The EU are now under tremendous political pressure.Russia is breathing down the necks of eastern European states; Trump is ambiguous about his support for Nato countries that have not been pulling their weight for decades and one of the only two countries European countries that have anything like a significant military capability is playing its biggest card with US support.Watch the EU fold in double quick time.
@jreynoldsMP: Treasury questions in Parliament. Chancellor effectively confirms U.K. out of single market and passporting will go
Bugger
Passporting not needed for most wholesale banking out of London and retail banking can be carried out in the rest of the EU using subsidiaries.
Some PB leavers were saying I was overreacting with our Paris plans.
I was right you were wrong.
I'm spending next week in Paris getting wooed by the French, should be fun.
What are the other options? Dublin? Frankfurt? I think you should certainly make the case for factfinding in La Reunion - which is part of the EU and the Eurozone I believe.
Dublin and Frankfurt are too small.
The most elegant solution would be for Scotland to secede/remain in the EU, so we'd set up there.
Madrid or Barcelona are still possibilities.
Get your kilts ordered
From my school and Uni experiences, trust me I don't look good in skirts.
Was out for the speech, but from seeing the summary it seems a bit of a curate's egg. But at least we now have a direction.
Depends on your politics I suppose, as always. Having now read the transcript and watched part of the speech itself, I think it was very, very good - but I would say that, wouldn't I ?
In terms of negotiation strategy it's practically perfect.
Was out for the speech, but from seeing the summary it seems a bit of a curate's egg. But at least we now have a direction.
That was one virtuoso performance. In the most defiantly, irresistibly optimistic terms Mrs May made the leaders of the EU an offer they couldn’t refuse. Or at least, they couldn’t refuse it without looking like mindlessly vindictive, self-harming lunatics.
Who could say no to an offer so apparently rational, decent, and dedicated to the future success of the EU itself? Only crazy people, she implied – or a federation that was so terrified of the success that dropping out of membership might bring that it was prepared to damage its own future prosperity.
Apple has backed up last year's 20% hike in laptop and computer prices with a sharp rise in app costs.
The move will mean - for the first time - that there is price parity between the dollar and the pound as an App Store product that used to cost 79p in the UK will now be 99p. US customers pay 99 cents.
The price shift reflects the fall of up to 20% in the pound versus the dollar since the EU referendum and signals Apple was unwilling to effectively earn less, in value terms, from an app purchased in the UK.
I'm looking for how she plans to unite the country - the pre-trailed stuff talks about the need to bring the country together and stop talking in terms of Leavers and Remainers. Fair enough - but I want to see how she will achieve this, there's very little in the pre-publicised extracts to satisfy anything other than the committed leavers.
Similar to the way Henry VIII reunited the country after the reformation - the followers of the European based undemocratic deity can either flee to France/Flanders or be burnt alive and their property confiscated.
If that's a "hard Brexit" then well "shrug"...
I have no idea if that is what you actually believe or a parody of what an idiot would believe.
I imagine May hopes that the EU, Parliament or Lords will shoot these UKIP-like proposals down in flames and insert something more moderate.
We are where we are - I don't like it, but there you go; I am used to losing :-)
Let's just hope that May can deliver on what she has set out. It will be sub-optimal in my view - seems silly to make it more expensive and time consuming to do business in your biggest export market - but with goodwill on all sides a deal can be done. The most important thing now is to get on with it.
A very sensible response - would that others could follow your lead but I shan't hold my breath
Apple has backed up last year's 20% hike in laptop and computer prices with a sharp rise in app costs.
The move will mean - for the first time - that there is price parity between the dollar and the pound as an App Store product that used to cost 79p in the UK will now be 99p. US customers pay 99 cents.
The price shift reflects the fall of up to 20% in the pound versus the dollar since the EU referendum and signals Apple was unwilling to effectively earn less, in value terms, from an app purchased in the UK.
