politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Moore remains odds-on favourite in Alabama even though the Dems are spending nearly ten times as much on TV ads like these
The biggest current political betting markets in the UK are not about British politics at all. They were about the US with Trump’s survival being number one and the Alabama senate race, which takes place next Tuesday, number two.
Pollsters probably aren't used to competitive Alabama statewide elections, and we may see Republicans stay home for a weak candidate... let's see anyway.
Jeez, David Davis says there was no qualitative analysis taken before the decision to leave the customs unions.
They could go to any City institution and buy some in. How incompetent is DExEU?!
The Treasury forecasts of Brexit proved to be worthless qualitively and quantitively. There are too many unknowns for any evaluation to be worth the paper it is written on.
I remain of the view that we should wait and see what deal is put on the table.
May's Florence (and previous Lancaster House) speeches acknowledged there would be three categories of UK regulation post Brexit: (1) those where we'd want to maintain alignment (mutual interest - basically shadowing EU); (2) do similar things but in our own way (common goals, I presume w/o dumping, but with a degree of allowance for UK standards), and; (3) areas of divergence (which is the latitude for regulatory innovation over time)
The question is what and how much falls into each category. I'd expect things like cars/aerospace/energy/infrastructure in (1) and agriculture/security/employment in (2) and greater flexibility on services in (3).
Now for the hard part.
I think a lot of the angst on both sides, within the UK and EU is strong emotion overlaying what are usually logically technical common standards, many of which exist also at a global or international level anyway.
The EU insist on sticking their flag onto everything, and pursuing symbols of statehood (presidents, flags and new EU institutions) which does everything possible to get the British goat up, and rouses all their deepest suspicions. They also continue to pursue further integration of the eurozone, under "ever closer union" in the Lisbon Treaty with an activist ECJ, which constitutes the hard evidence.
The UK have gone along with it historically for the basic reason (amongst the elites) that such things "don't matter" because it's purely emotional, and amongst a small minority, the traditional nation state is a bit of an annochrism anyway, and the only thing that matters is the level of inside influence the UK has in shaping global affairs.
But, it does matter. Nation states are fundamentally social and emotional entities made up of real, feeling live human beings. That's how they stick, or don't stick. Same for the UK nationalists. Same for the EU federalists.
So the UK aligning its own standards and regulations via Westminster that are very similar to the EU's (just with a Union Jack on them rather than an EU flag) on things that'd be very similar anyway whilst, at the same time, putting a permanent end to political integration could go a long way to taking the sting out of the issue. And I think we'd end up having some form of informal influence across the EU and in the WTO in the longer-term anyway, on the former, by virtue of our economic and political weight.
So I'm open minded. I'll be looking for how much meaningful latitude we are offered under (3) and the precise terms of (1) and (2).
And I'll be ignoring most political commentators and journalists (who persistently get the detail wrong) and looking at the hard evidence for myself.
What's stupid is that most analysis I have seen for the Customs Union advises the UK to leave, it's having the rules made for us but having no say in them. Literally the worst of all worlds.
What's stupid is that most analysis I have seen for the Customs Union advises the UK to leave, it's having the rules made for us but having no say in them. Literally the worst of all worlds.
What's stupid is that most analysis I have seen for the Customs Union advises the UK to leave, it's having the rules made for us but having no say in them. Literally the worst of all worlds.
To be fair, the last week has been ample evidence that our current crop of politicians shouldn't be allowed any say in anything more complex than running a whelk stall.
What's stupid is that most analysis I have seen for the Customs Union advises the UK to leave, it's having the rules made for us but having no say in them. Literally the worst of all worlds.
Jeez, David Davis says there was no qualitative analysis taken before the decision to leave the customs unions.
They could go to any City institution and buy some in. How incompetent is DExEU?!
The Treasury forecasts of Brexit proved to be worthless qualitively and quantitively. There are too many unknowns for any evaluation to be worth the paper it is written on.
Read that back to yourself slowly. Is it seriously not worth trying to predict the effects of the biggest upheaval in 50 years?
Mr. Max, indeed. I said for a long time I was pretty relaxed about a range of leaving options, with the exception being we have to leave the customs union.
Mr. Glenn, unilateral revocation remains open to question, and there's the democratic matter of just ignoring a referendum (which is why I think another remains a credible option).
Jeez, David Davis says there was no qualitative analysis taken before the decision to leave the customs unions.
They could go to any City institution and buy some in. How incompetent is DExEU?!
The Treasury forecasts of Brexit proved to be worthless qualitively and quantitively. There are too many unknowns for any evaluation to be worth the paper it is written on.
Read that back to yourself slowly. Is it seriously not worth trying to predict the effects of the biggest upheaval in 50 years?
There really is no point as no one knows. We were supposed to be in a Brexit recession now according to the predictions., Who predicted during the financial crisis in 2010 that by 2017 we would have record employment and record low unemployment in this Country. The forecasts were for 20 years of recession.
