What will happen about this special Status which the Channel Islands have held with regards to the EU - I wonder if they have freedom of movement for their citizens as well ?
If so, lets get some of this for Scotland ! This is what we want !
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15039680.Channel_Islands_single_market_deal_is__one_to_look_at__for_Scotland/?ref=mr&lp=13
A Brexit for All or NONE At all !
This article is interesting re: WTO rules (see below). We must not go down the line of a sectoral deal for any sector. I have a suspicion that the London based government, of the party who first mooted the election, are tempted to try for a sectoral deal for Financial services. However, if they do this, then to me it is the most major insult and snub and ruination for manufacturing in the United Kingdom. It would be massively unfair. And it would really finally separate London from the rest of us ! Now we say London, but lets remember also that many of those who work week in week out n London are workers from the rest of the UK. Every week people leave Glasgow, Liverpool and other cities and head down to London to work for the week. Lets not forget this when London gets so uppity.
(Photograph © Copyright Christine Matthews and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.)
And as well as manufacturing there are other sectors that should be considered - services, fishing, farming etc. As well as consideration to UK workers abroad. So we must either have:
Lets remember though that its manufacturing and exports that are the key to sorting out the negative balance of trade in the UK. We need to sort this and its the only way of increasing the wealth of our country. The balance of trade has been negative for far too long. It needs to be reversed.
And personally I do not think Brexit is the way to do that. But if we are doing Brexit then let's really aim to stand on our own two feet. Lets ban takeovers by foreign buyers while the pound is low. And let's get started on building up the UK ! "Make Britain Great Again" (to paraphrase Trump !! (I wonder why Theresa May has not used that one ! Apart from the fact we are the UK as opposed to Britain !)
Anyway have a read about trading and WTO Rules here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38658025
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| Changing Light over the London Skyline from New Zealand House |
And as well as manufacturing there are other sectors that should be considered - services, fishing, farming etc. As well as consideration to UK workers abroad. So we must either have:
A Brexit For All or NONE At All !However lets also remember that Financial Services and Banking caused the Financial Crisis of 2008. These money speculators are happy to gamble with other people's money. For them its not even a gamble as there is no personal risk attached. If they win they take the money. If they lose, someone else pays ! They gamble with our money. They invest with our money - but they make sure that the first returns are paid to them and any that is left night come to us if we are lucky !
Lets remember though that its manufacturing and exports that are the key to sorting out the negative balance of trade in the UK. We need to sort this and its the only way of increasing the wealth of our country. The balance of trade has been negative for far too long. It needs to be reversed.
And personally I do not think Brexit is the way to do that. But if we are doing Brexit then let's really aim to stand on our own two feet. Lets ban takeovers by foreign buyers while the pound is low. And let's get started on building up the UK ! "Make Britain Great Again" (to paraphrase Trump !! (I wonder why Theresa May has not used that one ! Apart from the fact we are the UK as opposed to Britain !)
Anyway have a read about trading and WTO Rules here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38658025
Very Good From the New York Times
And I thought that American's didn't do Irony .... !
Very good ! Sums up this nonsense of Brexit entirely. Certainly this reflects many of the people I know who work globally now or at least across Europe. This is the way many people work now.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/20/opinion/theresa-mays-global-britain-is-baloney.html
Very good ! Sums up this nonsense of Brexit entirely. Certainly this reflects many of the people I know who work globally now or at least across Europe. This is the way many people work now.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/20/opinion/theresa-mays-global-britain-is-baloney.html
The Will of the People ? Not ! This is not Democracy as it should be !
If I hear the term "The Will of the People" again I will seriously scream !
The Will of the People.... A Heroic term but a term that to me reflects something rather like a character from Charlie and the Chocolate factory ... "I Will have that Chocolate ... NOW !!!" ... Give me ! We Will Rise Up ! (from more heroic battles) ... I Will I Will I Will (stamps feet)
Well The Will of this person is that I Wish that people had properly educated themselves before this Referendum Vote. I wish we had kept in touch more with the goings on of the European Parliament. I wish our MEPs had been more pro-active and kept us informed. For example one of our local MEPs is I think the longest standing one in Parliament. I was in the audience at a radio show on which he was a panellist and he did seem very good. But I have not seen a single article from him in public or in the local paper etc since. Nothing. Why was he not more pro-active in trying to get the public more informed about the benefits of Europe ?
