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Cyclefree gives her Predictions for 2021 – politicalbetting.com

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  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 38,151
    eek said:

    There is red tape at both ends of the contract - watch the video again about the Glass Eels.

    It's not his paperwork that is the issue, it's the customer who given the choice between buying from France without paperwork or buying from the UK with paperwork starts purchasing from France as it's less hassle.

    Once again an actual business owner who has to deal with the red tape and is losing business as a result is trumped by our resident expert/troll...
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 98,601
    Carnyx said:

    The issue is that ift he Scxottish Government deviates from London policy it has to take the money from elsewhere within the overall budget determined by London, and/or tax a bit more. That is where the moneyt for the bedroom tax mitigation and FSM comes from.
    Why is that a problem?
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 44,818

    I cant wait for the flat, the"form" this Jumps Season is out the window. As an example three weeks ago Frodon was beaten 84 lengths by Santani, which he turned round on Boxing day.
    I'm more into the flat than the jumps in any case. I like to see the hurtling finishes. Also the weather tends to be better.
  • HYUFD said:

    Even fishing has still made some gains compared to where they were in 2016 as we leave the CFP.

    The main losers from this Deal compared to where they were in 2016 as I have said are the City of London and financial services now that we are leaving the EU and the single market and they are losing the financial services passport to the EU
    Even the financial services passport is not the be all and end all.

    The City at last count has actually gained not lost jobs since 2016. Westminster has gained full lawmaking powers over a globally significant key sector of our economy - that is more important than passporting.

    As the EU passes damaging bills like the Bankers Bonus directive and looks at a nascent Financial Transactions Tax the incentive to do financial transactions in the UK and out of the EU will increase not decrease.

    And the City are masters of dealing with paperwork and finding a path through it. Hence why it is a global not European City.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 30,846

    Rather miserable and depressing predictions.

    No offence but I hope you're wrong.

    As I suspected. Saves me reading.
  • bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 22,924

    That was a negotiating masterstroke.

    We got largely what we wanted
    What do we want

    RED TAPE

    When do we want it

    NOW (and forever)

  • Scott_xP said:

    Once again an actual business owner who has to deal with the red tape and is losing business as a result is trumped by our resident expert/troll...
    As opposed to PT, who's just a troll.....
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 127,113
    edited December 2020

    Even the financial services passport is not the be all and end all.

    The City at last count has actually gained not lost jobs since 2016. Westminster has gained full lawmaking powers over a globally significant key sector of our economy - that is more important than passporting.

    As the EU passes damaging bills like the Bankers Bonus directive and looks at a nascent Financial Transactions Tax the incentive to do financial transactions in the UK and out of the EU will increase not decrease.

    And the City are masters of dealing with paperwork and finding a path through it. Hence why it is a global not European City.
    I expect a little shift from London to Paris and Frankfurt and New York after this Deal but London will remain the main financial centre in Europe because of its global reach and relatively low tax, low regulation environment.
  • DavidL said:

    I never believed it would be the disaster that many claimed but I accept that given where we got to and the chronic lack of preparation a deal is necessary at this point to limit disruption at a time of economic chaos.

    I am concerned about the LPF provisions and whether these are going to tie our hands in seeking to address this horrific structural deficit in our trade. Will we be unable to provide seed capital for growing industries for example? Have we committed ourselves to an EU level of bureaucracy and regulation which makes it harder to compete for international investment?

    So, if I was in Parliament I would vote for Boris's deal but I would be looking for a plan that is going to address these weaknesses in our economy and allow us to pay our way in the world, ideally with a growing standard of living. That, ultimately, is going to require a different sort of relationship with the EU than this deal offers.
    Seeing if and how the trade deals with the rest of the world can be built upon will be important in seeing what strategy to implement.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 44,818

    Single market and customs union would be a big improvement.
    I bet Brexit was dreamt up at a dinner party in Islington. Or a private dining room in Mayfair. One of the two.
    More the latter imo -


  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 38,151
    HYUFD said:

    I expect a little shift from London to Paris and Frankfurt and New York after this Deal but London will remain the main financial centre in Europe because of its global reach

    https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1343875682519179266
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,651

    The reason why the government has been has been explained to you repeatedly not just by myself but MarqueeMark, MaxPB and others every time you bring it up but like a goldfish you ask again: it was a definite gain and it kept Barnier/Macron preoccupied while we won the other issues.

    The LPF is massively more than fishing. Since you "couldn't care less" about fishing then you should be capable of giving credit for using fishing in the negotiations like has been done - are you prepared to do that? Or will you ask again next time "why were we talking about fishing" as if nobody has given the answer?
    I'll review the deal thanks all the same and form my view on what it says not rely on the views of people who were not involved in the negotiations at all and have had to rely on newspaper reports.

    From what I have read so far, the government had limited ambitions, has achieved some of them and has ended up with a deal which does not achieve much for Britain but does achieve a lot for the PM and the Tory party.

    If you set a low bar, it's easy to pass.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 73,572
    edited December 2020
    Carnyx said:

    The issue is that ift he Scxottish Government deviates from London policy it has to take the money from elsewhere within the overall budget determined by London, and/or tax a bit more. That is where the moneyt for the bedroom tax mitigation and FSM comes from.
    I am aware of that.

    My point is, even having used those powers, it hasn’t been enough to avoid Scotland needing international aid, just as has happened in England.

