Is there any point analysing the defects in the EU's position? Thanks to the offensive charm employed by the British government, it's not as though Britain is going to be able to influence them very much to move from their present approach. Britain should concentrate on addressing its own flaws. Goodness knows there are enough of them.
Britain's biggest flaw by a long way is the failure to raise its low level of productivity in the last decade.
At the risk of sounding like the TV programme W1A, overall wealth and standard of living can only be achieved by producing more from less.
It's an oddity that the impact of economic growth since 2010 has shown up in employment, rather than productivity.
We've started replacing machines with the unskilled.
I think the answer is that we have such flexible labour markets, and access to labour across the EU, that it is far easier to recruit someone than to invest in technology.
Is there any point analysing the defects in the EU's position? Thanks to the offensive charm employed by the British government, it's not as though Britain is going to be able to influence them very much to move from their present approach. Britain should concentrate on addressing its own flaws. Goodness knows there are enough of them.
Britain's biggest flaw by a long way is the failure to raise its low level of productivity in the last decade.
At the risk of sounding like the TV programme W1A, overall wealth and standard of living can only be achieved by producing more from less.
It's an oddity that the impact of economic growth since 2010 has shown up in employment, rather than productivity.
We've started replacing machines with the unskilled.
I think the answer is that we have such flexible labour markets, and access to labour across the EU, that it is far easier to recruit someone than to invest in technology.
Is it a problem?
If an unskilled individual is cheaper than a machine is it not better to hire the unskilled individual giving them a job rather than leaving them unemployed and purchasing a more expensive machine?
Is there any point analysing the defects in the EU's position? Thanks to the offensive charm employed by the British government, it's not as though Britain is going to be able to influence them very much to move from their present approach. Britain should concentrate on addressing its own flaws. Goodness knows there are enough of them.
Britain's biggest flaw by a long way is the failure to raise its low level of productivity in the last decade.
At the risk of sounding like the TV programme W1A, overall wealth and standard of living can only be achieved by producing more from less.
It's an oddity that the impact of economic growth since 2010 has shown up in employment, rather than productivity.
We've started replacing machines with the unskilled.
I think the answer is that we have such flexible labour markets, and access to labour across the EU, that it is far easier to recruit someone than to invest in technology.
Is it a problem?
If an unskilled individual is cheaper than a machine is it not better to hire the unskilled individual giving them a job rather than leaving them unemployed and purchasing a more expensive machine?
That's a profound question, and I don't know the answer.
There are people who argue that the Industrial Revolution could have taken place 2,000 years ago in Rome or Ptolmeiac Egypt, but the existence of slave labour meant that no one saw the need to adapt technology.
Leave it open on the Uk side - let the EU police the other side.
If they want to crucify ROI by closing it or inspecting every lorry then meh it's an EU issue.
Simples.
Under WTO rules (without a FTA with the EU) we could not just have an open border with one customs area, we would have to have no checks elsewhere.
Dan Hannan may be happy, but few others methinks.
Are you telling me every country in the WTO has rigorous border checks ?
Under Most Favoured Nation rules they are obliged to apply the same border rules to all countries, unless there is a specific FTA.
Countries that feel aggreived can apply via the WTO resolution systems for punishment. If we have no FTA with the EU then we have to apply the same border rules with RoI as to the rest of the world.
I'm sure some imaginative interpretation of some provision of one of the N Ireland agreements could facilitate the legal basis for an open border. The UK also had two trade treaties dating from 1938 and 1965 with Ireland. I don't know if these were explicitly lapsed when Britain joined the EEC or whether they effectively went into abeyance as having been superseded by the wider European agreement. If the latter, then on withdrawal from the EU without any leaving Treaty, Britain could argue that those older agreements have been reactivated. That might cause a problem for Ireland, which'd have conflicting treaty obligations, but it'd still be an arguable case.
Is there any point analysing the defects in the EU's position? Thanks to the offensive charm employed by the British government, it's not as though Britain is going to be able to influence them very much to move from their present approach. Britain should concentrate on addressing its own flaws. Goodness knows there are enough of them.
Britain's biggest flaw by a long way is the failure to raise its low level of productivity in the last decade.
At the risk of sounding like the TV programme W1A, overall wealth and standard of living can only be achieved by producing more from less.
It's an oddity that the impact of economic growth since 2010 has shown up in employment, rather than productivity.
We've started replacing machines with the unskilled.
I think the answer is that we have such flexible labour markets, and access to labour across the EU, that it is far easier to recruit someone than to invest in technology.
Is it a problem?
If an unskilled individual is cheaper than a machine is it not better to hire the unskilled individual giving them a job rather than leaving them unemployed and purchasing a more expensive machine?
The Left often talk about capitalism privatising the profits and nationalising the losses. That's how I see the immigration - business benefits but society suffers.
Leave it open on the Uk side - let the EU police the other side.
If they want to crucify ROI by closing it or inspecting every lorry then meh it's an EU issue.
Simples.
Under WTO rules (without a FTA with the EU) we could not just have an open border with one customs area, we would have to have no checks elsewhere.
