Except our more successful governments tend to be team efforts. Governing is hard and there is far too much for one person to be responsible for all the ideas, innovations and direction of travel. A definite weakness with Boris is his lack of a close cadres of like minded friends who can work together for a common objective. Eventually it will weaken him. But not yet.
If there is a joint number 10/11 economic team isn't that more likely, not less likely, to result in a team effort to pull in the same direction?
Cummings giving himself the economy to run as well as everything else is a bold move. Apparently, he’ll be negotiating Brexit too!
He has managed to consolidate a lot of power around himself, and has eliminated rivals and threats. Any Russophile can recognise his man of steel approach.
I cannot see Johnson having the backbone to sack him, so it is not clear how he goes.
Take Back Control...
Yes, indeed. We have taken back control from EU bureaucrats and given it to a scruffy English one instead.
British one. And as far as I am concerned, that's still a win.
A bureaucrat who is not elected and whom you can’t vote out of power and who is not answerable to our elected representatives and whom it is not possible to scrutinise.
A win, you say?
What low expectations you have.
I'm sorry, but Cummings can very much be voted out of power thanks to FPTP. Again, it's not the Tories' fault that the Labour Party is an utter mess.
We can only watch and hope that at the appropriate time those lucky voters living in marginal seats make the right decision.
By that do you mean they should vote according to the actual experience of the government, which we won't know for 2 or 3 years balanced against the assessment of the alternative?
Or do you mean just vote tribally and in a blinkered or prejudiced unthinking way for your favoured outcome?
I don't see the huge problem with Cummings' position (his policies we shall see).
The PM appointed him and all the decision, policies, sackings, briefings are therefore a direct arm of the PM and attributable to him.
I don't get the "he is unelected" bit because the PM, who was elected, appointed him. If the PM were to be deposed next time round, Dom doesn't get to stay.
It goes back an awful lot further than that. Looking back over the decades, people are so used to the concept of the powerful Chancellor as right-hand man and/or check on the Prime Minister (Osborne, Brown, Clarke, Lawson, Howe, etc etc) that the notion of the Chancellor being just another cabinet minister feels quite alien. But that's what the situation would now appear to be.
We need to dispense with the idea of No.10 and No.11 acting as a duumvirate and treat Boris Johnson as a more presidential figure. We ought instead to assume that Rishi Sunak's job will be to look after the books and to develop taxation and borrowing options in line with the Prime Minister's needs and priorities, and not to co-determine those needs and priorities himself.
Except our more successful governments tend to be team efforts. Governing is hard and there is far too much for one person to be responsible for all the ideas, innovations and direction of travel. A definite weakness with Boris is his lack of a close cadres of like minded friends who can work together for a common objective. Eventually it will weaken him. But not yet.
If there is a joint number 10/11 economic team isn't that more likely, not less likely, to result in a team effort to pull in the same direction?
Cummings giving himself the economy to run as well as everything else is a bold move. Apparently, he’ll be negotiating Brexit too!
He has managed to consolidate a lot of power around himself, and has eliminated rivals and threats. Any Russophile can recognise his man of steel approach.
I cannot see Johnson having the backbone to sack him, so it is not clear how he goes.
Take Back Control...
Yes, indeed. We have taken back control from EU bureaucrats and given it to a scruffy English one instead.
British one. And as far as I am concerned, that's still a win.
A bureaucrat who is not elected and whom you can’t vote out of power and who is not answerable to our elected representatives and whom it is not possible to scrutinise.
A win, you say?
What low expectations you have.
I'm sorry, but Cummings can very much be voted out of power thanks to FPTP. Again, it's not the Tories' fault that the Labour Party is an utter mess.
What constituency is he an MP for? Remind me.
Oh common, this is hardly a new occurrence. How could I get rid of the unelected Alastair Campbell or Andy Coulson or Steve Hilton?
The share price is still half what it was when the Government bailed it out, but it still owns 62% so could sell stakes every 6 months or so over the next 5 years, which would represent £2-3bn income to HMT each time, even if it's taking a 40% haircut on what it originally paid.
If money is tight it's a tempting target for HMT to help balance the books.
Except our more successful governments tend to be team efforts. Governing is hard and there is far too much for one person to be responsible for all the ideas, innovations and direction of travel. A definite weakness with Boris is his lack of a close cadres of like minded friends who can work together for a common objective. Eventually it will weaken him. But not yet.
If there is a joint number 10/11 economic team isn't that more likely, not less likely, to result in a team effort to pull in the same direction?
Cummings giving himself the economy to run as well as everything else is a bold move. Apparently, he’ll be negotiating Brexit too!
He has managed to consolidate a lot of power around himself, and has eliminated rivals and threats. Any Russophile can recognise his man of steel approach.
I cannot see Johnson having the backbone to sack him, so it is not clear how he goes.
Take Back Control...
Yes, indeed. We have taken back control from EU bureaucrats and given it to a scruffy English one instead.
British one. And as far as I am concerned, that's still a win.
A bureaucrat who is not elected and whom you can’t vote out of power and who is not answerable to our elected representatives and whom it is not possible to scrutinise.
A win, you say?
What low expectations you have.
I'm sorry, but Cummings can very much be voted out of power thanks to FPTP. Again, it's not the Tories' fault that the Labour Party is an utter mess.
We can only watch and hope that at the appropriate time those lucky voters living in marginal seats make the right decision.
By that do you mean they should vote according to the actual experience of the government, which we won't know for 2 or 3 years balanced against the assessment of the alternative?
Or do you mean just vote tribally and in a blinkered or prejudiced unthinking way for your favoured outcome?
Neither. It was a challenge to those who hold up FPTP as a paragon of accountability to the voters.
It goes back an awful lot further than that. Looking back over the decades, people are so used to the concept of the powerful Chancellor as right-hand man and/or check on the Prime Minister (Osborne, Brown, Clarke, Lawson, Howe, etc etc) that the notion of the Chancellor being just another cabinet minister feels quite alien. But that's what the situation would now appear to be.
We need to dispense with the idea of No.10 and No.11 acting as a duumvirate and treat Boris Johnson as a more presidential figure. We ought instead to assume that Rishi Sunak's job will be to look after the books and to develop taxation and borrowing options in line with the Prime Minister's needs and priorities, and not to co-determine those needs and priorities himself.
Except
If there is a joint number 10/11 economic team isn't that more likely, not less likely, to result in a team effort to pull in the same direction?
Cummings giving himself the economy to run as well as everything else is a bold move. Apparently, he’ll be negotiating Brexit too!
He has managed to consolidate a lot of power around himself, and has eliminated rivals and threats. Any Russophile can recognise his man of steel approach.
I cannot see Johnson having the backbone to sack him, so it is not clear how he goes.
Take Back Control...
Yes, indeed. We have taken back control from EU bureaucrats and given it to a scruffy English one instead.
British one. And as far as I am concerned, that's still a win.
A bureaucrat who is not elected and whom you can’t vote out of power and who is not answerable to our elected representatives and whom it is not possible to scrutinise.
A win, you say?
What low expectations you have.
I'm sorry, but Cummings can very much be voted out of power thanks to FPTP. Again, it's not the Tories' fault that the Labour Party is an utter mess.
What constituency is he an MP for? Remind me.
Boris has hired him as his key staffer and is accountable for him.
If we don't like him, the answer is for the MPs to VoNC Boris in the Commons or the voters to eject his Government at the next election.
My wife and I have been dealing with a couple of health issues over the last few days but I have browsed PB from time to time.
My impressions are that Boris has moved leading brexiteers into his cabinet and taken complete control. I have no idea how malign or otherwise Cummings is but he has been highly successful in brexit and getting Boris into power
The noises coming out of the EU give the impression that nothing has changed and that they can still control the economic direction of the UK and hold it close but this cabinet appears to me to be ready to virtually no deal to break the link
On the domestic situation Boris has turned left and is about to open the spending taps trampling all over labour and making it very difficult for labour to get a hearing
Of course the opposition to Boris and Cummings on here comes from the usual suspects who would never be converted to the Boris way but then that is not important as the only people who matter to Boris are the voters who, for now at least, seem to be very supportive
The idea to cut pension relief for those in the 40% band was crass and stupid.
He is no loss.
At some point the spending Cummings is planning will have to be paid for. Tax rises will be a part of that. There is no magic money tree.
Fat cat public sector defined benefit pensions would be a better place to start if you are dumb enough to want to tax pensions.
It's been done with the pensions taper, with the small side effect of a staffing crisis.
How much indexed linked pension does a public sector nominal £100,000 get? How much would a private sector pension pay for the same amount?
About £3,800 I believe, based on my own pensions statement.