    Now you might argue with perfect justification that there are a number of very good reasons for that. After all, Scotland is a poorer country than England, and has massive legacy problems with poverty, drug addiction and housing that are certainly not the fault of the SNP - in fact, many of them have defeated governments of all types for over fifty years.

    But MalcolmG was, rather disgustingly, trying to make a political point out of it by implying it only affected countries governed by ‘unionists.’ I was pointing out he was wrong.

    Edit - and truthfully, the main question we should be asking about all of this, as with foodbanks, is why they are needed, and how do we change matters so they stop being needed?
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 76,782

    What is the point of arguing for a different type of Brexit at this point? I think it is legitimate to vote against this deal if you think it is a crap deal and if your constituents didn't vote for Brexit in the first place, eg London or Scottish MPs. I think Labour should abstain personally. A bad deal is better than no deal but once you vote for it you lose some of your ability to prosper as its badness manifests itself to the electorate. And it will pass whatever you do, so you aren't voting for no deal if you abstain or even vote against.
    Agreed. I would abstain on that basis.
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 22,203
    I would love @DavidL to show us his working on how the single market has cost us “at least 800k jobs”.

    Britain had one of the lowest rates of unemployment in the EU, so precisely which jobs were lost?

    The only jobs I can see going are from the closure of that berk’s glass eel business.
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,651
    Charles said:

    Our compliance people are relaxed. The biggest hassle is going to be finding a way to include EU registered bankers on calls.

    But he - and others like him - were predicting doom immediately after the referendum.

    And yet:

    https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.ft.com/content/0c7c2597-4afd-4ade-bc19-02c3bbc53daf
    Compliance people are never relaxed - not if they're doing their job properly. We know what a slippery lot you all are ........
  • eekeek Posts: 29,741

    The majority of our trade has paperwork at both ends.

    People deal with paperwork.
    But when we were in the UK we didn't therefore given the choice between a supplier that needs paperwork and one that doesn't I would prefer the non paperwork supplier even if they were more expensive.
  • Tories good at burning Scotland's cash............

    Why are we paying for this, #Scotland?

    UK Tory Govt's Scotland Office has revealed soaring costs

    Spin doctors up 280%
    Spending on comms tripled
    Advertising spend up tenfold
    >> Overall spending +73%
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 51,286
    eek said:

    Because DavidL still believes we hold all the cards.
    He thinks Red Wallers would happily pay more for their Becks and Prosecco, as well as their motors to help out the City bankers.

    Tariff free access to the excellent imported goods from the EU is one of the best bits of this deal. Better still that we cannot debase our standards too.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 127,113
    edited December 2020
    Scott_xP said:

    https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1343875682519179266
    Even according to that article it will still not be the end of the City of London.

    “It’s not the start of the end of London, but it’s pretty bloody embarrassing and a huge own goal for Britain,” said Aquis’ Haynes.

    However Brexit was not a vote to increase or even maintain the dominance of the City of London
  • Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been accused of breaking Tier 4 lockdown rules after meeting three people, including his brother, on his doorstep on Christmas Day.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9095135/Did-Jeremy-Corbyn-break-rules-Ex-Labour-leader-filmed-brother-two-Christmas-Day.html
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 38,151

    I would love @DavidL to show us his working on how the single market has cost us “at least 800k jobs”.

    Britain had one of the lowest rates of unemployment in the EU, so precisely which jobs were lost?

    The only jobs I can see going are from the closure of that berk’s glass eel business.

    You could perhaps make an argument that JLR opening a factory in Slovakia meant employing fewer people in Coventry, but even if that were true, Brexit is not going to reverse that trend
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 83,550
    edited December 2020
    HYUFD said:

    Even according to that article it will still not be the end of the City of London

    “It’s not the start of the end of London, but it’s pretty bloody embarrassing and a huge own goal for Britain,” said Aquis’ Haynes.

    However Brexit was not a vote to increase or even maintain the dominance of the City of London
    Scott and Paste rarely reads the articles he retwatters, sorry he gets funny about claims he is retwittering...links to.
  • YBarddCwscYBarddCwsc Posts: 7,172
    edited December 2020

    Thank you, Cyclefree for your predictions ... and how about for number 12 ...

    12. Cyclefree finally reveals how she voted in the Brexit referendum 😀

    Of course, your vote is your own affair ... but I do get this enduring vision of Cyclefree looking at the Prada dress & sunglasses she ordered, filled with regret and disappointment.
  • Cyclefree said:

    I'll review the deal thanks all the same and form my view on what it says not rely on the views of people who were not involved in the negotiations at all and have had to rely on newspaper reports.

    From what I have read so far, the government had limited ambitions, has achieved some of them and has ended up with a deal which does not achieve much for Britain but does achieve a lot for the PM and the Tory party.

    If you set a low bar, it's easy to pass.
    What you call "limited ambitions" others consider to be exactly the ambitions they wanted. Sometimes 'more is less', you should appreciate that surely?

    Considering the 'limited ambitions' were publicly stated in advance and were in the manifesto the government was elected upon then those ambitions - not the ambitions of people that lost the referendum or other parties had - seem to be the ambitions this deal should be measured against.

    Success is reality minus expectations.
  • Scott_xP said:
    Macron done up like a kipper!
    No, the other thing.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 73,572

    Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been accused of breaking Tier 4 lockdown rules after meeting three people, including his brother, on his doorstep on Christmas Day.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9095135/Did-Jeremy-Corbyn-break-rules-Ex-Labour-leader-filmed-brother-two-Christmas-Day.html

    Is Piers Corbyn going for some kind of record on lockdown breaches?