Now there are many benefits. I personally did in fact work for a brief while for the European Union. I gave talks and demonstrated how to use a particular database which daily has Tenders available - Tenders Electronic Daily - TED. I gave talks to Small and Medium Enterprises to show them how to search the database and find relevant Tenders to bid for. Again these are the hidden opportunities in the EU - contracts that were won that the general public probably never heard about, but it is just another of the positive benefits.
So... the Will of the People or at least of the 37% who voted ... or the 25% of people - not sure if that even includes EU citizens in the UK who didn't have the vote or many UK people who live and work abroad who didn't get the vote ... anyway the Will of the People .... apparently is to leave the EU.
Now many of these people were attracted by tabloid headlines. Tabloids that are all owned by rich billionaires who do not live in the UK. They tuned in to anti immigrant sentimentality. They tuned into desperate people who have experienced the overstretched NHS and who appreciate our NHS and believed the carefully worded "Brexit Bus", that the money would go to the NHS. Now firstly the maths was wrong - it was never 350m (see my Page about this ....) it was much less. Now secondly this money does bring us many untold benefits which we will now lose - for example access to a single market, cross EUropean science research etc .... but ... assuming we do come out and the figures of 130million is saved a week. No way is it all going to go to the NHS - and you will see that the bus does not exactly say that - people just believed what those "clever manipulators" wanted them to believe - jargon - slogans.... and they fell into the slick trap set by those clever millionaires, most of whom have dual nationality .... funny that !
And getting on to Democracy ... thats another of their refrains - "ITS THE DEMOCRATIC WILL OF THE PEOPLE" ... this is the more than monosyllabic "educated" version of the refrain ... this will definitely win the argument - who could argue with democracy ?
it literally does mean People Power ! Power to the People !
But ... and here's the but ... in Greece, although people did finally get a vote - or at least some did ! they elected a representative to the forum... they elected a person like our parliamentarian. And the leadership of this group changed too so it was not too much time for one person in power. ie the European Parliament has this model.
But ... the UK is not really following democracy as :
WE ARE EU CITIZENS - WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO LIVE AND WORK ACROSS THE EU - THEY SURELY DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO TAKE AWAY OUR RIGHTS. MANY ARE CURRENTLY WORKING IN EUROPE WITH THESE RIGHTS AND OUR YOUNG FOLK NOW ASSUME THAT WORKING IN EUROPE IS A NATURAL PART OF THEIR CAREERS AND MAY EVEN BE WHERE THEY WILL SETTLE DOWN.
THAT IS THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE - ITS POSSIBLY THE WILL OF 63% OF VOTERS - THOSE WHO DID NOT VOTE FOR BREXIT !
The Will of the People.... A Heroic term but a term that to me reflects something rather like a character from Charlie and the Chocolate factory ... "I Will have that Chocolate ... NOW !!!" ... Give me ! We Will Rise Up ! (from more heroic battles) ... I Will I Will I Will (stamps feet)
Well The Will of this person is that I Wish that people had properly educated themselves before this Referendum Vote. I wish we had kept in touch more with the goings on of the European Parliament. I wish our MEPs had been more pro-active and kept us informed. For example one of our local MEPs is I think the longest standing one in Parliament. I was in the audience at a radio show on which he was a panellist and he did seem very good. But I have not seen a single article from him in public or in the local paper etc since. Nothing. Why was he not more pro-active in trying to get the public more informed about the benefits of Europe ?
Now there are many benefits. I personally did in fact work for a brief while for the European Union. I gave talks and demonstrated how to use a particular database which daily has Tenders available - Tenders Electronic Daily - TED. I gave talks to Small and Medium Enterprises to show them how to search the database and find relevant Tenders to bid for. Again these are the hidden opportunities in the EU - contracts that were won that the general public probably never heard about, but it is just another of the positive benefits.
So... the Will of the People or at least of the 37% who voted ... or the 25% of people - not sure if that even includes EU citizens in the UK who didn't have the vote or many UK people who live and work abroad who didn't get the vote ... anyway the Will of the People .... apparently is to leave the EU.