I am at an age where I can take it (actuarily reduced) at 3 months notice, and escape these shores. Not that I plan to, as I enjoy my job at present, but nice to have that option.
Another poll showing Sanders as the Dem candidate polling best against Trump. This time 2 behind in Texas, which is admittedly unlikely to be the tipping point state, but there's been a bunch of recent polls showing Sanders as at least no worse than any other likely candidate.
So why are so many people saying that Democrats would be crazy to choose Sanders instead of - who? The comparison with Corbyn is also not valid, as Corbyn pretty much always polled really really badly.
Probably the worst outcome for Dems would be if Sanders gets a plurality of delegates but no majority, and then the convention chooses someone Sanders beat in the actual primaries. Bloomberg makes this quite a likely situation. But it always felt like his second choice (after Bloomberg becoming president) was always Trump winning again, no wonder a majority of Dems don't like the guy.
The idea to cut pension relief for those in the 40% band was crass and stupid.
He is no loss.
At some point the spending Cummings is planning will have to be paid for. Tax rises will be a part of that. There is no magic money tree.
Nah, it will be deficit spending by the bucket load, indeed tax cuts for higher earners are likely.
Yes, Javid was contemplating a mansion tax and cut to pension relief to cut the deficit, now he is gone it will be Berlusconi style tax cuts and more spending, neither Boris or Cummings care about deficits
Mrs Thatcher would have kicked their arses and quite rightly said neither Boris Johnson or Dominic Cummings are Tories.
Another poll showing Sanders as the Dem candidate polling best against Trump. This time 2 behind in Texas, which is admittedly unlikely to be the tipping point state, but there's been a bunch of recent polls showing Sanders as at least no worse than any other likely candidate.
So why are so many people saying that Democrats would be crazy to choose Sanders instead of - who? The comparison with Corbyn is also not valid, as Corbyn pretty much always polled really really badly.
Probably the worst outcome for Dems would be if Sanders gets a plurality of delegates but no majority, and then the convention chooses someone Sanders beat in the actual primaries. Bloomberg makes this quite a likely situation. But it always felt like his second choice (after Bloomberg becoming president) was always Trump winning again, no wonder a majority of Dems don't like the guy.
A bureaucrat who is not elected and whom you can’t vote out of power and who is not answerable to our elected representatives and whom it is not possible to scrutinise.
A win, you say?
What low expectations you have.
He comes considerably cheaper than the EU, and is a lot easier to dispense with when his services are no longer required.
My wife and I have been dealing with a couple of health issues over the last few days but I have browsed PB from time to time.
My impressions are that Boris has moved leading brexiteers into his cabinet and taken complete control. I have no idea how malign or otherwise Cummings is but he has been highly successful in brexit and getting Boris into power
The noises coming out of the EU give the impression that nothing has changed and that they can still control the economic direction of the UK and hold it close but this cabinet appears to me to be ready to virtually no deal to break the link
On the domestic situation Boris has turned left and is about to open the spending taps trampling all over labour and making it very difficult for labour to get a hearing
Of course the opposition to Boris and Cummings on here comes from the usual suspects who would never be converted to the Boris way but then that is not important as the only people who matter to Boris are the voters who, for now at least, seem to be very supportive
No Deal and ramped up spending does indeed seem to be the plan. F**k Business indeed!
It will be interesting to see how much of our exports continues to be gold bullion over the next year.
A bureaucrat who is not elected and whom you can’t vote out of power and who is not answerable to our elected representatives and whom it is not possible to scrutinise.
A win, you say?
What low expectations you have.
He comes considerably cheaper than the EU, and is a lot easier to dispense with when his services are no longer required.
A bureaucrat who is not elected and whom you can’t vote out of power and who is not answerable to our elected representatives and whom it is not possible to scrutinise.
A win, you say?
What low expectations you have.
He comes considerably cheaper than the EU, and is a lot easier to dispense with when his services are no longer required.
But meanwhile his influence is 100% negative.
I don't agree, but at any rate, very little change there either.
If there is a joint number 10/11 economic team isn't that more likely, not less likely, to result in a team effort to pull in the same direction?
Cummings giving himself the economy to run as well as everything else is a bold move. Apparently, he’ll be negotiating Brexit too!
He has managed to consolidate a lot of power around himself, and has eliminated rivals and threats. Any Russophile can recognise his man of steel approach.
I cannot see Johnson having the backbone to sack him, so it is not clear how he goes.
Take Back Control...
Yes, indeed. We have taken back control from EU bureaucrats and given it to a scruffy English one instead.
British one. And as far as I am concerned, that's still a win.
A bureaucrat who is not elected and whom you can’t vote out of power and who is not answerable to our elected representatives and whom it is not possible to scrutinise.
A win, you say?
What low expectations you have.
I'm sorry, but Cummings can very much be voted out of power thanks to FPTP. Again, it's not the Tories' fault that the Labour Party is an utter mess.
What constituency is he an MP for? Remind me.
Boris has hired him as his key staffer and is accountable for him.
If we don't like him, the answer is for the MPs to VoNC Boris in the Commons or the voters to eject his Government at the next election.
An advisor should remain in the background and advise not make decisions. Cummings is behaving like a Minister without accountability. That is democratically unacceptable. It is odd how those people railing against EU bureaucrats with no democratic accountability are very relaxed about a British bureaucrat behaving in the same high-handed way.
We should not even need to worry about him or know about him. Instead we have got a Tory version of Alastair Campbell. And this is supposed to be an improvement?
Except our more successful governments tend to be team efforts. Governing is hard and there is far too much for one person to be responsible for all the ideas, innovations and direction of travel. A definite weakness with Boris is his lack of a close cadres of like minded friends who can work together for a common objective. Eventually it will weaken him. But not yet.
If there is a joint number 10/11 economic team isn't that more likely, not less likely, to result in a team effort to pull in the same direction?
Cummings giving himself the economy to run as well as everything else is a bold move. Apparently, he’ll be negotiating Brexit too!
He has managed to consolidate a lot of power around himself, and has eliminated rivals and threats. Any Russophile can recognise his man of steel approach.
I cannot see Johnson having the backbone to sack him, so it is not clear how he goes.
Take Back Control...
Yes, indeed. We have taken back control from EU bureaucrats and given it to a scruffy English one instead.
British one. And as far as I am concerned, that's still a win.
A bureaucrat who is not elected and whom you can’t vote out of power and who is not answerable to our elected representatives and whom it is not possible to scrutinise.
A win, you say?
What low expectations you have.
I'm sorry, but Cummings can very much be voted out of power thanks to FPTP. Again, it's not the Tories' fault that the Labour Party is an utter mess.
What constituency is he an MP for? Remind me.
Oh common, this is hardly a new occurrence. How could I get rid of the unelected Alastair Campbell or Andy Coulson or Steve Hilton?
Asking advice from someone, often fresh out of university, with no previous knowledge of work. Weird. Even if they have some years under their belt, they usually have no record of success.
My wife and I have been dealing with a couple of health issues over the last few days but I have browsed PB from time to time.
My impressions are that Boris has moved leading brexiteers into his cabinet and taken complete control. I have no idea how malign or otherwise Cummings is but he has been highly successful in brexit and getting Boris into power
The noises coming out of the EU give the impression that nothing has changed and that they can still control the economic direction of the UK and hold it close but this cabinet appears to me to be ready to virtually no deal to break the link
On the domestic situation Boris has turned left and is about to open the spending taps trampling all over labour and making it very difficult for labour to get a hearing
Of course the opposition to Boris and Cummings on here comes from the usual suspects who would never be converted to the Boris way but then that is not important as the only people who matter to Boris are the voters who, for now at least, seem to be very supportive
No Deal and ramped up spending does indeed seem to be the plan. F**k Business indeed!
It will be interesting to see how much of our exports continues to be gold bullion over the next year.
Probably not a great deal. It's more that these very large and apparently inexplicable swings in the cross border movement of gold massively distort the monthly headline trade figures.
A strong leader surrounds himself with strong, independent people, because he's not intimidated, can hold his own, welcomes the challenge, and wants capable people in charge of departments.
What Johnson has done says everything about his vanity and deep personal insecurity.
Another poll showing Sanders as the Dem candidate polling best against Trump. This time 2 behind in Texas, which is admittedly unlikely to be the tipping point state, but there's been a bunch of recent polls showing Sanders as at least no worse than any other likely candidate.
So why are so many people saying that Democrats would be crazy to choose Sanders instead of - who? The comparison with Corbyn is also not valid, as Corbyn pretty much always polled really really badly.