    Although, in fairness, if the story as reported is a breach about 40% of the country is probably guilty.
  • bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 22,924

    Seeing if and how the trade deals with the rest of the world can be built upon will be important in seeing what strategy to implement.
    Holds Breath (not)
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 22,203
    Scott_xP said:

    You could perhaps make an argument that JLR opening a factory in Slovakia meant employing fewer people in Coventry, but even if that were true, Brexit is not going to reverse that trend
    Indeed, given the modern auto industry relied on JIT supply chains and a domestic market of 500m, Brexit incentivises this kind of relocation.
  • contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    HYUFD said:

    I expect a little shift from London to Paris and Frankfurt and New York after this Deal but London will remain the main financial centre in Europe because of its global reach and relatively low tax, low regulation environment.
    de Blasio's New York has its own problems. Earlier this month there were reports Goldman and Deutsche Bank are planning moves for huge chunks of their operations from Manhattan. To name but two.

    The US banking industry could splinter to various more livable and more business friendly locations around the states.
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758

    Sticking in unionists craws though, first UNICEF helping out with starving children , now the Irish who they are always slagging off as poor country hicks providing charity in NI.
    I don’t think I’ve seen any unionist on here slagging off the Irish as “poor country hicks”
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 73,572
    edited December 2020
    Scott_xP said:
    I should, at this moment, be preparing my lessons for next half term.

    I haven’t bothered because at this moment I haven’t a clue what I’m teaching, whether in school or online, and I don’t want to waste hours for no gain.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 83,550
    edited December 2020
    ydoethur said:

    Is Piers Corbyn going for some kind of record on lockdown breaches?

    Although, in fairness, if the story as reported is a breach about 40% of the country is probably guilty.
    At least they managed to stay clear of the obvious trope....

    The group talks about food banks before they discuss whether Covid is being used 'as a cover to privatise the NHS' with Corbyn adding: 'What we've got is Covid billionaires - the equivalent to wartime millionaires.'

    They complain about 'Big Pharma' turning the NHS into a 'milking cow' before Jeremy thanks Santa for coming and shakes the hands of all three men before sending them on their way.

    -----------

    The two gifts brought by 'Santa' and delivered to Jeremy by the group include the domain name of LabourParty.org and a letter which addresses his suspension from the Labour Party over his response to the anti-Semitism report.

    ------------

    All those evil big Pharma corporations saving the world....disgusting...and of course AZN vaccine is being sold at basically cost.
  • ydoethur said:

    Yes, it’s very embarrassing for UNICEF to help children in London.

    https://inews.co.uk/news/unicef-child-poverty-hungry-children-coronvirus-first-time-797077

    And Aberdeen and Edinburgh

    https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/health/coronavirus/unicef-funds-food-hampers-edinburgh-families-struggling-during-pandemic-3067519

    Oh, hold on, that’s an SNP matter. It happened despite their policies on FSM.

    And if you don’t believe the Scotsman, here it is in the National:

    https://www.thenational.scot/news/18948073.unicef-help-feed-children-uk-first-time-70-years/

    It is disgraceful that we can’t feed children properly, but it isn’t just a unionist problem.
    Unionists control it from London , despite the best efforts of Scottish Government using some of their meagre pocket money to alleviate poverty , they have no chance of overcoming London policies.
    You just cannot get your head round or understand what "Powers Reserved to London" means do you.
  • Carnyx said:

    No. AIUI it is common to be hit with the bedroom tax on a 3 bedroom house with 1 or 2 adults plus 2 children (though the decision depends on the latters' age and sex). A quick check of Shelter (the English side, where it is not mitigated) confirms this

    https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/benefits/how_many_bedrooms_you_can_claim_benefits_for

    Also the Bedroom Tax was an "incentive" to move to homes that didn't exist. Plenty of real world examples of smaller properties not existing in council / HA stock yet people being charged for not moving into them.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 73,572

    Unionists control it from London , despite the best efforts of Scottish Government using some of their meagre pocket money to alleviate poverty , they have no chance of overcoming London policies.
    You just cannot get your head round or understand what "Powers Reserved to London" means do you.
    You mean, like a second referendum?

    Or is that a power that’s somehow magically not reserved to London, because only when the SNP have failed in something is it London’s fault?
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 38,151
    ydoethur said:

    I should, at this moment, be preparing my lessons for next half term.

    I haven’t bothered because at this moment I haven’t a clue what I’m teaching, whether in school or online, and I don’t want to waste hours for no gain.

    https://twitter.com/robpowellnews/status/1343910388316987394
  • Carnyx said:

    The issue is that ift he Scxottish Government deviates from London policy it has to take the money from elsewhere within the overall budget determined by London, and/or tax a bit more. That is where the moneyt for the bedroom tax mitigation and FSM comes from.
    Carnyx, their hatred of SNP means they don't care about reality, Scotland/SNP BAD is all that matters.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 73,572

    At least they managed to stay clear of the obvious trope....

    The group talks about food banks before they discuss whether Covid is being used 'as a cover to privatise the NHS' with Corbyn adding: 'What we've got is Covid billionaires - the equivalent to wartime millionaires.'

    They complain about 'Big Pharma' turning the NHS into a 'milking cow' before Jeremy thanks Santa for coming and shakes the hands of all three men before sending them on their way.

