Ireland, Apple and the final nail

[Carolinesbeanies]

Possibly parking this here as this is going to be a slow burner, but as Macron is running the gauntlett avoiding the unions, his Finance Minister Le Maire, has succeded in gaining support from various EU states for taxing the likes of Google and Apple basically at point of sale on turnover. Ireland and Apple have already been brought to task over their tax arrangements, (appeals pending) but this latest proposal would have yet another catastrophic impact on Ireland.

Whilst I dont think it will actually get very far, several small states are already kicking back, the timing of this is bewildering. This proposal could see all US tech giants pull bases out of the EU. Its utterly nutty. The only reason I can see this even being tabled at the moment, is financial desperation in the bloc. I know the tax issues surrounding Google et al are extremely controversial and unpopular, but its not exactly new news. (And the EU should have avoided this whole issue in the first place) but why go for a populist policy now, that flies in the face of proposed global taxation deals, when the nett effect will be so detrimental?

Either way, it looks as though Irelands 'HQ' appeal is being utterly hamstrung by their 'benevolent' EU masters.

www.thelocal.fr/20170916/france-slams-silicon-valley-for-skirting-tax-in-europe

No I'm not calling you a racist. I'm merely pointing out that the leave vote was and is a broad church and it is going to be extremely difficult to keep all the views within this happy. 'the will of the people' is unlikely to ever be satisfied.
For example, if you ever look at people like that twat from prison planet you have to wonder about the country that we are creating and how we've managed to enable these people to have a voice.

And btw I would never call you racist unless you said racist things. I don't particularly agree with making things up like the £350 m a week for the NHS. (Which I have to admit was technically brilliant if unethical)

Well, these people are definitely racists. And they are coming to the UKIP conference in Torquay.

^Senior Alternative for Germany member to address Ukip conference
Spokesman confirms appearance of person from far-right German party, which came third in election, at Torquay gathering^

www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/sep/25/senior-member-of-germanys-far-right-afd-to-address-ukip-conference?CMP=share_btn_tw

And so it begins...... Macron today.

"In his speech, Macron called for a single EU corporate tax band by 2020, saying members who refused to implement it should have their aid from Brussels cut.
Macron urged reform of the controversial Common Agricultural Policy farm subsidy system, including tougher measures to fight fraud within it."
It really is a watch and wait moment.

"Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, said on September 13th that decisions on tax should be taken by majority vote and no longer by unanimous decision."

So, majority vote only to boot. Its grim.

He said it, but it will take a majority vote to make that a reality.

Those countries with an interest in maintaining the status quo can campaign for their own policy, while J-C Juncker can campaign for his. It's a 27 member bloc.

A similar idea ran aground in 2011.

The Common Tax Base proposal (which they re-proposed last year) only applies to EU companies, and is intended (!) to simplify tax declarations across EU states. This is utterly unrelated.

Majority means only 55% of member states approval. It would be a fundamental shift from the previously treatised protection on unanimity decisions (every member must agree) on core areas.

decisions on tax should be taken by majority vote
As opposed to one opinion poll?
Was EU Tax Evasion Regulation The Reason For The Brexit Referendum?
www.thejist.co.uk/politics/uk/eu-tax-evasion-regulation-reason-brexit-referendum/
No answer on the the nuances of following a fascist leader, CaronlinesBeanies?
Where do you stand on Nigel Farage?

Woman, what are you talking about 'one opinion poll'? As to the article youve linked, its something desperately grasping that sounds like its been written in a students union somewhere. (Has the author even paid tax?)

I do wish remainers would line up their arguments rather than the knee jerk flip flopping in sheer desperation.

Either 80% of MPs supported remain, or they secretly wished to engineer brexit? I guess today, they secretly engineered it.

