The Brexit Arms - Counting Down the Days...

[SingingLily]

Welcome to the Brexit Arms!

We are temporarily under new management but worry not, the ship is still steady as we sail on to 12 December. A quick recap of the events of the last week or two:

📋❓💙❤️💛⁉️💙‼️🤷🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️😀☹️😀☹️😧😱🙄😬🤥🤔😂🤣😂🔥💨⛈🌥🌦🌤☀️

Anyone of any political persuasion who is prepared to join in, eschew goadery, and enjoy a laugh, welcome. First drinks are on the house.

☕️🥐for AutumnRose - good morning!

It's not a great caricature of Dmitri but it's the only one I could find

And in other news: Labour has released a new campaign video today in which an earnest-looking Jezbollah assures us that "if you wear a hijab, turban or cross....a Labour government will value you".

Umm, something missing there, Jezza? I'm sure it's on the tip of your tongue. No? You just need a little prompting. C'mon, man, think. No? Still clueless?

Or just being truthful.

But were it not for that profit chain, the drug that child needs might never exist.

Exactly, Epic. Research and development is costly. Healthy profits are both a cushion and a spur.

"if you wear a hijab, turban or cross....a Labour government will value you".

Oh dear, another opportunity missed. Any right thinking person would begin to question if it were deliberate.

On this one though, the question is how much of a return on investment is fair? Sure, it needs to be profitable but not purely motivated by greed

Epic your response to this is spot on. One persons 'greed' is another persons 'fair return'. Very hard to define or decide a cap on these things, which is basically heading into market intervention territory which isn't a good thing for the reason stated above.
At the end of the day, if ordinary people (yes ordinary people through their ISA/Pensions funds etc) are investing in pharma organisations, there is risk that the firm spends millions on R&D without managing to bring a drug to market and recoup the costs. Therefore the reward for that risk needs to be attractive. Those firms cannot develop cancer beating drugs and so on without huge investment in the first place. And therefore you need investors to provide that money, who are only going to do that if there is a reward for it.

Or are Labour etc thinking public funds should be invested into pharma for this purpose? If so, where will the money come from as I assume billions would be needed, and if there's no profit then that's just bad financial management of tax payers money.

There is a legitimate argument that Larger Pharma is squeezing out new smaller entries to the market though, due to anticompetitive practices. Which in and of itself, could reduce new research options and therefore new drug avenues. Investment and protection by various governments or on a global scale, in the smaller research companies to enable fair competition, and enforcing anti racketeering laws globally, might be a better alternative than trying to cap profits at the upper end. There is already a Chinese squeeze at the upper end too, due to Cheap drugs being produced there. That sounds like a positive, as more drugs and cheaper prices are a good thing in principle, but we do not want to only be left with cheap Chinese drug production ,as politically they may seek to use it as a bargaining chip going forward. Therefore, the larger Pharma companies must remain profitable to compete with China, just not at the expense of smaller Pharma stifling development in new areas and consumers imo.

Just my layman’s opinion, I’m no expert, I’m not sure what the answer is, but I am more than a little confident that Jess Phillips doesn’t know either.

@Applepieco what poll news did you find?

Autumn, I have seen some polls on the Britainelects and Yougov twitter pages, that appear to show the gap narrowing too. 😬

It’s down to the ‘don’t knows’ and newly registered voters now imo... Not as confident of the red youth wave that Labour supporters are so excited about though. Not if what I am hearing anecdotally from students I know and others know is anything to go by. I would be more inclined to believe that if they don’t go Tory, many will go tentative libdem instead. Again, anecdotally speaking.

It’s down to the ‘don’t knows’ and newly registered voters now imo.

That's what Sir John Curtice is saying. The Conservatives have squeezed the BXP vote as much as they possibly can. One in six voters is still undecided, so if they all break for Labour, it's a hung parliament 😱.

What we need is a clear ten points between Conservatives and Labour and at least 13% for the LibDems. 13% doesn't improve the number of seats but it's just enough to split the Remain vote.

