fudge that - the UK is a horrible place to holiday. It's full of northern people.
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Politics, politics, politics (so long and thanks for all the fish)
- Thread starter SpurMeUp
- Start date
Gutter Boy
Tim Sherwood
Black Wednesday (the last big devaluation), created a booming economy for a decade
Gutter Boy
Tim Sherwood
Isn't it a bit like Wetherspoons though? Places like Skegness keep the people you wouldn't want to mix with altogether and away from you
The UK is a lot like Wetherspoons.
SpurMeUp
Tommy Harmer
We are not a manufacturing nation anymore. Moreover no nation wants to be competing at the dirty end of scale - they want to be producing and selling high end items which are not all about price and tiny margins. We've moved away from things like clothes exports and raw material production for this reason. London has almost no manufacuring instead its about high end engineering and providing sophisticated services.
So no we don't want a falling pound. It makes things more expensive for companies, and is a sign of UK decline. Not what Brexit was supposed to be about!
The pounds valuation is a rating of the UK against other nations. All UK wages and companies have effectively been written down. They are worth less now. And the weaker pound doesn't seem to have stimulated the economy either - there is less growth now. Capial is leaving the UK as we are viewed as being closer to unstable Italy or Spain, rather than akin to Germany.
Because manufacturing input costs are rarely isolated from global supplies, actually the only upside of a lower pound, is really tourism. Most manufacturing needs to buy goods (and often labour) from abroad and our money doesn't go as far now. Our wages are less attractive, and goods we buy are more pricy. Maybe a good time to invest in UK tourism.
Sterling as a rating is just a dingdong waving contest. I grew out of that a long time ago.
If Germany is selling high end widgets for €100 and we are selling them for £100, then we do not want Sterling stronger than the Euro. That's nothing to do with a race to the bottom, that's competing against our direct competition.
Thats an oversimplification and you know it.
Craig_J
Sergei Rebrov
The Prime Minister of the summer recess whose only notable action was autumn inaction.
His legacy would be:
SpurMeUp
Tommy Harmer
Around 15% is "minor" ?
To a currency that most thought was over valued, yes.
That inaction would be the most positive contribution by a PM in a generation.
Craig_J
Sergei Rebrov
I’ll remind you you said that when the recession comes!
monkeybarry
Dimitar Berbatov
Cards on the table.
I think we will see negative growth in Aug and Sept too (but still tiny, around 0.2%).
Johnson will use this as his basis to cancel Brexit for now and focus on domestic issues.
"The economic conditions have changed because of the failure of May and the EU to reach a deal by 31 March.
It now falls to me to make the big decisions. And I say we put Britain first, we focus on what matters to the man on the street. We revitalise our economy with the skills we are already world leaders in.
It comes with heavy heart, but out of necessity, that we are withdraw I Article 50 and focusing Great Britain. This great nation of ours. A nation let down by dithering politicians, but a nation ready to rise again."
Recessions will always come - the only person dim enough to believe otherwise was Gordon Brown
SpurMeUp
Tommy Harmer
1-2% is minor. 15% is huge. Any company importing goods has a very significant price increase. As have consumers buying imported goods. 15% across the whole Uk economy is tens of billions more we’re paying.
There is no way to spin it as a good thing unless you’re welcoming more foreign tourists in your business.
Sitting on my porcelain throne using glory-glory.co.uk mobile app
15% is cherry picking - let's not pretend you don't know that.
And Sterling was at least 10% overvalued on the Euro.
nayimfromthehalfwayline
Andy Thompson
The UK is "first in line" for a trade deal with the US, President Trump's national security adviser has said.
John Bolton said the US supported a no-deal Brexit and added that Washington would propose an accelerated series of trade deals.
Mr Bolton claimed deals could be done on a "sector-by-sector" basis, with an agreement on manufacturing made first.
However, critics warned the UK would have to give in to some US demands in return for any trade agreement.
His comments came after meeting Prime Minister Boris Johnson at No 10.
According to Mr Bolton, a bilateral agreement or "series of agreements" could be carved out "very quickly, very straight-forwardly".
While saying that "both President Trump and I were leavers before there were leavers", he added that a trade deal for financial services and agriculture would not be the first to be agreed.
Mr Bolton said "doing it in pieces" is not unprecedented and the US understood the importance and urgency of "doing as much as we can agree on as rapidly as possible because of the impending 31 October exit date".
He argued that there would be enthusiastic bipartisan support in Congress for speedy ratification at each stage.
However, Sam Lowe, a trade expert at the Centre for European Reform said he was sceptical about whether Congress would support a "sector-by-sector" approach and the US had previously rejected an offer from the EU to negotiate on industrial goods before reaching an agreement on agriculture.
"The reason the US said no is because its aggressive ask when it negotiates with new partners is agriculture - that's what it cares about," he said.
Following his meeting with Mr Johnson on Monday, Mr Bolton said: "To be clear, in the Trump administration, Britain's constantly at the front of the trade queue, or line as we say.
"We want to move very quickly. We wish we could have moved further along in this with the prior government."
