His mum being Scottish was hyped up as well, plus him being pro Brexit. That said, Macron’s attempts to influence Trump pretty much fell on deaf as Trump ripping up the Iran deal, being anti NATO, EU and WTO demonstrates. Any of the European leaders who think they can make influence or control him are kidding themselves.
Later in that thread he says France is waiting in the wings. Are they significantly upping their defence spending?
Edit: Yes, an additional £260bn over five years.
France spending their Brexit dividend already.
I read today that Macron is making every single French primary schoolchild learn - and sing - the Marseillaise.
He's very clever. A mix of right and left - and unashamedly patriotic.
He could be a kind of Clintonesque Reagan for France. If only we had someone as deft and smart in British politics. We are led by morons and liars, Remainers and Leavers alike.
He reminds me a lot of Blair.
This. Macron is the French Tony Blair. We know how that situation ended (Blair has 76% disapproval rating as of June). Judging by what I’ve seen on Macron’s approval ratings, his sucking up to Trump hadn’t gone down well with French voters.
Later in that thread he says France is waiting in the wings. Are they significantly upping their defence spending?
Edit: Yes, an additional £260bn over five years.
France spending their Brexit dividend already.
I read today that Macron is making every single French primary schoolchild learn - and sing - the Marseillaise.
He's very clever. A mix of right and left - and unashamedly patriotic.
He could be a kind of Clintonesque Reagan for France. If only we had someone as deft and smart in British politics. We are led by morons and liars, Remainers and Leavers alike.
I'm losing the plot on this one. Aren't France the cheese eating surrender monkeys?
Later in that thread he says France is waiting in the wings. Are they significantly upping their defence spending?
Edit: Yes, an additional £260bn over five years.
France spending their Brexit dividend already.
I read today that Macron is making every single French primary schoolchild learn - and sing - the Marseillaise.
He's very clever. A mix of right and left - and unashamedly patriotic.
He could be a kind of Clintonesque Reagan for France. If only we had someone as deft and smart in British politics. We are led by morons and liars, Remainers and Leavers alike.
He reminds me a lot of Blair.
There are similarities, but I suspect he is considerably more cunning and effective than Blair. I don't think he'd ever join something as dumb as Dubya's Iraq invasion, for instance.
I don't know, he seems [like Blair] to be willing to buy into his own spin. Blair convinced himself he'd make a success of Iraq . . . I could foresee Macron being arrogant enough to think something similar if he faced a similar scenario.
This. Macron is the French Tony Blair. We know how that situation ended (Blair has 76% disapproval rating as of June).
And yet Blair won three election victories with never less than a convincing majority and was arguably the single politician who tried to keep the West together, before we deteriorated into a bunch of squabbling children.
I have been saying this for some time: defence needs more money, not less.
In order to fight/defend against whom?
The French. Labour really ought to be making more of the Tories' decimation of the armed forces. Since Labour left office, the Conservatives have axed 20,000 soldiers -- one fifth of the army, with similar cuts to airmen and sailors. CCHQ likes to use the nuclear question to attack Labour but the scale of cuts has been so great that most voters, especially Conservative voters, will be shocked. And that's just personnel: ships and planes have also vanished,
Remember the moment in GE2017 when Corbyn challenged May over police cuts? As Karl Rove advised George Bush: attack your opponent's perceived strengths.
Labour's solution is always to spend more money. Considering that Labour bequeathed the Tories a £175 billion deficit and a significant deficit in the MoD accounts . . . what else were the Tories supposed to do?
The Tories have maintained spending on the MoD at the NATO 2% threshold and yes there have been cuts that nobody would want in an ideal world. But Labour didn't bequeath an ideal world, they left a disastrous mess that had to be cleaned up.
Theresa May must keep her Brexit customs union promise or risk being overthrown by Tory MPs.
At Chequers, the Prime Minister must stick to her "no deal is better than a bad deal" mantra, or risk splitting the Conservative Party like Sir Robert Peel
This. Macron is the French Tony Blair. We know how that situation ended (Blair has 76% disapproval rating as of June).
And yet Blair won three election victories with never less than a convincing majority and was arguably the single politician who tried to keep the West together, before we deteriorated into a bunch of squabbling children.
And yet, despite winning three elections with convincing majorities, and ‘trying to hold the West together’ he is now a politically toxic figure. He’s arguably a big reason as to why we have both Brexit and Corbyn.
I have been saying this for some time: defence needs more money, not less.
In order to fight/defend against whom?
The French. Labour really ought to be making more of the Tories' decimation of the armed forces. Since Labour left office, the Conservatives have axed 20,000 soldiers -- one fifth of the army, with similar cuts to airmen and sailors. CCHQ likes to use the nuclear question to attack Labour but the scale of cuts has been so great that most voters, especially Conservative voters, will be shocked. And that's just personnel: ships and planes have also vanished,
Remember the moment in GE2017 when Corbyn challenged May over police cuts? As Karl Rove advised George Bush: attack your opponent's perceived strengths.
I remember when the Manchester attack happened during the GE2017 I assumed that it would lead to an instinctive swing to the Tories or at least halt the modest improvement that Labour was having at the time. But I think if anything it helped Labour. I think that maybe those of us old enough to remember the cold war are a bit out of date about defence compared to younger voters. Rockets and tanks might be a good way to prevent an invasion, but dealing with terrorism needs softer skills.
Nice thread header. Tax deductible savings accounts will only ever be a very small part of the picture i think. Even in Singapore i think they are something like 10% of THE. I'm wary of expanding the amount of tax free savings when we already have such generous ISA allowances.
I think drug prices are an area that can be squeezed a bit. I think the current medical trials model is skewed towards expensive innovations and misses some things that could save money. But overall i think its normal that as a society ages, and becomes wealthier, that we would spend more money on health. We don't have to be scared of that.
There not much to do on drug prices.
U.K. Gx prices are among the lowest in the developed world. NICE is tough on pharmacoeconomics. In any event they are only around 12% of the budget
Inevitably it’s staff costs that are the biggest piece
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I'm stuck..
The Tories have maintained spending on the MoD at the NATO 2% threshold and yes there have been cuts that nobody would want in an ideal world. But Labour didn't bequeath an ideal world, they left a disastrous mess that had to be cleaned up.
NEW THREAD
U.K. Gx prices are among the lowest in the developed world. NICE is tough on pharmacoeconomics. In any event they are only around 12% of the budget
Inevitably it’s staff costs that are the biggest piece