Should the UK remain a member of the EU

[aRdja]

Chilling.

 

 

[skend04]

29 minutes ago, viRdjil said:

Chilling.

 

 

Time to rip that plaster off. The sooner people start losing jobs, going hungry and without medicines the sooner we can string up the Tories.

[Nelly-Szoboszlai]

I've just seen James Cleverly referred to as "Graph Cunt" and it tickled me greatly. 

[Creator Supreme]

53 minutes ago, skend04 said:

Time to rip that plaster off. The sooner people start losing jobs, going hungry and without medicines the sooner we can string up the Tories.

Those last four words speak to me, can't think why!

[AngryOfTuebrook]

1 hour ago, skend04 said:

Time to rip that plaster off. The sooner people start losing jobs, going hungry and without medicines the sooner we can string up the Tories.

Kill vulnerable people to prove a point?

 

Not for me, Clive. 

[Bjornebye]

1 hour ago, Nelly-Torres said:

I've just seen James Cleverly referred to as "Graph Cunt" and it tickled me greatly. 

Arl arse on Woolster that 

[Red Shift]

Truth or lies: the UK pays a billion pounds a month to have a trade deficit with the EU?

 

Not good business if it’s true.

[skend04]

6 minutes ago, Red Shift said:

Truth or lies: the UK pays a billion pounds a month to have a trade deficit with the EU?

 

Not good business if it’s true.

Every £1 we pay in membership fee comes back as £10 into the coffers. Anywhere else you can make 1000% ROI?

[Strontium]

46 minutes ago, skend04 said:

Anywhere else you can make 1000% ROI?

 

Shorting the British pound?

[AngryOfTuebrook]

2 hours ago, skend04 said:

Every £1 we pay in membership fee comes back as £10 into the coffers. Anywhere else you can make 1000% ROI?

Pimping Tony's ma?

[M_B]

2 hours ago, Red Shift said:

Truth or lies: the UK pays a billion pounds a month to have a trade deficit with the EU?

 

Not good business if it’s true.

Isn't it? We import £345 billion per annum with zero tariffs. And the EU buys £290 billion of our products, again with zero tariffs.

 

Sounds good to me. What am I missing?

[Red Shift]

Well, that is a deficit of

21 minutes ago, M_B said:

Isn't it? We import £345 billion per annum with zero tariffs. And the EU buys £290 billion of our products, again with zero tariffs.

 

Sounds good to me. What am I missing?

that is a trade deficit of £55 billion. That's fine, on it's own, but doesn't the UK have to pay £1 billion a month in subsidies to the EU, on top of that deficit?

[M_B]

We effectively pay 1 billion a month to access the single market (although as others have said we get rebates). The deficit is because we buy more products and services than we sell in that market. I don't see the point of the link between how much we pay to access the market and the trade balance. The alternative is not to be in the single market and to have tariffs imposed on that trade which would raise prices of imported products and services and lessen demand for our home produced products.

 

I honestly might be confused here though so am happy to have things explained to me in an economics for dummies fashion.

[Vincent Vega]

Maybe our defecit with the EU wouldn't be at the level it is if Thatcher hadn't decimated our manufacturing industries?

[Red Shift]

5 minutes ago, M_B said:

We effectively pay 1 billion a month to access the single market (although as others have said we get rebates). The deficit is because we buy more products and services than we sell in that market. I don't see the point of the link between how much we pay to access the market and the trade balance. The alternative is not to be in the single market and to have tariffs imposed on that trade which would raise prices of imported products and services and lessen demand for our home produced products.

 

I honestly might be confused here though so am happy to have things explained to me in an economics for dummies fashion.

I guess at the end of the day, it depends on 2 factors. Firstly, how much flexibility in trade does the UK have outside the EU (whilst still in the EU) and secondly, how much opportunity there is for the UK to increase it’s EU export market share. I have no idea.

 

However, as an independent sovereign trader, the UK may well be better off over time - assuming that in both the above factors, the UK (within the EU) is rigidly fixed.

[Red Shift]

1 minute ago, Vincent Vega said:

Maybe our defecit with the EU wouldn't be at the level it is if Thatcher hadn't decimated our manufacturing industries?

Yip. No argument here. A mixed economy is a robust economy. Here in Aotearoa, we do pretty well as a small Pacific nation, trading globally. However, we have extensive resources.

[Numero Veinticinco]

8 minutes ago, Red Shift said:

I guess at the end of the day, it depends on 2 factors. Firstly, how much flexibility in trade does the UK have outside the EU (whilst still in the EU) and secondly, how much opportunity there is for the UK to increase it’s EU export market share. I have no idea.

 

However, as an independent sovereign trader, the UK may well be better off over time - assuming that in both the above factors, the UK (within the EU) is rigidly fixed.

We know already that it is going to smack the tits off the economy over the next ten years. It’s a terrible thing to do from a financial perspective. Do you think counties like Poland and Lithuania and others like them were falling over themselves to join the EU because it costs them a load of money? 

[AngryOfTuebrook]

15 minutes ago, Red Shift said:

I guess at the end of the day, it depends on 2 factors. Firstly, how much flexibility in trade does the UK have outside the EU (whilst still in the EU) and secondly, how much opportunity there is for the UK to increase it’s EU export market share. I have no idea.

 

However, as an independent sovereign trader, the UK may well be better off over time - assuming that in both the above factors, the UK (within the EU) is rigidly fixed.

I think it's self-evident that exporting to the EU 27 is far, far easier while we're a member of the EU than if we're not.

 

The only way leaving could reduce our balance of trade deficit vis the EU is if our imports from the EU  (the affordable food, good quality cars, etc that UK consumers enjoy) decline as a result of tariffs and non-tariff barriers to a greater degree than our exports decline.

 

Not really "sunlit uplands" is it?

 

As a general rule, protectionism is damaging to mature economies.

[littletedwest]

Who would have thought the "million to one" no deal would end up as front runner?

[Jairzinho]

18 minutes ago, littletedwest said:

Who would have thought the "million to one" no deal would end up as front runner?

[M_B]

So the government intends to hold an emergency sitting on October 19th.

 

Boris is going to declare a state of emergency. Its the only card he has left to play.

[skend04]

4 minutes ago, M_B said:

So the government intends to hold an emergency sitting on October 19th.

 

Boris is going to declare a state of emergency. Its the only card he has left to play.

A lack of army and police numbers isn't going to help. Might have to enlist all the Brexiteers to patrol the streets.

[ZonkoVille77]

I hope the place gets wrecked.

[M_B]

The point though is that he can suspend the Benn Act if he declares a State of Emergency.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

57 minutes ago, M_B said:

So the government intends to hold an emergency sitting on October 19th.

 

Boris is going to declare a state of emergency. Its the only card he has left to play.

Could he get away with that?

 

Surely, it must be subject to some sort of judicial oversight, since there is no actual emergency. 

 

Edit

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2019/09/could-government-deliver-brexit-declaring-national-emergency