Probably the worst outcome for Dems would be if Sanders gets a plurality of delegates but no majority, and then the convention chooses someone Sanders beat in the actual primaries. Bloomberg makes this quite a likely situation. But it always felt like his second choice (after Bloomberg becoming president) was always Trump winning again, no wonder a majority of Dems don't like the guy.
Bloomberg is spending $millions attacking Trump. He isn't attacking any of his Democrat competitors. It feels personal against Trump.
The idea to cut pension relief for those in the 40% band was crass and stupid.
He is no loss.
At some point the spending Cummings is planning will have to be paid for. Tax rises will be a part of that. There is no magic money tree.
It will be ironic if the next Labour government’s principal task is clearing up the financial mess left by the Tories.
Might be the first time in modern history.
The first time since 1997, which now seems a long time ago.
The most golden of golden legacies. There may be those who claim that public services needed more investment, fair enough, but I doubt you will find any serious contributor who would consider what was left in 1997 to be anything except a solid foundation.
My wife and I have been dealing with a couple of health issues over the last few days but I have browsed PB from time to time.
My impressions are that Boris has moved leading brexiteers into his cabinet and taken complete control. I have no idea how malign or otherwise Cummings is but he has been highly successful in brexit and getting Boris into power
The noises coming out of the EU give the impression that nothing has changed and that they can still control the economic direction of the UK and hold it close but this cabinet appears to me to be ready to virtually no deal to break the link
On the domestic situation Boris has turned left and is about to open the spending taps trampling all over labour and making it very difficult for labour to get a hearing
Of course the opposition to Boris and Cummings on here comes from the usual suspects who would never be converted to the Boris way but then that is not important as the only people who matter to Boris are the voters who, for now at least, seem to be very supportive
No Deal and ramped up spending does indeed seem to be the plan. F**k Business indeed!
It will be interesting to see how much of our exports continues to be gold bullion over the next year.
Probably not a great deal. It's more that these very large and apparently inexplicable swings in the cross border movement of gold massively distort the monthly headline trade figures.
For those who cannot pass the paywall:
"That this was almost entirely down to a mysterious movement of gold bars was seemingly lost on Liz Truss, the international trade secretary, who promptly issued a press release hailing a “record-breaking year for UK exports”.
Well, yes, but only if you include those dodgy gold figures. Exclude them and Britain’s exports are not growing by 5 per cent, as she proclaimed, but by 2.9 per cent — the weakest rate since 2015. Exclude them and actually, far from hitting a new high, exports as a percentage of national income fell last year."
Except our more successful governments tend to be team efforts. Governing is hard and there is far too much for one person to be responsible for all the ideas, innovations and direction of travel. A definite weakness with Boris is his lack of a close cadres of like minded friends who can work together for a common objective. Eventually it will weaken him. But not yet.
If there is a joint number 10/11 economic team isn't that more likely, not less likely, to result in a team effort to pull in the same direction?
Cummings giving himself the economy to run as well as everything else is a bold move. Apparently, he’ll be negotiating Brexit too!
He has managed to consolidate a lot of power around himself, and has eliminated rivals and threats. Any Russophile can recognise his man of steel approach.
I cannot see Johnson having the backbone to sack him, so it is not clear how he goes.
Take Back Control...
Yes, indeed. We have taken back control from EU bureaucrats and given it to a scruffy English one instead.
British one. And as far as I am concerned, that's still a win.
A bureaucrat who is not elected and whom you can’t vote out of power and who is not answerable to our elected representatives and whom it is not possible to scrutinise.
A win, you say?
What low expectations you have.
I'm sorry, but Cummings can very much be voted out of power thanks to FPTP. Again, it's not the Tories' fault that the Labour Party is an utter mess.
We can only watch and hope that at the appropriate time those lucky voters living in marginal seats make the right decision.
By that do you mean they should vote according to the actual experience of the government, which we won't know for 2 or 3 years balanced against the assessment of the alternative?
Or do you mean just vote tribally and in a blinkered or prejudiced unthinking way for your favoured outcome?
Neither. It was a challenge to those who hold up FPTP as a paragon of accountability to the voters.
It isn't. It's just slightly better than list-based PR.
My wife and I have been dealing with a couple of health issues over the last few days but I have browsed PB from time to time.
My impressions are that Boris has moved leading brexiteers into his cabinet and taken complete control. I have no idea how malign or otherwise Cummings is but he has been highly successful in brexit and getting Boris into power
The noises coming out of the EU give the impression that nothing has changed and that they can still control the economic direction of the UK and hold it close but this cabinet appears to me to be ready to virtually no deal to break the link
On the domestic situation Boris has turned left and is about to open the spending taps trampling all over labour and making it very difficult for labour to get a hearing
Of course the opposition to Boris and Cummings on here comes from the usual suspects who would never be converted to the Boris way but then that is not important as the only people who matter to Boris are the voters who, for now at least, seem to be very supportive
No Deal and ramped up spending does indeed seem to be the plan. F**k Business indeed!
It will be interesting to see how much of our exports continues to be gold bullion over the next year.
Sterling has strengthened considerably in the past few weeks. Whoever bought the gold might have bought while Sterling was still relatively weak i.e. a punt on Sterling as well as the $ gold price. They've done well on both counts.
I wonder how many people who are now praising him were previously mocking him for that.
Different issue; no connection. It could be objected that The Saj last year twice acquiesced in the sacking of SpAds before finding his spine yesterday.
My wife and I have been dealing with a couple of health issues over the last few days but I have browsed PB from time to time.
My impressions are that Boris has moved leading brexiteers into his cabinet and taken complete control. I have no idea how malign or otherwise Cummings is but he has been highly successful in brexit and getting Boris into power
The noises coming out of the EU give the impression that nothing has changed and that they can still control the economic direction of the UK and hold it close but this cabinet appears to me to be ready to virtually no deal to break the link
On the domestic situation Boris has turned left and is about to open the spending taps trampling all over labour and making it very difficult for labour to get a hearing
Of course the opposition to Boris and Cummings on here comes from the usual suspects who would never be converted to the Boris way but then that is not important as the only people who matter to Boris are the voters who, for now at least, seem to be very supportive
No Deal and ramped up spending does indeed seem to be the plan. F**k Business indeed!
It will be interesting to see how much of our exports continues to be gold bullion over the next year.
Sterling has strengthened considerably in the past few weeks. Whoever bought the gold might have bought while Sterling was still relatively weak i.e. a punt on Sterling as well as the $ gold price. They've done well on both counts.
There's no evidence to show that anyone actually bought it, AFAIK. It's quite possible it was simply redomiciled (or whatever the technical terms is for bullion) by whoever owns it.
A bureaucrat who is not elected and whom you can’t vote out of power and who is not answerable to our elected representatives and whom it is not possible to scrutinise.
A win, you say?
What low expectations you have.
He comes considerably cheaper than the EU, and is a lot easier to dispense with when his services are no longer required.
My wife and I have been dealing with a couple of health issues over the last few days but I have browsed PB from time to time.
My impressions are that Boris has moved leading brexiteers into his cabinet and taken complete control. I have no idea how malign or otherwise Cummings is but he has been highly successful in brexit and getting Boris into power
The noises coming out of the EU give the impression that nothing has changed and that they can still control the economic direction of the UK and hold it close but this cabinet appears to me to be ready to virtually no deal to break the link
On the domestic situation Boris has turned left and is about to open the spending taps trampling all over labour and making it very difficult for labour to get a hearing
Of course the opposition to Boris and Cummings on here comes from the usual suspects who would never be converted to the Boris way but then that is not important as the only people who matter to Boris are the voters who, for now at least, seem to be very supportive
No Deal and ramped up spending does indeed seem to be the plan. F**k Business indeed!
It will be interesting to see how much of our exports continues to be gold bullion over the next year.
Sterling has strengthened considerably in the past few weeks. Whoever bought the gold might have bought while Sterling was still relatively weak i.e. a punt on Sterling as well as the $ gold price. They've done well on both counts.
There's no evidence to show that anyone actually bought it, AFAIK. It's quite possible it was simply redomiciled (or whatever the technical terms is for bullion) by whoever owns it.
Could be but why would anyone redomicile 200 tonnes of gold except to bugger up the export statistics?
My wife and I have been dealing with a couple of health issues over the last few days but I have browsed PB from time to time.
My impressions are that Boris has moved leading brexiteers into his cabinet and taken complete control. I have no idea how malign or otherwise Cummings is but he has been highly successful in brexit and getting Boris into power
The noises coming out of the EU give the impression that nothing has changed and that they can still control the economic direction of the UK and hold it close but this cabinet appears to me to be ready to virtually no deal to break the link
On the domestic situation Boris has turned left and is about to open the spending taps trampling all over labour and making it very difficult for labour to get a hearing
Of course the opposition to Boris and Cummings on here comes from the usual suspects who would never be converted to the Boris way but then that is not important as the only people who matter to Boris are the voters who, for now at least, seem to be very supportive
No Deal and ramped up spending does indeed seem to be the plan. F**k Business indeed!