Dan Hannan may be happy, but few others methinks.
Are you telling me every country in the WTO has rigorous border checks ?
Under Most Favoured Nation rules they are obliged to apply the same border rules to all countries, unless there is a specific FTA.
Countries that feel aggreived can apply via the WTO resolution systems for punishment. If we have no FTA with the EU then we have to apply the same border rules with RoI as to the rest of the world.
I'm sure some imaginative interpretation of some provision of one of the N Ireland agreements could facilitate the legal basis for an open border. The UK also had two trade treaties dating from 1938 and 1965 with Ireland. I don't know if these were explicitly lapsed when Britain joined the EEC or whether they effectively went into abeyance as having been superseded by the wider European agreement. If the latter, then on withdrawal from the EU without any leaving Treaty, Britain could argue that those older agreements have been reactivated. That might cause a problem for Ireland, which'd have conflicting treaty obligations, but it'd still be an arguable case.
I don't see it as the insuperable problem that William Glenn and Sinn Fein see it as being.
Germany and France have dashed British hopes of fast-tracking talks on a two-year post-Brexit transition deal, insisting that the UK’s EU divorce bill be resolved first.
Interestingly Michel Barnier argued for opening up talks on the transition deal now, according to the article, but was knocked back by Merkel and Macron. So much for the idea, much aired here, of bypassing Barnier and going straight to Merkel.
Fox or Davis should have leaked a first draft of a trade agreement on A50 day. Just write a generally zero-tariff-on-anything, zero-quotas-for-everything, reciprocal-conformity-acknowledging, happy-happy agreement but put in there one thing that each EU27 country would hate. Each of the EU27 would start knocking on Barnier's door about their own point. The UK's line would be "well I can't comment on leaks, but I daresay those sticking points are the default no-deal position. We'd be happy to discuss those points as soon as the Commission's ready".
Conversation would have moved to trade whether the Commission wanted it or not.
Many thanks."Kashmir" live in the Dam my personal fave.
Plant is a superb role model for the septegenerians......
In this whole Brexit noise stuff that's going on, I don't know what value we can actually place on our world icon artists that are worshipped and adored around the globe....
Leave it open on the Uk side - let the EU police the other side.
If they want to crucify ROI by closing it or inspecting every lorry then meh it's an EU issue.
Simples.
Under WTO rules (without a FTA with the EU) we could not just have an open border with one customs area, we would have to have no checks elsewhere.
Dan Hannan may be happy, but few others methinks.
Are you telling me every country in the WTO has rigorous border checks ?
Under Most Favoured Nation rules they are obliged to apply the same border rules to all countries, unless there is a specific FTA.
Countries that feel aggreived can apply via the WTO resolution systems for punishment. If we have no FTA with the EU then we have to apply the same border rules with RoI as to the rest of the world.
I'm sure some imaginative interpretation of some provision of one of the N Ireland agreements could facilitate the legal basis for an open border. The UK also had two trade treaties dating from 1938 and 1965 with Ireland. I don't know if these were explicitly lapsed when Britain joined the EEC or whether they effectively went into abeyance as having been superseded by the wider European agreement. If the latter, then on withdrawal from the EU without any leaving Treaty, Britain could argue that those older agreements have been reactivated. That might cause a problem for Ireland, which'd have conflicting treaty obligations, but it'd still be an arguable case.
Isn't all this showing signs of desperation. If there is no single market, WTO border rules apply, and the EU is entitled to ask what rules the UK intends to apply. I suspect that part of England's problem is that any solution on the Border with the the ROI and Spain will work equally well on a border with Scotland. Where then the "Precious Union"?
Leave it open on the Uk side - let the EU police the other side.
If they want to crucify ROI by closing it or inspecting every lorry then meh it's an EU issue.
Simples.
Under WTO rules (without a FTA with the EU) we could not just have an open border with one customs area, we would have to have no checks elsewhere.
Dan Hannan may be happy, but few others methinks.
Are you telling me every country in the WTO has rigorous border checks ?
Under Most Favoured Nation rules they are obliged to apply the same border rules to all countries, unless there is a specific FTA.
Countries that feel aggreived can apply via the WTO resolution systems for punishment. If we have no FTA with the EU then we have to apply the same border rules with RoI as to the rest of the world.
I'm sure some imaginative interpretation of some provision of one of the N Ireland agreements could facilitate the legal basis for an open border. The UK also had two trade treaties dating from 1938 and 1965 with Ireland. I don't know if these were explicitly lapsed when Britain joined the EEC or whether they effectively went into abeyance as having been superseded by the wider European agreement. If the latter, then on withdrawal from the EU without any leaving Treaty, Britain could argue that those older agreements have been reactivated. That might cause a problem for Ireland, which'd have conflicting treaty obligations, but it'd still be an arguable case.
Isn't all this showing signs of desperation. If there is no single market, WTO border rules apply, and the EU is entitled to ask what rules the UK intends to apply. I suspect that part of England's problem is that any solution on the Border with the the ROI and Spain will work equally well on a border with Scotland. Where then the "Precious Union"?