Good reception for TM on Sky from voters in a pub in Basingstoke - both leavers and remainers positive and one female remain voter said she had been inspired by the speech
We are where we are - I don't like it, but there you go; I am used to losing :-)
Let's just hope that May can deliver on what she has set out. It will be sub-optimal in my view - seems silly to make it more expensive and time consuming to do business in your biggest export market - but with goodwill on all sides a deal can be done. The most important thing now is to get on with it.
A very sensible response - would that others could follow your lead but I shan't hold my breath
I think what this shows (not read the speech but followed responses on here) is that the most important thing about a leader is that they should lead. Sounds simple in practice but isn't (cf Jeremy Corbyn). Tezza is someone who has had greatness thrust upon her and I very much hope she continues to rise to the challenge. It sounds like she is making headway.
With strong leadership, she will manage to pull the country together, and although, like @SouthamObserver I believe the country will be poorer as a result, and that the effects will be felt most by those who are least able to cope, we will in any case all be going there together, despite the fact that we may not be travelling in the same class.
Theresa May has made her choice (and in the circumstances I think she's made the correct one for her, albeit three months too late). It gives opportunities to Tim Farron and Nicola Sturgeon but, through a feat of political manoeuvring, Labour have managed to position themselves in a way where it is very hard to work out how they could ever benefit.
The PM’s speech will be interpreted as the opening exchange in the Brexit negotiations. Marking that speech against the best practice of international negotiations, Oliver Ilott says it will help her to get a better deal.
I feel excited and energised by the PM's speech and what has been reported as the meaning of it.
The fear we'd end up with a half-in, half-out result being still subject to EU laws whilst having no say in their formation was one of the factors that made me a Reluctant Remainer. If we're going to leave, we had to do it properly in my view.
It looks like we are going to. I wish the PM every success in achieving this. If she pulls it off, she will be up there with the best in the annals of history.
If she makes a right horlicks of it, well that doesn't really bear thinking about....
@JamieRoss7: IndyRef2 was "highly likely" in June. Sturgeon says it's "more likely" now. How many more stages of likelihood are there before it happens?
I came on here yesterday morning and said that a massive bear trap had been laid for sellers of STG. Its happened quicker than I thought. Further upside now..loads of shorts in the market.
We are where we are - I don't like it, but there you go; I am used to losing :-)
Let's just hope that May can deliver on what she has set out. It will be sub-optimal in my view - seems silly to make it more expensive and time consuming to do business in your biggest export market - but with goodwill on all sides a deal can be done. The most important thing now is to get on with it.
A very sensible response - would that others could follow your lead but I shan't hold my breath
I think what this shows (not read the speech but followed responses on here) is that the most important thing about a leader is that they should lead. Sounds simple in practice but isn't (cf Jeremy Corbyn). Tezza is someone who has had greatness thrust upon her and I very much hope she continues to rise to the challenge. It sounds like she is making headway.
With strong leadership, she will manage to pull the country together, and although, like @SouthamObserver I believe the country will be poorer as a result, and that the effects will be felt most by those who are least able to cope, we will in any case all be going there together, despite the fact that we may not be travelling in the same class.
Me too in the main. I voted Remain but believe passionately that the voters have a right have their views respected. I still think that with goodwill a sensible compromise could occur - but I accept that is down to the EU. Fingers crossed.
12objectives seems a lot.Fewer than 6 is recommended in preparing a strategy.
I suggest only one objective in a strategy but five or six main actions to achieve the objective.
But this is not a strategy in that sense, but change management. When the Royal Shakespeare Company changes its production from Othello to Macbeth, it does not limit itself to changing just 6 things.
We are going from in the EU to outside of it. More than six objectives need to be achieved for that to have any sense.
@JamieRoss7: IndyRef2 was "highly likely" in June. Sturgeon says it's "more likely" now. How many more stages of likelihood are there before it happens?
'Even more likely' counting down 5/4/3/2/ 2.5/2.25/.....
May's speech decent enough. Couldn't expect any softer opening stance from her really. The key question now becomes to what level are we going to compromise on free movement? Some sort of preferential access for Eu citizens should open up concessions on cherry picked aspects of the single market.
