, it's important).
UK GDP is around £1.8 trillion. Annual exports are around £460 billion, of which around 45% go to Europe. That's ~£220 billion. Call it about 11% of our GDP. A lot of UK economic activity is domestic.
Same back-of-the-fag packet calculation: ~32 million in work, ~ 3.4 million jobs associated with the EU. Call it 10% of the workforce. Horribly simplistic, supply chains are complex etc. It'll do.
EU is a big deal, but it's not the only deal. We need the trade to pay our way of course. It's just a simple way to keep things in perspective.
What we need right now is for people to carry on consuming, businesses to keep on investing. Convincing them to do that might be a challenge given some of the rhetoric we've seen.
Labour planning "peace talks", shadow cabinet minister tells me, likening it to Northern Irish disarmament process.
So it'll take about 10 years and only a Canadian general will really know if he's gone at the end of it?
It is so obvious the Corbynites in cahoots with Len and his chumps are playing for time.
And why not. It's a week since the mass resignations and despite all the talk, no-one has come forward with a formal challenge despite the numbers being there to nominate three alternatives. It is a ludicrous position and Corbyn would be mad having survived this far not to be preparing rule changes at conference to enable his side to strike back. The MPs must know that so why haven't they launched their bid? (Because they can't find someone to head it but that too is frankly absurd).
Who are the three? I have the mighty Eagle; thingy, the Welsh guy with specs who looks like a clerk, whose the third?
I think the point is that thefe are enough MPs to have a third.
Running both Eagle and Smith against Jezza turns it into a proper contest rather than a coup. Sounds good to me. It is by AV so not at risk of splitting the vote.
Option A: publish four years of tax returns, face all sorts of unwelcome scrutiny on all manner of 'interesting' family financial arrangements, then lose the election and take your chances on whether May is willing to give you a job, or:
Option B: keep your financial affairs nicely under wraps, and pull out of the contest in return for a promise of a worthwhile role.
Despite the amazing indecision and flakiness she has displayed over the last week, even Leadsom shouldn't take too long making her mind up between these two, surely?
I tend to take the view a high pound is not a symbol of the nation's virility, in fact it hits exporters and UK tourism so a relatively low £ for a short while is hardly a disaster
1) We haven't had a high pound for quite a while. A high pound is the Noughties £1=$2.1. Even the £1=$1.5 when the polls shut was pitiful. 2) £1=$1.3 is not relatively low. £1=$1.3 is extraordinarily low.
Again, unless you are going on holiday to the states or you buy a lot of goods from the states why is a low pound against the dollar of great concern? It may also encourage more Americans to visit London and the UK and help sell more British goods to the US
w.
£9 a pint! Good grief! Where is this Sandpit?
Good job Theresa May is teetotal with alcohol prices like that. By my calculations her net earnings after tax would limit her to just 23.5 pints a day. Hardly enough to see a Hague through to early evening.
Dubai, UAE. The only bars are in 4* and 5* hotels, and there's LOTS of tax on them. No direct income tax here though, so I think of it as being 40% cheaper really We also chase the happy hours around town, if you can call £6 a pint in any way happy - mildly amusing hour maybe!
Singapore is even worse, it's £12 or £13 a pint there now with the recent drop in the pound.
On the positive side, petrol in Dubai is 33p a litre!
Join the rugby club. Spent many a night tired and emotional there, for considerably less than hotel prices.
But then are you not stuck all night with a bunch of Tory twat rugger buggers?
I think it was Orwell that suggested dropping a bomb on Twickenham during the Varsity match. He reckoned it would set back fascism in the country by 3 generations.
Good stuff. And dwarf throwers. I think the one thing worse than being stuck in a room with rugger buggers...I've been unfortunate to go into the wrong pub occasionally in Oxford, but coked up City boys in suits. They are worse, if possible.