What's stupid is that most analysis I have seen for the Customs Union advises the UK to leave, it's having the rules made for us but having no say in them. Literally the worst of all worlds.
To be fair, the last week has been ample evidence that our current crop of politicians shouldn't be allowed any say in anything more complex than running a whelk stall.
To many journalists in positions of power who think its just some word play and a bit of fun and games without any understanding of how the real world works.
What's stupid is that most analysis I have seen for the Customs Union advises the UK to leave, it's having the rules made for us but having no say in them. Literally the worst of all worlds.
And remitting any tarriffs to the EU too, right?
No, we'd keep the tariffs, at least in theory.
Oh right, apologies, I assumed that there would be a demand for remitting some tarriffs to the EU as we do now.
FWIW I think Moore will win easily. America is so polarised currently that people will just ignore damaging allegations about their preferred candidate and assume the source is biased.
What's stupid is that most analysis I have seen for the Customs Union advises the UK to leave, it's having the rules made for us but having no say in them. Literally the worst of all worlds.
To be fair, the last week has been ample evidence that our current crop of politicians shouldn't be allowed any say in anything more complex than running a whelk stall.
To many journalists in positions of power who think its just some word play and a bit of fun and games without any understanding of how the real world works.
Indeed, and maybe today is as good a time as any to post the Stephen Collins meisterwerk.
One strand of comment that has been common amongst those who oppose Britain’s withdrawal from the EU is that when the alleged difficulties and consequences of Brexit become clear to voters they will come to regret the decision to Leave – or at least will wish to sue for a soft Brexit. The experience of the last six months suggests this logic may be faulty.......
....If the talks about Brexit continue to be difficult and if the economy does indeed begin to suffer, we should not presume that voters in Britain will change their minds about the merits of Brexit. Rather they may simply blame politicians - on both sides of the channel – for their apparent failure to deliver what those who voted for Leave have all along said they want.
The solution to NI border is, and always was, that there will be a customs border but that provisions need to be made for it to be as 'soft' as possible through the provisions the UK government has suggested. There was no other solution.
Of course there are other solutions: revoke A50 or 32 county Ireland. Both would be ideal.
The latter would probably result in civil war in NI, so not sure that is an optimal solution.
The former would probably result in a civil war in the UK. So overall, not terribly helpful overall.
Bring on a civil war.
Remainers would win, we’re younger than Leavers. A distinct advantage in wars.
Nah. You have neither the commitment nor the ruthlessness. Your snowflake generation wouldn't last 30 seconds.
It's true. Fanatics versus Men of Reason? The MoRs have no chance.
Remainers are not men of reason. Just cowards.
You are saying this on a thread with @Dura_Ace? The @Dura_Ace who has served in HMF?
Tell us, Lincolnshire and District Cub Scouts Distinction in Hopscotch aside, what does your service record look like?
Jeez, David Davis says there was no qualitative analysis taken before the decision to leave the customs unions.
They could go to any City institution and buy some in. How incompetent is DExEU?!
The Treasury forecasts of Brexit proved to be worthless qualitively and quantitively. There are too many unknowns for any evaluation to be worth the paper it is written on.
Read that back to yourself slowly. Is it seriously not worth trying to predict the effects of the biggest upheaval in 50 years?
There really is no point as no one knows. We were supposed to be in a Brexit recession now according to the predictions., Who predicted during the financial crisis in 2010 that by 2017 we would have record employment and record low unemployment in this Country. The forecasts were for 20 years of recession.
I repeat. Is it seriously not worth trying to predict the effects of the biggest upheaval in 50 years? The financial industry seems to think it is worth trying. I didn't say it was easy. Trying to run the country on instinct or whatever the Daily Mail headline is today is a recipe for disaster.
Jeez, David Davis says there was no qualitative analysis taken before the decision to leave the customs unions.
They could go to any City institution and buy some in. How incompetent is DExEU?!
The Treasury forecasts of Brexit proved to be worthless qualitively and quantitively. There are too many unknowns for any evaluation to be worth the paper it is written on.
Read that back to yourself slowly. Is it seriously not worth trying to predict the effects of the biggest upheaval in 50 years?
There really is no point as no one knows. We were supposed to be in a Brexit recession now according to the predictions., Who predicted during the financial crisis in 2010 that by 2017 we would have record employment and record low unemployment in this Country. The forecasts were for 20 years of recession.
We've not bothered - in my opinion it is a racing certainty that we'll be heading out the EU straight into transitional fudge pie.
Jeez, David Davis says there was no qualitative analysis taken before the decision to leave the customs unions.
They could go to any City institution and buy some in. How incompetent is DExEU?!
The Treasury forecasts of Brexit proved to be worthless qualitively and quantitively. There are too many unknowns for any evaluation to be worth the paper it is written on.
Read that back to yourself slowly. Is it seriously not worth trying to predict the effects of the biggest upheaval in 50 years?