    -----------

    The two gifts brought by 'Santa' and delivered to Jeremy by the group include the domain name of LabourParty.org and a letter which addresses his suspension from the Labour Party over his response to the anti-Semitism report.
    It would have been a maje risk to do that.
  • Tories good at burning Scotland's cash............

    Why are we paying for this, #Scotland?

    UK Tory Govt's Scotland Office has revealed soaring costs

    Spin doctors up 280%
    Spending on comms tripled
    Advertising spend up tenfold
    >> Overall spending +73%

    I wonder if the Fleg budget is part of the advertising spend?
  • Here's an opportunity for the PB City doomsters.

    As per the ONS employment in UK financial and insurance activities was 1.373m in Jul-Sep 2020, an increase from 1.254m in Jul-Sep 2015.

    Anyone want to predict what it will be in a year's time ?
  • The majority of our trade has paperwork at both ends.

    People deal with paperwork.
    Wowsers. You don't actually believe this crap. Red tape and pointless bureaucracy is against everything you stand for. Yet you post it anyway. The Sky example is a perfect one where people don't deal with paperwork when paperwork-free alternatives exist.
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758
    Cyclefree said:

    Unlike the government, I suppose, which focused on the utterly insignificant - to the U.K. economy - sector of fishing.
    The EC behaved unjustly when we entered. They changed the rules specifically to disadvantage our fishing industry. This was about righting that wrong.
  • Given the vaccine rollout it seems logical to do home learning for schools in January.

    Even if that will be disruptive for me personally and likely mean much more time on PB for January once more than I'd have planned.
  • ydoethur said:

    FSM are a reserved power to London? Then how come the SNP extended them?

    Or are the National and the Scotsman both lying?
    Example for dummies , they used money that was for other things/purposes to the detriment elsewhere but less evil than poor children.
  • FF43FF43 Posts: 17,884
    edited December 2020
    DavidL said:


    I never believed it would be the disaster that many claimed but I accept that given where we got to and the chronic lack of preparation a deal is necessary at this point to limit disruption at a time of economic chaos.

    I am concerned about the LPF provisions and whether these are going to tie our hands in seeking to address this horrific structural deficit in our trade. Will we be unable to provide seed capital for growing industries for example? Have we committed ourselves to an EU level of bureaucracy and regulation which makes it harder to compete for international investment?

    So, if I was in Parliament I would vote for Boris's deal but I would be looking for a plan that is going to address these weaknesses in our economy and allow us to pay our way in the world, ideally with a growing standard of living. That, ultimately, is going to require a different sort of relationship with the EU than this deal offers.

    There are different ways you can assess this deal:
    1. Is it better or worse than EU membership?
    2. Is it better than No Deal?
    3. Who won more? The UK or the EU?
    4. Did the UK achieve its negotiating objectives?
    5. Was the deal better than expected or not as good as it realistically could have been?
    My responses to those assessments:
    1. Unquestionably worse than membership. The deal doesn't deliver a single economic benefit over membership. Most of the many Brexit degradations are left unmitigated. Being a trade deal, it doesn't affect the purported non-economic benefits, if they are such, of Brexit on sovereignty etc.
    2. Also unquestionably better than no deal. No deal is no relationship with the UK's most important partners by far, which is unviable. Some of the specific measures in the deal are vital
    3. Who won more is irrelevant. We are only interested in us. Presumably the EU can look after itself
    4. The UK government achieved enough of its negotiating objectives to be satisfied with the deal, on governance, LPF and fish. I think they expected to get more through their hard ball tactics, which were ineffective to counterproductive in getting the EU to shift.
    5. I think the UK government could have got a better deal. One was poor negotiating tactics that I have already alluded to. They could also have got a better deal by being smarter/more flexible with some of their red lines. In my opinion they over-fixated on the ECJ and avoiding commitments. Because the ECJ can actually be a useful objective arbitrator for a weaker party. Secondly the UK fundamentally misunderstood the point of treaties, which is to get commitments. They expended their negotiating capital on what I think to be red herrings and failed to follow up on achievable wins.
    So where to go from here? The key points are (1) and (2). The negotiating space was and will be "lot worse than membership; lot better than nothing". As a membership organisation the EU will always prioritise the value of membership. Non-members will necessarily get a much worse deal. But the deal also has to offer something valuable to those non members. "Lot worse than membership; lot better than nothing" is a big negotiating space and there is scope to move up the spectrum.

    Now we are back to the red lines. To get a better deal the UK will need to offer the EU something it wants that isn't already in the existing deals. Which probably means the UK supporting the EU more, either diplomatically, in terms of industrial alignment or with hard cash. I don't think this Brexiteer government is in that space.
  • Wowsers. You don't actually believe this crap. Red tape and pointless bureaucracy is against everything you stand for. Yet you post it anyway. The Sky example is a perfect one where people don't deal with paperwork when paperwork-free alternatives exist.
    Red tape and pointless bureaucracy is bad yes.

    Not all red tape is worth eliminating though, not if the price of eliminating it is too high.

    Red tape for customs declarations in a zero tariff/zero quota agreement should be quite negligible and people will get used to it and move on. It won't be the first or last time businessmen have faced paperwork.

    Too much of my time running a business is dealing with paperwork, but it gets done.

    If everything else were equal would I rather no red tape? Of course! Is everything else equal? No.
  • Charles said:

    The EC behaved unjustly when we entered. They changed the rules specifically to disadvantage our fishing industry. This was about righting that wrong.
    Have the fisher folk accepted that that wrong has been righted, or have they discovered once again that pompous assurances from Tories that their interests will be protected aren't worth a bucket of cold fish guts?
  • contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    Scott_xP said:
    Yeh shagger Ferguson calls it right every time.
  • glwglw Posts: 10,367

    Here's an opportunity for the PB City doomsters.