It will be interesting to see how much of our exports continues to be gold bullion over the next year.
Probably not a great deal. It's more that these very large and apparently inexplicable swings in the cross border movement of gold massively distort the monthly headline trade figures.
For those who cannot pass the paywall:
"That this was almost entirely down to a mysterious movement of gold bars was seemingly lost on Liz Truss, the international trade secretary, who promptly issued a press release hailing a “record-breaking year for UK exports”.
Well, yes, but only if you include those dodgy gold figures. Exclude them and Britain’s exports are not growing by 5 per cent, as she proclaimed, but by 2.9 per cent — the weakest rate since 2015. Exclude them and actually, far from hitting a new high, exports as a percentage of national income fell last year."
Except our more successful governments tend to be team efforts. Governing is hard and there is far too much for one person to be responsible for all the ideas, innovations and direction of travel. A definite weakness with Boris is his lack of a close cadres of like minded friends who can work together for a common objective. Eventually it will weaken him. But not yet.
If there is a joint number 10/11 economic team isn't that more likely, not less likely, to result in a team effort to pull in the same direction?
Cummings giving himself the economy to run as well as everything else is a bold move. Apparently, he’ll be negotiating Brexit too!
He has managed to consolidate a lot of power around himself, and has eliminated rivals and threats. Any Russophile can recognise his man of steel approach.
I cannot see Johnson having the backbone to sack him, so it is not clear how he goes.
Take Back Control...
Yes, indeed. We have taken back control from EU bureaucrats and given it to a scruffy English one instead.
British one. And as far as I am concerned, that's still a win.
A bureaucrat who is not elected and whom you can’t vote out of power and who is not answerable to our elected representatives and whom it is not possible to scrutinise.
A win, you say?
What low expectations you have.
I'm sorry, but Cummings can very much be voted out of power thanks to FPTP. Again, it's not the Tories' fault that the Labour Party is an utter mess.
We can only watch and hope that at the appropriate time those lucky voters living in marginal seats make the right decision.
By that do you mean they should vote according to the actual experience of the government, which we won't know for 2 or 3 years balanced against the assessment of the alternative?
Or do you mean just vote tribally and in a blinkered or prejudiced unthinking way for your favoured outcome?
Neither. It was a challenge to those who hold up FPTP as a paragon of accountability to the voters.
It isn't. It's just slightly better than list-based PR.
I'd say that list based PR is better than FPTP, but STV would be better than both by a long way. It keeps a constituency link and reflects the will of the people.
My wife and I have been dealing with a couple of health issues over the last few days but I have browsed PB from time to time.
My impressions are that Boris has moved leading brexiteers into his cabinet and taken complete control. I have no idea how malign or otherwise Cummings is but he has been highly successful in brexit and getting Boris into power
The noises coming out of the EU give the impression that nothing has changed and that they can still control the economic direction of the UK and hold it close but this cabinet appears to me to be ready to virtually no deal to break the link
On the domestic situation Boris has turned left and is about to open the spending taps trampling all over labour and making it very difficult for labour to get a hearing
Of course the opposition to Boris and Cummings on here comes from the usual suspects who would never be converted to the Boris way but then that is not important as the only people who matter to Boris are the voters who, for now at least, seem to be very supportive
No Deal and ramped up spending does indeed seem to be the plan. F**k Business indeed!
It will be interesting to see how much of our exports continues to be gold bullion over the next year.
Probably not a great deal. It's more that these very large and apparently inexplicable swings in the cross border movement of gold massively distort the monthly headline trade figures.
For those who cannot pass the paywall:
"That this was almost entirely down to a mysterious movement of gold bars was seemingly lost on Liz Truss, the international trade secretary, who promptly issued a press release hailing a “record-breaking year for UK exports”.
Well, yes, but only if you include those dodgy gold figures. Exclude them and Britain’s exports are not growing by 5 per cent, as she proclaimed, but by 2.9 per cent — the weakest rate since 2015. Exclude them and actually, far from hitting a new high, exports as a percentage of national income fell last year."
The comings and goings of some gold bars are not a material amount of the total.
So Truss was correct in saying that 2019 was a record breaking year for UK exports.
The series is flattered by the weakness of Sterling. Doesn't look so good as a $ series or euro series which is a better measure of volume of trade. Exports in Sterling this year will be hit by the recent strengthening of the pound.
Okay I'm confused: - Cummings is a SpAd - That's bad, because he's unelected and unaccountable - Cummings has got rid of a lot of other SpAds - Those SpAds were also unelected and unaccountable, which is also bad - However, Cummings' actions were also bad, because those SpAds were good (for some reason), and the ones he'll replace them with will be bad
Is that right? I get why people might want one set of SpAds over another, if they prefer the policies that set will push, for whatever reason. But people seem to be objecting on governance grounds, and I just don't understand why it matters in the abstract precisely who has control over which set of unelected and unaccountable individuals get to advise our ministers.
My wife and I have been dealing with a couple of health issues over the last few days but I have browsed PB from time to time.
My impressions are that Boris has moved leading brexiteers into his cabinet and taken complete control. I have no idea how malign or otherwise Cummings is but he has been highly successful in brexit and getting Boris into power
The noises coming out of the EU give the impression that nothing has changed and that they can still control the economic direction of the UK and hold it close but this cabinet appears to me to be ready to virtually no deal to break the link
On the domestic situation Boris has turned left and is about to open the spending taps trampling all over labour and making it very difficult for labour to get a hearing
Of course the opposition to Boris and Cummings on here comes from the usual suspects who would never be converted to the Boris way but then that is not important as the only people who matter to Boris are the voters who, for now at least, seem to be very supportive
No Deal and ramped up spending does indeed seem to be the plan. F**k Business indeed!
It will be interesting to see how much of our exports continues to be gold bullion over the next year.
Sterling has strengthened considerably in the past few weeks. Whoever bought the gold might have bought while Sterling was still relatively weak i.e. a punt on Sterling as well as the $ gold price. They've done well on both counts.
Take a look at the currency chart - you aren't really correct. If anything it's dropped as people start to worry about exactly what sort of Brexit we are heading for, then bounced this week with the reshuffle and all.
My wife and I have been dealing with a couple of health issues over the last few days but I have browsed PB from time to time.
My impressions are that Boris has moved leading brexiteers into his cabinet and taken complete control. I have no idea how malign or otherwise Cummings is but he has been highly successful in brexit and getting Boris into power
The noises coming out of the EU give the impression that nothing has changed and that they can still control the economic direction of the UK and hold it close but this cabinet appears to me to be ready to virtually no deal to break the link
On the domestic situation Boris has turned left and is about to open the spending tapsuld never be converted to the Boris way but then that is not important as the only people who matter to Boris are the voters who, for now at least, seem to be very supportive
No Deal and ramped up spending does indeed seem to be the plan. F**k Business indeed!
It will be interesting to see how much of our exports continues to be gold bullion over the next year.
Probably not a great deal. It's more that these very large and apparently inexplicable swings in the cross border movement of gold massively distort the monthly headline trade figures.
For those who cannot pass the paywall:
"That this was almost entirely down to a mysterious movement of gold bars was seemingly lost on Liz Truss, the international trade secretary, who promptly issued a press release hailing a “record-breaking year for UK exports”.
Well, yes, but only if you include those dodgy gold figures. Exclude them and Britain’s exports are not growing by 5 per cent, as she proclaimed, but by 2.9 per cent — the weakest rate since 2015. Exclude them and actually, far from hitting a new high, exports as a percentage of national income fell last year."
The comings and goings of some gold bars are not a material amount of the total.
So Truss was correct in saying that 2019 was a record breaking year for UK exports.
The series is flattered by the weakness of Sterling. Doesn't look so good as a $ series or euro series which is a better measure of volume of trade. Exports in Sterling this year will be hit by the recent strengthening of the pound.
You are right that any boost from a weakened pound, while providing a boost is really just a sign of our collective wealth having dropped in value.
Probably not a great deal. It's more that these very large and apparently inexplicable swings in the cross border movement of gold massively distort the monthly headline trade figures.
For those who cannot pass the paywall:
"That this was almost entirely down to a mysterious movement of gold bars was seemingly lost on Liz Truss, the international trade secretary, who promptly issued a press release hailing a “record-breaking year for UK exports”.
Well, yes, but only if you include those dodgy gold figures. Exclude them and Britain’s exports are not growing by 5 per cent, as she proclaimed, but by 2.9 per cent — the weakest rate since 2015. Exclude them and actually, far from hitting a new high, exports as a percentage of national income fell last year."