There really is no point as no one knows. We were supposed to be in a Brexit recession now according to the predictions., Who predicted during the financial crisis in 2010 that by 2017 we would have record employment and record low unemployment in this Country. The forecasts were for 20 years of recession.
I repeat. Is it seriously not worth trying to predict the effects of the biggest upheaval in 50 years? The financial industry seems to think it is worth trying. I didn't say it was easy. Trying to run the country on instinct or whatever the Daily Mail headline is today is a recipe for disaster.
Absolutely not, this has never happened before and you would pay a fortune for someone to guess
What's stupid is that most analysis I have seen for the Customs Union advises the UK to leave, it's having the rules made for us but having no say in them. Literally the worst of all worlds.
OF course, it didn't model the EEA option - based on the idea that it wouldn't show any significant economic divergence and that wouldn't have supported the CBI's stance in the referendum.
Jeez, David Davis says there was no qualitative analysis taken before the decision to leave the customs unions.
They could go to any City institution and buy some in. How incompetent is DExEU?!
The Treasury forecasts of Brexit proved to be worthless qualitively and quantitively. There are too many unknowns for any evaluation to be worth the paper it is written on.
Read that back to yourself slowly. Is it seriously not worth trying to predict the effects of the biggest upheaval in 50 years?
The crunch issue is whether, in a WTO arrangement, the pricing power of the EU would be greater or lesser than the UK's pricing power. In order to make this judgement, you need to know whether there really is an EU wide competitive market or whether there are local country or sector markets. This is unknowable until Brexit is implemented.
FWIW I think Moore will win easily. America is so polarised currently that people will just ignore damaging allegations about their preferred candidate and assume the source is biased.
You are probably right, and of course, it's Alabama. But the odds on The Other Guy are generous, and it's a wild political climate just now......
Jeez, David Davis says there was no qualitative analysis taken before the decision to leave the customs unions.
They could go to any City institution and buy some in. How incompetent is DExEU?!
The Treasury forecasts of Brexit proved to be worthless qualitively and quantitively. There are too many unknowns for any evaluation to be worth the paper it is written on.
Read that back to yourself slowly. Is it seriously not worth trying to predict the effects of the biggest upheaval in 50 years?
There really is no point as no one knows. We were supposed to be in a Brexit recession now according to the predictions., Who predicted during the financial crisis in 2010 that by 2017 we would have record employment and record low unemployment in this Country. The forecasts were for 20 years of recession.
I repeat. Is it seriously not worth trying to predict the effects of the biggest upheaval in 50 years? The financial industry seems to think it is worth trying. I didn't say it was easy. Trying to run the country on instinct or whatever the Daily Mail headline is today is a recipe for disaster.
Absolutely not, this has never happened before and you would pay a fortune for someone to guess
Not 100% sure if you are being serious here, but you provide a range of scenarios, together with associated probabilities. Hence in any model assumptions can be tweaked.
Or alternatively [WARNING EXPERTS HAVE A HAND IN THIS NEXT BIT] - use a gravity model to understand and predict bilateral trade flows.
Are all those outraged about the government not depending on economic forecasts in Brexit planning the same ones who insisted on the "economic facts" of us having an immediate year long recession in the event of a Leave vote? The same ones that believed the predictions of an interest rate surge that would cost home-owners thousands in mortgage payments? People who insisted the economic analyses showed the City would haemorrhage jobs after Article 50 was invoked?
The UK economics forecasting profession should have had an almighty reckoning in the last year and a half. Not a single one of the forecasters used by the Bank of England has got it right. We have full employment, low interest rates, company after company building new London HQs and a hiring boom in the City. And yet people double down on insisting economic forecasts are the gospel truth and all policy should be formed around them.
I guess people just can't handle being wrong on such an emotional issue, and certainly can't readjust their understanding of the world.
What's stupid is that most analysis I have seen for the Customs Union advises the UK to leave, it's having the rules made for us but having no say in them. Literally the worst of all worlds.
But I've never let ignorance hold me back from offering an opinion in the past...
The Democrat looks to be value here. Why? Because I think black turnout will be high (see Virginia senatorial election), and I think turnout of typically Republican white women will be low. I would also note that opinion polls in Virginia and New Jersey last month underestimated the Dem margin pretty significantly.
All that being said, I require at least 2-1 to bet on Alabama, simply because this is such a Red state.
What's stupid is that most analysis I have seen for the Customs Union advises the UK to leave, it's having the rules made for us but having no say in them. Literally the worst of all worlds.
In 2015, according to the European Commission website customs duties on imported goods worth €1,727bn entering the EU from non-EU countries, collected €23.3bn, of which €18.6bn were transferred to the EU budget. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, in 2015-16 customs duties collected in the UK amounted to £3.1bn paid to the EU.
Jeez, David Davis says there was no qualitative analysis taken before the decision to leave the customs unions.