Is there any point analysing the defects in the EU's position? Thanks to the offensive charm employed by the British government, it's not as though Britain is going to be able to influence them very much to move from their present approach. Britain should concentrate on addressing its own flaws. Goodness knows there are enough of them.
Britain's biggest flaw by a long way is the failure to raise its low level of productivity in the last decade.
At the risk of sounding like the TV programme W1A, overall wealth and standard of living can only be achieved by producing more from less.
It's an oddity that the impact of economic growth since 2010 has shown up in employment, rather than productivity.
The growth in employment has been in low paid, part time, low value jobs, particularly in the service sector.
I'm convinced that the low growth in productivity is a mix effect as the proportion of low value jobs grows. You can have high productivity growth in every sector but if the low productivity sectors are growing faster as a proportion of the whole, it will arithmetically show up as low productivity growth overall.
Is there any point analysing the defects in the EU's position? Thanks to the offensive charm employed by the British government, it's not as though Britain is going to be able to influence them very much to move from their present approach. Britain should concentrate on addressing its own flaws. Goodness knows there are enough of them.
Britain's biggest flaw by a long way is the failure to raise its low level of productivity in the last decade.
At the risk of sounding like the TV programme W1A, overall wealth and standard of living can only be achieved by producing more from less.
It's an oddity that the impact of economic growth since 2010 has shown up in employment, rather than productivity.
The growth in employment has been in low paid, part time, low value jobs, particularly in the service sector.
I'm convinced that the low growth in productivity is a mix effect as the proportion of low value jobs grows. You can have high productivity growth in every sector but if the low productivity sectors are growing faster as a proportion of the whole, it will arithmetically show up as low productivity growth overall.
Is there any point analysing the defects in the EU's position? Thanks to the offensive charm employed by the British government, it's not as though Britain is going to be able to influence them very much to move from their present approach. Britain should concentrate on addressing its own flaws. Goodness knows there are enough of them.
Britain's biggest flaw by a long way is the failure to raise its low level of productivity in the last decade.
At the risk of sounding like the TV programme W1A, overall wealth and standard of living can only be achieved by producing more from less.
It's an oddity that the impact of economic growth since 2010 has shown up in employment, rather than productivity.
The growth in employment has been in low paid, part time, low value jobs, particularly in the service sector.
I'm convinced that the low growth in productivity is a mix effect as the proportion of low value jobs grows. You can have high productivity growth in every sector but if the low productivity sectors are growing faster as a proportion of the whole, it will arithmetically show up as low productivity growth overall.
Is there any point analysing the defects in the EU's position? Thanks to the offensive charm employed by the British government, it's not as though Britain is going to be able to influence them very much to move from their present approach. Britain should concentrate on addressing its own flaws. Goodness knows there are enough of them.
I seem to recall a recent thread header of yours where you analysed the defects in the Remainers’ position.......
I like to ring the changes. Consistency is the sign of a small mind.
I tend towards Roger's view. It's not really open to Leavers to critique the EU's negotiating position. It has to be dealt with as it stands. It might have been substantially different if Theresa May had made an early attempt to sketch out what a long term constructive relationship would look like. The EU can afford to wait for Britain to get over its collective insanity.
Please don’t make assumptions about what side of the divide I’m on. I’m sure the EU can afford to wait. Whether this is sensible is another matter and one can critique their stance if one wants.
I wrote this thread to try and see if there is a way forward to a long-term constructive relationship, ideally one where Britain is in a better EU. I still think this would be in the interests of the EU as well.
If the EU disagrees, well there we are. But still - a pity. The enervated state of British—EU relations is not solely down to Britain. At the risk of being thought a consistent small mind, I wrote a thread last year on all the things Britain had done wrong over the years. Exploring what the EU has done wrong may help avoid making similar mistakes in future.
But in any case it doesn’t matter since what I - or anyone else - writes on the internet is pretty much the definition of futility.
Leave it open on the Uk side - let the EU police the other side.
If they want to crucify ROI by closing it or inspecting every lorry then meh it's an EU issue.
Simples.
Under WTO rules (without a FTA with the EU) we could not just have an open border with one customs area, we would have to have no checks elsewhere.
Dan Hannan may be happy, but few others methinks.
Are you telling me every country in the WTO has rigorous border checks ?
Under Most Favoured Nation rules they are obliged to apply the same border rules to all countries, unless there is a specific FTA.
Countries that feel aggreived can apply via the WTO resolution systems for punishment. If we have no FTA with the EU then we have to apply the same border rules with RoI as to the rest of the world.
I'm sure some imaginative interpretation of some provision of one of the N Ireland agreements could facilitate the legal basis for an open border. The UK also had two trade treaties dating from 1938 and 1965 with Ireland. I don't know if these were explicitly lapsed when Britain joined the EEC or whether they effectively went into abeyance as having been superseded by the wider European agreement. If the latter, then on withdrawal from the EU without any leaving Treaty, Britain could argue that those older agreements have been reactivated. That might cause a problem for Ireland, which'd have conflicting treaty obligations, but it'd still be an arguable case.