When asked whether his proposed plan would follow World Trade Organisation rules, he said "our trade negotiators seem to think it is".
Mr Bolton also criticised the European Union and accused them of treating voters like "peasants".
"The fashion in the European Union when the people vote the wrong way from the way that the elites want to go is to make the peasants vote again and again until they get it right," he said.
He made it clear that the US government "fully understands" that Brexit is the UK's first priority, and said issues like Iran, China, and the involvement of the Chinese telecoms firm Huawei in building the UK's 5G mobile infrastructure could be put off until after the UK leaves the EU.
"We just ask that, as issues come up, we resolve them individually and we reserve the time to have a larger conversation on some of these important issues at a moment that is really right for the new government. We just felt we owe them that," he said.
Mr Bolton also referenced Mr Johnson's willingness to participate in Operation Sentinel, which aims to beef up the military presence in the Gulf in the face of tensions between the West and Iran, saying he was "pleased" as this "reflects a change from the prior government".
'America first'
Former Labour foreign secretary Jack Straw described Mr Bolton as "dangerously bellicose", as well as opposed to the Iran nuclear deal and international organisations like the United Nations.
In return for a trade deal, Mr Straw suggested the UK would have to agree to some US demands, for example allowing imports of US chlorine-washed chicken.
"This is a highly transactional administration… you don't get something for nothing," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
Lewis Lukens, a former deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in London and former acting US ambassador, said Mr Bolton was aligned to President Trump's "America first agenda" and would be making "strong demands" on the UK to back the US position on issues like Huawei, China and Iran.
For example, he said Mr Bolton would want a "clear indication" from the UK it would leave the Iran nuclear deal, which President Trump withdrew the US from in May 2018.
Mr Johnson is expected to have his first face-to-face meeting as prime minister with Mr Trump later this month at the G7 summit in France.
John Bolton said the US supported a no-deal Brexit and added that Washington would propose an accelerated series of trade deals.
Mr Bolton claimed deals could be done on a "sector-by-sector" basis, with an agreement on manufacturing made first.
However, critics warned the UK would have to give in to some US demands in return for any trade agreement.
His comments came after meeting Prime Minister Boris Johnson at No 10.
According to Mr Bolton, a bilateral agreement or "series of agreements" could be carved out "very quickly, very straight-forwardly".
While saying that "both President Trump and I were leavers before there were leavers", he added that a trade deal for financial services and agriculture would not be the first to be agreed.
Mr Bolton said "doing it in pieces" is not unprecedented and the US understood the importance and urgency of "doing as much as we can agree on as rapidly as possible because of the impending 31 October exit date".
He argued that there would be enthusiastic bipartisan support in Congress for speedy ratification at each stage.
However, Sam Lowe, a trade expert at the Centre for European Reform said he was sceptical about whether Congress would support a "sector-by-sector" approach and the US had previously rejected an offer from the EU to negotiate on industrial goods before reaching an agreement on agriculture.
"The reason the US said no is because its aggressive ask when it negotiates with new partners is agriculture - that's what it cares about," he said.
Following his meeting with Mr Johnson on Monday, Mr Bolton said: "To be clear, in the Trump administration, Britain's constantly at the front of the trade queue, or line as we say.
"We want to move very quickly. We wish we could have moved further along in this with the prior government."
When asked whether his proposed plan would follow World Trade Organisation rules, he said "our trade negotiators seem to think it is".
Mr Bolton also criticised the European Union and accused them of treating voters like "peasants".
"The fashion in the European Union when the people vote the wrong way from the way that the elites want to go is to make the peasants vote again and again until they get it right," he said.
He made it clear that the US government "fully understands" that Brexit is the UK's first priority, and said issues like Iran, China, and the involvement of the Chinese telecoms firm Huawei in building the UK's 5G mobile infrastructure could be put off until after the UK leaves the EU.
"We just ask that, as issues come up, we resolve them individually and we reserve the time to have a larger conversation on some of these important issues at a moment that is really right for the new government. We just felt we owe them that," he said.
Mr Bolton also referenced Mr Johnson's willingness to participate in Operation Sentinel, which aims to beef up the military presence in the Gulf in the face of tensions between the West and Iran, saying he was "pleased" as this "reflects a change from the prior government".
'America first'
Former Labour foreign secretary Jack Straw described Mr Bolton as "dangerously bellicose", as well as opposed to the Iran nuclear deal and international organisations like the United Nations.
In return for a trade deal, Mr Straw suggested the UK would have to agree to some US demands, for example allowing imports of US chlorine-washed chicken.
"This is a highly transactional administration… you don't get something for nothing," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
Lewis Lukens, a former deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in London and former acting US ambassador, said Mr Bolton was aligned to President Trump's "America first agenda" and would be making "strong demands" on the UK to back the US position on issues like Huawei, China and Iran.
For example, he said Mr Bolton would want a "clear indication" from the UK it would leave the Iran nuclear deal, which President Trump withdrew the US from in May 2018.
Mr Johnson is expected to have his first face-to-face meeting as prime minister with Mr Trump later this month at the G7 summit in France.