They could go to any City institution and buy some in. How incompetent is DExEU?!
The Treasury forecasts of Brexit proved to be worthless qualitively and quantitively. There are too many unknowns for any evaluation to be worth the paper it is written on.
Read that back to yourself slowly. Is it seriously not worth trying to predict the effects of the biggest upheaval in 50 years?
Only if you had a range of assessments applying a range of knowns, known knowns, unknowns, known unknowns and unknown unknowns (or something similar). One assessment is useless, as it will be seen through a certain prism and would have a very low confidence rating and would be of little value. A range of assessments allow you to form a guessed overview of likelihood and pick out a few likely effects.
The EU Commission is playing hardball in negotiations because it believes its own report that the UK will be far worse off under WTO rules than would the EU.
If, like the Treasury report on Brexit, the report turns out to be wrong the EU will suffer more than it thought. But that will be too late, the die will have been cast. What is needed is for the EU Commission to be convinced that their report can not be accurate and that the outcome is unknown, including that WTO would be worse for the EU than for the UK.
Are all those outraged about the government not depending on economic forecasts in Brexit planning the same ones who insisted on the "economic facts" of us having an immediate year long recession in the event of a Leave vote? The same ones that believed the predictions of an interest rate surge that would cost home-owners thousands in mortgage payments? People who insisted the economic analyses showed the City would haemorrhage jobs after Article 50 was invoked?
The UK economics forecasting profession should have had an almighty reckoning in the last year and a half. Not a single one of the forecasters used by the Bank of England has got it right. We have full employment, low interest rates, company after company building new London HQs and a hiring boom in the City. And yet people double down on insisting economic forecasts are the gospel truth and all policy should be formed around them.
I guess people just can't handle being wrong on such an emotional issue, and certainly can't readjust their understanding of the world.
Yes, we've been fortunate that the EU27 economy has done much better than expected and has dragged the UK along with it to some extent.
On the other hand, people's wages are falling in real terms and we've gone from being the fastest growing in the G7 to the slowest.
The EU Commission is playing hardball in negotiations because it believes its own report that the UK will be far worse off under WTO rules than would the EU.
If, like the Treasury report on Brexit, the report turns out to be wrong the EU will suffer more than it thought. But that will be too late, the die will have been cast. What is needed is for the EU Commission to be convinced that their report can not be accurate and that the outcome is unknown, including that WTO would be worse for the EU than for the UK.
I would not underestimate the desire of the EU to put political ideals above economic reality.
Indeed I have heard that very gambit praised to high heavens by some on here in relation to the UK's approach.
Jeez, David Davis says there was no qualitative analysis taken before the decision to leave the customs unions.
They could go to any City institution and buy some in. How incompetent is DExEU?!
The Treasury forecasts of Brexit proved to be worthless qualitively and quantitively. There are too many unknowns for any evaluation to be worth the paper it is written on.
Read that back to yourself slowly. Is it seriously not worth trying to predict the effects of the biggest upheaval in 50 years?
Only if you had a range of assessments applying a range of knowns, known knowns, unknowns, known unknowns and unknown unknowns (or something similar). One assessment is useless, as it will be seen through a certain prism and would have a very low confidence rating and would be of little value. A range of assessments allow you to form a guessed overview of likelihood and pick out a few likely effects.
A summary of which is likely to indicate a range of possibilities from mildly beneficial down to armageddon with a mean outcome somewhere around "a few years of significant discomfort, a few more of mild discomfort, and then a slight improvement on what came before" ;-)
Jeez, David Davis says there was no qualitative analysis taken before the decision to leave the customs unions.
They could go to any City institution and buy some in. How incompetent is DExEU?!
The Treasury forecasts of Brexit proved to be worthless qualitively and quantitively. There are too many unknowns for any evaluation to be worth the paper it is written on.
Read that back to yourself slowly. Is it seriously not worth trying to predict the effects of the biggest upheaval in 50 years?
Only if you had a range of assessments applying a range of knowns, known knowns, unknowns, known unknowns and unknown unknowns (or something similar). One assessment is useless, as it will be seen through a certain prism and would have a very low confidence rating and would be of little value. A range of assessments allow you to form a guessed overview of likelihood and pick out a few likely effects.
A summary of which is likely to indicate a range of possibilities from mildly beneficial down to armageddon with a mean outcome somewhere around "a few years of significant discomfort, a few more of mild discomfort, and then a slight improvement on what came before" ;-)
Yep that sounds about right. Didn't see it written on the side of a bus, that said.
OF course, it didn't model the EEA option - based on the idea that it wouldn't show any significant economic divergence and that wouldn't have supported the CBI's stance in the referendum.
The idea that the Big4 produce analytical reports wholly independent of their Clients preferred conclusions is touching.
The EU Commission is playing hardball in negotiations because it believes its own report that the UK will be far worse off under WTO rules than would the EU.