The comings and goings of some gold bars are not a material amount of the total.
So Truss was correct in saying that 2019 was a record breaking year for UK exports.
The series is flattered by the weakness of Sterling. Doesn't look so good as a $ series or euro series which is a better measure of volume of trade. Exports in Sterling this year will be hit by the recent strengthening of the pound.
Given that I get paid in Sterling and spend in Sterling then measuring in Sterling is the most relevant method to me.
Okay I'm confused: - Cummings is a SpAd - That's bad, because he's unelected and unaccountable - Cummings has got rid of a lot of other SpAds - Those SpAds were also unelected and unaccountable, which is also bad - However, Cummings' actions were also bad, because those SpAds were good (for some reason), and the ones he'll replace them with will be bad
Is that right? I get why people might want one set of SpAds over another, if they prefer the policies that set will push, for whatever reason. But people seem to be objecting on governance grounds, and I just don't understand why it matters in the abstract precisely who has control over which set of unelected and unaccountable individuals get to advise our ministers.
You're smarter than this. PM and Chancellor is combined too much negotiation and policy to leave to one team. Unless PM is going to pull back on every other policy area, which does not look likely.
My wife and I have been dealing with a couple of health issues over the last few days but I have browsed PB from time to time.
My impressions are that Boris has moved leading brexiteers into his cabinet and taken complete control. I have no idea how malign or otherwise Cummings is but he has been highly successful in brexit and getting Boris into power
The noises coming out of the EU give the impression that nothing has changed and that they can still control the economic direction of the UK and hold it close but this cabinet appears to me to be ready to virtually no deal to break the link
On the domestic situation Boris has turned left and is about to open the spending taps trampling all over labour and making it very difficult for labour to get a hearing
Of course the opposition to Boris and Cummings on here comes from the usual suspects who would never be converted to the Boris way but then that is not important as the only people who matter to Boris are the voters who, for now at least, seem to be very supportive
Weren't you the poster who spent months telling us how strongly you were opposed to Boris and how strongly you were opposed to no deal? Now those people who at least have the consistency to have stuck to the same view are dismissed as the "usual suspects".
My wife and I have been dealing with a couple of health issues over the last few days but I have browsed PB from time to time.
My impressions are that Boris has moved leading brexiteers into his cabinet and taken complete control. I have no idea how malign or otherwise Cummings is but he has been highly successful in brexit and getting Boris into power
The noises coming out of the EU give the impression that nothing has changed and that they can still control the economic direction of the UK and hold it close but this cabinet appears to me to be ready to virtually no deal to break the link
On the domestic situation Boris has turned left and is about to open the spending taps trampling all over labour and making it very difficult for labour to get a hearing
Of course the opposition to Boris and Cummings on here comes from the usual suspects who would never be converted to the Boris way but then that is not important as the only people who matter to Boris are the voters who, for now at least, seem to be very supportive
No Deal and ramped up spending does indeed seem to be the plan. F**k Business indeed!
It will be interesting to see how much of our exports continues to be gold bullion over the next year.
Hey Foxy, in your professional experience, should we be worried yet about Coronavirus? Is Chinese intensive healthcare support so much worse than ours that we can expect a different survival rate?
Not one to panic but it’s all beginning to raise the hairs on the back of my neck.
My wife and I have been dealing with a couple of health issues over the last few days but I have browsed PB from time to time.
My impressions are that Boris has moved leading brexiteers into his cabinet and taken complete control. I have no idea how malign or otherwise Cummings is but he has been highly successful in brexit and getting Boris into power
The noises coming out of the EU give the impression that nothing has changed and that they can still control the economic direction of the UK and hold it close but this cabinet appears to me to be ready to virtually no deal to break the link
On the domestic situation Boris has turned left and is about to open the spending taps trampling all over labour and making it very difficult for labour to get a hearing
Of course the opposition to Boris and Cummings on here comes from the usual suspects who would never be converted to the Boris way but then that is not important as the only people who matter to Boris are the voters who, for now at least, seem to be very supportive
No Deal and ramped up spending does indeed seem to be the plan. F**k Business indeed!
It will be interesting to see how much of our exports continues to be gold bullion over the next year.
Sterling has strengthened considerably in the past few weeks. Whoever bought the gold might have bought while Sterling was still relatively weak i.e. a punt on Sterling as well as the $ gold price. They've done well on both counts.
There's no evidence to show that anyone actually bought it, AFAIK. It's quite possible it was simply redomiciled (or whatever the technical terms is for bullion) by whoever owns it.
It's an enduring mystery as to why Biden utterly tanks in real polls, but holds up surprising well (even now) in national polls.
The minor candidates (Klob in particular) have pushed very hard in NH and Iowa, Sanders; Biden and the other racist billionaire in the race have more of a national game. They're also very white.
Okay I'm confused: - Cummings is a SpAd - That's bad, because he's unelected and unaccountable - Cummings has got rid of a lot of other SpAds - Those SpAds were also unelected and unaccountable, which is also bad - However, Cummings' actions were also bad, because those SpAds were good (for some reason), and the ones he'll replace them with will be bad
Is that right? I get why people might want one set of SpAds over another, if they prefer the policies that set will push, for whatever reason. But people seem to be objecting on governance grounds, and I just don't understand why it matters in the abstract precisely who has control over which set of unelected and unaccountable individuals get to advise our ministers.
You're smarter than this. PM and Chancellor is combined too much negotiation and policy to leave to one team. Unless PM is going to pull back on every other policy area, which does not look likely.
Yes, I have some sympathy with that specific point, with the proviso that everyone also complains when No10 and No11 aren't joined up.
But is there anything wrong in principle with No10 having veto rights over No11 SpAds (assuming they aren't micromanaging them)?
And forcing (say) Robert Buckland to sack one of his advisors presumably indicates that it was thought that he might get in the way of the proposed reforms to the judiciary, rather than because Cummings wants direct control over the MoJ.
My wife and I have been dealing with a couple of health issues over the last few days but I have browsed PB from time to time.
My impressions are that Boris has moved leading brexiteers into his cabinet and taken complete control. I have no idea how malign or otherwise Cummings is but he has been highly successful in brexit and getting Boris into power
The noises coming out of the EU give the impression that nothing has changed and that they can still control the economic direction of the UK and hold it close but this cabinet appears to me to be ready to virtually no deal to break the link
On the domestic situation Boris has turned left and is about to open the spending taps trampling all over labour and making it very difficult for labour to get a hearing
Of course the opposition to Boris and Cummings on here comes from the usual suspects who would never be converted to the Boris way but then that is not important as the only people who matter to Boris are the voters who, for now at least, seem to be very supportive
Weren't you the poster who spent months telling us how strongly you were opposed to Boris and how strongly you were opposed to no deal? Now those people who at least have the consistency to have stuck to the same view are dismissed as the "usual suspects".
Indeed and I do not want no deal, but the EU threatening us with economic damage and restricting our ability to trade and succeed does justify Boris moving to defend our interests as an independent trading nation
Boris moving left meets with my approval as does huge spending on rail and infrastructure
Is Modern Monetary Theory the same as Neo-Endogenous Growth Theory?
I believe Ed Balls is available for a modest fee. And Gordon Brown for even less.
No. Btw Balls called it "post-neoclassical endogenous growth theory".
A lot of long words for spending money and saying to yourself, 'don't worry'.
No. The point was that the orthodox theory of economic growth (Balls's "neoclassical") can only attribute increasing welfare or productivity to technological change, which is largely impervious to policy actions by a government. By contrast endogenous growth theory asserted that the key technological change aspect of economic growth could be influenced by policy via increasing human capital (e.g. education) and policies aimed at stimulating innovation. The key question is: where does technological change (in the broadest sense) come from?
My wife and I have been dealing with a couple of health issues over the last few days but I have browsed PB from time to time.
My impressions are that Boris has moved leading brexiteers into his cabinet and taken complete control. I have no idea how malign or otherwise Cummings is but he has been highly successful in brexit and getting Boris into power
The noises coming out of the EU give the impression that nothing has changed and that they can still control the economic direction of the UK and hold it close but this cabinet appears to me to be ready to virtually no deal to break the link
On the domestic situation Boris has turned left and is about to open the spending taps trampling all over labour and making it very difficult for labour to get a hearing
Of course the opposition to Boris and Cummings on here comes from the usual suspects who would never be converted to the Boris way but then that is not important as the only people who matter to Boris are the voters who, for now at least, seem to be very supportive
No Deal and ramped up spending does indeed seem to be the plan. F**k Business indeed!