Now many of these people were attracted by tabloid headlines. Tabloids that are all owned by rich billionaires who do not live in the UK. They tuned in to anti immigrant sentimentality. They tuned into desperate people who have experienced the overstretched NHS and who appreciate our NHS and believed the carefully worded "Brexit Bus", that the money would go to the NHS. Now firstly the maths was wrong - it was never 350m (see my Page about this ....) it was much less. Now secondly this money does bring us many untold benefits which we will now lose - for example access to a single market, cross EUropean science research etc .... but ... assuming we do come out and the figures of 130million is saved a week. No way is it all going to go to the NHS - and you will see that the bus does not exactly say that - people just believed what those "clever manipulators" wanted them to believe - jargon - slogans.... and they fell into the slick trap set by those clever millionaires, most of whom have dual nationality .... funny that !
And getting on to Democracy ... thats another of their refrains - "ITS THE DEMOCRATIC WILL OF THE PEOPLE" ... this is the more than monosyllabic "educated" version of the refrain ... this will definitely win the argument - who could argue with democracy ?
it literally does mean People Power ! Power to the People !
But ... and here's the but ... in Greece, although people did finally get a vote - or at least some did ! they elected a representative to the forum... they elected a person like our parliamentarian. And the leadership of this group changed too so it was not too much time for one person in power. ie the European Parliament has this model.
But ... the UK is not really following democracy as :
- Firstly Our Government is not elected by PR - so is unrepresentative - we have a government that was elected by only 36.9% of the electorate. Yet got over 50% of the seats - see -http://greatideasworld.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/libdems-middle-needs-voice-or-we-will.html
- Secondly even those voting Conservative voted for a party that was led by David Cameron - but he resigned after the EU vote and now we have Theresa May - who appears to be only slightly less extreme than Angela Leadsom might have been ! But certainly was not the leader at the General Election.
- Thirdly we are now following by the word the result of a Referendum - an advisory referendum. And a referendum with too narrow a winning margin and with no required minimum turnout.
- But in my opinion this referendum was based on lies and untruths and also characterised by people not looking properly into issues.
- Fourthly and disappointingly it also seemed to become about immigration and I have yet to hear the government condemn any personal attacks strongly etc. We are currently still in the EU and EU citizens are fully legitimately able to live here. And should not be harassed. As an aside I will say that some other European countries appear to insist you should be able to support yourself in order to live there - I do wonder why the UK didn't do this ...Theresa May's old department?!?
WE ARE EU CITIZENS - WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO LIVE AND WORK ACROSS THE EU - THEY SURELY DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO TAKE AWAY OUR RIGHTS. MANY ARE CURRENTLY WORKING IN EUROPE WITH THESE RIGHTS AND OUR YOUNG FOLK NOW ASSUME THAT WORKING IN EUROPE IS A NATURAL PART OF THEIR CAREERS AND MAY EVEN BE WHERE THEY WILL SETTLE DOWN.
THAT IS THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE - ITS POSSIBLY THE WILL OF 63% OF VOTERS - THOSE WHO DID NOT VOTE FOR BREXIT !
How some of "Thatchers Children" - Expats and UK Workers Abroad have been excluded from the Debate on the EU !
I am just an ordinary person but among the people I know there are a few groups who should probably have had votes in the EU Referendum. And I could almost frame them as "Thatcher's Children" ! My generation left school in the 80s. There were no jobs where I lived - well jobs were hard to come by. Industries were closing. My father worked in an esteemed company designing gas turbines which were installed in power stations worldwide. I can remember him visiting Delhi (as it was called then), Argentina, Colombia, the US, Norway, he nearly had to go to Iraq, Europe and no doubt other places I forget. Those are the ones I remember. But that company was hit by the level of the pound in the 80s and the intransigence of Heseltine to consider investment in a new technology they had invented to use coal more efficiently. They also use the environmentally friendly Combined Heat and Power technology where a town can re-use heat produced in one part eg if freezing an ice rink then heat is produced and you can use that to heat houses. That sort of idea ! Anyway to explain, this esteemed company that was trading worldwide in high tech turbines largely did not survive the 80s. There was a lot of people who lost their jobs. And my generation were just leaving school at that time.