Isn't all this showing signs of desperation. If there is no single market, WTO border rules apply, and the EU is entitled to ask what rules the UK intends to apply. I suspect that part of England's problem is that any solution on the Border with the the ROI and Spain will work equally well on a border with Scotland. Where then the "Precious Union"?
The Scots do not wish to secede.
They may if the UK is not in the single market. They voted by a more substantial margin than the UK to remain, and have been completely ignored in the the discussions so far.
Under WTO rules (without a FTA with the EU) we could not just have an open border with one customs area, we would have to have no checks elsewhere.
Dan Hannan may be happy, but few others methinks.
Are you telling me every country in the WTO has rigorous border checks ?
Under Most Favoured Nation rules they are obliged to apply the same border rules to all countries, unless there is a specific FTA.
Countries that feel aggreived can apply via the WTO resolution systems for punishment. If we have no FTA with the EU then we have to apply the same border rules with RoI as to the rest of the world.
I'm sure some imaginative interpretation of some provision of one of the N Ireland agreements could facilitate the legal basis for an open border. The UK also had two trade treaties dating from 1938 and 1965 with Ireland. I don't know if these were explicitly lapsed when Britain joined the EEC or whether they effectively went into abeyance as having been superseded by the wider European agreement. If the latter, then on withdrawal from the EU without any leaving Treaty, Britain could argue that those older agreements have been reactivated. That might cause a problem for Ireland, which'd have conflicting treaty obligations, but it'd still be an arguable case.
Isn't all this showing signs of desperation. If there is no single market, WTO border rules apply, and the EU is entitled to ask what rules the UK intends to apply. I suspect that part of England's problem is that any solution on the Border with the the ROI and Spain will work equally well on a border with Scotland. Where then the "Precious Union"?
I was tempted not to reply given the use of 'England'. However:
- Who says WTO rules apply? As I said, there are Agreements that could be cited as evidence to justify no hard border. - There is no border with Scotland; it's part of the UK. It won't secede, partly for financial grounds and partly because it's damn clear how the EU treats small countries - and even big ones - who don't follow the Project. And it won't be Scotland's project. - I don't see what Spain has to do with the price of fish: the UK only has one land border (unless you count the Chunnel, for which customs are already in place).
Desperation? Not really. But if the EU really do play silly buggers up to and beyond the line, I'd rather not mess things up in Ireland and if that means some imaginative legal interpretations to get through the exit period, so be it. Let's be honest: if the EU refuses to come to a sensible agreement on N Ireland, then it's no friend of Dublin, never mind Dundalk.
Is there any point analysing the defects in the EU's position? Thanks to the offensive charm employed by the British government, it's not as though Britain is going to be able to influence them very much to move from their present approach. Britain should concentrate on addressing its own flaws. Goodness knows there are enough of them.
Britain's biggest flaw by a long way is the failure to raise its low level of productivity in the last decade.
At the risk of sounding like the TV programme W1A, overall wealth and standard of living can only be achieved by producing more from less.
It's an oddity that the impact of economic growth since 2010 has shown up in employment, rather than productivity.
The growth in employment has been in low paid, part time, low value jobs, particularly in the service sector.
I'm convinced that the low growth in productivity is a mix effect as the proportion of low value jobs grows. You can have high productivity growth in every sector but if the low productivity sectors are growing faster as a proportion of the whole, it will arithmetically show up as low productivity growth overall.
Leave it open on the Uk side - let the EU police the other side.
If they want to crucify ROI by closing it or inspecting every lorry then meh it's an EU issue.
Simples.
Under WTO rules (without a FTA with the EU) we could not just have an open border with one customs area, we would have to have no checks elsewhere.
Dan Hannan may be happy, but few others methinks.
Are you telling me every country in the WTO has rigorous border checks ?
Under Most Favoured Nation rules they are obliged to apply the same border rules to all countries, unless there is a specific FTA.
Countries that feel aggreived can apply via the WTO resolution systems for punishment. If we have no FTA with the EU then we have to apply the same border rules with RoI as to the rest of the world.
I'm sure some imaginative interpretation of some provision of one of the N Ireland agreements could facilitate the legal basis for an open border. The UK also had two trade treaties dating from 1938 and 1965 with Ireland. I don't know if these were explicitly lapsed when Britain joined the EEC or whether they effectively went into abeyance as having been superseded by the wider European agreement. If the latter, then on withdrawal from the EU without any leaving Treaty, Britain could argue that those older agreements have been reactivated. That might cause a problem for Ireland, which'd have conflicting treaty obligations, but it'd still be an arguable case.
Isn't all this showing signs of desperation. If there is no single market, WTO border rules apply, and the EU is entitled to ask what rules the UK intends to apply. I suspect that part of England's problem is that any solution on the Border with the the ROI and Spain will work equally well on a border with Scotland. Where then the "Precious Union"?
The Scots do not wish to secede.
They may if the UK is not in the single market. They voted by a more substantial margin than the UK to remain, and have been completely ignored in the the discussions so far.