Stereotype much? You genuinely amuse me. Most of the stuff you pontificate about, you are guilty of. What's even funnier is you are completely oblivious to it.
Labour planning "peace talks", shadow cabinet minister tells me, likening it to Northern Irish disarmament process.
So it'll take about 10 years and only a Canadian general will really know if he's gone at the end of it?
It is so obvious the Corbynites in cahoots with Len and his chumps are playing for time.
And why not. It's a week since the mass resignations and despite all the talk, no-one has come forward with a formal challenge despite the numbers being there to nominate three alternatives. It is a ludicrous position and Corbyn would be mad having survived this far not to be preparing rule changes at conference to enable his side to strike back. The MPs must know that so why haven't they launched their bid? (Because they can't find someone to head it but that too is frankly absurd).
What sort of 'changes at conference' would Jez have in mind? Installing a mechanism to allow the leader to deselect on a whim?
Another perplexing evening. Went to the AITO (indy tour operators) summer BBQ in a very dulcet and sunlit Grays Inn. This is, for those not in my industry, people selling foreign holidays to Brits.
In that light, and with regard to the £, I expected despair. Instead there was some generalised tutting about Brexit, but otherwise they were quite relaxed.
Maybe the free and slightly crap wine was swaying them, maybe they haven't quite grasped the ENORMITY, but their attitude was surprising. These are smart people, working in an industry which is uniquely susceptible to currency shocks (and changes in spending power). They seem mildly agitated but not alarmed by Brexit.
Someone will be proved very wrong, quite soon.
If you are selling foreign holidays to rich people then the exchange rate should not affect them, they will still pay for their fortnight in the South of France in the summer and their week in the Indian Ocean or the Caribbean in the winter even if the price goes up because they can still afford it. If however you sell cheap package holidays to the Costa Del Sol and Florida you may be more affected as your customers will be less likely to afford foreign holidays which are significantly more expensive than they used to be and will go to Blackpool or Wales instead
I tend to take the view a high pound is not a symbol of the nation's virility, in fact it hits exporters and UK tourism so a relatively low £ for a short while is hardly a disaster
1) We haven't had a high pound for quite a while. A high pound is the Noughties £1=$2.1. Even the £1=$1.5 when the polls shut was pitiful. 2) £1=$1.3 is not relatively low. £1=$1.3 is extraordinarily low.
Again, unless you are going on holiday to the states or you buy a lot of goods from the states why is a low pound against the dollar of great concern? It may also encourage more Americans to visit London and the UK and help sell more British goods to the US
Virtually everyone buys lots of goods in dollars. It's what oil is priced in.
The cost of the average supermarket shop does not depend on the value of the dollar
I tend to take the view a high pound is not a symbol of the nation's virility, in fact it hits exporters and UK tourism so a relatively low £ for a short while is hardly a disaster
1) We haven't had a high pound for quite a while. A high pound is the Noughties £1=$2.1. Even the £1=$1.5 when the polls shut was pitiful. 2) £1=$1.3 is not relatively low. £1=$1.3 is extraordinarily low.
Again, unless you are going on holiday to the states or you buy a lot of goods from the states why is a low pound against the dollar of great concern? It may also encourage more Americans to visit London and the UK and help sell more British goods to the US
It's fantastic if you get paid in dollars but have a mortgage in Sterling
More seriously, it will encourage exports and inward tourism, might even encourage a few Brits to take local holidays rather than going abroad this summer. I paid £9 a pint yesterday in my local bar, so it will only be the rich British tourists that come here next winter if the exchange rate stays so low.
£9 a pint! Good grief! Where is this Sandpit?
Good job Theresa May is teetotal with alcohol prices like that. By my calculations her net earnings after tax would limit her to just 23.5 pints a day. Hardly enough to see a Hague through to early evening.
Dubai, UAE. The only bars are in 4* and 5* hotels, and there's LOTS of tax on them. No direct income tax here though, so I think of it as being 40% cheaper really We also chase the happy hours around town, if you can call £6 a pint in any way happy - mildly amusing hour maybe!