If, like the Treasury report on Brexit, the report turns out to be wrong the EU will suffer more than it thought. But that will be too late, the die will have been cast. What is needed is for the EU Commission to be convinced that their report can not be accurate and that the outcome is unknown, including that WTO would be worse for the EU than for the UK.
I would not underestimate the desire of the EU to put political ideals above economic reality.
Indeed I have heard that very gambit praised to high heavens by some on here in relation to the UK's approach.
Definitely true. If the UK was given tariff free goods trade and no need for regulatory alignment on services trade it would weaken the case for membership of the EU and eventually the EU's continued existence. More and more people are unhappy with the EU, but willing to put up with it because it brings economic gains, especially for continental countries who's trade is 60-65% within the bloc.
Are all those outraged about the government not depending on economic forecasts in Brexit planning the same ones who insisted on the "economic facts" of us having an immediate year long recession in the event of a Leave vote? The same ones that believed the predictions of an interest rate surge that would cost home-owners thousands in mortgage payments? People who insisted the economic analyses showed the City would haemorrhage jobs after Article 50 was invoked?
The UK economics forecasting profession should have had an almighty reckoning in the last year and a half. Not a single one of the forecasters used by the Bank of England has got it right. We have full employment, low interest rates, company after company building new London HQs and a hiring boom in the City. And yet people double down on insisting economic forecasts are the gospel truth and all policy should be formed around them.
I guess people just can't handle being wrong on such an emotional issue, and certainly can't readjust their understanding of the world.
Yes, we've been fortunate that the EU27 economy has done much better than expected and has dragged the UK along with it to some extent.
On the other hand, people's wages are falling in real terms and we've gone from being the fastest growing in the G7 to the slowest.
That would be the EU27 with an unemployment rate 50% higher than ours and lower GDP per capita? They are pulling us along? The EU27 got hammered much harder than us because of poor EU policymaking and now they have a bit of reversion to the mean. And a big part of that is on much higher corporate debt levels than the UK.
Though I do like the idea that all these Remain-favouring economic think tanks failed because they failed to take into account the EU. And that it had the effect of getting the immediate impact of the Leave vote wrong by miles when they had all the economic date from just a few weeks before.
The idea that the government would have some magical, detailed insight into the exact impact of an as-yet-unknown trade arrangement on dozens of sectors was obvious baloney from the start, and it certainly wouldn't have any more insight as you an easily get from publicly available documents. So the fuss about the distinction between 'analyses' and 'impact assessments' is just noise. There was never going to be anything interesting in the working papers.
What actually matters is what arrangement we negotiate with the EU. On that side, hopefully some progress is about to be made. The signals look quite encouraging.
Mr. Eagles, Aurelian was a more impressive emperor than Constantine. That said, Constantine's decision to move the capital had a massive impact for a thousand years. Of course, if Aurelian hadn't kicked so much arse, there wouldn't've been an Empire for Constantine to rule over.
On topic, I still don’t have a clue about Alabama. It’s the most red of red States, there’s not been a Democrat elected there for decades, the polling is unreliable and even if loads of Republicans stay at home Moore could still win it. Maybe I just bet against the pervert, for very small stakes after being silly with the cricket.
Jeez, David Davis says there was no qualitative analysis taken before the decision to leave the customs unions.
They could go to any City institution and buy some in. How incompetent is DExEU?!
The Treasury forecasts of Brexit proved to be worthless qualitively and quantitively. There are too many unknowns for any evaluation to be worth the paper it is written on.
Read that back to yourself slowly. Is it seriously not worth trying to predict the effects of the biggest upheaval in 50 years?
There really is no point as no one knows. We were supposed to be in a Brexit recession now according to the predictions., Who predicted during the financial crisis in 2010 that by 2017 we would have record employment and record low unemployment in this Country. The forecasts were for 20 years of recession.
We've not bothered - in my opinion it is a racing certainty that we'll be heading out the EU straight into transitional fudge pie.
My view is there is little the EU can do to restrain the UK's long-term economic success, post Brexit. Hence the desire to handcuff us in via the A50 negotiations. The transition and adjustment is the uncomfortable bit, and that's the negotiating hook.
Which is why the EU wants a deal. It's worried that once we get through an tungsten-tipped Brexit (bad for several years) we won't come back for seconds for a while and, when we do, it'll be a different game.
If the RoW doesn't give that much of a sh*t about the UK and Brexit (0.7% global population), it doesn't care much more about the EU either (6% population) in a world where 80% of economic growth will come from outside both.
The idea that the government would have some magical, detailed insight into the exact impact of an as-yet-unknown trade arrangement on dozens of sectors was obvious baloney from the start, and it certainly wouldn't have any more insight as you an easily get from publicly available documents. So the fuss about the distinction between 'analyses' and 'impact assessments' is just noise. There was never going to be anything interesting in the working papers.