Now this is the reason that most people I left school with moved to England or moved abroad. Certainly most graduates did so. People I was at University with left to work in Europe or elsewhere. But many still have their ultimate home and certainly their citizenship is in the UK ! My friend's brother has worked worldwide as a civil engineer. All with have worked over 15 years away from the UK and did not get a vote in the EU Referendum. Even though the EU will definitely have had an impact either positively or negatively on their own and their family's lifes. As it is the only citizenship many of them had, they should have had a vote. In fact two of them who I know about have decided to apply for Swedish and Germany nationality, so I suspect realistically we have now lost them finally to the UK. But those ones were fairly settled in their countries. The other ones I know are more mobile and work in different countries.
Other people I know literally live in the UK and work abroad staying in hotels or rented apartments. If there were enough jobs in their sector here then they would have taken them. But there weren't.
These are the people who have been largely overlooked in the debate. In that I have two close friends who are working/commuting in this way and two others who did this fairly recently then I would imagine the numbers involved must be higher than the official estimates.
And then there are the UK expats who have retired to live in the sun ! (this does not tend to be my generation as we are not quite at the retirement stage yet - unless you are lucky such as Fred the Shred !! - but I don't really consider that he has retired on his own money ... )
Most of the retired expats we hear about are based in Spain but many are in France, Germany or other countries. Now a very common story we have heard from this group is their ballot papers arrived suspiciously late. I have spoken personally to some and they relate other stories indirectly. One I spoke to had received his paper late and the postmark was for the day of the referendum, so there is no way it could have arrived on time ! Now this was a group who I think would probably have voted Remain ... well possibly not. But someone somewhere might well have thought that ... or was it just incompetence ? But electoral returns officers in those regions should be held to account for this mismanagement - it is disgraceful.
So taking into account these groups - the people over 15 years away and the expats with late ballots - I wonder how many extra votes for Remain there might have been ?
Now this is the reason that most people I left school with moved to England or moved abroad. Certainly most graduates did so. People I was at University with left to work in Europe or elsewhere. But many still have their ultimate home and certainly their citizenship is in the UK ! My friend's brother has worked worldwide as a civil engineer. All with have worked over 15 years away from the UK and did not get a vote in the EU Referendum. Even though the EU will definitely have had an impact either positively or negatively on their own and their family's lifes. As it is the only citizenship many of them had, they should have had a vote. In fact two of them who I know about have decided to apply for Swedish and Germany nationality, so I suspect realistically we have now lost them finally to the UK. But those ones were fairly settled in their countries. The other ones I know are more mobile and work in different countries.
Other people I know literally live in the UK and work abroad staying in hotels or rented apartments. If there were enough jobs in their sector here then they would have taken them. But there weren't.
These are the people who have been largely overlooked in the debate. In that I have two close friends who are working/commuting in this way and two others who did this fairly recently then I would imagine the numbers involved must be higher than the official estimates.
And then there are the UK expats who have retired to live in the sun ! (this does not tend to be my generation as we are not quite at the retirement stage yet - unless you are lucky such as Fred the Shred !! - but I don't really consider that he has retired on his own money ... )
Most of the retired expats we hear about are based in Spain but many are in France, Germany or other countries. Now a very common story we have heard from this group is their ballot papers arrived suspiciously late. I have spoken personally to some and they relate other stories indirectly. One I spoke to had received his paper late and the postmark was for the day of the referendum, so there is no way it could have arrived on time ! Now this was a group who I think would probably have voted Remain ... well possibly not. But someone somewhere might well have thought that ... or was it just incompetence ? But electoral returns officers in those regions should be held to account for this mismanagement - it is disgraceful.
So taking into account these groups - the people over 15 years away and the expats with late ballots - I wonder how many extra votes for Remain there might have been ?
UKIP have not been representing us in Brussels at EU meetings
So it turns out that UKIP have not been serving British interests and Farage has not been attending key meetings about British fishing. Not surprising really but disappointing when they are accepting money and should be representing us while we are in the EU even if they dont agree with it !
https://www.ft.com/content/85563e82-8f44-11e3-be85-00144feab7de
and
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/media/press-releases/farage%E2%80%99s-voting-record-fishing-%E2%80%98makes-mockery%E2%80%99-new-election-poster-20150408
https://www.ft.com/content/85563e82-8f44-11e3-be85-00144feab7de
and
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/media/press-releases/farage%E2%80%99s-voting-record-fishing-%E2%80%98makes-mockery%E2%80%99-new-election-poster-20150408
Mark Blyth Professor at Brown University
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwK0jeJ8wxg very interesting to watch.
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