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Post by captainconfident on Mar 11, 2021 18:58:33 GMT
That is a desperate piece of cherry picking. What it actually says is that US CEO's opinion of Britain is unchanged since last year, while amongst Chinese CEOs, the UK lags miserably behind France and Germany, with 13% picking the UK when answering the question "Which three countries/territories, excluding the country/territory in which you are based, do you consider most important for your organisation’s overall growth prospects over the next 12 months"? www.pwc.com/gx/en/ceo-agenda/ceosurvey/2021/report.htmlHow could they fail to be excited by www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/19/uk-ministers-gain-power-to-allow-lower-standard-food-importsand www.politicshome.com/news/article/government-delays-eu-import-checks-amid-warnings-of-food-shortagesThe government had 4 years after Theresa May announced that leaving the customs union was what Brexit meant to build the needed facilities. We've wound up with UK exporters facing full checks when we export because the EU did get ready, while EU exporters get a free pass at the border. Any other country would have prosecuted those involved for criminal negligence and got some competent politicians to replace them, but in Britain a weak opposition, oligarch press and a section of the population who will not admit to themselves that they were fooled means this farce goes practically unchallenged.
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Post by captainconfident on Mar 1, 2021 15:16:24 GMT
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Post by captainconfident on Feb 22, 2021 10:07:08 GMT
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Post by captainconfident on Feb 20, 2021 18:09:47 GMT
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Post by captainconfident on Feb 19, 2021 10:25:50 GMT
The Brexit could have been structured to try to get the best of both the world of EU trade and the world of trade outside that we were apparently missing out on. That would have been a 'balanced Brexit', and might even have eked out a net gain in national wealth over time.
What the government did was to take an antagonistic approach to the EU, walk away with bare bones deal that threw up trade barriers that choke all the UK's main trade arteries, then refuse to allow any review to take place into this, and proclaim that the rest of the world would be open to trade in spite of having no trade talks close to conclusion with any country outside of rolled over EU deals and just a hope to join the 'Pacific Partnership", which is hugely doubtful.
Looking to the future, we need to ask, when and how can this situation be improved? As nothing that is going to replace the lost EU trade is on the horizon, and indeed full implementation of border checks has not even yet been introduced meaning that things will soon get even worse, the only course is for the government to get straight back into the negotiating chamber with the EU and start trying to renegotiate easements to the current restrictions. They can do that by not wa*king off about Sovereignty over every issue, and agree not to weaken standards in particular sectors like health, hygiene, phytosanitary etc, and on double taxation of imports from third countries.
However, the government is doing no such thing. They have not reengaged with the EU to improve the situation for British businesses. They are standing by and saying 'We Got Brexit Done'. Industry and business can go hang itself on the border fence. This is a huge dereliction of the duty of government and they are allowed to get away with it be a compliant press and fearful broadcasters by which I am sad to say I mean the BBC.
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Post by captainconfident on Feb 18, 2021 19:04:03 GMT
Meanwhile at the Daily Express, onto whose site I accidentally trod, we appear to be at war with the EU in an alternatively factual world.
While even their writers from a parallel universe can't actually find a positive thing about Brexit, that can apparently be set aside if the EU were to collapse. So the paper's main concern is to broadcast the opinions of various unqualified lunatics whose seaweed has gone limp, indicating that (insert country here) is about to follow Britain's glorious lead. Frexit, Nexit, Swexit, Apparently the are all just months away. Emmanuel Macron is Satan and Hitler rolled into one, by the way.
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Post by captainconfident on Feb 17, 2021 19:56:51 GMT
I appreciate that thoughtful answer, starfished. The thing is, medium and small companies cannot participate in the governments vision of trade with the Commonwealth and the Far East because a) they haven't signed any significant trade deals and b) because the costs of filling and shipping containers implies a scale of production that they can't reach and c) the type of goods unsuitable for long distance trade because of shelf life or they deal in goods that originated in the far east in the first place, whether they are processed or simply forwarded from the UK. At the moment we are in the 'smugglers charter' period for imported goods, where the Gvt instructed HMRC to just waive in imports from the EU without checking and importers do not have to file full declarations until 3 months later. in order that Brexit didn't immediately look like a disaster. And because they didn't have enough customs officials. But this ends in June or July when things get tougher still. These dreadful results were what was branded 'Project Fear'. But in reality, every country conducts most of its trade proportionately to the countries nearest to it. While nationalist passions might last for the next five years or so, the wearing down of the country through unnecessary trade barriers with our nearest customers will be ever present while the nationalist passions flicker and die.
