The UK Politics and EU Referendum thread - merged

[Woodsey]

Phillip Hammond set to announce £1.5b boost to high street retailers in the budget. Half a million businesses set to benefit from tax cuts. Nice one.

Need to go further imo, online shopping is killing the high st, they need to level the playing field. I confess I’m also guilty of the ease of a few clicks online to get whatever you want delivered at a cheaper price. Equally I’m sick of how crappy our high st has become with the ever increasing number of charity shops, they have their place but enough’s enough.

I'm not sure about this but if bricks & mortar shops can't compete with online without subsidy isn't it best to let them go?

Happy to be persuaded otherwise but it seems like the Luddites all over again to me.

I think I'm with the Dog on this one although maybe for different reasons, let them close and let the greedy councils and landlords feel the pinch for charging too much in rent/rates.

Mine is for different reasons beyond the financial. High streets are great for the community, I think it’s good to have a focal point everyone can/wants to visit. Not necessarily just talking about in the cities but even in the burbs where I live. I’d hate it to be like the US where there is no soul to a lot of communities.

Don’t know the best way to do it, maybe force up costs for online retailers, although they seems to be good at avoidance of paying stuff. Sure prices would go up but some things have never been so cheap as you find online anyway so no big deal. Also it can’t be a good thing if amazon take over the entire world!

[RED-DOG]

Phillip Hammond set to announce £1.5b boost to high street retailers in the budget. Half a million businesses set to benefit from tax cuts. Nice one.

Need to go further imo, online shopping is killing the high st, they need to level the playing field. I confess I’m also guilty of the ease of a few clicks online to get whatever you want delivered at a cheaper price. Equally I’m sick of how crappy our high st has become with the ever increasing number of charity shops, they have their place but enough’s enough.

I'm not sure about this but if bricks & mortar shops can't compete with online without subsidy isn't it best to let them go?

Happy to be persuaded otherwise but it seems like the Luddites all over again to me.

I think I'm with the Dog on this one although maybe for different reasons, let them close and let the greedy councils and landlords feel the pinch for charging too much in rent/rates.

Mine is for different reasons beyond the financial. High streets are great for the community, I think it’s good to have a focal point everyone can/wants to visit. Not necessarily just talking about in the cities but even in the burbs where I live. I’d hate it to be like the US where there is no soul to a lot of communities.

Don’t know the best way to do it, maybe force up costs for online retailers, although they seems to be good at avoidance of paying stuff. Sure prices would go up but some things have never been so cheap as you find online anyway so no big deal. Also it can’t be a good thing if amazon take over the entire world!

I think the bolded bit is a reasonable argument.

[MANTIS01]

Yah isn’t it great going into town as a family at say Christmas, the sights, sounds and smells are senses not stimulated by online shopping

Big thing for me is parking. Last time I did the above it was £12 for a few hours. Make parking free and watch retail soar!!

[Woodsey]

Yah isn’t it great going into town as a family at say Christmas, the sights, sounds and smells are senses not stimulated by online shopping

Big thing for me is parking. Last time I did the above it was £12 for a few hours. Make parking free and watch retail soar!!

I can’t even be arsed taking my car into Nottingham to shop these days, mostly use the bus or tram, even money aside it’s so much damn easier unless I’m doing a massive shop.

[RickBFA]

The government is chartering ships to avoid catastrophic shortages and people like teddybloat think they should be treated like delicate little princesses, you couldn't make it up.

At least live with your idiotic decision and stop whining abut the other side.  History will utterly revile you, so try your best to enjoy your remaining time.

In response to an eloquent post by Teddybloat, you come back with that?

Really ? Perhaps it shows where the real intolarance lies.

Up there as one of the worst post on here in 2018 and that’s saying something.

Rick knows what he's talking about, having authored one of the worst posts of 2017:

I get the impression the commentators (and plenty on here) are looking forward to seeing bad economic news, like a pack of hungry wolves hunting prey.

So nice to see inflation fall today from 2.9% to 2.6%.

Didn't see the 64,000 drop in unemployment figures, now lowest since 1975, mentioned by anyone here in last week either.

I'm sure there will be plenty of gloating when bad news comes.

I’m sure i’ve written some misjudged stuff before but that isn’t one of them.

Fancy someone mentioning some facts on here eh? Awful.

Bit suprised that’s the best one you can find.

I remember this one for its dishonesty. Suggesting that others will do the very thing you are doing yourself and calling them out in advance for doing what you are the only one actually doing is very clever. I have never seen anyone gloating about bad news. No-one wants the country to fail. The only gloating seems to occur from your side whenever there is a favourable bit of economic news. This one was particularly misplaced as the fall in inflation was entirely due to world energy prices and nothing to do with UK activity. I thought at the time it was one of the most dishonest posts I had ever seen, but let it pass. Now I see you branding someone else, I am doing the same to you.

Trying to find the right words to respond to that.

It wasn’t dishonest. It was trying to bring some news at the time on economic news that was based on real numbers.

This thread is full of opinions, projections, what ifs. Occasionally posting some news based on published facts is hardly dishonest. And I was just pointing out there will be plenty willing to post an opinion on about negative numbers when they occur. Life expectancy was a good example - numbers look poorer on published stats and there was plenty of critics of the current Government.