What actually matters is what arrangement we negotiate with the EU. On that side, hopefully some progress is about to be made. The signals look quite encouraging.
Economics has been called many things, so I suppose baloney wouldn't be particularly out of place. But it's the least bad way of determining likely impacts on a whole range of issues, bilateral trade, for example.
To say that it is too complicated is not really a grown-up way forward. If nothing else, such "working in the margin" allows us, the voters, to understand the basis upon which any particular decision was made. That the assessments don't exist confirms that it is gut feel and hope that has fuelled the decisions that have taken us to where we are now.
Now of course, we have voted for precisely this situation, so there really should be no cause for complaint, but we can at least make observations.
The idea that the government would have some magical, detailed insight into the exact impact of an as-yet-unknown trade arrangement on dozens of sectors was obvious baloney from the start, and it certainly wouldn't have any more insight as you an easily get from publicly available documents. So the fuss about the distinction between 'analyses' and 'impact assessments' is just noise. There was never going to be anything interesting in the working papers.
What actually matters is what arrangement we negotiate with the EU. On that side, hopefully some progress is about to be made. The signals look quite encouraging.
The government should at least have assessments for various scenarios available as a baseline to work from. It's about not having any unknown unknowns.
Someone to convert from Leaver to Remain and change the course of human history.
Barnier/Juncker is Hannibal, having just won a crushing victory at Cannae he fails to move on to Rome thinking his enemy finished.
May is Scipio, whilst everyone thinks she's finished, she's about to launch an incursion into the heart of Carthage and defeat him at the Battle of Zuma.
The idea that the government would have some magical, detailed insight into the exact impact of an as-yet-unknown trade arrangement on dozens of sectors was obvious baloney from the start, and it certainly wouldn't have any more insight as you an easily get from publicly available documents. So the fuss about the distinction between 'analyses' and 'impact assessments' is just noise. There was never going to be anything interesting in the working papers.
What actually matters is what arrangement we negotiate with the EU. On that side, hopefully some progress is about to be made. The signals look quite encouraging.
The government should at least have assessments for various scenarios available as a baseline to work from. It's about not having any unknown unknowns.
My view is there is little the EU can do to restrain the UK's long-term economic success, post Brexit. Hence the desire to handcuff us in via the A50 negotiations. The transition and adjustment is the uncomfortable bit, and that's the negotiating hook.
Which is why the EU wants a deal. It's worried that once we get through an tungsten-tipped Brexit (bad for several years) we won't come back for seconds for a while and, when we do, it'll be a different game.
How is maintaining the territorial integrity of the UK compatible with a tungsten-tipped Brexit?
One strand of comment that has been common amongst those who oppose Britain’s withdrawal from the EU is that when the alleged difficulties and consequences of Brexit become clear to voters they will come to regret the decision to Leave – or at least will wish to sue for a soft Brexit. The experience of the last six months suggests this logic may be faulty.......
....If the talks about Brexit continue to be difficult and if the economy does indeed begin to suffer, we should not presume that voters in Britain will change their minds about the merits of Brexit. Rather they may simply blame politicians - on both sides of the channel – for their apparent failure to deliver what those who voted for Leave have all along said they want.
This is disingenuous because Brexit voters aren't a homogeneous bloc. Even if 90% of Brexit voters are staunch, that puts them in a national minority whose views could, and should, be overridden. (By this I don't mean that Brexit should be stopped, but that it should be of a non-hard variety.)
The idea that the government would have some magical, detailed insight into the exact impact of an as-yet-unknown trade arrangement on dozens of sectors was obvious baloney from the start, and it certainly wouldn't have any more insight as you an easily get from publicly available documents. So the fuss about the distinction between 'analyses' and 'impact assessments' is just noise. There was never going to be anything interesting in the working papers.
What actually matters is what arrangement we negotiate with the EU. On that side, hopefully some progress is about to be made. The signals look quite encouraging.
The government should at least have assessments for various scenarios available as a baseline to work from. It's about not having any unknown unknowns.
Mr. Royale, *Zama. Also, Hannibal could not have taken Rome. It was too well-defended, had too large a population, and he lacked the siege gear/expertise.
Jeez, David Davis says there was no qualitative analysis taken before the decision to leave the customs unions.
They could go to any City institution and buy some in. How incompetent is DExEU?!
The Treasury forecasts of Brexit proved to be worthless qualitively and quantitively. There are too many unknowns for any evaluation to be worth the paper it is written on.
Read that back to yourself slowly. Is it seriously not worth trying to predict the effects of the biggest upheaval in 50 years?
There really is no point as no one knows. We were supposed to be in a Brexit recession now according to the predictions., Who predicted during the financial crisis in 2010 that by 2017 we would have record employment and record low unemployment in this Country. The forecasts were for 20 years of recession.
We've not bothered - in my opinion it is a racing certainty that we'll be heading out the EU straight into transitional fudge pie.