The big flaw in her Brexit plan is this utterly ridiculous threat to try and turn ourselves into some sort of Singapore if things don't go our way. Where does May think she has a mandate from to slash taxes across the board and curtail workers rights? Especially seeing as she has reaffirmed her commitment to them today. So it's an empty threat. She will need to win an election to do that , and the British public won't be voting for tax and workers rights slashes anytime soon.
Other than that, solid effort - her comments about wanting the EU to succeed are important, it's very different from the Faragista point of view. B+, Ms May.
I still can't quite believe we've gone and done a Japan.
Nuts.
In its defence there's something strangely fascinating about the aesthetic of decline, crumbling hotels in once-thriving spa towns, the last old ladies in a depopulating village performing their local obon dance fewer in number from year to year, until one day their knees can take no more and it is gone forever.
Nicola releases huffy statement - NO mention of further referendum.
Cluck cluck cluck...
Would you care to have a bet on a second Indy refendum being called within say the next 2 years. Don't think I could manage a grand, but a ton say?
Called or a Uk govt approved referendum held ?
Nats call for one every week.
You appear to have rapidly forgotten you were bleating about Sturgeon NOT mentioning a further referendum just minutes ago. Formally called for by the Scottish government.
@christopherhope: Questioners are again pre-selected by Number 10 for Theresa May's speech. Calling random questions from us journalists would be too risky.
@christopherhope: Questioners are again pre-selected by Number 10 for Theresa May's speech. Calling random questions from us journalists would be too risky.
Look they should just be happy she didn't call Faisal Islam fake news.....
@jreynoldsMP: Treasury questions in Parliament. Chancellor effectively confirms U.K. out of single market and passporting will go
Bugger
Passporting not needed for most wholesale banking out of London and retail banking can be carried out in the rest of the EU using subsidiaries.
Some PB leavers were saying I was overreacting with our Paris plans.
I was right you were wrong.
I'm spending next week in Paris getting wooed by the French, should be fun.
What are the other options? Dublin? Frankfurt? I think you should certainly make the case for factfinding in La Reunion - which is part of the EU and the Eurozone I believe.
Dublin and Frankfurt are too small.
The most elegant solution would be for Scotland to secede/remain in the EU, so we'd set up there.
Madrid or Barcelona are still possibilities.
Get your kilts ordered
From my school and Uni experiences, trust me I don't look good in skirts.
Polly’s displeasure rather confirms my opinion it was a good speech by TMay.
It was almost incoherent......
Matthew d'Ancona:
This was the prime minister as Don Corleone, warning the assembled diplomats of the continent that they were about to be made an offer they couldn’t refuse.
May made her statement with poise, a sign of her under-acknowledged growth in the role of prime minister.
Why do we need to wait to March now? Supreme Court announce result next week and then straight to Parliament to trigger A50.
I think she should meet with trump first, gives her some negotiating ammunition.
Expect to hear an ever more panicky Commission screech ever more insistently and plaintively, but with a growing timbre of self-doubt, that the UK cannot even start trade talks with others until the Brexit deal is done.
Why do we need to wait to March now? Supreme Court announce result next week and then straight to Parliament to trigger A50.
I think she should meet with trump first, gives her some negotiating ammunition.
Expect to hear an ever more panicky Commission screech ever more insistently and plaintively, but with a growing timbre of self-doubt, that the UK cannot even start trade talks with others until the Brexit deal is done.
Interestingly, Tusk has just come out welcoming the speech and calling it "realistic".
Apple has backed up last year's 20% hike in laptop and computer prices with a sharp rise in app costs.
The move will mean - for the first time - that there is price parity between the dollar and the pound as an App Store product that used to cost 79p in the UK will now be 99p. US customers pay 99 cents.
The price shift reflects the fall of up to 20% in the pound versus the dollar since the EU referendum and signals Apple was unwilling to effectively earn less, in value terms, from an app purchased in the UK.
I still can't quite believe we've gone and done a Japan.
Nuts.
In its defence there's something strangely fascinating about the aesthetic of decline, crumbling hotels in once-thriving spa towns, the last old ladies in a depopulating village performing their local obon dance fewer in number from year to year, until one day their knees can take no more and it is gone forever.