It will be interesting to see how much of our exports continues to be gold bullion over the next year.
Hey Foxy, in your professional experience, should we be worried yet about Coronavirus? Is Chinese intensive healthcare support so much worse than ours that we can expect a different survival rate?
Not one to panic but it’s all beginning to raise the hairs on the back of my neck.
From the published series, Chinese ICU seems pretty state of the art, including ECMO. I suspect that their mortality rate is not very different from elsewhere. There seems to be very widespread use of Chest CT for diagnosis too. Quite what it is like outside the main hospitals may be rather different.
The rate of increase of cases outside of Wuhan seems to have slowed, though the absolute numbers are going up. The fatality yesterday in Japan of a lady with no obvious connection to China is worrying.
I think we will know within a month or so whether containment has worked. If it hasn't, it will be pretty grim.
My wife and I have been dealing with a couple of health issues over the last few days but I have browsed PB from time to time.
My impressions are that Boris has moved leading brexiteers into his cabinet and taken complete control. I have no idea how malign or otherwise Cummings is but he has been highly successful in brexit and getting Boris into power
The noises coming out of the EU give the impression that nothing has changed and that they can still control the economic direction of the UK and hold it close but this cabinet appears to me to be ready to virtually no deal to break the link
On the domestic situation Boris has turned left and is about to open the spending taps trampling all over labour and making it very difficult for labour to get a hearing
Of course the opposition to Boris and Cummings on here comes from the usual suspects who would never be converted to the Boris way but then that is not important as the only people who matter to Boris are the voters who, for now at least, seem to be very supportive
Weren't you the poster who spent months telling us how strongly you were opposed to Boris and how strongly you were opposed to no deal? Now those people who at least have the consistency to have stuck to the same view are dismissed as the "usual suspects".
Indeed and I do not want no deal, but the EU threatening us with economic damage and restricting our ability to trade and succeed does justify Boris moving to defend our interests as an independent trading nation
Boris moving left meets with my approval as does huge spending on rail and infrastructure
Nevertheless those who have simply been consistent and stuck to the same view of Boris that you yourself spent many months sharing on this forum perhaps should be treated with a little more respect?
My wife and I have been dealing with a couple of health issues over the last few days but I have browsed PB from time to time.
My impressions are that Boris has moved leading brexiteers into his cabinet and taken complete control. I have no idea how malign or otherwise Cummings is but he has been highly successful in brexit and getting Boris into power
The noises coming out of the EU give the impression that nothing has changed and that they can still control the economic direction of the UK and hold it close but this cabinet appears to me to be ready to virtually no deal to break the link
On the domestic situation Boris has turned left and is about to open the spending taps trampling all over labour and making it very difficult for labour to get a hearing
Of course the opposition to Boris and Cummings on here comes from the usual suspects who would never be converted to the Boris way but then that is not important as the only people who matter to Boris are the voters who, for now at least, seem to be very supportive
Weren't you the poster who spent months telling us how strongly you were opposed to Boris and how strongly you were opposed to no deal? Now those people who at least have the consistency to have stuck to the same view are dismissed as the "usual suspects".
Indeed and I do not want no deal, but the EU threatening us with economic damage and restricting our ability to trade and succeed does justify Boris moving to defend our interests as an independent trading nation
Boris moving left meets with my approval as does huge spending on rail and infrastructure
If Boris had his way we would already have crashed out without a deal, he was stopped by the courts. Now he has put in an Attorney General (my MP) who will make sure that they won't be able to stop him again. He has renamed crash out WTO as the 'Australian' deal to soften us up for it. He'll no doubt try to blame the EU, but they will do what is good for the remaining 27, they won't want to damage us economically, they'll want to limit the damage to themselves. Boris, Cummings and Suella seem to want a No Deal Brexit, so that's what we'll get. It seems to me that you're giving Boris the benefit of the doubt - remember what happens to people who do that. As far as infrastructure and 'moving left' are concerned, then credit where it's due.
My wife and I have been dealing with a couple of health issues over the last few days but I have browsed PB from time to time.
My impressions are that Boris has moved leading brexiteers into his cabinet and taken complete control. I have no idea how malign or otherwise Cummings is but he has been highly successful in brexit and getting Boris into power
The noises coming out of the EU give the impression that nothing has changed and that they can still control the economic direction of the UK and hold it close but this cabinet appears to me to be ready to virtually no deal to break the link
On the domestic situation Boris has turned left and is about to open the spending taps trampling all over labour and making it very difficult for labour to get a hearing
Of course the opposition to Boris and Cummings on here comes from the usual suspects who would never be converted to the Boris way but then that is not important as the only people who matter to Boris are the voters who, for now at least, seem to be very supportive
Weren't you the poster who spent months telling us how strongly you were opposed to Boris and how strongly you were opposed to no deal? Now those people who at least have the consistency to have stuck to the same view are dismissed as the "usual suspects".
Indeed and I do not want no deal, but the EU threatening us with economic damage and restricting our ability to trade and succeed does justify Boris moving to defend our interests as an independent trading nation
Boris moving left meets with my approval as does huge spending on rail and infrastructure
Nevertheless those who have simply been consistent and stuck to the same view of Boris that you yourself spent many months sharing on this forum perhaps should be treated with a little more respect?
I hope I am not disrespecting anyone and certainly do not mean to. We all have our own views and of course there is a great love of the EU by many, but we have left and need to carve out a new role and that does require the EU to recognise it
Mr. Song, it seems the EU wants to have far more influence over the UK than it does over Japan, Canada, Korea etc. I'd much prefer to leave with a deal, but I don't trust the EU and it's weird to leave a trade bloc only to then hand that bloc influence over oneself.
My wife and I have been dealing with a couple of health issues over the last few days but I have browsed PB from time to time.
My impressions are that Boris has moved leading brexiteers into his cabinet and taken complete control. I have no idea how malign or otherwise Cummings is but he has been highly successful in brexit and getting Boris into power
The noises coming out of the EU give the impression that nothing has changed and that they can still control the economic direction of the UK and hold it close but this cabinet appears to me to be ready to virtually no deal to break the link
On the domestic situation Boris has turned left and is about to open the spending taps trampling all over labour and making it very difficult for labour to get a hearing
Of course the opposition to Boris and Cummings on here comes from the usual suspects who would never be converted to the Boris way but then that is not important as the only people who matter to Boris are the voters who, for now at least, seem to be very supportive
Weren't you the poster who spent months telling us how strongly you were opposed to Boris and how strongly you were opposed to no deal? Now those people who at least have the consistency to have stuck to the same view are dismissed as the "usual suspects".
Indeed and I do not want no deal, but the EU threatening us with economic damage and restricting our ability to trade and succeed does justify Boris moving to defend our interests as an independent trading nation
Boris moving left meets with my approval as does huge spending on rail and infrastructure
If Boris had his way we would already have crashed out without a deal, he was stopped by the courts. Now he has put in an Attorney General (my MP) who will make sure that they won't be able to stop him again. He has renamed crash out WTO as the 'Australian' deal to soften us up for it. He'll no doubt try to blame the EU, but they will do what is good for the remaining 27, they won't want to damage us economically, they'll want to limit the damage to themselves. Boris, Cummings and Suella seem to want a No Deal Brexit, so that's what we'll get. It seems to me that you're giving Boris the benefit of the doubt - remember what happens to people who do that. As far as infrastructure and 'moving left' are concerned, then credit where it's due.
I agree with your comments and am giving Boris the benefit of the doubt
My wife and I have been dealing with a couple of health issues over the last few days but I have browsed PB from time to time.
My impressions are that Boris has moved leading brexiteers into his cabinet and taken complete control. I have no idea how malign or otherwise Cummings is but he has been highly successful in brexit and getting Boris into power
The noises coming out of the EU give the impression that nothing has changed and that they can still control the economic direction of the UK and hold it close but this cabinet appears to me to be ready to virtually no deal to break the link
On the domestic situation Boris has turned left and is about to open the spending taps trampling all over labour and making it very difficult for labour to get a hearing
Of course the opposition to Boris and Cummings on here comes from the usual suspects who would never be converted to the Boris way but then that is not important as the only people who matter to Boris are the voters who, for now at least, seem to be very supportive
Weren't you the poster who spent months telling us how strongly you were opposed to Boris and how strongly you were opposed to no deal? Now those people who at least have the consistency to have stuck to the same view are dismissed as the "usual suspects".
Indeed and I do not want no deal, but the EU threatening us with economic damage and restricting our ability to trade and succeed does justify Boris moving to defend our interests as an independent trading nation
Boris moving left meets with my approval as does huge spending on rail and infrastructure
Nevertheless those who have simply been consistent and stuck to the same view of Boris that you yourself spent many months sharing on this forum perhaps should be treated with a little more respect?