My view is there is little the EU can do to restrain the UK's long-term economic success, post Brexit. Hence the desire to handcuff us in via the A50 negotiations. The transition and adjustment is the uncomfortable bit, and that's the negotiating hook.
Which is why the EU wants a deal. It's worried that once we get through an tungsten-tipped Brexit (bad for several years) we won't come back for seconds for a while and, when we do, it'll be a different game.
The EU isn't (yet) doing anything to "restrain the UK's long-term economic success", although clearly after 2019 we'll be competitors rather than allies in the global marketplace.
We are the ones looking to restrain our own success: many people voted Brexit to close off the flow of cheap and plentiful EU brains and labour which has driven a lot of our recent growth.
There are two main criticisms of Mr Davis made by some MPs. The first is that he is lazy - a tag he dismisses out of hand by pointing to his track record as the hyperactive chairman of the Commons public accounts committee.
"It doesn't stack up, but maybe it's a compliment," he says. "I've made my way to what I do now from a reasonably lowly background and didn't break a sweat. Fantastic."
Comments
https://twitter.com/iainjwatson/status/938354397226160128
https://twitter.com/make_trouble/status/938354434052063232
Firms like KPMG and McKinseys could also do it.
I'd say it's 65/35 for the Republicans at best.
Pollsters probably aren't used to competitive Alabama statewide elections, and we may see Republicans stay home for a weak candidate... let's see anyway.
I remain of the view that we should wait and see what deal is put on the table.
May's Florence (and previous Lancaster House) speeches acknowledged there would be three categories of UK regulation post Brexit: (1) those where we'd want to maintain alignment (mutual interest - basically shadowing EU); (2) do similar things but in our own way (common goals, I presume w/o dumping, but with a degree of allowance for UK standards), and; (3) areas of divergence (which is the latitude for regulatory innovation over time)
The question is what and how much falls into each category. I'd expect things like cars/aerospace/energy/infrastructure in (1) and agriculture/security/employment in (2) and greater flexibility on services in (3).
Now for the hard part.
I think a lot of the angst on both sides, within the UK and EU is strong emotion overlaying what are usually logically technical common standards, many of which exist also at a global or international level anyway.
The EU insist on sticking their flag onto everything, and pursuing symbols of statehood (presidents, flags and new EU institutions) which does everything possible to get the British goat up, and rouses all their deepest suspicions. They also continue to pursue further integration of the eurozone, under "ever closer union" in the Lisbon Treaty with an activist ECJ, which constitutes the hard evidence.
The UK have gone along with it historically for the basic reason (amongst the elites) that such things "don't matter" because it's purely emotional, and amongst a small minority, the traditional nation state is a bit of an annochrism anyway, and the only thing that matters is the level of inside influence the UK has in shaping global affairs.
But, it does matter. Nation states are fundamentally social and emotional entities made up of real, feeling live human beings. That's how they stick, or don't stick. Same for the UK nationalists. Same for the EU federalists.
So the UK aligning its own standards and regulations via Westminster that are very similar to the EU's (just with a Union Jack on them rather than an EU flag) on things that'd be very similar anyway whilst, at the same time, putting a permanent end to political integration could go a long way to taking the sting out of the issue. And I think we'd end up having some form of informal influence across the EU and in the WTO in the longer-term anyway, on the former, by virtue of our economic and political weight.
So I'm open minded. I'll be looking for how much meaningful latitude we are offered under (3) and the precise terms of (1) and (2).
And I'll be ignoring most political commentators and journalists (who persistently get the detail wrong) and looking at the hard evidence for myself.
I tipped backing Roy Moore at 4/7, he's now 1/6
I am tipster of the year (If you ignore the fact his price went to 10/11 for a while)
An Assessment Of The Economic Impact Of Brexit
We compiled this report back in March 2016 and updated it regularly since then.
FWIW, both reports came to the same conclusion, single market - yes, customs union - no.
Is it seriously not worth trying to predict the effects of the biggest upheaval in 50 years?
Mr. Glenn, unilateral revocation remains open to question, and there's the democratic matter of just ignoring a referendum (which is why I think another remains a credible option).
It is clear that the EU is an organisation no one believing in democracy should have anything to do with.
However, the shear force of remain influence in the EU and the UK is overwhelming the exit process.
Breaking news. Progress between TM and Arlene Foster in phone call
https://twitter.com/stephen_collins/status/180990921083588608?lang=en
One strand of comment that has been common amongst those who oppose Britain’s withdrawal from the EU is that when the alleged difficulties and consequences of Brexit become clear to voters they will come to regret the decision to Leave – or at least will wish to sue for a soft Brexit. The experience of the last six months suggests this logic may be faulty.......
