Westminstenders: Summer Season

[RedToothBrush]

No its not the weather making your brain rot and stop thinking.

Thats just Brexit.

Brexit, the lost empire, and dodgy modern UK economy

A sobering article - full of facts, boo unfair ! - analysing UK trade, historical decline especially post-WW2 , current stats, the RoI
btw, our 5th highest export market and the country with which we enjoy our 2nd highest trade surplus is .. the RoI
https://www.finfacts-blog.com/2018/07/brexit-lost-empire-and-dodgy-modern-uk.html

"For every hour worked by a British worker, a German worker produces 36% more.
< so increasing UK exports to non-EU countries will be tough ... at curtrent wages >

Much of this gap is due to the drag created by Britain’s large cohort of low-performing companies.
< those most likely to go under ? >
Two-thirds of UK employees work for companies whose productivity is below average, adjusted for industry and size of company. "
< worrying insecurity >

This all definitely makes me think that Hammond is making sure that he comes out on the right side when Brexit goes tits up. Did people vote to have food and drug shortages plus portaloos lining motorways? I don't think so.

I am just hoping now that if we have a hard Brexit, it smashes the Tory Party and then leads to a United Ireland and an Independent Scotland. Cameron and May will go down in history as the people who broke the UK up, and no amount of whining about 'EU bullying' will be able to disguise that fact - although they will try their hardest.

Another petition - if an agreement on the Irish border can't be reached abandon brexit is the jist of it.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/217857

Oh BCF, you and your facts!
A very interesting and sobering read, thank you.
With a bit of reflection, it about sums up what I 'feel' in that the UK was 'OK' but as my teachers wrote on my reports 'could try harder'.
It does show that the writing was on the wall and has been for a long time, but has been ignored, which raises a question as to why.
With the current suspicion of 'disaster capitalism' at the moment, what is the explanation for the previous 60 or so years?
Saying the Germans are 36 % more efficient, do the BMW plants in Germany run 36% faster than the Mini production line in England?

Signed.

Not much Brexit news on BBC or Sky news.

I gather that EU-owned businesses tend to be the more efficient ones in the UK, so less likely to be under-performing compared to OECD average, even if not as efficient as germany.

Measures of productivity:
+Yes, production line speed
also
+Number of minor stops on the line (e.g. after a worker gets distracted / doesn't keep up / faulty work is spotted / they jam up the line / accident ...)
+Number of product defects / rejects at the check stage after goods leave the line
+All the other departments & tasks - especially local management, where the Uk is often backward - that are always there, in addition to the production line

Signed too

Has this been posted from the Telegraph ?

The Telegraph understands that Philip Hammond..has signed off funding amounting to as much as £100 million to "map out" plans for a post-Brexit UK satellite system, with an official announcement due this week.

Theresa May has ordered officials to start work on a British satellite-navigation system to rival the EU’s Galileo, in a show of strength ...

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/08/25/theresa-may-orders-space-race-brexit-sat-nav-system-rival-eus/

I'm out of telegraph articles. This has got to be fake or exaggerated news though? Spending money on a 'show of strength'? So silly.

I noticed that in the hard copy of the paper this morning, while browsing the headlines in the supermarket.

It's in the Beeb too. The cost is just a feasibility study...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-45314954

Blue Streak, anyone ?

Now we're spending £100 million pounds on a feasibility study, as well as the hiring of 1000s of extra civil servants and the hiring of portaloos (amongst other things) do we think we can now officially call the brexit dividend the brexit deficit?

Yup Brexit deficit but. we. get. the. blue. passports

It's not so much a 'show of strength' but a reality that unless the UK stays within the EU it automatically loses access to the data and possible positioning information from the Galileo (EU) project.
I believe that existing satnav, as used by your phone, TomTom etc will still work without it (or have access to the positioning aspect) but the Galileo system has other 'capabilities' built into it which will not be available to the UK.
The fact that newspapers 'big up' their headlines to make them more noticeable is rather pathetic. It is not a show of strength, it is making up for the 'loss' that will occur without a deal. Of course there is an irony in that the hardware used in the Galileo project is/was built in the UK.

It just makes you want to cry when you think of all the things that money could be spent on, like camhs or sen funding or social care or the police. But of course this was what people wanted......

This sort of 'news' was brought to this very thread (or its Westminsterenders predecessors) many weeks ago by either RTB or BCF so to 'followers' it is 'old news'.

This sort of 'news' was brought to this very thread (or its Westminsterenders predecessors) many weeks ago...

Sorry I'm very much a follower but must have missed that the funding was actually being announced this week.

To get a duplicate satellite system up they were talking £1.4 Billion for Galileo. Another year or two before getting a UK version it will have gone up, it always does.
I like the idea that there will be a cabinet meeting on Sept 13th to discuss whether the UK can afford Brexit.
At least when we pop to the supermarket we have some idea of how much to put in the trolley.

Economies of scale & the consequences of losing them

The costs of creating a new satellite system from scratch could exceed the entire costs of the EU's Galileo which were divided among 28 members.

It would likely take several years (what do we rent in the meantime ? That would be compatible with UK phones ?)
come in late, over budget and not work properly

• going by previous huge projects the UK did on its own: de Havilland Comet, Blue Streak, Nimrod, NHS IT ....

Once created (if ever), the running costs for a system that is just for the UK would be far higher than what the UK would have paid as its share for Galileo.
Developed & developing countries already share with the EU or US, or another system. The Uk could try to form a consortium with African countries, but they don't have the technical expertise yet to contribute and are mostly near broke.

The modulations would have to be identical to Galileo, or they would be very expensive for any phone manufacturer to develop new links for just the UK market. So, consumers pay a lot more.

Leclerc The 13 Sept meeting is not about whether we can afford Brexit
It seems to be about ramping up the prepping for a no deal Brexit

No deal is the policy with the momentum - because it is the only one that doesn't immediately tear apart the Tory party
Now the govt seems to realise their prepping to date is inadequate (!)

Sorry, I meant that the 'loss' of access to Galileo was discussed quite a while ago.
Similarly access to security systems (criminal databases etc) across Europe.
The jingoistic 'we are better than them' line starts to fall a bit flat, especially when you realise the expense of having to duplicate everything.
There was a suggestion that the EU is 'desperate' for access to GCHQ data. I have a strong feeling that based on the fact that many countries withing Europe have been at war with each other for centuries, the French, German and all other governments will each have equivalent systems, probably keeping them a bit more 'secret'.
They certainly collaborate for 'domestic' purposes but they won't rely solely on each other.
The 'bugging' or a mole releasing EU negotiators data won't be going down well.

imo, Last chance for a U-turn and a WA is from 4 October, after the party conference ends, until at the very latest EOY