Brexit again - another huge negative

Isn't this the worrying statement though:

• Impact of Brexit on foreign investor sentiment yet to be seen but report highlights need to maintain a pro-growth, open and stable business environment to keep up investment

This is dripping in subtext and we know what these terms mean, and from our previous conversations it isn't the Britain that Tony Benn was arguing for post-Brexit.

I respect your views on Brexit and understand your arguments, but I've always been convinced that the only Britain that will emerge from this will be one that becomes pro-business on steroids, deregulating and tax cutting, eroding workers rights and worshipping at the false altar of trickle down economics.

 

Ah! 'Trickle down Economics' is fine so long as someone remembers to get 'Dyno-Rod' in every so often to unblock the pipe. Unfortunately those running the economy for the past few decades seemed to have lost the number so there seems to be a blockage at the top.

 

Can't disagree with you Ark....undoubtedly it's a caveat that needs to be taken seriously....and to your point about Tony Benn, agreed again, I admit to being an interventionist somewhat in the Benn mould, why is why I'm not in favour of agreeing to Barnier's remit to tie us to future EU state aid rules... but in this case I was just responding to a piece that suggested overseas companies were preparing for a mass exodus...there will be some leave and some restructure, but as I read it Deloitte's are suggesting it will not be as negative as some other commentators think.

 

There’s only one thing that’s trickled down on me from the tories,,,,,,,,and it AIN’T money!!!

 

for once you've actually said something i agree with. Isn't it strange how those people you've lambasted convinced so many people it was someone elses fault though.

 

https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pag...les/power-up-uk-inward-investment-report.html

 

The UK-Japan deal has tighter rules around state aid than the EU are wanting in the UK-EU deal. It doesn't matter if we get looser rules around state aid with the EU, as anything over the level agreed with Japan will breach that deal.

A similar report from EY found that investment in the UK fell between 2015 and 2018, with levels increasing again in 2019 (5% increase) but France overtook the UK for the most projects in Europe (17% increase). Most of these projects are based in London, and some regions outside London have seen a decrease in investment/projects.

https://www.ey.com/en_uk/news/2020/...n-digital-as-economy-transforms-new-ey-report

It also thinks that the UK is well-placed to recover from Covid, so the authors might have all been on crack when they wrote it.

 

There are very few positive's to Brexit unless your very rich, the EU anti tax avoidance measures may benefit you in that you can continue with avoiding tax, very rich may also profit from the likely privatisation of the NHS ( if you see Sid tell him ;-) ) also the reduction in environmental standard and workers rights, you may well profit from these. If your not rich and voted for it, likely you've been pillocked.

 

Part of me has wondered if the push away from the EU is more about following a more American ideology. I

f you look at the minute, we're having their election coverage rammed down on our throats on the news channels, yet when you look at other nations, ones much closer to us, we hardly hear anything apart from the result, or if something leading to unrest occurs. We hear much of their news, but hear little of say Germany. And you look at many of the far right advocating no deal in the tory party, and there have a tendency (if not formalised) of wanting to trade more with America, which in turn requires fundamental changes to our environmental, food and agricultural quality standards.

We were in the EU over 40 years, yet probably had more of the US Senate on our screens than the EU chamber.

 

I get what you’re saying, however I think part of the reason for that is that US politics affects everyone more than say German politics (right now at least)

Especially with things like climate change, the US under trump is such a polluter, that they’re causing irreversible damage that affects everyone, not just Americans. Plus the fact that we are so closely tied to the US in terms of recent history, it makes sense that their elections are news here.

 

But it feels the same as when Obama was President, and Bush before that, and probably even back to Clinton. I think much of it is a cultural thing, that some align with US more than Europe, and some feel more comfortable with it being a common (sort of!) language.

 

More people spoke English in the EU (260m when we were members) than in the USA (239m).

 

They do, and very well too. But its not the first language of any of the nations. And perhaps more important, how many brits can speak a European language fluently?

Why do you think we see so much american news on our channels when we're so much further away from them then our European friends?

 

"But its not the first language of any of the nations". English is an official language of Ireland and Malta - and while Irish is the first language, only 70,000 speak it on a daily basis and just about everybody speaks English.

 

*sigh*

So why do you think there is such a fascination of America and saturation of their news in the UK compared to our close European neighbours? Any inklings or musings you might have on the subject?

 

This with bells on Fred!

 

So the data is as of 2018, before it became clear we'd be exiting without a deal, and even then the report notes that the number of HQs in the UK had declined over the previous few years.

 

The FT article also said
"But some lawyers also stressed that the subsidy rules in the Japan bilateral deal were still weak compared with the detailed and invasive EU state aid regime. James Webber, a partner at the law firm Shearman & Sterling, said: “It’s a concession of sorts by the UK, but if this is where the negotiations end up, it will be much closer to the UK’s view of the world than the EU’s.”

 

I did say that it was published last year....but investments are made for long periods...all contingencies will be considered.

 

All those stories are the state pre Brexit, they neither show the state of transition economy or importantly what happens when the transition period ends.

They’re certainly not any pro Brexit evidence.