Why do we need to wait to March now? Supreme Court announce result next week and then straight to Parliament to trigger A50.
I think she should meet with trump first, gives her some negotiating ammunition.
Expect to hear an ever more panicky Commission screech ever more insistently and plaintively, but with a growing timbre of self-doubt, that the UK cannot even start trade talks with others until the Brexit deal is done.
I think the sight of us begging to Trump is more likely to cause mirth than anguish. We can con ourselves more easily than we can con them.
Why do we need to wait to March now? Supreme Court announce result next week and then straight to Parliament to trigger A50.
I think she should meet with trump first, gives her some negotiating ammunition.
Expect to hear an ever more panicky Commission screech ever more insistently and plaintively, but with a growing timbre of self-doubt, that the UK cannot even start trade talks with others until the Brexit deal is done.
Interestingly, Tusk has just come out welcoming the speech and calling it "realistic".
Why do we need to wait to March now? Supreme Court announce result next week and then straight to Parliament to trigger A50.
I think she should meet with trump first, gives her some negotiating ammunition.
Expect to hear an ever more panicky Commission screech ever more insistently and plaintively, but with a growing timbre of self-doubt, that the UK cannot even start trade talks with others until the Brexit deal is done.
I think the sight of us begging to Trump is more likely to cause mirth than anguish. We can con ourselves more easily than we can con them.
I thought you liked US Presidents bitchslapping the UK ?
Why do we need to wait to March now? Supreme Court announce result next week and then straight to Parliament to trigger A50.
I think she should meet with trump first, gives her some negotiating ammunition.
Expect to hear an ever more panicky Commission screech ever more insistently and plaintively, but with a growing timbre of self-doubt, that the UK cannot even start trade talks with others until the Brexit deal is done.
I think the sight of us begging to Trump is more likely to cause mirth than anguish. We can con ourselves more easily than we can con them.
I thought you liked US Presidents bitchslapping the UK ?
Why do we need to wait to March now? Supreme Court announce result next week and then straight to Parliament to trigger A50.
I think she should meet with trump first, gives her some negotiating ammunition.
Expect to hear an ever more panicky Commission screech ever more insistently and plaintively, but with a growing timbre of self-doubt, that the UK cannot even start trade talks with others until the Brexit deal is done.
I think the sight of us begging to Trump is more likely to cause mirth than anguish. We can con ourselves more easily than we can con them.
I thought you liked US Presidents bitchslapping the UK ?
I still can't quite believe we've gone and done a Japan.
Nuts.
In its defence there's something strangely fascinating about the aesthetic of decline, crumbling hotels in once-thriving spa towns, the last old ladies in a depopulating village performing their local obon dance fewer in number from year to year, until one day their knees can take no more and it is gone forever.
Is that why you moved to Japan?
Not really, more like random circumstance, but I genuinely love the dying mountain towns.
Why do we need to wait to March now? Supreme Court announce result next week and then straight to Parliament to trigger A50.
I think she should meet with trump first, gives her some negotiating ammunition.
Expect to hear an ever more panicky Commission screech ever more insistently and plaintively, but with a growing timbre of self-doubt, that the UK cannot even start trade talks with others until the Brexit deal is done.
I think the sight of us begging to Trump is more likely to cause mirth than anguish. We can con ourselves more easily than we can con them.
I thought you liked US Presidents bitchslapping the UK ?
What did I say to create that impression?
Obama
No, I didn't join in any crowing over that misstep. Never been a fan of Obama anyway.
@jreynoldsMP: Treasury questions in Parliament. Chancellor effectively confirms U.K. out of single market and passporting will go
Bugger
Passporting not needed for most wholesale banking out of London and retail banking can be carried out in the rest of the EU using subsidiaries.
Some PB leavers were saying I was overreacting with our Paris plans.
I was right you were wrong.
I'm spending next week in Paris getting wooed by the French, should be fun.
What are the other options? Dublin? Frankfurt? I think you should certainly make the case for factfinding in La Reunion - which is part of the EU and the Eurozone I believe.
Dublin and Frankfurt are too small.