I think Doubleup’s response to Teddybloats polite and eloquent post was just rude. The tone of my post and his are just completely different.

[doubleup]

I think Doubleup’s response to Teddybloats polite and eloquent post was just rude. The tone of my post and his are just completely different.

His post wasn't "eloquent", merely a long whine about how leavers are fed up being patronised and apparently knew that there was a strong possibility that brexit might badly affect them financially (when no one ever has voted this way).  Presumably if someone did vote knowing the economic downside, they assumed that the damage would affect other people and not them. 

[MANTIS01]

Phillip Hammond says the budget will mark an end to austerity and is 'very confident' an EU deal will be agreed including "frictionless access to European markets on a reciprocal basis"

However, in the event of No Deal an alternative budget would be introduced headlined by significant tax cuts.

[ ] Scary times indeed.

[Longines]

However, in the event of No Deal an alternative budget would be introduced headlined by significant tax cuts.
 

Did he really say that?

[MANTIS01]

No mate, he said specifically..."we would take appropriate fiscal measures to protect the economy, to prepare us for the future and to strike out in a new direction that would ensure that Britain was able to succeed whatever the circumstances we found ourselves in"

The Guardian said...”Hammond did not elaborate on what “fiscal measures” he would introduce in the event of a no-deal Brexit, but economists expect he would introduce substantial tax cuts, funded by borrowing, to minimise the risks of recession, just as the Labour government did in 2008 when it slashed VAT"

they reckon Singapore-style tax haven.

[Woodsey]

Well we have got tax cuts from today’s budget, from one of the calculators seems I’ll be paying less income tax but a bit more NI, not sure about the NI increase can’t see it mentioned anywhere. Suits me sir.....

[MANTIS01]

Significant increase in public spending with day-to-day growing 1.2%, growth forecast revised up, borrowing revised down, debt will fall, better than expected tax returns, personal tax allowance increased, more funding for social care, more defence spending, public investment up £30b over the next 5 years, cuts to business rates, end of austerity. In the event of a good deal a double dividend.

In fact too much positive news to list in what is labelled a bonanza budget giveaway.

This thread has been battered with all the bad news from Remoan who have suddenly lost their appetite to comment. Strange that.

[RED-DOG]

Oh dear....

[Pokerpops]

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
― W.B. Yeats, “The Second Coming” (1919)


Recommended reading, with thanks to rfffgggggabbccc for a link in the cryptocurrency thread.

https://www.epsilontheory.com/things-fall-apart-pt-1/

[Marky147]

The government is chartering ships to avoid catastrophic shortages and people like teddybloat think they should be treated like delicate little princesses, you couldn't make it up.

At least live with your idiotic decision and stop whining abut the other side.  History will utterly revile you, so try your best to enjoy your remaining time.

In response to an eloquent post by Teddybloat, you come back with that?

Really ? Perhaps it shows where the real intolarance lies.

Up there as one of the worst post on here in 2018 and that’s saying something.

Rick knows what he's talking about, having authored one of the worst posts of 2017:

I get the impression the commentators (and plenty on here) are looking forward to seeing bad economic news, like a pack of hungry wolves hunting prey.

So nice to see inflation fall today from 2.9% to 2.6%.

Didn't see the 64,000 drop in unemployment figures, now lowest since 1975, mentioned by anyone here in last week either.

I'm sure there will be plenty of gloating when bad news comes.

I’m sure i’ve written some misjudged stuff before but that isn’t one of them.

Fancy someone mentioning some facts on here eh? Awful.

Bit suprised that’s the best one you can find.

I remember this one for its dishonesty. Suggesting that others will do the very thing you are doing yourself and calling them out in advance for doing what you are the only one actually doing is very clever. I have never seen anyone gloating about bad news. No-one wants the country to fail. The only gloating seems to occur from your side whenever there is a favourable bit of economic news. This one was particularly misplaced as the fall in inflation was entirely due to world energy prices and nothing to do with UK activity. I thought at the time it was one of the most dishonest posts I had ever seen, but let it pass. Now I see you branding someone else, I am doing the same to you.

I'm sorry Mint, but have to pull you up on that technicality.

Without even having to think, I think we can say Tighty seems to revel in some of his clippings posts about the POTENTIAL bad news(not actual)that Brexit may cause. Its not just Tighty. The remainers on here have generally enjoyed posting anything that means they can give it a "told you so" "There you go, knew it" or "I said this would happen, now I have a newspaper article backing it up".

That said plenty of us Leavers have also gloated when we have some news that swings towards our viewpoint.

If you are missing the tone, you are a very monochrome chappie indeed

Think revel is a bit strong. I don't see that Tighty gloats about it, but freely admits that his media net is very much catching articles from the remain side.

That will always lead to that perception, as he's the one that puts the most work into the thread, closely followed by Mantis Shakespeare

The tone is always going to be set by the one who posts mosts frequently, but I don't ever consider anything posted to be gloating, and while a fair bit of Mantis' posting is laced with TiC humour, I don't see it as trolling, like some.

[Marky147]

Looks like I've missed a lot of action over the weekend, while I was making miracles happen, in getting Vin to cough up for dinner

Lots of coffee, and time to catch up!