    As per the ONS employment in UK financial and insurance activities was 1.373m in Jul-Sep 2020, an increase from 1.254m in Jul-Sep 2015.

    Anyone want to predict what it will be in a year's time ?

    That can't be right, I thought everyone left London to work in Paris Amsterdam Hamburg?
  • Tres said:

    Borrowed £400bn already this year alone and we haven't even left properly yet. You just haven't noticed yet.
    I forgot furlough was a direct result of the vote to leave.

    You have heard of covid, right?
  • Here's an opportunity for the PB City doomsters.

    As per the ONS employment in UK financial and insurance activities was 1.373m in Jul-Sep 2020, an increase from 1.254m in Jul-Sep 2015.

    Anyone want to predict what it will be in a year's time ?

    Or five years time?
  • contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    edited December 2020
    Scott_xP said:
    Several weeks of missed schooling on the say-so of a completely discredited zealot like shagger Ferguson is much more reassuring.
  • FloaterFloater Posts: 14,207

    Carnyx, their hatred of SNP means they don't care about reality, Scotland/SNP BAD is all that matters.
    They should learn from you Malc - you would never allow hatred of parties other than the sainted SNP to colour your posts would you.........
  • kle4 said:

    Why is that a problem?
    When you are on fixed pocket money and have outgoings , having to cover someone else's stupid policies means you have to make cuts where you do not want to , trying to fix the shambles others are foisting on you. As any simpleton would tell you , it is better to have your own wages and manage them than give them to some dummy to decide how they want to spend them.
  • As opposed to PT, who's just a troll.....
    He has to be working for the Tory party for sure.
  • ydoethur said:

    I am aware of that.

    My point is, even having used those powers, it hasn’t been enough to avoid Scotland needing international aid, just as has happened in England.

    Now you might argue with perfect justification that there are a number of very good reasons for that. After all, Scotland is a poorer country than England, and has massive legacy problems with poverty, drug addiction and housing that are certainly not the fault of the SNP - in fact, many of them have defeated governments of all types for over fifty years.

    But MalcolmG was, rather disgustingly, trying to make a political point out of it by implying it only affected countries governed by ‘unionists.’ I was pointing out he was wrong.

    Edit - and truthfully, the main question we should be asking about all of this, as with foodbanks, is why they are needed, and how do we change matters so they stop being needed?
    You were trying and failing to point out I was wrong. I correctly pointed out that it is dumb unionists in London who have created the poverty in Scotland and England and Wales and NI. Scotland who actually have a higher GDP than anywhere except London despite unionists best efforts.
    Foodbanks etc are needed due to the greed and shit policies of Tories.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 76,782
    Cyclefree said:

    I'll review the deal thanks all the same and form my view on what it says not rely on the views of people who were not involved in the negotiations at all and have had to rely on newspaper reports.

    From what I have read so far, the government had limited ambitions, has achieved some of them and has ended up with a deal which does not achieve much for Britain but does achieve a lot for the PM and the Tory party.

    If you set a low bar, it's easy to pass.
    It is a curious phenomenon that Brexiteers, because they have achieved what they wanted, appear to believe that they have a special insight into the deal.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 73,572
    Floater said:

    They should learn from you Malc - you would never allow hatred of parties other than the sainted SNP to colour your posts would you.........
    In fairness, I’ve seen him slag off the SNP as well, particularly over Salmond.
  • kjhkjh Posts: 12,541

    Wowsers. You don't actually believe this crap. Red tape and pointless bureaucracy is against everything you stand for. Yet you post it anyway. The Sky example is a perfect one where people don't deal with paperwork when paperwork-free alternatives exist.
    From personal experience:

    From 1995 until I retired a few years ago I ran a pressure group. It was worldwide, but the majority of potential customers were in the USA and then Europe.

    Dealing with the USA (notably Microsoft who were the worst and you would think had never heard of the paperless office rather than inventing it) was a nightmare. So much so that I helped others set up a parallel organisation to mine in the USA. We worked together instead of competing. I did a similar thing for Australia.

    So yes the paperwork does deter. In my case it was so frustrating that I positively helped to get an alternative to me set up that I could work with rather than do the business for myself. I made not a penny out of it, but it improved my creditability with my customers that I had USA contacts that I couldn't profitably set up myself with all the additional admin.
  • He has to be working for the Tory party for sure.
    I wish.

    I doubt the Tory party would pay for someone to big up Scottish independence.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 54,572
    Scott_xP said:
    Unfortunately, a staggered return is one where we are staggered that Govt. is asking the kids to return....
  • ydoethur said:

    You mean, like a second referendum?

    Or is that a power that’s somehow magically not reserved to London, because only when the SNP have failed in something is it London’s fault?
    I mean like any meaningful power, you unionists are shit scared to allow a referendum, despite constantly telling u show poor , stupid , etc we are and unable to look after ourselves. The buck stops in London , they are in control.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 73,572

    You were trying and failing to point out I was wrong. I correctly pointed out that it is dumb unionists in London who have created the poverty in Scotland and England and Wales and NI. Scotland who actually have a higher GDP than anywhere except London despite unionists best efforts.
    Foodbanks etc are needed due to the greed and shit policies of Tories.
    So - you’re basically in agreement with me that the SNP attempts to mitigate it have failed, and that is why UNICEF needed to provide food aid in Scotland?
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 54,572

    Given the vaccine rollout it seems logical to do home learning for schools in January.