The most elegant solution would be for Scotland to secede/remain in the EU, so we'd set up there.
Madrid or Barcelona are still possibilities.
Get your kilts ordered
From my school and Uni experiences, trust me I don't look good in skirts.
Why do we need to wait to March now? Supreme Court announce result next week and then straight to Parliament to trigger A50.
I think she should meet with trump first, gives her some negotiating ammunition.
Expect to hear an ever more panicky Commission screech ever more insistently and plaintively, but with a growing timbre of self-doubt, that the UK cannot even start trade talks with others until the Brexit deal is done.
I think the sight of us begging to Trump is more likely to cause mirth than anguish. We can con ourselves more easily than we can con them.
I thought you liked US Presidents bitchslapping the UK ?
I think he was trying to wind up the Tory Brexiteers.....
I don't get it... It's like he doesn't understand what is going on? If anything the complete opposite is true... May has explicitly ruled IN hard brexit... With some chance of a deal mitigating things...
“The phrase 'hard Brexit' is part of the wishful thinking that somehow Brexit will be finessed and that there will really be no Brexit.
But that was always a silly notion. Because a soft Brexit is the worst of all worlds for Britain: not in the European Union but bound by European laws and directives and under the jurisdiction of the ECJ. Surely, even those who want to remain must find that intolerable.
So bottom line: the Prime Minister’s position has been consistent, if only people were willing to hear her.
More importantly, there is no other option.
Hence, the phrase 'soft Brexit' is really an oxymoron.
There is only Brexit.
I am really puzzled by those who say that higher tariffs will lead to lower exports to the EU but a depreciated exchange rate will have no effect. How can that be possible? Both are changing the relative prices in the same way. Indeed, the lower exchange rate produces a broader impetus to exports than the higher tariffs, which only reduce the exports to the EU, a reduction that moreover can be at least partially made up by selling elsewhere.”
I still can't quite believe we've gone and done a Japan.
Nuts.
In its defence there's something strangely fascinating about the aesthetic of decline, crumbling hotels in once-thriving spa towns, the last old ladies in a depopulating village performing their local obon dance fewer in number from year to year, until one day their knees can take no more and it is gone forever.
Is that why you moved to Japan?
Not really, more like random circumstance, but I genuinely love the dying mountain towns.
Relatedly one reason I'm doing all this crypto-currency work is so once we End Banking I can buy a formerly-grand bank building and live in it.
Have I underestimated Mrs May? Too soon to tell. There is more to governing than making an excellent speech- ask Obama. But the main concern to date has been the lack of apparent grip. For good or ill that has been dispelled which is a good thing for the UK and its economy.
The challenge now will be to keep that grip. That means moving as soon as the Supreme Court issues its judgment either by serving the notice or bringing the matter (again) to Parliament. The time for dithering reflection is over. Now is the time to act.
I still can't quite believe we've gone and done a Japan.
Nuts.
In its defence there's something strangely fascinating about the aesthetic of decline, crumbling hotels in once-thriving spa towns, the last old ladies in a depopulating village performing their local obon dance fewer in number from year to year, until one day their knees can take no more and it is gone forever.
Is that why you moved to Japan?
Not really, more like random circumstance, but I genuinely love the dying mountain towns.
Relatedly one reason I'm doing all this crypto-currency work is so once we End Banking I can buy a formerly-grand bank building and live in it.
Comments
of eastern European states; Trump is ambiguous about his support for Nato countries that have not been pulling their weight for decades and one of the only two countries European countries that have anything like a significant military capability is playing its biggest card with US support.Watch the EU fold in double quick time.
In terms of negotiation strategy it's practically perfect.
Who could say no to an offer so apparently rational, decent, and dedicated to the future success of the EU itself? Only crazy people, she implied – or a federation that was so terrified of the success that dropping out of membership might bring that it was prepared to damage its own future prosperity.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/17/theresa-may-just-made-brussels-offer-cannot-refuse/
Nuts.
Eh, no...