Is there any point analysing the defects in the EU's position? Thanks to the offensive charm employed by the British government, it's not as though Britain is going to be able to influence them very much to move from their present approach. Britain should concentrate on addressing its own flaws. Goodness knows there are enough of them.
Britain's biggest flaw by a long way is the failure to raise its low level of productivity in the last decade.
At the risk of sounding like the TV programme W1A, overall wealth and standard of living can only be achieved by producing more from less.
It's an oddity that the impact of economic growth since 2010 has shown up in employment, rather than productivity.
We've started replacing machines with the unskilled.
In which areas? I genuinely can't think of anywhere where this has happened.
Leave it open on the Uk side - let the EU police the other side.
If they want to crucify ROI by closing it or inspecting every lorry then meh it's an EU issue.
Simples.
Under WTO rules (without a FTA with the EU) we could not just have an open border with one customs area, we would have to have no checks elsewhere.
Dan Hannan may be happy, but few others methinks.
Are you telling me every country in the WTO has rigorous border checks ?
Under Most Favoured Nation rules they are obliged to apply the same border rules to all countries, unless there is a specific FTA.
Countries that feel aggreived can apply via the WTO resolution systems for punishment. If we have no FTA with the EU then we have to apply the same border rules with RoI as to the rest of the world.
I'm sure some imaginative interpretation of some provision of one of the N Ireland agreements could facilitate the legal basis for an open border. The UK also had two trade treaties dating from 1938 and 1965 with Ireland. I don't know if these were explicitly lapsed when Britain joined the EEC or whether they effectively went into abeyance as having been superseded by the wider European agreement. If the latter, then on withdrawal from the EU without any leaving Treaty, Britain could argue that those older agreements have been reactivated. That might cause a problem for Ireland, which'd have conflicting treaty obligations, but it'd still be an arguable case.
Isn't all this showing signs of desperation. If there is no single market, WTO border rules apply, and the EU is entitled to ask what rules the UK intends to apply. I suspect that part of England's problem is that any solution on the Border with the the ROI and Spain will work equally well on a border with Scotland. Where then the "Precious Union"?
The Scots do not wish to secede.
They may if the UK is not in the single market. They voted by a more substantial margin than the UK to remain, and have been completely ignored in the the discussions so far.
The irony is that were the rUK to leave on WTO and then Scotland left you’d have a rock hard customs border between Carlisle and Berwick. Given Scotland’s extreme integration with rUK that would hurt big time. Now they may still wish to leave of course - politics can trump economics see (arguably in each case) Ireland 1918, or UK 2016, or USA 1776, but one suspects the economic impact would be bigger for Scotland than the UK leaving the EU.
MPs are useless at coups these days,Labour.LibDems and now the Tories are just as bad at it,an essential political skill.Why is this bunch of MPs so hopeless at couping these days?It's not personal,it's business.Doesn't anyone know how to make an offer they can't receive anymore? I suggest they watch a boxset of The Sopranos for a beginners' course.
Well the Prime Minister was certainly a Remainer and like so many of her kind she has little idea of the Leaver mindset.
You mean people with no experience dealing with small children?
And that retort encapsulates why you lost and why you will continue to fail to understand that we are leaving and you can do nothing to stop that.
It also unfortunately encapsulates why, in the end, the EU itself will fail. Blind arrogance is a malaise that grips all Eurofanatics.
While Britons never ever show a trace of blind arrogance!
After hubris comes Nemesis, and Nemesis is Brexit shaped.
There is fault both ways I am sure for Brexit, but the total lack of introspection from the EU post 23.6.16 is amazing. Their view is it’s our fault, we are odd, they are right. Hmm.. really?
MPs are useless at coups these days,Labour.LibDems and now the Tories are just as bad at it,an essential political skill.Why is this bunch of MPs so hopeless at couping these days?It's not personal,it's business.Doesn't anyone know how to make an offer they can't receive anymore? I suggest they watch a boxset of The Sopranos for a beginners' course.
The Wire. "When you aim for the king, you'd better not miss."
Just been invited to give evidence before the House of Lords Committee that's carrying out investigation into political polling. Hearing takes place on October 17th.
MPs are useless at coups these days,Labour.LibDems and now the Tories are just as bad at it,an essential political skill.Why is this bunch of MPs so hopeless at couping these days?It's not personal,it's business.Doesn't anyone know how to make an offer they can't receive anymore? I suggest they watch a boxset of The Sopranos for a beginners' course.
With any coup there are two sides: it's not necessarily bungling when the leader's team get's their pre-emptive action right, as happened today, forcing Shapps out before he was ready.
For a Tory coup to succeed (unless driven by two or three extremely-high profile individuals), you need about four dozen MPs on board; possibly a little fewer as there may be letters 'in' independently but that's not really to be relied on. It's extremely hard to keep that quiet.
Is there any point analysing the defects in the EU's position? Thanks to the offensive charm employed by the British government, it's not as though Britain is going to be able to influence them very much to move from their present approach. Britain should concentrate on addressing its own flaws. Goodness knows there are enough of them.