....If the talks about Brexit continue to be difficult and if the economy does indeed begin to suffer, we should not presume that voters in Britain will change their minds about the merits of Brexit. Rather they may simply blame politicians - on both sides of the channel – for their apparent failure to deliver what those who voted for Leave have all along said they want.
https://whatukthinks.org/eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/EU-Briefing-Paper-11-Half-time-brexit-negotiations.pdf
Tell us, Lincolnshire and District Cub Scouts Distinction in Hopscotch aside, what does your service record look like?
I didn't say it was easy.
Trying to run the country on instinct or whatever the Daily Mail headline is today is a recipe for disaster.
And to think David Davis said these impact assessments were important in helping to work out the details of the FTA we want.
At the very least, someone, somewhere, would know someone at DExEU working on putting them together.
The fact they haven't leaked makes me inclined to believe DD. Either that, or DExEU is a very tight ship, which seems implausible.
However, it was the experience of going to war three times in nine years that aided me on my ideological journey to EU arch-federalism.
PWC Report on Brexit for CBI
OF course, it didn't model the EEA option - based on the idea that it wouldn't show any significant economic divergence and that wouldn't have supported the CBI's stance in the referendum.
Or alternatively [WARNING EXPERTS HAVE A HAND IN THIS NEXT BIT] - use a gravity model to understand and predict bilateral trade flows.
https://twitter.com/alastairjam/status/938333748227133441
The UK economics forecasting profession should have had an almighty reckoning in the last year and a half. Not a single one of the forecasters used by the Bank of England has got it right. We have full employment, low interest rates, company after company building new London HQs and a hiring boom in the City. And yet people double down on insisting economic forecasts are the gospel truth and all policy should be formed around them.
I guess people just can't handle being wrong on such an emotional issue, and certainly can't readjust their understanding of the world.
But I've never let ignorance hold me back from offering an opinion in the past...
The Democrat looks to be value here. Why? Because I think black turnout will be high (see Virginia senatorial election), and I think turnout of typically Republican white women will be low. I would also note that opinion polls in Virginia and New Jersey last month underestimated the Dem margin pretty significantly.
All that being said, I require at least 2-1 to bet on Alabama, simply because this is such a Red state.
Edited extra bit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurelian
In 2015, according to the European Commission website customs duties on imported goods worth €1,727bn entering the EU from non-EU countries, collected €23.3bn, of which €18.6bn were transferred to the EU budget. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, in 2015-16 customs duties collected in the UK amounted to £3.1bn paid to the EU.
If, like the Treasury report on Brexit, the report turns out to be wrong the EU will suffer more than it thought. But that will be too late, the die will have been cast. What is needed is for the EU Commission to be convinced that their report can not be accurate and that the outcome is unknown, including that WTO would be worse for the EU than for the UK.
On the other hand, people's wages are falling in real terms and we've gone from being the fastest growing in the G7 to the slowest.
Someone to convert from Leaver to Remain and change the course of human history.
Indeed I have heard that very gambit praised to high heavens by some on here in relation to the UK's approach.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2017/12/06/ashes-gone-not-coming-back-2-0-englands-bowlers-have-no-pace/
Though I do like the idea that all these Remain-favouring economic think tanks failed because they failed to take into account the EU. And that it had the effect of getting the immediate impact of the Leave vote wrong by miles when they had all the economic date from just a few weeks before.
What actually matters is what arrangement we negotiate with the EU. On that side, hopefully some progress is about to be made. The signals look quite encouraging.
People don't always get what they deserve.
Which is why the EU wants a deal. It's worried that once we get through an tungsten-tipped Brexit (bad for several years) we won't come back for seconds for a while and, when we do, it'll be a different game.
If the RoW doesn't give that much of a sh*t about the UK and Brexit (0.7% global population), it doesn't care much more about the EU either (6% population) in a world where 80% of economic growth will come from outside both.
To say that it is too complicated is not really a grown-up way forward. If nothing else, such "working in the margin" allows us, the voters, to understand the basis upon which any particular decision was made. That the assessments don't exist confirms that it is gut feel and hope that has fuelled the decisions that have taken us to where we are now.
Now of course, we have voted for precisely this situation, so there really should be no cause for complaint, but we can at least make observations.
May is Scipio, whilst everyone thinks she's finished, she's about to launch an incursion into the heart of Carthage and defeat him at the Battle of Zuma.
Genuine question - Can someone provide the Hansard quotes verbatim..
Presumably there are some competent Brexit-backing Tory MPs somewhere. It would be good if one or two of them could be in the Cabinet.
We are the ones looking to restrain our own success: many people voted Brexit to close off the flow of cheap and plentiful EU brains and labour which has driven a lot of our recent growth.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1494155/Climbing-towards-the-top-and-refusing-to-look-down.html
There are two main criticisms of Mr Davis made by some MPs. The first is that he is lazy - a tag he dismisses out of hand by pointing to his track record as the hyperactive chairman of the Commons public accounts committee.
"It doesn't stack up, but maybe it's a compliment," he says. "I've made my way to what I do now from a reasonably lowly background and didn't break a sweat. Fantastic."