    Even if that will be disruptive for me personally and likely mean much more time on PB for January once more than I'd have planned.

    I'm sure there are many on here wishing that your life was not disrupted and that you had much less time to post.... 🤣
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 44,818
    Cyclefree said:

    I'll review the deal thanks all the same and form my view on what it says not rely on the views of people who were not involved in the negotiations at all and have had to rely on newspaper reports.

    From what I have read so far, the government had limited ambitions, has achieved some of them and has ended up with a deal which does not achieve much for Britain but does achieve a lot for the PM and the Tory party.

    If you set a low bar, it's easy to pass.
    I'm unlikely to be reading the source text but from my understanding of the substance it is genuinely a good deal from the point of view of a hard leaver. They have every right to be pleased with the outcome - although I wish rather fewer of them were so keen to swallow the silly spin that what really shaped it was Johnson's disruptive hardball negotiating tactics, the EU becoming so terrified of him walking that they caved in all over the place on lots of serious issues. That is strictly for the Francois types for whom it's important to think we battered those eurocrats around, really showed them what's what, otherwise they can't sleep at night.

    The truth is, the deal flowed naturally from the respective adjusted red lines. FOM had to go, this did not change from Mrs May's time, but other things did. She wished to get near frictionless trade with the SM and to protect the constitutional integrity of the UK, ruling out a border in the Irish Sea. Johnson dropped both of these requirements and was therefore, quid pro quo, able to negotiate a deal which looks - no, is - better for those whose main animators are borders, laws and fish. It's a deal that sacrifices the economy for visceral feel goods around "sovereignty" and as such is very much in the spirit of Brexit.
  • Charles said:

    I don’t think I’ve seen any unionist on here slagging off the Irish as “poor country hicks”
    You obviously must be ignoring those then , was not long ago they wanted to starve them as well. England has always derided the Irish as being dumb , poor , etc. They have everlasting resentment that Ireland chucked them out.
  • eekeek Posts: 29,741

    Given the vaccine rollout it seems logical to do home learning for schools in January.

    Even if that will be disruptive for me personally and likely mean much more time on PB for January once more than I'd have planned.

    So what happens to this years exams?
  • contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818

    Unfortunately, a staggered return is one where we are staggered that Govt. is asking the kids to return....
    is it because they have a human right to a decent education, this disease does not affect them, and those it does threaten can be isolated and/or vaccinated?

    Could those be the reasons?
  • YokesYokes Posts: 1,359
    So everyone will blame the politicians for the Covid response. I blame the NHS and the mandarins in large part.

    Yep, the NHS is at fault. They had months to prep for this, they cant get away (hopefully) with throwing care home residents back out of hospital, they have had money thrown at them. Most worrying of all, they appear to be spending a tremendous amount of time knocking on to the media about how much of a disaster its all going to be. It appears to be becoming a God complex. I just heard an interview, and it was set piece not a phone in, where a nurse was amneting the current situation. Well tough, you signed up. We get its tough but there is no magic wand. The calls for action, the 'do something' before additional measures have been allowed to take effect, which takes weeks, seem to be grasping at straws.

    Until the sainted, centre of the universe status given to the NHS is removed then they are unchallenged. The scandal of being people being sent back to care homes, who the fuck is being dragged up for scrutiny there? Thats an operational and policy decision by the NHS.

    At the beginning of last week I spoke with someone working in NHS pperations in an area of Northern Ireland that has had a notably hard time. How was it? Aparently not as bad as its being made out. Its tough but they pointed out the service comes under pressure like this every few years in winter. ICU beds occasionally go into near or over capacity. Of course some areas are suffering worse than others but do we really know, we hear anout every hospital getting full but its also patchy in terms of the degree of pressure.

    What really takes the biscuit though is in Scotland, where NHS back office staff, ie that are not in anyway working in clincal settings, have apprently been bumping the queue registering themselves for getting the vaccine. Really? Who is allowing this to happen? Is it hapenning elsewhere? Possibly. There's your sainted heroes for you.

    Its fine being a salaried, pensioned civil servant, it impacts on your outlook. Unfortunately most of the population isnt and it is becoming incresingly difficult for the public to really get the picture if all we hear is cry wolf, we do not know how real it is anymore, or not. We have lost any proportion in what the message is, the media eat it up and regurgitate it. Concern is not terror, but there are days when you feel that is exactly what is bering spread by people who should know better.

  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 73,572

    I mean like any meaningful power, you unionists are shit scared to allow a referendum, despite constantly telling u show poor , stupid , etc we are and unable to look after ourselves. The buck stops in London , they are in control.
    Ummm...again, Malc, I have always said that an SNP majority next year should lead to another referendum.

    Unfortunately, what you and others here are demonstrating is that Scotsnats literally have passed reason. You don’t care what facts are, you just twist or invent them to suit your agenda. You are reminding me, right now, very much of Donald Trump.

    My suspicion is that as a result Scotland will do a Brexit-style departure from the UK, on the back of a number of these twisted facts becoming impossible promises, and at the end when Nats are celebrating ‘freedom’ everyone else will be wondering if the marginal gain in independence was worth the cost.
  • Holds Breath (not)
    Despite asking many times, no-one has yet posted the benefits of all these new deals compared to our previous deals, I wonder why. Come on Philip sure you know them off by heart.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 76,782

    At least they managed to stay clear of the obvious trope....

