Westministenders: Money, money, money

[RedToothBrush]

The big developments are that the government have signalled they are prepared to pay more and to involve the ECJ when it comes to citizens rights on condition that we move to talk of trade. But no apparent progress on NI. Which is significant with Ireland threatening to veto.

The EU has not changed its stance at all. Since Day 1.

There is always a worrying omission and lack of commitment to retain the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The bonfire begins.

Talk is of Green still going in a reshuffle, possibly with Gove replacing him as Deputy PM.

Coalition talks in Germany have broken down, and the British have got excited about it, whilst the German response have largely been a slight shrug.

Its been a much quieter week, despite the budget. Thank goodness. There are lots of outstanding issues that are lurking in the background like the Green one though.

The main message coming from the budget, has not been any new policy, but the dreadful economic forecast for the next few years.

Bigchoc..
werrrity sniffer
😂😂😂🤢

God, yes. That speech. Am still staggered 18 mobths on...😔😡

Lovely French tribute to jo 🌟

It may be legal, but is it legitimate?

^Firm where Theresa May's husband works paid no UK corporation tax in eight years - despite turning over nearly £500 million
The PM’s husband is a client relationship manager at investment firm Capital International Ltd, which has turned over £467million since 2009^

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/firm-theresa-mays-husband-works-11591600#ICID=sharebar_twitter

Ministers to launch UK's post-Brexit economy plan

www.bbc.com/news/amp/business-42131742

An excerpt

The industrial strategy is aimed at lifting growth, which official forecasts suggest will slow due to the UK's poor productivity performance.

Business Secretary Greg Clark said the UK's decision to leave the EU meant the strategy was "even more important".

A deal with US healthcare giant MSD to open a UK research centre has been announced as part of the strategy.

Will the government's economic medicine work?

The investment by MSD, known as Merck in the US, is worth up to £1bn and is expected to create 950 jobs.

The government said the announcement was "a huge vote of confidence" in its plans to boost the post-Brexit UK economy.

Productivity growth chart
The strategy comes just days after official forecasting body the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) announced an aggressive downgrade of its UK growth and productivity forecasts.

Political parties and business groups have said that the solution to creating stronger growth and higher wages is more investment.

Why isn’t the UK more productive?
The industrial strategy is expected to outline similar partnerships to the MSD one with other private sector firms in the construction, artificial intelligence and automotive sectors.

The deals will see the government pledge funding and policy collaboration in exchange for investment from private firms.

The deals will see the government pledge funding and policy collaboration in exchange for investment from private firms

Nuanced good news. I'd hoped that brexit would have helped HRC in too, but we can't have everything.
www.neweurope.eu/article/silver-lining-hard-brexit/

The deals will see the government pledge funding and policy collaboration in exchange for investment from private firms.

So further privatising and ultimately destroying the NHS. I expect our Leaver friends will crow over the 950 jobs, and ignore any threats to the NHS ('project fear', 'talking the country down'.)

I don't normally buy into all this suspicious conspiracy theory stuff, why does a US pharmaceutical company announce investment in the U.K. right now, in the very same week that:

1. we suffer all the losses from Johnson and Johnson pulling out of their proposed U.K. research centre; and
2. the EMA relocation to Amsterdam is announced?

Odd timing and a clear sign of the direction of travel.

The view from one sector (per BBC):
"Paul Everitt, chief executive of the ADS Group, which represents the UK aerospace, defence and security sector, says the industrial strategy is a "hedge against Brexit".

Companies in the sector regard the initiative as a "way of offsetting the additional costs that everyone is going to face - because whatever deal we get it will be less favourable than the conditions we are currently under".

This seems to imply that at least someone in government realises what Brexit actually means.

I don't normally buy into all this suspicious conspiracy theory stuff
It seems to have gone beyond conspiracy stuff now, it's just in plain sight.lonelyplanetmum

mary beard‏
@wmarybeard

When Kate Hoey on @BBCr4today talks about the Irish having to pay for putting up the border between N and S Ireland if there is to be one, she sounds to me dangerously like Mr Trump and Mexico.

Also, the MSD move.