Britain's biggest flaw by a long way is the failure to raise its low level of productivity in the last decade.
At the risk of sounding like the TV programme W1A, overall wealth and standard of living can only be achieved by producing more from less.
It's an oddity that the impact of economic growth since 2010 has shown up in employment, rather than productivity.
We've started replacing machines with the unskilled.
In which areas? I genuinely can't think of anywhere where this has happened.
Investing in machinery is investment, employing cheap labour these days is petty cash.
Well the Prime Minister was certainly a Remainer and like so many of her kind she has little idea of the Leaver mindset.
You mean people with no experience dealing with small children?
You really, really demean yourself with that sort of post. It also doesn't work. It's a numbers game: should I believe that 17,410,742 of my fellow countrymen are moronic xenophobes and like small children, or should I believe that one bloke on the internet is an angry snob? Not a tricky one, is it?
Is there any point analysing the defects in the EU's position? Thanks to the offensive charm employed by the British government, it's not as though Britain is going to be able to influence them very much to move from their present approach. Britain should concentrate on addressing its own flaws. Goodness knows there are enough of them.
Britain's biggest flaw by a long way is the failure to raise its low level of productivity in the last decade.
At the risk of sounding like the TV programme W1A, overall wealth and standard of living can only be achieved by producing more from less.
It's an oddity that the impact of economic growth since 2010 has shown up in employment, rather than productivity.
We've started replacing machines with the unskilled.
In which areas? I genuinely can't think of anywhere where this has happened.
Hand car washes, 'town hosts' instead of simple maps and leaflets and, for some damned reason, the windows in the office I work in are now cleaned by guys on ladders rather than the single chap with the sponge on a water-filled stick.
I know it might not seem like much but they all appear to be low paid, dead end jobs that we seem to have imported people to do and I'm unconvinced by the total ROI to the nation - especially in the south.
We've started replacing machines with the unskilled.
In which areas? I genuinely can't think of anywhere where this has happened.
It can happen at the margins. Cars in Renault's low cost Dacia range are designed to be easy to build by hand. They have two factories serving the European market. The Romanian plant has introduced significant automation as Romanian wages have increased but Renault have switched a large part of the production to Tangier which uses hardly any robots and where wage costs are much lower. The advantage of building cars by hand, as long as you design it in, is that car plants need little capital cost and so can be smaller and production can be switched on and off and moved around flexibly.
Another example is customer service. Tesco decided they had over compensated on self-checkouts and brought back some of the manned checkouts.
"Describing as “unbelievable arrogance” British offers to pay just 20 billion euros (£17.96 billion) of a “Brexit bill” which the EU estimates at perhaps 60 billion euros, a senior diplomat from a country Britain generally views as an ally in EU affairs said Mrs May would have to face down hardliners who reject such payments." - just say no.
MPs are useless at coups these days,Labour.LibDems and now the Tories are just as bad at it,an essential political skill.Why is this bunch of MPs so hopeless at couping these days?It's not personal,it's business.Doesn't anyone know how to make an offer they can't receive anymore? I suggest they watch a boxset of The Sopranos for a beginners' course.
With any coup there are two sides: it's not necessarily bungling when the leader's team get's their pre-emptive action right, as happened today, forcing Shapps out before he was ready.
For a Tory coup to succeed (unless driven by two or three extremely-high profile individuals), you need about four dozen MPs on board; possibly a little fewer as there may be letters 'in' independently but that's not really to be relied on. It's extremely hard to keep that quiet.
The outing of Shapps does seem to signify that May and her team have retained more grip on the situation than almost all of our pathetic media seem to have gripped. It doesn't usually pay to finish up on the losing side in these kind of conflicts which suggests that Shapps's political career is now well and truly toasted (if it wasn't already) and "the others have been encouraged"; heaven forfend that I should resort to French it today's climate.
Just been invited to give evidence before the House of Lords Committee that's carrying out investigation into political polling. Hearing takes place on October 17th.
MPs are useless at coups these days,Labour.LibDems and now the Tories are just as bad at it,an essential political skill.Why is this bunch of MPs so hopeless at couping these days?It's not personal,it's business.Doesn't anyone know how to make an offer they can't receive anymore? I suggest they watch a boxset of The Sopranos for a beginners' course.
With any coup there are two sides: it's not necessarily bungling when the leader's team get's their pre-emptive action right, as happened today, forcing Shapps out before he was ready.
For a Tory coup to succeed (unless driven by two or three extremely-high profile individuals), you need about four dozen MPs on board; possibly a little fewer as there may be letters 'in' independently but that's not really to be relied on. It's extremely hard to keep that quiet.
Did Shapps have an ulterior motive for running the coup - eg a prospect of a position in the junta - or was he just doing it for the good of the party/country, and/or amusement.
We've started replacing machines with the unskilled.
In which areas? I genuinely can't think of anywhere where this has happened.
