Brexit

Yeh that strategy won't work, it actually like she actually bought all the ukip gooseberry fool on "the Germans wouldn't allow us to leave" "the Germans car companies will stop it"

That strategy will not work as it is a gamble that 27 other countries will each separately agree to it. All it takes is for one country to call her bluff and the whole strategy collapses.

Yeah but they need us more than we need them.

Every time she says something about brexit I'm just reminded of that Bane pic someone put in here.

"Crashing this economy.... with no survivors!"

Honestly she's such a complete and utter bellend. Hopefully she flim flams and changes her mind before official talks start, because does she honestly think that Europe will care if we choose to throw it all away?

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... -tax-haven

So basically a gun to head of EU, while begging business not to pull the rug out from under us.

I'm fairly certain the government has been quietly promising companies that the UK is going to become a tax haven and that's the reason for all of the "company X invests in UK" stories lately.

If we become a tax haven, does that mean we get the Cayman Islands weather as well?

"Brexit means Caribbean weather" would be a great slogan and be just as true as all the other bullshit.

If the people vote for it I'm sure we'll get it.

Anything would be refusing to respect democracy

I am fine with real Brexit not fake Brexit. Not much point leaving the EU if we then have to pay into it and obey all the rules and can't control immigration levels. It's remaining in all but name.

Thought this was quite interesting:



Britain’s contribution is more than the total net contribution of the 26 other EU states combined. Will be interesting to see how stopping the gravy train will affect the EU. Everyone else has to jack up their budgets or will the EU finally have to cut back?

What a load of bollocks that is

Grumpy David wrote:I am fine with real Brexit not fake Brexit. Not much point leaving the EU if we then have to pay into it and obey all the rules and can't control immigration levels. It's remaining in all but name.

Thought this was quite interesting:



Britain’s contribution is more than the total net contribution of the 26 other EU states combined. Will be interesting to see how stopping the gravy train will affect the EU. Everyone else has to jack up their budgets or will the EU finally have to cut back?

I've always been amazed at what a great deal France has always got from the EU especially through all the subsidies, they are masters at that.

I actually think that the reason May is preparing for a hard Brexit is simply because the chances of actually being able to negotiate a deal that all 27 states agree on is probably very slim. I believe that when article 50 is invoked if no deal is made in the two years then the relationship is terminated anyway isn't it? I assume that's what she believes is going to happen.

Leaving the "European social model". So goodbye welfare state in order to pay for lower taxation and attract the rich to London; which can then onshore its current tax haven work. Well done people, you really stuck it to the 'elite'.

This is what the far right wing of the Tory party wanted all along I think. The internal conflict they had was really between the minority completed wedded to international tax avoidance and the majority who still have substantial interest in other parts of the British economy. The minority interested headed by the likes of Gove won out and now they are going to sink the interests of the poor, the middle and even most of their own ranks in favour of rewarding a clique of ultra libertarian, anti-statists.

And they got the poorest to help them do it. Bravo. I would be angrier if I wasn't so impressed.

Anyway, sterling will take another hit when trading opens on Monday, but don't worry; the engineers of Brexit will profit nicely when their shares in the FTSE climb in response to any devaluation.

May's bargaining tool, apart from threatening to leave everything, is this:

Meanwhile, reports have emerged that the Netherlands will block any trade deal with the UK unless it signs up to tough tax avoidance regulations preventing it from becoming a tax haven.

The Deputy Prime Minister, Lodewijk Asscher, has written to socialist leaders across the continent stipulating his party’s red lines in coming talks.

In a letter seen by the Guardian, however, Mr Asscher writes that it is in the interests of both the UK and the remaining 27 EU member states that Mrs May’s government is prevented from creating a low-tax outpost.

He writes: "Let’s fight the race to the bottom for profits taxation together which threatens to come into existence if it is up to the Conservative UK government.

"This is why I propose to come to a new trade agreement with Great Britain, but only if we can agree firmly upon tackling tax avoidance and stopping the fiscal race to the bottom."

It's theoretically possible to offset the decreases in tax revenue if they bring in enough new business (therefore bringing it back to what it is currently) but I'm not sure how the maths/odds of that actually being true are. But the majority have an interesting view on tax. We don't like that companies like Apple, Amazon, Google and Starbucks pay so little. But people don't stop buying from them, so obviously don't care that much. It's the 'strawberry floating Tesco will ruin our town but then love them when they're there' routine.

The problem with being a tax haven is that, by definition, it's a very limited source of revenue. For a small banana republic it might present a viable option but not for a state like the UK, especially since its electorate are not likely to take the degradation of their much loved 'European social model' (read, welfare, NHS, pensions) lying down. Of course, London is a small enough and connected enough to do quite well out of such an arrangement and for some MPs anything beyond the M25 is just hickland that can be written off. The 50+ million people who live outside the capital can just strawberry float off.

As someone visiting the UK in the next fortnight the expected dip in Sterlings value will probably save me a few quid so yay for that I guess. I'm guessing Amazon will probably need to open a distribution centre somewhere in Ireland as well so they'll end up offering next day (possibly same day) delivery over here soon enough. Great news all around.


On a more serious note, I may be mistaken here but does a hard Brexit like this practically guarantee that banks will lose their passporting rights and be forced to move some business out of the UK?

Meep wrote:Leaving the "European social model". So goodbye welfare state in order to pay for lower taxation and attract the rich to London; which can then onshore its current tax haven work. Well done people, you really stuck it to the 'elite'.

This is what the far right wing of the Tory party wanted all along I think. The internal conflict they had was really between the minority completed wedded to international tax avoidance and the majority who still have substantial interest in other parts of the British economy. The minority interested headed by the likes of Gove won out and now they are going to sink the interests of the poor, the middle and even most of their own ranks in favour of rewarding a clique of ultra libertarian, anti-statists.

And they got the poorest to help them do it. Bravo. I would be angrier if I wasn't so impressed.

Anyway, sterling will take another hit when trading opens on Monday, but don't worry; the engineers of Brexit will profit nicely when their shares in the FTSE climb in response to any devaluation.

Disaster Capitalism, indeed.

Grumpy David wrote:I am fine with real Brexit not fake Brexit. Not much point leaving the EU if we then have to pay into it and obey all the rules and can't control immigration levels. It's remaining in all but name.

Thought this was quite interesting:



Britain’s contribution is more than the total net contribution of the 26 other EU states combined. Will be interesting to see how stopping the gravy train will affect the EU. Everyone else has to jack up their budgets or will the EU finally have to cut back?

Germany in 2014:

Trade surplus: $285billion

Exports: $1.5trillion
Imports: $1.3trillion

They must be bricking it about that €12billion.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38631832

Trump says we're doing great after Brexit, we are great people, the queen is great, everything's great.

Trump promising a quick trade deal with the UK in weeks. Trade deals take years.