With strong leadership, she will manage to pull the country together, and although, like @SouthamObserver I believe the country will be poorer as a result, and that the effects will be felt most by those who are least able to cope, we will in any case all be going there together, despite the fact that we may not be travelling in the same class.
*Innocent Face*
The PM’s speech will be interpreted as the opening exchange in the Brexit negotiations. Marking that speech against the best practice of international negotiations, Oliver Ilott says it will help her to get a better deal.
https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/clean-brexit-will-help-pm-get-better-deal?platform=hootsuite
The fear we'd end up with a half-in, half-out result being still subject to EU laws whilst having no say in their formation was one of the factors that made me a Reluctant Remainer. If we're going to leave, we had to do it properly in my view.
It looks like we are going to. I wish the PM every success in achieving this. If she pulls it off, she will be up there with the best in the annals of history.
If she makes a right horlicks of it, well that doesn't really bear thinking about....
Fingers crossed!
Cluck cluck cluck...
We are going from in the EU to outside of it. More than six objectives need to be achieved for that to have any sense.
Nats call for one every week.
The big flaw in her Brexit plan is this utterly ridiculous threat to try and turn ourselves into some sort of Singapore if things don't go our way. Where does May think she has a mandate from to slash taxes across the board and curtail workers rights? Especially seeing as she has reaffirmed her commitment to them today. So it's an empty threat. She will need to win an election to do that , and the British public won't be voting for tax and workers rights slashes anytime soon.
Other than that, solid effort - her comments about wanting the EU to succeed are important, it's very different from the Faragista point of view. B+, Ms May.
However much as the Unionists might want it to be so, Sturgeon is not known for going off half cocked.
Formally called for by the Scottish government.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/17/theresa-may-brexit-speech-prime-minister-britain
Polly not happy.....
@christopherhope: Questioners are again pre-selected by Number 10 for Theresa May's speech. Calling random questions from us journalists would be too risky.
Cluck cluck cluck...
BRAVEHEARTS 45%
Bet's open to you boys also.
Matthew d'Ancona:
This was the prime minister as Don Corleone, warning the assembled diplomats of the continent that they were about to be made an offer they couldn’t refuse.
May made her statement with poise, a sign of her under-acknowledged growth in the role of prime minister.
Expect to hear an ever more panicky Commission screech ever more insistently and plaintively, but with a growing timbre of self-doubt, that the UK cannot even start trade talks with others until the Brexit deal is done.
Wasn't he one of the architects of "rubbing the Right's nose in diversity"?
Brexit was pushed over the line by people fed up with too much immigration; he only has himself to blame.
* Though all three of the other Guardian panel members invoke her name!
Brexiteers: "It's overvalued; means nothing!"
Pound rises during speech:
"Vote of confidence in Britain!"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/people/theresa-may-rewears-lucky-vivienne-westwood-suit-deliver-key/
If anything the complete opposite is true... May has explicitly ruled IN hard brexit... With some chance of a deal mitigating things...
But that was always a silly notion. Because a soft Brexit is the worst of all worlds for Britain: not in the European Union but bound by European laws and directives and under the jurisdiction of the ECJ. Surely, even those who want to remain must find that intolerable.
So bottom line: the Prime Minister’s position has been consistent, if only people were willing to hear her.
More importantly, there is no other option.
Hence, the phrase 'soft Brexit' is really an oxymoron.
There is only Brexit.
I am really puzzled by those who say that higher tariffs will lead to lower exports to the EU but a depreciated exchange rate will have no effect. How can that be possible? Both are changing the relative prices in the same way. Indeed, the lower exchange rate produces a broader impetus to exports than the higher tariffs, which only reduce the exports to the EU, a reduction that moreover can be at least partially made up by selling elsewhere.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/economic-experts-react-to-theresa-may-brexit-speech-a7531391.html
https://twitter.com/PaulNoth
Merkel has many cards to play internationally, within Europe, and within Germany. The most successful statesperson since Bismarck.
The challenge now will be to keep that grip. That means moving as soon as the Supreme Court issues its judgment either by serving the notice or bringing the matter (again) to Parliament. The time for
ditheringreflection is over. Now is the time to act.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOKNuER8d5g