    The group talks about food banks before they discuss whether Covid is being used 'as a cover to privatise the NHS' with Corbyn adding: 'What we've got is Covid billionaires - the equivalent to wartime millionaires.'

    They complain about 'Big Pharma' turning the NHS into a 'milking cow' before Jeremy thanks Santa for coming and shakes the hands of all three men before sending them on their way.

    -----------

    The two gifts brought by 'Santa' and delivered to Jeremy by the group include the domain name of LabourParty.org and a letter which addresses his suspension from the Labour Party over his response to the anti-Semitism report.

    ------------

    All those evil big Pharma corporations saving the world....disgusting...and of course AZN vaccine is being sold at basically cost.
    The excess profits are being made by big (and not so big) testing equipment suppliers.
  • I forgot furlough was a direct result of the vote to leave.

    You have heard of covid, right?
    Just on a matter of fact, we have "only" borrowed £240bn so far this year- or about £3,500 per person. Is that a lot? you decide.
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758
    edited December 2020
    deleted for muppetry
  • contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    Yokes said:

    So everyone will blame the politicians for the Covid response. I blame the NHS and the mandarins in large part.

    Yep, the NHS is at fault. They had months to prep for this, they cant get away (hopefully) with throwing care home residents back out of hospital, they have had money thrown at them. Most worrying of all, they appear to be spending a tremendous amount of time knocking on to the media about how much of a disaster its all going to be. It appears to be becoming a God complex. I just heard an interview, and it was set piece not a phone in, where a nurse was amneting the current situation. Well tough, you signed up. We get its tough but there is no magic wand. The calls for action, the 'do something' before additional measures have been allowed to take effect, which takes weeks, seem to be grasping at straws.

    Until the sainted, centre of the universe status given to the NHS is removed then they are unchallenged. The scandal of being people being sent back to care homes, who the fuck is being dragged up for scrutiny there? Thats an operational and policy decision by the NHS.

    At the beginning of last week I spoke with someone working in NHS pperations in an area of Northern Ireland that has had a notably hard time. How was it? Aparently not as bad as its being made out. Its tough but they pointed out the service comes under pressure like this every few years in winter. ICU beds occasionally go into near or over capacity. Of course some areas are suffering worse than others but do we really know, we hear anout every hospital getting full but its also patchy in terms of the degree of pressure.

    What really takes the biscuit though is in Scotland, where NHS back office staff, ie that are not in anyway working in clincal settings, have apprently been bumping the queue registering themselves for getting the vaccine. Really? Who is allowing this to happen? Is it hapenning elsewhere? Possibly. There's your sainted heroes for you.

    Its fine being a salaried, pensioned civil servant, it impacts on your outlook. Unfortunately most of the population isnt and it is becoming incresingly difficult for the public to really get the picture if all we hear is cry wolf, we do not know how real it is anymore, or not. We have lost any proportion in what the message is, the media eat it up and regurgitate it. Concern is not terror, but there are days when you feel that is exactly what is bering spread by people who should know better.

    ICU occupancy rates are below average levels in most regions, according to Toby Young. I haven't seen anybody contradict that assertion.
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758
    kle4 said:

    He's never really grasped that the Establishment, ill defined as it is, had people on both sides. even if it was not an even split.
    Not quite that simple - it was the new Establishment vs the (old Establishment + the people).

    The old Establishment was always good about making sure they were on the winning side. That's how come they stayed around so long.
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758
    eek said:

    There is red tape at both ends of the contract - watch the video again about the Glass Eels.

    It's not his paperwork that is the issue, it's the customer who given the choice between buying from France without paperwork or buying from the UK with paperwork starts purchasing from France as it's less hassle.
    so you compete on price or quality to compensate
  • Floater said:

    They should learn from you Malc - you would never allow hatred of parties other than the sainted SNP to colour your posts would you.........
    I don't like teh SNP, I am an independence supporter , not an SNP supporter.
  • FF43 said:

    There are different ways you can assess this deal:
    1. Is it better or worse than EU membership?
    2. Is it better than No Deal?
    3. Who won more? The UK or the EU?
    4. Did the UK achieve its negotiating objectives?
    5. Was the deal better than expected or not as good as it realistically could have been?
    My responses to those assessments:
    1. Unquestionably worse than membership. The deal doesn't deliver a single economic benefit over membership. Most of the many Brexit degradations are left unmitigated. Being a trade deal, it doesn't affect the purported non-economic benefits, if they are such, of Brexit on sovereignty etc.
    2. Also unquestionably better than no deal. No deal is no relationship with the UK's most important partners by far, which is unviable. Some of the specific measures in the deal are vital
    3. Who won more is irrelevant. We are only interested in us. Presumably the EU can look after itself
    4. The UK government achieved enough of its negotiating objectives to be satisfied with the deal, on governance, LPF and fish. I think they expected to get more through their hard ball tactics, which were ineffective to counterproductive in getting the EU to shift.
    5. I think the UK government could have got a better deal. One was poor negotiating tactics that I have already alluded to. They could also have got a better deal by being smarter/more flexible with some of their red lines. In my opinion they over-fixated on the ECJ and avoiding commitments. Because the ECJ can actually be a useful objective arbitrator for a weaker party. Secondly the UK fundamentally misunderstood the point of treaties, which is to get commitments. They expended their negotiating capital on what I think to be red herrings and failed to follow up on achievable wins.
    So where to go from here? The key points are (1) and (2). The negotiating space was and will be "lot worse than membership; lot better than nothing". As a membership organisation the EU will always prioritise the value of membership. Non-members will necessarily get a much worse deal. But the deal also has to offer something valuable to those non members. "Lot worse than membership; lot better than nothing" is a big negotiating space and there is scope to move up the spectrum.

