It adds to the amusement of the nation. But it is a bit concerning how someone in public life can contrive to be quite so badly informed about the way the world actually is.
I think Dan comes under the 'collective narcissist' Leaver classification. A man who has spent a lifetime silently raging against the world for not understanding the true exceptionalism of Britain.
Reading leavers' Damascene conversion on paying an exit bill has been jolly funny this morning. All the way from "the undemocratic EUSSR shouldn't get a bean" to "it's only fair, we owed it anyway" in such a short space of time...
If only Theresa had known the Brexiteers had the backbone of a soggy cornflake, this could have been resolved months and months ago.
It has finally dawned on them what a no deal Brexit means.
A disaster for the economy and Corbyn as PM.
This is a good day for Hammond presumably.
A good day for the country too.
Hmmm. Still the quantum Irish Border issue.
We'll shaft Northern Ireland like Thatcher did with the Anglo-Irish agreement.
They'll get upset, but no one else will care.
Why do you so dislike the Northern Irish (and Gibraltarians and Falklanders).
As he is a free market Liberal Radical not a Tory of course!
I've got an afternoon free in London before my flight. Not sure what to do with myself.
a) walk around the Capital (looking up) b) go to the Tates c) go to Rules and get plastered d) take a train to Brighton and wander around the Lanes e) sit in a dank Starbucks posting on PB
I've got an afternoon free in London before my flight. Not sure what to do with myself.
a) walk around the Capital (looking up) b) go to the Tates c) go to Rules and get plastered d) take a train to Brighton and wander around the Lanes e) sit in a dank Starbucks posting on PB
I really don't see why the PM should respond at all. What Trump does with his twitter account is his business.
I suggest that if T May herself was retweeting KKK videos, we would expect a response from the US?
Did any of the videos break any law? Were they faked? Why should the PM lower herself to this sort of thing. It's not serious politics - its Twitter. Outside of the Twitterati, nobody really cares about Twitter and the vast majority of Brits outside London don't seem to use it.
@elashton: Labour has tabled amendment to EU Bill requiring any Brexit divorce bill to be assessed by NAO and OBR – and for parliament to get a vote on it. Vote on amendment next Wed if selected.
No doubt there will be the usual howls of protest from existing residents, but frankly it's not as though there's a lot of high-quality townscape to protect in places like Croydon, Tower Hamlets and Hounslow.
Your sweeping remarks about suburbia aside, unplanned development will mean the death of the Tory Party in the capital. Is that what you want?
I'm not saying we shouldn't densify, but there are good and bad ways to go about it.
That is already underway, as a result of demographic (ethnicity and age) and housing tenure change, and whether there is development or not will have relatively little political impact in comparison.
I really don't see why the PM should respond at all. What Trump does with his twitter account is his business.
I suggest that if T May herself was retweeting KKK videos, we would expect a response from the US?
Did any of the videos break any law? Were they faked? Why should the PM lower herself to this sort of thing. It's not serious politics - its Twitter. Outside of the Twitterati, nobody really cares about Twitter and the vast majority of Brits outside London don't seem to use it.
Most people don't read newspapers, either, but senior politicians might nevertheless say something in a paper that deserves a response. The medium is irrelevant; it's the message.
@elashton: Labour has tabled amendment to EU Bill requiring any Brexit divorce bill to be assessed by NAO and OBR – and for parliament to get a vote on it. Vote on amendment next Wed if selected.
If they do vote it down, then the strategy is clear. It's about Remain or No deal, to be put to a referendum.
Surely the point at which they should be granted a vote is when the whole deal is on the table?
No doubt there will be the usual howls of protest from existing residents, but frankly it's not as though there's a lot of high-quality townscape to protect in places like Croydon, Tower Hamlets and Hounslow.
Your sweeping remarks about suburbia aside, unplanned development will mean the death of the Tory Party in the capital. Is that what you want?
I'm not saying we shouldn't densify, but there are good and bad ways to go about it.
That is already underway, as a result of demographic (ethnicity and age) and housing tenure change, and whether there is development or not will have relatively little political impact in comparison.
You are oversimplying. Different social groups have different priorities when it comes to the type of housing they want (e.g. tall apartment block, house with garden, mansion block etc). If councils build houses which are in general less attractive to those groups which predominantly vote Tory, the party will weaken in the long term in those areas.
It's also too reductive to say that a more ethnically diverse population equals automatic Tory weakness. Wandsworth and Harrow disprove that.
No doubt there will be the usual howls of protest from existing residents, but frankly it's not as though there's a lot of high-quality townscape to protect in places like Croydon, Tower Hamlets and Hounslow.
Your sweeping remarks about suburbia aside, unplanned development will mean the death of the Tory Party in the capital. Is that what you want?