From City AM:
"The American pharmaceutical business has started to look at possible locations for the centre, which is set to open in 2020.
...
Merck chose London as part of a life sciences sector deal with the government."

Point one: That's my bolding in the first quote - "started to look", "possible", "set to". Not very definite, is it?

Point two: I can't find any details of what exactly the "deal with the government" involves. Can anyone else?

"A new UK location will enable us to build on our proud legacy of invention and be an important contributor to the vibrant and rapidly growing UK life sciences community, while providing access for more collaborations within the European life science ecosystem."

www.gov.uk/government/news/major-pharma-leader-msd-first-to-endorse-governments-industrial-strategy-as-it-announces-major-investment-in-the-uk

I do hope so UK researchers' sake, but the phrase providing access for more collaborations within the European life science ecosystem would set alarm bells off for me. Is European shorthand EU?

www.msd-uk.com/static/pdf/MSD%20press%20statement-Jewel%20announcement.pdf

^The new UK Discovery Centre is anticipated to create 150 new research roles with the aim of attracting the brightest and best research scientists to work in London. It is also envisaged that the new site will accommodate approximately 800 additional staff for the UK domestic
market and other European clinical functions currently based in MSD in the UK’s Hoddesdon headquarters. The company is currently evaluating several potential locations in the London region with a target date of 2020 for operational readiness. In the meantime, MSD plans to establish a small temporary research facility in the area and is actively recruiting for suitably qualified scientific talent.^

It is interesting.

but again the European clinical functions leaves a question mark.

It wasn't many threads ago I said I could see a situation where there would be a version of Mexico and the wall but with Ireland paying for it.

Isn't it amazing these nationalists all having the almost exact same script?

Though this cheered me up

@daraobriain
Just turned on twitter and it appears Kate Hoey is so stupid they've had to call a royal wedding to distract us all

Can I just say in a completely irrelevant way, that I love Mary Beard.

Not another royal bloody wedding. Why can't they sod off and marry in the Caribbean or something.

Sorry not feeling very well today and issues with DS mental health so very grumpy. Just annoys me the amount of money its likely to cost when many sons school is so cash strapped its hard to get him thee help he needs.

Still tourism and all I guess.

.

So, unless my Maths and English are not up to scratch , the MSD announcement is not the "creation of 950 jobs" as stated in the BBC report, but the creation of 150 jobs possibly in research and the relocation of 800 jobs from the current Hoddesdon HQ.

Are the BBC report writers both illiterate and innumerate? Or are they under instruction to put the most positive spin on any announcements?

You might have expected it from Pravda.

Sorry for lowering the tone of discussion.

Amir Khan asks if there has ever been a female Prime Minister in I'm A Celebrity appearance 27 November 2017

Boxer Amir Khan raised eyebrows when he asked his fellow I'm A Celebrity contestants whether there had ever been a female Prime Minister.

After Stanley Johnson was appointed Prime Minister of the Jungle, and Made in Chelsea star Georgia Toffolo became his deputy, Mr Khan mused whether it was possible for there to be a female Prime Minister in the UK.

He asked: "Has a woman ever become prime minister?"

After his campmates incredulously reacted to this question, he backtracked, seeming not to know the current Prime Minister is a woman. […]

Former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale also reacted to Stanley Johnson being made Jungle PM, saying: "You've been trying so hard as a family and you've done it."
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/27/amir-khan-asks-has-ever-female-prime-minister-celebrity-appearance/

Are the BBC report writers both illiterate and innumerate? shock Or are they under instruction to put the most positive spin on any announcements?

Yes. Yes. And yes.

Given how "Brexit" is going so far, I look forward to some really stomach-churning appeal (using a WW1 Christmas Truce motif) about "coming together". Not that the Brexiteers involved give a flying fuck about any Remainers. But it will distract from the coming clusterfuck.
Todays announcement about a Royal marriage suggests an even more emetic narrative that will be peddled

Writing "the coming clusterfuck" reminded me that my DM had a book in the 1970s by the Italian equivalent of Alvin Toffler. It was called "The Coming Dark Age" (English translation). It's quite though provoking, and - if anything - far too optimistic.