It can happen at the margins. Cars in Renault's low cost Dacia range are designed to be easy to build by hand. They have two factories serving the European market. The Romanian plant has introduced significant automation as Romanian wages have increased but Renault have switched a large part of the production to Tangier which uses hardly any robots and where wage costs are much lower. The advantage of building cars by hand, as long as you design it in, is that car plants need little capital cost and so can be smaller and production can be switched on and off and moved around flexibly.
Another example is customer service. Tesco decided they had over compensated on self-checkouts and brought back some of the manned checkouts.
It's untypical and small-scale, though: for over 200 years the rule has been that what can be mechanised, will be mechanised. The Tesco example is just an instance of the fact that technology which isn't yet ready for prime time, sucks. Remember PDAs/palmtops? Aspiring to be smartphones, but without the phone bit and not much of the smart? Shudder. Supermarket checkouts are clunky now. In 5 years time they won't be, and human checkouts will vanish overnight.
Just been invited to give evidence before the House of Lords Committee that's carrying out investigation into political polling. Hearing takes place on October 17th.
Be sure to tell them in loving detail about JackW's ARSE.
MPs are useless at coups these days,Labour.LibDems and now the Tories are just as bad at it,an essential political skill.Why is this bunch of MPs so hopeless at couping these days?It's not personal,it's business.Doesn't anyone know how to make an offer they can't receive anymore? I suggest they watch a boxset of The Sopranos for a beginners' course.
With any coup there are two sides: it's not necessarily bungling when the leader's team get's their pre-emptive action right, as happened today, forcing Shapps out before he was ready.
For a Tory coup to succeed (unless driven by two or three extremely-high profile individuals), you need about four dozen MPs on board; possibly a little fewer as there may be letters 'in' independently but that's not really to be relied on. It's extremely hard to keep that quiet.
MPs are useless at coups these days,Labour.LibDems and now the Tories are just as bad at it,an essential political skill.Why is this bunch of MPs so hopeless at couping these days?It's not personal,it's business.Doesn't anyone know how to make an offer they can't receive anymore? I suggest they watch a boxset of The Sopranos for a beginners' course.
With any coup there are two sides: it's not necessarily bungling when the leader's team get's their pre-emptive action right, as happened today, forcing Shapps out before he was ready.
For a Tory coup to succeed (unless driven by two or three extremely-high profile individuals), you need about four dozen MPs on board; possibly a little fewer as there may be letters 'in' independently but that's not really to be relied on. It's extremely hard to keep that quiet.
The outing of Shapps does seem to signify that May and her team have retained more grip on the situation than almost all of our pathetic media seem to have gripped. It doesn't usually pay to finish up on the losing side in these kind of conflicts which suggests that Shapps's political career is now well and truly toasted (if it wasn't already) and "the others have been encouraged"; heaven forfend that I should resort to French it today's climate.
Yep, it looks like the zombie government lurches on, dimly propelled by some faint memory of purpose.
Just been invited to give evidence before the House of Lords Committee that's carrying out investigation into political polling. Hearing takes place on October 17th.
Labour MP Conor McGinn demands rights of Irish in Britain be enshrined in law after Brexit - just say no.
Don't the Irish already have greater rights in Britain than most? They can stand for parliament for one thing which otherwise is restricted to Brits or commonwealth citizens. What rights in particular does he have in mind?
Well the Prime Minister was certainly a Remainer and like so many of her kind she has little idea of the Leaver mindset.
You mean people with no experience dealing with small children?
You really, really demean yourself with that sort of post. It also doesn't work. It's a numbers game: should I believe that 17,410,742 of my fellow countrymen are moronic xenophobes and like small children
Well the Prime Minister was certainly a Remainer and like so many of her kind she has little idea of the Leaver mindset.
You mean people with no experience dealing with small children?
You really, really demean yourself with that sort of post. It also doesn't work. It's a numbers game: should I believe that 17,410,742 of my fellow countrymen are moronic xenophobes and like small children
They were pretty invisible! Hell, even the LibDem Remainers were largely invisible.
I'm a Lib Dem Leaver - not sure I would consider myself invisible but you've put up five times as many posts as me.
I work on quality not quantity however.
I'm boosting productivity.
I'll leave it to others to comment on quality.
British productivity is a function of many things: moving people off benefits into low-paid work, flexible open labour markets, our poor record of R&D, our consumerist approach and low savings rate, and our protestant workplace culture of presenteeism, and poor people management.
Well the Prime Minister was certainly a Remainer and like so many of her kind she has little idea of the Leaver mindset.
You mean people with no experience dealing with small children?
You really, really demean yourself with that sort of post. It also doesn't work. It's a numbers game: should I believe that 17,410,742 of my fellow countrymen are moronic xenophobes and like small children
Indeed so.
Sense of humour failure on here tonight.
The trick, William Glenn, is not minding that it hurts.
Well the Prime Minister was certainly a Remainer and like so many of her kind she has little idea of the Leaver mindset.
You mean people with no experience dealing with small children?
You really, really demean yourself with that sort of post. It also doesn't work. It's a numbers game: should I believe that 17,410,742 of my fellow countrymen are moronic xenophobes and like small children
Indeed so.
Sense of humour failure on here tonight.