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Post by captainconfident on Feb 17, 2021 18:44:51 GMT
From your no doubt comfortable high horses, you michaelc and you agent69 breezily wave away the damage to an exporting companies' finances. But this is one of thousands, making less profit, making lower tax payments, making people redundant because of a self-indulgent vote you both made made knowing that you would not bear the direct consequences.
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Post by captainconfident on Feb 15, 2021 19:31:05 GMT
I was wondering of anyone here has tried co-funding as a HNW investor with Sancus Funding? www.sancus.com/co-funders/Co-funding was essentially what was happening on Funding Knight, their p2p arm, but not enough investors were joining via this route to make it viable (I assume). But the results on FK were very impressive, so I would be tempted to try this if there were any positive opinions out there. Edit: Wow.. pffffff... if I read it right, minimum investment in a loan is 100k. No wonder FK wasn't worth the pfaff to them.
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Post by captainconfident on Feb 12, 2021 18:58:33 GMT
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Post by captainconfident on Feb 11, 2021 19:48:49 GMT
Just finished a fine repast of fresh langoustines and oysters delivered to East Anglia by courier from the Isle of Skye at a surprisingly good price and arrived with the cooling packs still frozen.
Astounding service, great food, and pleased to support our British fishermen.
If that is a sustainable business model, for a business or for the planet, I'm a Dutchman. Don't you have any sea near East Anglia?
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Post by captainconfident on Feb 11, 2021 18:43:05 GMT
Yes but these are just facts. It's feelings that are important these days. And I'm feeling cross. All around, people are struggling with paperwork, losing their customers. The big companies are organised to stock UK supermarket shelves and keep the surface of the pond seeming unruffled but small exporters, the sector I deal with, have been totally shafted. UK businesses are being strangled, jobs being lost and the chances of the young to make a start in the biggest single market in the world has been thrown away so a few nationalists can feel they got one over on Johnny Foreigner.
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Post by captainconfident on Feb 11, 2021 17:48:34 GMT
Hey, I'm mainly on the fence with all this, (but leant Brexit) however I'm increasingly getting urinated off with the constant negative references to "the Bus" and what it said about Savings on its side. Oh ye all of Very short and selective memory, do you not recall The Government scaring people that it would cost Families an extra £500 or somesuch a year if we left the EU? And as Referendum Time approached an inceasingly desperate/panicking Government gradually increased this figure over the months to suit their needs until they baldly stated it was going to cost UK Families an extra £5,000 or somesuch ludicrous amount per year if we left? Remain lied through their teeth too. It's called politics. Just get over it. Merde happens. Merde did not just happen. The a proportion of voters country was persuaded to voted to merde on itself by some rich merdes. That's how practically everyone in the rational and outside world sees it and only those who are so inward looking that they can't admit they made a bad buy are left trying to justify the mess. I'm having a day off from trying to sort out the atrocious logistical problems of Brexit. Can you tell?
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Post by captainconfident on Feb 11, 2021 13:53:15 GMT
That Brexiteer bollox does not take a second to look up and dismiss. If Britain was still an EU country it could have done exactly the same vaccination programme. There was no EU rule requiring it to join the EU procurement programme. Hungary and others set their own course and made their own orders. The only plus point you can think of for Brexit turns out toi be nothing. Can't address my previous question? Their citizens are green with envy are they? Your question was whether the UK was an inspiring example. I've offered one positive example. For the rest, we'll have to wait and see. It's far too early to judge. You have given one inspiring example, but I hope we agree that on examination, it was nothing to do with Brexit. As for it being too early to judge whether Brewxit will boost the incomes and happiness of the British, there are no positive signs. You are able to remain in denial because there is a time lag between the damage being caused and the damage being felt.
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Post by captainconfident on Feb 11, 2021 13:15:57 GMT
Trade is not a game, where countries have a duty to be 'nice' to each other. If the UK did badly in negotiations it's because they chose to play a poor hand badly. I think I can speak for my fellow Europeans, and they all think that the UK has set other EU countries an example. An example of what happens if weak democratic systems and the media power of certain rich individuals can lead a country to make itself poorer, less influential and irrelevant as a world power. Or do you think that the UK is providing an inspiring example? Indeed I agree we have set a great example to the EU27. They are incredibly frustrated that having thrown off the shackles that tie them all to the slowest country's decision-making, we have been able to leap streets ahead in the race to vaccinate our people. That Brexiteer bollox does not take a second to look up and dismiss. If Britain was still an EU country it could have done exactly the same vaccination programme. There was no EU rule requiring it to join the EU procurement programme. Hungary and others set their own course and made their own orders. The only plus point you can think of for Brexit turns out toi be nothing. Can't address my previous question? Their citizens are green with envy are they?
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