I hope I am not disrespecting anyone and certainly do not mean to. We all have our own views and of course there is a great love of the EU by many, but we have left and need to carve out a new role and that does require the EU to recognise it
The EU is not obliged to sign up to terms that Britain would find convenient.
While a distinct minority would be prepared to eat grass rather than compromise with the EU, it remains a distinct minority.
My wife and I have been dealing with a couple of health issues over the last few days but I have browsed PB from time to time.
My impressions are that Boris has moved leading brexiteers into his cabinet and taken complete control. I have no idea how malign or otherwise Cummings is but he has been highly successful in brexit and getting Boris into power
The noises coming out of the EU give the impression that nothing has changed and that they can still control the economic direction of the UK and hold it close but this cabinet appears to me to be ready to virtually no deal to break the link
On the domestic situation Boris has turned left and is about to open the spending taps trampling all over labour and making it very difficult for labour to get a hearing
Of course the opposition to Boris and Cummings on here comes from the usual suspects who would never be converted to the Boris way but then that is not important as the only people who matter to Boris are the voters who, for now at least, seem to be very supportive
Weren't you the poster who spent months telling us how strongly you were opposed to Boris and how strongly you were opposed to no deal? Now those people who at least have the consistency to have stuck to the same view are dismissed as the "usual suspects".
Indeed and I do not want no deal, but the EU threatening us with economic damage and restricting our ability to trade and succeed does justify Boris moving to defend our interests as an independent trading nation
Boris moving left meets with my approval as does huge spending on rail and infrastructure
Nevertheless those who have simply been consistent and stuck to the same view of Boris that you yourself spent many months sharing on this forum perhaps should be treated with a little more respect?
I hope I am not disrespecting anyone and certainly do not mean to. We all have our own views and of course there is a great love of the EU by many, but we have left and need to carve out a new role and that does require the EU to recognise it
The EU is not obliged to sign up to terms that Britain would find convenient.
While a distinct minority would be prepared to eat grass rather than compromise with the EU, it remains a distinct minority.
You are so predictable in your love of the EU and dislike of brexit but I fully expect this Boris government will exit the EU on WTO if necessary and there will be some years of angst on both sides
Apart from the Express - which I imaging caters for the Trumpite/Putinesque niche of the British public - I'm surprised how negative all those front pages are for Boris. Boris markets himself as being quintessentially British, yet with this stuff he's ridden roughshod over the Great British sense of fair play. The question is now: shorn of his bumbling-but-essentially-decent side, is there anything appealing left?
Apart from the Express - which I imaging caters for the Trumpite/Putinesque niche of the British public - I'm surprised how negative all those front pages are for Boris. Boris markets himself as being quintessentially British, yet with this stuff he's ridden roughshod over the Great British sense of fair play. The question is now: shorn of his bumbling-but-essentially-decent side, is there anything appealing left?
I don't think most people will notice or be bothered to be perfectly honest. Nevertheless it's going to rankle with some of the '16 remainers who supported the party at the GE.
Country is now run by a Government filled with spineless stooges
Expecting any libel writs?
I was thinking more about the antisemitic trope.
It wasn't originally intended as anti-semitic when it was created for the Orban government - AFAIK it was thought up by a Jewish-American polling analyst.
Apart from the Express - which I imaging caters for the Trumpite/Putinesque niche of the British public - I'm surprised how negative all those front pages are for Boris. Boris markets himself as being quintessentially British, yet with this stuff he's ridden roughshod over the Great British sense of fair play. The question is now: shorn of his bumbling-but-essentially-decent side, is there anything appealing left?
I think you will find he is very popular with voters
My wife and I have been dealing with a couple of health issues over the last few days but I have browsed PB from time to time.
My impressions are that Boris has moved leading brexiteers into his cabinet and taken complete control. I have no idea how malign or otherwise Cummings is but he has been highly successful in brexit and getting Boris into power
The noises coming out of the EU give the impression that nothing has changed and that they can still control the economic direction of the UK and hold it close but this cabinet appears to me to be ready to virtually no deal to break the link
On the domestic situation Boris has turned left and is about to open the spending taps trampling all over labour and making it very difficult for labour to get a hearing
Of course the opposition to Boris and Cummings on here comes from the usual suspects who would never be converted to the Boris way but then that is not important as the only people who matter to Boris are the voters who, for now at least, seem to be very supportive
Weren't you the poster who spent months telling us how strongly you were opposed to Boris and how strongly you were opposed to no deal? Now those people who at least have the consistency to have stuck to the same view are dismissed as the "usual suspects".
Indeed and I do not want no deal, but the EU threatening us with economic damage and restricting our ability to trade and succeed does justify Boris moving to defend our interests as an independent trading nation
Boris moving left meets with my approval as does huge spending on rail and infrastructure
Nevertheless those who have simply been consistent and stuck to the same view of Boris that you yourself spent many months sharing on this forum perhaps should be treated with a little more respect?
You mean we are not turncoats?
It seems to be the thing in politics at the moment. The U-Turn has lost its shame. It used to be a resigning issue...
Apart from the Express - which I imaging caters for the Trumpite/Putinesque niche of the British public - I'm surprised how negative all those front pages are for Boris. Boris markets himself as being quintessentially British, yet with this stuff he's ridden roughshod over the Great British sense of fair play. The question is now: shorn of his bumbling-but-essentially-decent side, is there anything appealing left?
I think you will find he is very popular with voters
But that was simply because he had a cheeky smile and help up Love Actually placards during an Xmas commercial. How radically will they revise their assessment when they realize they've got an insecure megalomaniac on their hands?
Apart from the Express - which I imaging caters for the Trumpite/Putinesque niche of the British public - I'm surprised how negative all those front pages are for Boris. Boris markets himself as being quintessentially British, yet with this stuff he's ridden roughshod over the Great British sense of fair play. The question is now: shorn of his bumbling-but-essentially-decent side, is there anything appealing left?
I think you will find he is very popular with voters
But that was simply because he had a cheeky smile and help up Love Actually placards during an Xmas commercial. How radically will they revise their assessment when they realize they've got an insecure megalomaniac on their hands?
They will only change their minds if he fails to deliver especially in the north
The EU is not obliged to sign up to terms that Britain would find convenient.
While a distinct minority would be prepared to eat grass rather than compromise with the EU, it remains a distinct minority.
You are so predictable in your love of the EU and dislike of brexit but I fully expect this Boris government will exit the EU on WTO if necessary and there will be some years of angst on both sides
I expressed neither love of the EU nor dislike of Brexit in that post. Just cold hard fact.
As it happens, the EU might be well-advised to make some moves towards Britain, just as you try to talk down a lunatic cavorting on a ledge. But that's far from compulsory.
Okay I'm confused: - Cummings is a SpAd - That's bad, because he's unelected and unaccountable - Cummings has got rid of a lot of other SpAds - Those SpAds were also unelected and unaccountable, which is also bad - However, Cummings' actions were also bad, because those SpAds were good (for some reason), and the ones he'll replace them with will be bad
Is that right? I get why people might want one set of SpAds over another, if they prefer the policies that set will push, for whatever reason. But people seem to be objecting on governance grounds, and I just don't understand why it matters in the abstract precisely who has control over which set of unelected and unaccountable individuals get to advise our ministers.
You're smarter than this. PM and Chancellor is combined too much negotiation and policy to leave to one team. Unless PM is going to pull back on every other policy area, which does not look likely.
I strongly suspect we are about to see our version of Trump economics. Massive splurge and tax cutting to engineer some kind of mini boom to cover up Brexit.
Okay I'm confused: - Cummings is a SpAd - That's bad, because he's unelected and unaccountable - Cummings has got rid of a lot of other SpAds - Those SpAds were also unelected and unaccountable, which is also bad - However, Cummings' actions were also bad, because those SpAds were good (for some reason), and the ones he'll replace them with will be bad
Is that right? I get why people might want one set of SpAds over another, if they prefer the policies that set will push, for whatever reason. But people seem to be objecting on governance grounds, and I just don't understand why it matters in the abstract precisely who has control over which set of unelected and unaccountable individuals get to advise our ministers.
You're smarter than this. PM and Chancellor is combined too much negotiation and policy to leave to one team. Unless PM is going to pull back on every other policy area, which does not look likely.
I strongly suspect we are about to see our version of Trump economics. Massive splurge and tax cutting to engineer some kind of mini boom to cover up Brexit.
Domonomics.
It'll end in tears.
Yes, leaving the EU with a Barber Boom does have a certain symmetry to it.
The EU is not obliged to sign up to terms that Britain would find convenient.