Singapore is even worse, it's £12 or £13 a pint there now with the recent drop in the pound.
On the positive side, petrol in Dubai is 33p a litre!
Join the rugby club. Spent many a night tired and emotional there, for considerably less than hotel prices.
But then are you not stuck all night with a bunch of Tory twat rugger buggers?
You're proving my point about you not being a nice person.
Comrade, spend a sober night in a pub with a bunch of pissed up rugger buggers. You might change your tune.
I have on hundreds of occasions, I don't have a problem talking to soldiers, brick layers, lorry drivers, vets, policemen, unemployed lads and a multitude of others. Why do you, comrade?
We can devalue.. A lot if those poor countries in the Eurozone cant and they are stuffed!!
Yes. Their life savings are in a currency that doesn't lose its value. Appalling.
Ahem. The Euro has depreciated considerably against the dollar since 2012. Currencies float. It's what they do. Or are we ONLY going to use the £? If so, carry on.
One of the UK's many issues is that 46% of UK households have less than £1,500 in savings. Robert will probably jump in and quote some ghastly savings rates stats if he feels moved to.
Labour planning "peace talks", shadow cabinet minister tells me, likening it to Northern Irish disarmament process.
So it'll take about 10 years and only a Canadian general will really know if he's gone at the end of it?
It is so obvious the Corbynites in cahoots with Len and his chumps are playing for time.
And why not. It's a week since the mass resignations and despite all the talk, no-one has come forward with a formal challenge despite the numbers being there to nominate three alternatives. It is a ludicrous position and Corbyn would be mad having survived this far not to be preparing rule changes at conference to enable his side to strike back. The MPs must know that so why haven't they launched their bid? (Because they can't find someone to head it but that too is frankly absurd).
Last I heard the problem wasn't finding someone, but that now BOTH Eagle and Smith want the gig. Smith suggested they both go to formal arbitration to resolve what is apparently becoming a heated disagreement between them, but today Eagle has refused. Honestly, you couldn't have made up the mess they are in - as a plot for a novel it is completely incredible. And even if they resolve which of them will make the challenge, neither of them has any sort of national profile or obvious voter-appeal, and neither of them is any more likely to be in touch with the mass of disgruntled labour core voters than are the corbynites!
There's an easy way of resolving it though - they both put their names forward on the understanding that whoever gets the most support from MPs drops out in favour of the other.
The issue of national profile isn't that important at this stage - Corbyn didn't have a lot either when he first stood. It comes over time. Nor can you judge their voter appeal until voters have been exposed to them, but at least you can say that neither is currently voter toxic so that at least is an improvement over what we have now.
Labour planning "peace talks", shadow cabinet minister tells me, likening it to Northern Irish disarmament process.
So it'll take about 10 years and only a Canadian general will really know if he's gone at the end of it?
It is so obvious the Corbynites in cahoots with Len and his chumps are playing for time.
And why not. It's a week since the mass resignations and despite all the talk, no-one has come forward with a formal challenge despite the numbers being there to nominate three alternatives. It is a ludicrous position and Corbyn would be mad having survived this far not to be preparing rule changes at conference to enable his side to strike back. The MPs must know that so why haven't they launched their bid? (Because they can't find someone to head it but that too is frankly absurd).
Last I heard the problem wasn't finding someone, but that now BOTH Eagle and Smith want the gig. Smith suggested they both go to formal arbitration to resolve what is apparently becoming a heated disagreement between them, but today Eagle has refused. Honestly, you couldn't have made up the mess they are in - as a plot for a novel it is completely incredible. And even if they resolve which of them will make the challenge, neither of them has any sort of national profile or obvious voter-appeal, and neither of them is any more likely to be in touch with the mass of disgruntled labour core voters than are the corbynites!