Much attempted humour contains a grain of truth to it, and you know perfectly well given your strongly professed views that a statement from you comparing all Leavers to children would very reasonably be assumed to represent your real view, if in a more pointed way than is probably the case. But its in the same ballpark. If someone who routinely suggested Labour people were morally deficient then said they were like cockroaches, sure that would be a joke, but we'd all know it was in the direction of their true feeling.
Well the Prime Minister was certainly a Remainer and like so many of her kind she has little idea of the Leaver mindset.
You mean people with no experience dealing with small children?
You really, really demean yourself with that sort of post. It also doesn't work. It's a numbers game: should I believe that 17,410,742 of my fellow countrymen are moronic xenophobes and like small children
Imagine is a dreary dirge, full stop. But then the Beatles, and Lennon, are over-rated. They had the good fortune to be the best among the first of their type (and also to split before they got tired). That novelty was critical to their reputation historically. Had someone else got there first, they wouldn't be rated half so highly.
As a proper Scouser, I should tell you such comments would get you lynched around Liverpool, with the authorities looking on applauding.
I can also tell you with 100% certainty how right you are.
Listening to my wife screeching their songs at 4am in the morning, after she's had a few isn't pretty......
Imagine is a dreary dirge, full stop. But then the Beatles, and Lennon, are over-rated. They had the good fortune to be the best among the first of their type (and also to split before they got tired). That novelty was critical to their reputation historically. Had someone else got there first, they wouldn't be rated half so highly.
As a proper Scouser, I should tell you such comments would get you lynched around Liverpool, with the authorities looking on applauding.
I can also tell you with 100% certainty how right you are.
Listening to my wife screeching their songs at 4am in the morning, after she's had a few isn't pretty......
you sound like you're getting your extenuating circumstances lined up early
Comments
If an unskilled individual is cheaper than a machine is it not better to hire the unskilled individual giving them a job rather than leaving them unemployed and purchasing a more expensive machine?
There are people who argue that the Industrial Revolution could have taken place 2,000 years ago in Rome or Ptolmeiac Egypt, but the existence of slave labour meant that no one saw the need to adapt technology.
Conversation would have moved to trade whether the Commission wanted it or not.
In this whole Brexit noise stuff that's going on, I don't know what value we can actually place on our world icon artists that are worshipped and adored around the globe....
I'm convinced that the low growth in productivity is a mix effect as the proportion of low value jobs grows. You can have high productivity growth in every sector but if the low productivity sectors are growing faster as a proportion of the whole, it will arithmetically show up as low productivity growth overall.
https://www.ft.com/content/1c57dcb0-aa89-11e7-ab55-27219df83c97
Perhaps if the Uk had stricter labour laws, companies would invest in IT and whatnot to increase productivity...
Please don’t make assumptions about what side of the divide I’m on. I’m sure the EU can afford to wait. Whether this is sensible is another matter and one can critique their stance if one wants.
I wrote this thread to try and see if there is a way forward to a long-term constructive relationship, ideally one where Britain is in a better EU. I still think this would be in the interests of the EU as well.
If the EU disagrees, well there we are. But still - a pity. The enervated state of British—EU relations is not solely down to Britain. At the risk of being thought a consistent small mind, I wrote a thread last year on all the things Britain had done wrong over the years. Exploring what the EU has done wrong may help avoid making similar mistakes in future.
But in any case it doesn’t matter since what I - or anyone else - writes on the internet is pretty much the definition of futility.
EDIT: but on reflection, not excactly small either.
- Who says WTO rules apply? As I said, there are Agreements that could be cited as evidence to justify no hard border.
- There is no border with Scotland; it's part of the UK. It won't secede, partly for financial grounds and partly because it's damn clear how the EU treats small countries - and even big ones - who don't follow the Project. And it won't be Scotland's project.
- I don't see what Spain has to do with the price of fish: the UK only has one land border (unless you count the Chunnel, for which customs are already in place).
Desperation? Not really. But if the EU really do play silly buggers up to and beyond the line, I'd rather not mess things up in Ireland and if that means some imaginative legal interpretations to get through the exit period, so be it. Let's be honest: if the EU refuses to come to a sensible agreement on N Ireland, then it's no friend of Dublin, never mind Dundalk.
I suggest they watch a boxset of The Sopranos for a beginners' course.
After hubris comes Nemesis, and Nemesis is Brexit shaped.
I'll leave it to others to comment on quality.
For a Tory coup to succeed (unless driven by two or three extremely-high profile individuals), you need about four dozen MPs on board; possibly a little fewer as there may be letters 'in' independently but that's not really to be relied on. It's extremely hard to keep that quiet.
I know it might not seem like much but they all appear to be low paid, dead end jobs that we seem to have imported people to do and I'm unconvinced by the total ROI to the nation - especially in the south.
Another example is customer service. Tesco decided they had over compensated on self-checkouts and brought back some of the manned checkouts.
#StarTrekReference
And I didn't say it wasn't funny.
I can also tell you with 100% certainty how right you are.
Listening to my wife screeching their songs at 4am in the morning, after she's had a few isn't pretty......