I'm not saying we shouldn't densify, but there are good and bad ways to go about it.
That is already underway, as a result of demographic (ethnicity and age) and housing tenure change, and whether there is development or not will have relatively little political impact in comparison.
You are oversimplying. Different social groups have different priorities when it comes to the type of housing they want (e.g. tall apartment block, house with garden, mansion block etc). If councils build houses which are in general less attractive to those groups which predominantly vote Tory, the party will weaken in the long term in those areas.
It's also too reductive to say that a more ethnically diverse population equals automatic Tory weakness. Wandsworth and Harrow disprove that.
The seats in those Boroughs are no longer all (ex Tooting) Tory. Labour looks safe in one Harrow seat and almost got the other one this year. Tooting was always solid Labour, they've just taken Battersea, and Putney looks vulnerable, even with the national parties neck and neck. Labour almost has a majority on Harrow council and is likely to consolidate this next year; in Wandsworth the Tories look safe but there are twice as many Labour councillors as there were some years back and I would expect further gains next May.
@faisalislam: Chuka Umunna MP tells @skynews the State Visit invitation to Donald Trump should be withdrawn immediately: “He is normalising hatred.. if we don’t call this out we are going down a very dangerous road”
Surely Donald lost interest in such a visit long ago. It was arranged, after all, before Theresa exploded herself.
Incidentally did all those people who were tweeting about that EU agency being moved from London have any tweets about those new pharma research inward investments ?
Yes they were mentioned, as was the other pharma investment that was cancelled due to Brexit.
Yet again you sound bitter about good news for Britain - it must hurt being an Osborne cheerleader these days.
No we are moving onto trade talks by the end of the year, despite endless diehard Remainer whinging we were crashing out without a deal
Will the government cave on the Irish border issue, too? Let’s hope so. It’s such a shame all this wasn’t sorted months ago. The Tory loons have caused huge damage.
You've previously said that we should have immediately agreed to £60bn.
Absolutely. A lot more than £3bn of damage has been done by not doing so.
Really, what damage is that ?
The UK has finally had a good year on the vital issue of rebalancing the economy into something sustainable. The last thing we needed was the continuation of the Osbrowne high consumption and high property prices model.
Not to mention that if you give the EU an open door they'll take everything you offer and then take a load more.
Our slowing growth rate has cost the government billions in tax take. Part of that is down to Brexit uncertainty. An earlier agreement would have mitigated that. We have given the EU what they wanted. If we’d done it earlier it would have been better for us. But at least we’re getting there now.
What slowing growth - its been the same mediocre level that has become standard.
In 2016q1 for example GDP fell on a per capita basis.
As to tax take in the last four quarters the government has borrowed £41bn, in the four before that it borrowed £65bn:
We also have manufacturing order books at near 30 year highs and tourism receipts at record levels.
With growth at the EU average the tax take would have been higher. If you don’t believe agreeing a deal over money with the EU a lot earlier in the year on essentially the same basis would have been beneficial, so be it. We’ll have to agree to disagree.
And why would growth have been higher ?
Only by higher wealth consumption which is the thing the economy is finally slowly rebalancing from.
What we have now is a reduction in both the deficits - government and current account.
An debateable billion or two more tax is not worth another ten ot twenty billion increase in the current account deficit.
Incidentally did all those people who were tweeting about that EU agency being moved from London have any tweets about those new pharma research inward investments ?
I did, I posted it on PB and asked Charles if he was behind it.
I remember that - it was on the night before.
I was curious as to whether some people had pasted endless tweets about thousands of extra flights at Heathrow etc
Comments
At this rate, the outer boroughs will secede...
b) go to the Tates
c) go to Rules and get plastered
d) take a train to Brighton and wander around the Lanes
e) sit in a dank Starbucks posting on PB
The plan is nandos then the pub.
Surely the point at which they should be granted a vote is when the whole deal is on the table?
NEW THREAD
https://twitter.com/alextomo/status/935862778300125184
It's also too reductive to say that a more ethnically diverse population equals automatic Tory weakness. Wandsworth and Harrow disprove that.
https://www.tradingview.com/chart/BTCUSD/YRZvdurN-The-target-of-current-bubble-lays-between-40k-and-110k/
https://twitter.com/TomMcTague/status/935865670797021184
While I appreciate Nandos is quintessentially English and is probably illegal in Zurich, surely George is a good bet?
Edit: or Goodmans
Only by higher wealth consumption which is the thing the economy is finally slowly rebalancing from.
What we have now is a reduction in both the deficits - government and current account.
An debateable billion or two more tax is not worth another ten ot twenty billion increase in the current account deficit.
I was curious as to whether some people had pasted endless tweets about thousands of extra flights at Heathrow etc
So very British