While a distinct minority would be prepared to eat grass rather than compromise with the EU, it remains a distinct minority.
You are so predictable in your love of the EU and dislike of brexit but I fully expect this Boris government will exit the EU on WTO if necessary and there will be some years of angst on both sides
I expressed neither love of the EU nor dislike of Brexit in that post. Just cold hard fact.
As it happens, the EU might be well-advised to make some moves towards Britain, just as you try to talk down a lunatic cavorting on a ledge. But that's far from compulsory.
There are no cold hard facts in this process.
I expect UK to do well in the future and outperform France and Germany
A strong leader surrounds himself with strong, independent people, because he's not intimidated, can hold his own, welcomes the challenge, and wants capable people in charge of departments.
What Johnson has done says everything about his vanity and deep personal insecurity.
The sacking of Smith and the treatment of Javid confirms what I for one knew already.
The direction for this "Boris" administration is autocratic populism with a distracting cult of personality around the leader. Scrutiny and debate to be minimized.
The EU is not obliged to sign up to terms that Britain would find convenient.
While a distinct minority would be prepared to eat grass rather than compromise with the EU, it remains a distinct minority.
You are so predictable in your love of the EU and dislike of brexit but I fully expect this Boris government will exit the EU on WTO if necessary and there will be some years of angst on both sides
I expressed neither love of the EU nor dislike of Brexit in that post. Just cold hard fact.
As it happens, the EU might be well-advised to make some moves towards Britain, just as you try to talk down a lunatic cavorting on a ledge. But that's far from compulsory.
There are no cold hard facts in this process.
I expect UK to do well in the future and outperform France and Germany
You started by asserting that the EU has to recognsise Britain's position. It doesn't.
Comments
By that do you mean they should vote according to the actual experience of the government, which we won't know for 2 or 3 years balanced against the assessment of the alternative?
Or do you mean just vote tribally and in a blinkered or prejudiced unthinking way for your favoured outcome?
The PM appointed him and all the decision, policies, sackings, briefings are therefore a direct arm of the PM and attributable to him.
I don't get the "he is unelected" bit because the PM, who was elected, appointed him. If the PM were to be deposed next time round, Dom doesn't get to stay.
The share price is still half what it was when the Government bailed it out, but it still owns 62% so could sell stakes every 6 months or so over the next 5 years, which would represent £2-3bn income to HMT each time, even if it's taking a 40% haircut on what it originally paid.
If money is tight it's a tempting target for HMT to help balance the books.
If we don't like him, the answer is for the MPs to VoNC Boris in the Commons or the voters to eject his Government at the next election.
My impressions are that Boris has moved leading brexiteers into his cabinet and taken complete control. I have no idea how malign or otherwise Cummings is but he has been highly successful in brexit and getting Boris into power
The noises coming out of the EU give the impression that nothing has changed and that they can still control the economic direction of the UK and hold it close but this cabinet appears to me to be ready to virtually no deal to break the link
On the domestic situation Boris has turned left and is about to open the spending taps trampling all over labour and making it very difficult for labour to get a hearing
Of course the opposition to Boris and Cummings on here comes from the usual suspects who would never be converted to the Boris way but then that is not important as the only people who matter to Boris are the voters who, for now at least, seem to be very supportive
https://politicalbetting.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/comment/2710023#Comment_2710023
I am at an age where I can take it (actuarily reduced) at 3 months notice, and escape these shores. Not that I plan to, as I enjoy my job at present, but nice to have that option.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jan/31/sajid-javid-mocked-over-trip-to-north-england
I wonder how many people who are now praising him were previously mocking him for that.
So why are so many people saying that Democrats would be crazy to choose Sanders instead of - who? The comparison with Corbyn is also not valid, as Corbyn pretty much always polled really really badly.
Probably the worst outcome for Dems would be if Sanders gets a plurality of delegates but no majority, and then the convention chooses someone Sanders beat in the actual primaries. Bloomberg makes this quite a likely situation. But it always felt like his second choice (after Bloomberg becoming president) was always Trump winning again, no wonder a majority of Dems don't like the guy.
It will be interesting to see how much of our exports continues to be gold bullion over the next year.
https://twitter.com/foxinsoxuk/status/1228243338823917569?s=09
We should not even need to worry about him or know about him. Instead we have got a Tory version of Alastair Campbell. And this is supposed to be an improvement?
Asking advice from someone, often fresh out of university, with no previous knowledge of work. Weird. Even if they have some years under their belt, they usually have no record of success.
It's more that these very large and apparently inexplicable swings in the cross border movement of gold massively distort the monthly headline trade figures.
What Johnson has done says everything about his vanity and deep personal insecurity.
"That this was almost entirely down to a mysterious movement of gold bars was seemingly lost on Liz Truss, the international trade secretary, who promptly issued a press release hailing a “record-breaking year for UK exports”.
Well, yes, but only if you include those dodgy gold figures. Exclude them and Britain’s exports are not growing by 5 per cent, as she proclaimed, but by 2.9 per cent — the weakest rate since 2015. Exclude them and actually, far from hitting a new high, exports as a percentage of national income fell last year."
What exactly about Staley’s relationship with Epstein did the FCA want to know?
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ursula-von-der-leyen-caught-in-scandal-of-payments-and-wiped-phones-38s8jg3c7
2013 £534bn
2014 £531bn
2015 £530bn
2016 £567bn
2017 £629bn
2018 £656bn
2019 £689bn
https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/balanceofpayments/timeseries/ikbh/pn2
The comings and goings of some gold bars are not a material amount of the total.
So Truss was correct in saying that 2019 was a record breaking year for UK exports.
I believe Ed Balls is available for a modest fee. And Gordon Brown for even less.
- Cummings is a SpAd
- That's bad, because he's unelected and unaccountable
- Cummings has got rid of a lot of other SpAds
- Those SpAds were also unelected and unaccountable, which is also bad
- However, Cummings' actions were also bad, because those SpAds were good (for some reason), and the ones he'll replace them with will be bad
Is that right? I get why people might want one set of SpAds over another, if they prefer the policies that set will push, for whatever reason. But people seem to be objecting on governance grounds, and I just don't understand why it matters in the abstract precisely who has control over which set of unelected and unaccountable individuals get to advise our ministers.
Though any rise in the pound is indeed bad news.
Not one to panic but it’s all beginning to raise the hairs on the back of my neck.
Btw Balls called it "post-neoclassical endogenous growth theory".
But is there anything wrong in principle with No10 having veto rights over No11 SpAds (assuming they aren't micromanaging them)?
And forcing (say) Robert Buckland to sack one of his advisors presumably indicates that it was thought that he might get in the way of the proposed reforms to the judiciary, rather than because Cummings wants direct control over the MoJ.
Boris moving left meets with my approval as does huge spending on rail and infrastructure
What could possibly go wrong.
Someone tell the IMF to be on standby.
The rate of increase of cases outside of Wuhan seems to have slowed, though the absolute numbers are going up. The fatality yesterday in Japan of a lady with no obvious connection to China is worrying.
I think we will know within a month or so whether containment has worked. If it hasn't, it will be pretty grim.
Now he has put in an Attorney General (my MP) who will make sure that they won't be able to stop him again.
He has renamed crash out WTO as the 'Australian' deal to soften us up for it. He'll no doubt try to blame the EU, but they will do what is good for the remaining 27, they won't want to damage us economically, they'll want to limit the damage to themselves.
Boris, Cummings and Suella seem to want a No Deal Brexit, so that's what we'll get. It seems to me that you're giving Boris the benefit of the doubt - remember what happens to people who do that.
As far as infrastructure and 'moving left' are concerned, then credit where it's due.
Well except Tulsi Gabbard, she's off the radar everywhere.
While a distinct minority would be prepared to eat grass rather than compromise with the EU, it remains a distinct minority.
https://twitter.com/paulhutcheon/status/1228263824681246720?s=20
It seems to be the thing in politics at the moment. The U-Turn has lost its shame. It used to be a resigning issue...
Trump demanding American companies bring back their supply chains from overseas now looks very long sighted.
As it happens, the EU might be well-advised to make some moves towards Britain, just as you try to talk down a lunatic cavorting on a ledge. But that's far from compulsory.
Domonomics.
It'll end in tears.
Many MPs thought it was them.
The voters said "No, it bloody well isn't."
Isn't today the deadline?
At least we had decent music in the Seventies.
https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1228268698080858112
One wonders what they regard as centrist publications.
I expect UK to do well in the future and outperform France and Germany
Yet the alternative was even worse. It's not a great situation.
The direction for this "Boris" administration is autocratic populism with a distracting cult of personality around the leader. Scrutiny and debate to be minimized.
This is not good.