Where do I stand on Farage? Pretty much where the entire UK stands on Farage. He never has, nor ever will be, a representative MP in UK parliament. He was not the leader of Vote Leave, nor indeed a member of the Vote Leave campaign and the only people promoting him to some unofficial capacity in the referendum, were the media who put him on TV to debate as the 'representative of leave', when he wasnt, and of course people like you. I gather Farage indeed called Vote Leave 'cretins'.

Why the media did that, ignoring a raft of sitting and veteran MPs and politicians who have served their nation with honour for decades, is well, in your favourite terminology, 'nuanced' beyond all credibility.

Farage has, imo, as much political standing as Coleen Rooney. (Apols Coleen, but you do have quite a following...loved your book

Where the UK does have an issue, is when sitting MPs come out with racist and divisive comments such as , Naz Shah, Clive Lewis, Sarah Champion etc. These are sitting MPs, who attend parliament with the authority to vote and shape UK policy. Now that is concerning.

Bombardier slapped with a 220% tariff by the US....... Well if nothing else, when the US make a point, they make sure its a big one.

www.theguardian.com/business/live/2017/sep/27/theresa-may-bitterly-disappointed-bombardier-trade-tariff-imf-world-economy-business-live

So Carloine how do you think Future trade talks will go once we are out of the EU ? Am sure we were told it would be "Easy"............and be 1st in line with USA ?

With the due reverance the US deserve Bobo. Theres a bunch of students, very excited at taking on those nasty corporates. This is the reality.

Caroline, I'm curious what do you think of Pete North's view?

Whos Peter North? Never heard of him.

Turns out, whoever Peter North is, hes got 5000 followers. Personally Id rather take note of Charlie Longsdons opinion (along with his 20,000 follows). We are into national hunt season

https://mobile.twitter.com/CharlieLongsdon?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

He is editor of Leave HQ

What/who is leaveHQ? Never heard of them either. Are you scraping round the bowels of the internet woman? Cause honestly, there really are better things to do.

Ermmm no. He is widely quoted on twitter.... I was only interested in your view
'woman'?

leavehq.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=135
The leave alliance

Apols Theworldis, I was indeed replying to the wrong poster by mistake, womannumbers, not calling you a 'woman'.

From all I can see from your link, that Leave alliance thing is this Peter North bloke again. Whoever he is. Who is he?

As to "widely quoted", all I know is when I searched, the only widely quoted Peter North I found was a Canadian porn star. I guessed that wasnt him. Is he a journo? Is he a government advisor? Who is this bloke holed up in his bedroom creating web pages?

I really have no interest digging round random views of utterly unknown and possibly nutty twitter users. How about starting a thread, something like 'random views from twitter'?

I have no view. I dont know him. He could be PIE for all I know.

I take it from all that protesting ignorance of Peter North that Leave is rather freaked out by his views, so we'll articulated, so we'll researched, and clearly so we'll informed by contacts in the senior ranks of the civil service.

Apologies for autocorrect-generated punctuation.

Nope, just never heard of him. Ever. Theworld posts a picture of a tweet about 'brexiteers think Im exagerating' and from that, Im supposed to educate myself on some random apparent twitter celebrity and his views.

Not sure what I can add to that. Who is he?!

I'm with you Caroline on Farage and this Peter North bloke! Farage has absolutely nothing to do with the leave campaign ad it's only the media's insistence in including him in so much debate that has given him prominence. As for Peter North - well I decided to google him too Caroline and guess what - Canadian Porn star apparently! He has been mentioned on here quite often by remainers but I haven't a clue - still don't!

I think you are being disingenuous about Farage. No, he wasn't the official leave campaign but both before and afterwards, especially by the BBC, he was constantly given coverage. The argument used when people complained was that as the visible face of UKIP, which had been the third largest UK party in terms of votes, not seats, he represented a large swathe of public opinion. This continued even after this June's election, when they had no MPs and their vote share totally collapsed. He or fellow UKIPers were trotted out when the Lib Dems or Greens, who do have Parliamentary representation, were totally ignored.

Did you write to the BBC to complain about his constant appearances. I will bet that you didn't.