    Now we are back to the red lines. To get a better deal the UK will need to offer the EU something it wants that isn't already in the existing deals. Which probably means the UK supporting the EU more, either diplomatically, in terms of industrial alignment or with hard cash. I don't think this Brexiteer government is in that space.
    I think your questions are reasonable.

    For me the answers are very clearly;

    1. It is far far better than EU membership. In fact anything including No Deal would have been better than EU membership.
    2. It is certainly better than No Deal. But I would add not as good as some other results would have been including EFTA membership. We lost that opportunity when May became PM.
    3. Agree entirely, the question of 'who won' or 'who got the most concessions' is infantile. If both sides are satisfied with the deal then both sides 'won'.
    4. I think again it is a rather daft question given that both sides had apparent red lines but at least some of these were negotiating positions rather than true red lines. It strikes me that these negotiations do bear one similarity to war in so far as the old adage goes that no plan survives first contact.
    5. The deal was better than I expected but that is because I have such a low opinion of our politicians. I think Frost and Barnier both deserve a huge amount of credit and that in retrospect it is the best deal either side could have hoped for if they were being realistic. I disagree fundamentally with your view of the ECJ.
  • Yokes said:


    What really takes the biscuit though is in Scotland, where NHS back office staff, ie that are not in anyway working in clincal settings, have apprently been bumping the queue registering themselves for getting the vaccine. Really? Who is allowing this to happen? Is it hapenning elsewhere? Possibly. There's your sainted heroes for you.

    Not that the weasel word 'apprently' (sic) makes me at all suspicious, but any proof of this?
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 38,151

    ICU occupancy rates are below average levels in most regions, according to Toby Young. I haven't seen anybody contradict that assertion.

    https://twitter.com/sbattrawden/status/1343659288787628033
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758
    Scott_xP said:
    Interesting selection of low value fish there (with the exception of cod - but I assume that is Eastern Channel cod vs. pelagic cod)
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 44,620
    ydoethur said:

    I am aware of that.

    My point is, even having used those powers, it hasn’t been enough to avoid Scotland needing international aid, just as has happened in England.

    Now you might argue with perfect justification that there are a number of very good reasons for that. After all, Scotland is a poorer country than England, and has massive legacy problems with poverty, drug addiction and housing that are certainly not the fault of the SNP - in fact, many of them have defeated governments of all types for over fifty years.

    But MalcolmG was, rather disgustingly, trying to make a political point out of it by implying it only affected countries governed by ‘unionists.’ I was pointing out he was wrong.

    Edit - and truthfully, the main question we should be asking about all of this, as with foodbanks, is why they are needed, and how do we change matters so they stop being needed?
    In fairness to Malcy, the Londion Gmt are (a) unionists and (b) in charge of several major factors that affect familial income.

    We do have people who think food banks are a good thing as that lets us give charitably. But that's uncomfortablu like the arguments of the early C19 (IIRC 1840s for the shift from parish relief to a Poor Law in Scotland).

    I was meaning to ask you, out of interest as you actually work at the chalkface, do you think FSMs are a good thing? For all children or just the poor?
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758
    Cyclefree said:

    Compliance people are never relaxed - not if they're doing their job properly. We know what a slippery lot you all are ........
    Enough with the eels!
  • kjhkjh Posts: 12,541

    ICU occupancy rates are below average levels in most regions, according to Toby Young. I haven't seen anybody contradict that assertion.
    Do you seriously take any notice of anything Toby Young says? It must be difficult to find anyone who makes more spectacular cockups with so called facts so often.
  • YokesYokes Posts: 1,359

    Not that the weasel word 'apprently' (sic) makes me at all suspicious, but any proof of this?
    Yes, a couple of doctors working in acute settings in Edinburgh.
  • FairlieredFairliered Posts: 5,609
    An independent Scotland would have different spending priorities than the UK. For example, it would not seek to be a world power, and would spend less on defence. It would spend more on social needs. That would be the case whichever party was in power in an independent Scotland, probably even the Conservatives, as if they followed hard right policies, they would not be elected.
  • Scott_xP said:

    https://twitter.com/sbattrawden/status/1343659288787628033
    What would she know, she's not Toby Young ffs.
  • contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    kjh said:

    Do you seriously take any notice of anything Toby Young says? It must be difficult to find anyone who makes more spectacular cockups with so called facts so often.
    Fair enough then, show me the evidence that refutes his claim. Nobody else has.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 44,620
    Yokes said:

    Yes, a couple of doctors working in acute settings in Edinburgh.
    Haven't seen that reported. Any links?

    And hoiw would the docs know if they are in clinical settings themselves, ie not organising the vaccine?
  • contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    edited December 2020
    Scott_xP said:

    https://twitter.com/sbattrawden/status/1343659288787628033
    That is not evidence, it is anecdotal bullsh8t. It also does not refute Young's claim.

  • Yokes said:

    Yes, a couple of doctors working in acute settings in Edinburgh.
    I retreat in the face of such 22 carat proof.
This discussion has been closed.