I hope you are right about the younger voters tending towards LibDem. That could be key.

Should we start being nicer to the LibDems then? Just for a few days, mind. I don't think I could keep it up for more than a few days

bit.ly/2DBO2a7

Analysis of current polls. Above.

Thank you, applepieco.

It's behind a paywall so here is more of the Telegraph article, for context:

Labour is up from 29.9 per cent to 32.3 per cent, taking the Conservatives lead below ten per cent for the first time in the election campaign, according to the polls of polls. The Lib Dems have fallen from 15.1 per cent to 13.8 per cent.
Translated into seats, this would give the Conservatives a predicted majority of just 12, with 331 (down 24 seats) against Labour on 235 (up 33 seats), and the Lib Dems on 16, down from 20 last week. The SNP have gained four seats to take 45 constituencies, according to Electoral Calculus.
Mr Baxter said the Conservatives appeared to have stalled after the boost from Brexit Party voters switching to them when Nigel Farage stood candidates down in Tory seats.
This could explain why Mr Johnson used his speech on Friday to pledge his proposal for an Australian-style points system would be in place by January 1 next year and promised a new state aid regime to make it easier for the Government to intervene to protect jobs in trouble, he added.
“He is going out for a working class Brexit demographic with the calculation that there are still some votes in the Brexit party and Leave votes in the Conservative party,” said Mr Baxter.
“Meanwhile, Labour are continuing gradually to squeeze the Lib Dems and the Greens. If they keep going, there is potentially more they can do,” said Mr Baxter.
“The question is whether they have scraped all the Remain voters that they can from the two parties or whether there is more to come.”

“Should we start being nicer to the LibDems then? Just for a few days, mind. I don't think I could keep it up for more than a few days grin”

Hahaha, if they weren’t so intent on throwing Women under the bus, I could have swallowed hard and done that! 😬😂 Even in the face of their people’s vote /revoke/people’s vote swinging policies.

Maybe we just promote the monster raving loony party instead? 😂🙌🙌

You don't really have to be a LibDem for a few days, Epic.

You just have to identify as a LibDem.

Not the same thing, not the same at all

“You just have to identify as a LibDem.”

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Thanks Apple

I might not be around for a couple of days but it might be as well to give my head a break 😂

You need a break at times Autumn, it’s so all encompassing isn’t it?

Hope you are not gone for long!

As for my Remain voted being "scraped" into Labour. They can fuck off. As can the Lib Dems and the Greens.
Just in case you wondered. I will be spoiling my ballot paper and will continue to do so until Corbyn is dumped.

“Just in case you wondered. I will be spoiling my ballot paper and will continue to do so until Corbyn is dumped.”

Of all the unknowns in this election campaign Bellini, whether you will be writing writing NONE on your ballot, is not one. 😉😂

@EpicShitDippedBatBiscuit 😂

There's a tendency on here to put all Remain supporters in one box, just as there is elsewhere on here re:Leave voters.

@EpicShitDippedBatBiscuit 😂

There's a tendency on here to put all Remain supporters in one box, just as there is elsewhere on here re:Leave voters.

“There's a tendency on here to put all Remain supporters in one box, just as there is elsewhere on here re:Leave voters.”

No. AGAIN, There isn’t.🙄 There IS a tendency to be against Corbyn, the main opposition and Brexitty Shergar in this race. The post above was a quote from Curtice, not the PP’s opinion. Just because we are not writing NONE like you, does not mean we are not entitled to express our views FOR a party or AGAINST another. We have explained this hundreds of times. With all due respect, this is the last time I will do it. I’m bored of it now and I suspect other PP’s are too, it just derails the thread unecessarily, and we get tied up in pages and pages of posts refuting the same point.

Sorry, ‘Baxter’ not ‘Curtice’

epic actually it’s because of work shifts and staying at mum’s. I don’t have MN on my phone because I’d never have any battery! 😂

😂😂😂😂 fair enough Autumn! Hope your shifts aren’t too gruelling and we look forward to having you when you are all done!