There's an easy way of resolving it though - they both put their names forward on the understanding that whoever gets the most support from MPs drops out in favour of the other.
The issue of national profile isn't that important at this stage - Corbyn didn't have a lot either when he first stood. It comes over time. Nor can you judge their voter appeal until voters have been exposed to them, but at least you can say that neither is currently voter toxic so that at least is an improvement over what we have now.
I agree Corbyn can't ever win a majority under FPTP, but voter-toxic is too strong; he does at least have a small slice of the Bernie effect. Labour support, at least prior to the EUref, hasn't collapsed, after all, it's just bobbing along at Miliband-type levels.
We can devalue.. A lot if those poor countries in the Eurozone cant and they are stuffed!!
Yes. Their life savings are in a currency that doesn't lose its value. Appalling.
Given a choice between chronic unemployment and currency fluctuations, it's pretty obvious that the latter is more desirable. For most of us, the value of what we earn or save in $ terms is not of great significance.
Comments
Mind you, if you want to feel sorry for anyone, feel sorry for Italy. No appreciable economic growth for 16 years.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xhtq1ObGHy8 Steve McLaren: good ears
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/sport/video-19957/Steve-McClaren-appears-fake-Dutch-accent.html
Surely we only have one more round on Thursday and the bottom candidate is knocked out?
I lived mostly with Americans for 2 years and had less of an accent than Mensch in that clip.
You choose how you talk
I'm deeply cynical about Hyperloop. The costings seem rather optimistic, and the throughput of passengers per hour is low (from possibly-faulty memory, 1/10 of high-speed rail). The accuracy of the lines and levitation at the speeds they are going for will be amazing.
I reckon Musk sees it as a good transportation system for Mars (probably correctly), and is getting suckers to develop the tech here on Earth.
Mind you, Musk's proven me wrong before, damn him!
Does that mean that Coutts acted as her accountant also?
Alas I am still no where near Boris. Still I beat Cameron and I am 20 years younger than him and grew up in a council house, so I feel pretty smug all in.
Four more years than Leadsom
Good job Theresa May is teetotal with alcohol prices like that. By my calculations her net earnings after tax would limit her to just 23.5 pints a day. Hardly enough to see a Hague through to early evening.
Still, The Independent website today on Ken Clarke's indiscreet remarks quoted him as saying Leadsom had a "poor line conversion" on the EU.
Can't get the staff these days.
*edit Lesson learned: do not link to stories from Louise Mensch's twitter feed! She drags up all manner of ancient history. Still my fault though!*
She's also right in the 'sweet spot' for making additional pension contributions to minimise the damage of losing her personal allowance - 62% marginal rate of tax - needs to have a word with her wealth managers perhaps!!!
The Treasury's report estimated that the British economy would be 6pc smaller by 2030 if Britons voted to leave the EU on June 23, than if the country were to remain a member.
Lord King's successor, Mark Carney, said on Tuesday that he believed the economic techniques used to produce the report were to his mind an example of a "sound analytic process".
However, Lord King said that the issue of the EU's membership was a "big, big question", and one that "cannot be reduced, simply to the simple-minded level of a cost-benefit analysis".
He continued: "I'm old enough to remember the referendum in Britain in 1975 on exactly the same issue. The one thing that both sides of the argument then were wrong about was that it would make a dramatic difference. It didn't.
IIRC King also said that Carney was wrong to have involved himself in such a sensitive debate, putting himself so clearly on one side of the argument. How right King was. Just as one would expect him to be as an old school central banker rather than a …… You supply your own description of Carney; I don’t trust myself to do so.
Carney, by implication if not explicitly, shat on Brexit from a considerable height, with the weight of a world renowned financial institution behind him. He claimed “duty”, in the face of accusations that he was serving the political needs of his political masters. The emphasis then of his own and BoE independence only served to compound the problem he created for himself (either wittingly or stupidly) when we voted Brexit.
