The Brexit Arms

[BrexitArmsLandlady]

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The Brexit thread.

By Brexiters, for Brexiters.

Remainers welcome, but gobshites & goadyfuckers are encouraged to take their business elsewhere.

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You mean that Unilever have stated this the move has absolutely nothing to do with Brexit. No,.never. Nooooope, nothing at all. Absolutely not. Definitely. Completely...

Yeah. Unilever has had its HQ in London for over 100 years.

... but its move has zero to do with Brexshit.

Uh huh. Yeah. Sure. Makes sense.

I would have done the same.

The Unilever move is at least partly due to staving off hostile takeovers - it’s easier to do this in the Netherlands.

Unilever's official statement.

www.unilever.com/news/Press-releases/2018/building-the-unilever-of-the-future.html

Looks to be a paperwork exercise more than anything. No changes to employees in Netherlands or UK, continued listing in both, continued compliance with corporate governance in both. Functional HQ of the 2 divisions in UK stay there and the functional HQ of the food division also stays where it is in the Netherlands.

"Changes further strengthen our corporate governance and we’ll retain listings in UK, Netherlands and US. Number of people we employ in the UK and in the Netherlands unaffected by these changes."

Further to the earlier comment on RT, this is Wee Eck's perspective which on balance I tend to agree with.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-43414025

@howabout Have you heard about this thing called 'PR'?

London have you heard of propaganda where comments such as "Unilever has had its HQ in London for over 100 years." are made without pointing out that there has been a dual HQ with the Netherlands since the 1930s?

Felt a bit ott to also post this but since you insist here is the BBC version. Kudos to them for waiting for the actual decision and detail unlike the speculative innuendo reported by Sky yesterday.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43410155

In a similar vein Toys R Us are closing all their US stores as well as those in the UK but I have lost count of the number of comments I have read blaming Brexit.

A bit more gossip on Goldman Sachs.

"The European Commission has called for reopening the ethics case against its former chief Jose Manuel Barroso, who was previously cleared of breaking bloc rules by taking a top job with Goldman Sachs.

The EC should "refer the case of the former Commission president back for an opinion by the ethics committee", Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly said in a statement."

Thanks Howabout for putting the links up for the Unilever decision. I'm no good at links!

Yes, it has been a dual HQ and now they are ditching UK. Who can blame them the 100% Brexit caused climate hasn't been this bad for decades. This shit show on one hand, the terrible "government in waiting" on another.

A poor attempt at dismissing this as similar to TRU comments some other people may have made. TRU had been an ailing business for years, much less of a surprise there.

You can waste time digging up dirt on ex Goldman employees, but the truth is nobody has any idea how to fill the tax / jobs shortfall due to their reduction in UK employment and EU-related (which is the majority of it) business activity.

The Unilver decision is also to do with how shareholders are viewed:

Social responsibility is a Unilever mantra. Polman [CEO] speaks constantly about sustainability. Such an enterprise would surely feel most at home operating solely under Dutch corporate law, which demands that company directors weigh shareholder interests equally with those of other stakeholders.

www.bloomberg.com/amp/gadfly/articles/2018-02-22/unilever-s-problem-with-london-goes-way-beyond-brexit

A speculative article but makes sense. They don't like UK's model of capitalism which will likely shift in the less desirable direction after hard Brexit.

WRT Toys R Us in the UK, while Brexit didn’t initiate the issues it was likely to be the final nail in the coffin:

Toys R Us said a post-Brexit competitive market and consumer uncertainty meant it recorded a £418 million in total sales — a four per cent dip year-on-year.

www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2017/08/toys-r-us-profits-surge-falling-sales/

UK high-street chains Toys R Us and Maplin have both collapsed into administration, citing growing debt and uncertainty relating to Brexit as key reasons behind their falls from grace.

www.consultancy.uk/news/16188/moorfields-and-pwc-appointed-administrators-as-toys-r-us-and-maplin-collapse

"it was likely to be the final nail in the coffin:"

This. Obviously a bit more tenuous a statement so Brexiters are bound to argue the toss here.

Personally I think the rise of on line retailers like Amazon heralded the demise of Toys R Us - not helped by the company’s own online Ts &Cs which thought that I should pay through the nose for delivery because my postcode was “remote and rural” despite being in the same city as one of their stores

Personally I think the rise of on line retailers like Amazon

given my first order with Amazon is older than DS(21) it's not as if it took them by surprise ...

Malin is a different story though. I did use them quite a bit, very convenient.

Amazon started to sell stuff other than books in 1998, but how many people had home Internet then? I suspect online shopping took off way later than that, and particularly when broadband was rolled out. TRU were vulnerable because they were in a market where consumers didn’t need to touch the goods and so B&M stores were becoming obsolete.

Online shopping is killing off the high street, it’s nothing to do with Brexit - Woolworths went years ago & it’s been one after another since then.
But why let facts get in the way of a good remain froth.
& whoever said amazon have been going 21 years is a prime example of a frother - how many people had internet access 21 years ago? Jeez, where do hese people come from?

I first bought stuff from Amazon in 2000 - which was when first got dial up home Internet

I only started shopping online when I got my iPhone, which was about 8 years ago?

Ah, well DGR is an innovator and I’m probably an early adopter. I’m afraid you’re behind the curve.

I don't actually blame Amazon for TRU. I have a 6 year old who is invited to birthday parties every other week. I drive past TRU most weeks. I have not darkened their doors in the whole of DD3's lifetime. It is much easier to browse and pick something from the manageable selection in the supermarket. This is even more the case now that Sainsburys own Argos.

We had internet in 1998 because DH is an IT nerd. We were definitely very early adopters. Paradoxically DD2 was quizzing him with absolute incredulity yesterday because him and his mates have just resurrected play by mail - they were missing the fortnight long tactical planning between moves. Which brings me to the other reason for the demise of TRU - small local specialist games and toy stores with shopping "experience" built in.

I think Toys R Us missed a trick. Their stores were big, cold, boring and warehouse-like. Given that families with young children are constantly on the look out for something to do during weekends and school holidays, TRU should have made themselves a fun, family friendly destination; where they could play with toys and buy them. Much more fun for everyone than clicking & waiting for delivery. I hated Toys R Us when my children were young. I also hate Brexit.