Having put the fear of god into the markets regarding the consequences of Brexit, we now have the unedifying sight of him trying to undo the weight of his previous Project Fear message to the maximum extent possible, so that he can do now what he should have been doing then, reassuring the markets.
His self-fulfilling prophetic chickens have now come home to roost. Markets trade on sentiment. No one knows where the markets will be tomorrow but lots of people think (or pretend that) they do. Which Carney runes are to be believed, the pre or post referendum ones? Carney has greatly diminished his ability to serve the UK’s best interests in the matter of calming markets. Come back Mervyn.
Singapore is even worse, it's £12 or £13 a pint there now with the recent drop in the pound.
On the positive side, petrol in Dubai is 33p a litre!
I recall him at an inlunch in the city before he went to Singapore as an insignificant little runt.
He didnt destroy Barings on his own.. One of the reasons he is quite well off is because of the people he protected..
The 4 teams left in the 2016 Euro championship Germany.France,Wales and Portugal.
Engand has beaten all four in the last 12 months -
17 nov 2015 Engand 2 - 0 France
26 mar 2016 Germany 2 - 3 England
2 june 2016 England 1 - 0 Portugal
16 june 2016 England 2 - 1 Wales.
They are creating a party within a party and a language only they use, call someone a Blairite during an election campaign as an insult and most people will just look at you gone out. Like you had asked them how the microwave works or why Justin Bieber is a thing.
The old guard left is back, the guard that proper Labour men and women have opposed for decades, the kind of people that thought Stalin was maligned and a good comrade really.
Depressing state of affairs.
Even the government's own reports (c.f. Project Fear) weren't saying it was going to be a disaster.
We can screw it up (and we've made a goodish start), sure. But I imagine those clever people might have read some of the financial reports that the banks and institutes produced.
All i know is that a lot of London locals owe Mr Leeson a lot of gratitude after his help on stop losses over the earthquake..
Comrade, spend a sober night in a pub with a bunch of pissed up rugger buggers. You might change your tune.
UK GDP is around £1.8 trillion. Annual exports are around £460 billion, of which around 45% go to Europe. That's ~£220 billion. Call it about 11% of our GDP. A lot of UK economic activity is domestic.
Same back-of-the-fag packet calculation: ~32 million in work, ~ 3.4 million jobs associated with the EU. Call it 10% of the workforce. Horribly simplistic, supply chains are complex etc. It'll do.
EU is a big deal, but it's not the only deal. We need the trade to pay our way of course. It's just a simple way to keep things in perspective.
What we need right now is for people to carry on consuming, businesses to keep on investing. Convincing them to do that might be a challenge given some of the rhetoric we've seen.
Running both Eagle and Smith against Jezza turns it into a proper contest rather than a coup. Sounds good to me. It is by AV so not at risk of splitting the vote.
holding herself to the equivalent standard.
Option A: publish four years of tax returns, face all sorts of unwelcome scrutiny on all manner of 'interesting' family financial arrangements, then lose the election and take your chances on whether May is willing to give you a job, or:
Option B: keep your financial affairs nicely under wraps, and pull out of the contest in return for a promise of a worthwhile role.
Despite the amazing indecision and flakiness she has displayed over the last week, even Leadsom shouldn't take too long making her mind up between these two, surely?
One of the UK's many issues is that 46% of UK households have less than £1,500 in savings. Robert will probably jump in and quote some ghastly savings rates stats if he feels moved to.
The issue of national profile isn't that important at this stage - Corbyn didn't have a lot either when he first stood. It comes over time. Nor can you judge their voter appeal until voters have been exposed to them, but at least you can say that neither is currently voter toxic so that at least is an improvement over what we have now.
2016 General Election
Clinton 41% Trump 40%
Morning Consult
http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/polls/morning-consult-24822
Should I need a mortgage to trade up to something slightly more spacious, I'll be sure to talk to you first