Westminstenders: War and Weirdos

[RedToothBrush]

With weirdos set to run No10 and Trump seemingly having started a new war in the Middle East, 2020 already looks set to be a cracking year.

To start off your year, it turns out that chinese curse about interesting times is actually a fallacy...

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_you_live_in_interesting_times

Happy New Year.

May we make 2030...

The Mercedes story is just a concrete example of how FUD are going to gouge consumers for the next decade or so.

Good luck with that when no-one in the UK can afford to house and feed themselves. If you can treat yourself to a new Merc then fine but do a decent bit of haggling or just pay up and be happy. Moaning to the press about "Brexit jeopardy" just makes you look ridiculous in those circs.

Speakiing as a kid made to dress up as 50p at a school fete in 1971, I think Decimalisation coincided with high inflation and gets too much blame.

My other recent thought is about something that happened around the same time as EEC membership and went the same way: The reorganisation of local government, in particular the Metropolitan Counties.

There were good solid economic planning reasons for arguing that instead of seeing esturies as boundaries, they ought to be placed at the heart of local authorities responsible for services on both sides.

But Avon, Cleveland, Tyne & Wear, Merseyside and, most of all, Humberside, were unloved and never gained popular support. They got the blame for things they never did, were subject to local media disinformation campaigns, and in the end bit the dust, much like EU membership, for a more parochial version of the same reasons.

My other recent thought is about something that happened around the same time as EEC membership and went the same way: The reorganisation of local government, in particular the Metropolitan Counties.

Round here they still bang on about Sandwell, and how it was a stitch up. 46 years on.

www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/arts-entertainment/festival-of-brexit-cancelled-due-to-everything-about-it-20200113192475 quite right

Surely importers will need to know long before Dec 2020 ? July 2020 seems to be the cut off point, after which any extension cannot (atm) be asked for and the whole debacle of No Deal raises its ugly head once more.
Has the EU Parliament ratified the WA yet? i seem to recall such confidence over the EU Canada deal too.

Well for this once, I hope the Tories stick to the Public Sector bad, private sector good stance for their Festival of Brexit, and that as so often happens, the private sector fails to stump up.

.

This is a remarkable thread about how EU citizens feel about settled status. Not a single one is positive, all say govt cannot be trusted.

twitter.com/gabyhinsliff/status/1216654365706129408?s=21

-So the Labour leadership race is down to 5.

Emily Thornberry will join four other candidates on the ballot to become the next Labour leader, after winning the support of enough MPs and MEPs.
The shadow foreign secretary passed the threshold of 22 backers less than 10 minutes before nominations closed.
She was helped by Clive Lewis quitting the race - with several of his backers switching to back her candidacy.
Sir Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long Bailey, Lisa Nandy and Jess Phillips had already qualified for the next stage.
Sir Keir, the shadow Brexit secretary, led the way with 89 nominations, ahead of Mrs Long Bailey on 33, Ms Nandy on 31 and the other two contenders on 23 each.
Mr Lewis, the lowest-ranking candidate, pulled out after getting only five nominations.

-And the Deputy Leadership is also 5.

All five candidates - Angela Rayner, Ian Murray, Dawn Butler, Rosena Allin-Khan and Richard Burgon - have secured enough nominations to get onto the ballot paper.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-51089217

-Does anyone know if members of the Fabian Society can vote?

So the Labour leadership race is down to 5

I must water the houseplants later ...

You can sign up to be an affiliated supporter if you belong to certain organisations, the fabian society is one such. support.labour.org.uk/

how long after the switch did shops stop using it as an excuse to hike prices
Subjectively at switchover the rounding up was the main hit - 19s 6d didn't go to 97.5p it went to 99p etc. Going forwards the available granularity had reduced - almost all prices being higher. (halfpenny chews/penny chews went to 0.5p/1p fairly quickly on changeover - relatively huge price increase. )

I don't recall decimalisation used as an excuse - but the 0.5p coin - supposed to minimise rounding impacts - was rapidly unpopular and little used long before it was withdrawn
.

I don't recall decimalisation used as an excuse - but the 0.5p coin - supposed to minimise rounding impacts - was rapidly unpopular and little used long before it was withdrawn

My Sainsburys Saturday job saw the 1/2p go, and the £1 and 20p come ... all fun when you were on tills.

The abolition of 1p and 2p copper coins would save a small fortune for business, but the politicians run scared of the public reaction.

Thanks jasjas.

"Good luck with that when no-one in the UK can afford to house and feed themselves"

howabout I don't expect post-transition Brexit to be as bad as that

• and if you do, why on earth would you support it so strongly ?

halfpenny chews/penny chews went to 0.5p/1p fairly quickly on changeover

Were there many halfpenny chews? I remember Blackjacks and Fruit Salads as being 4 for ½p at changeover. Sixpence or 2½p for a Twix I think.

There is still concern about how well - or rather poorly - some businesses have prepared for Brexit

Also, CEOs and senior management who have been very successful for the last decade or two have always worked within the SIngle Market regulatory environment

• even if they weren't aware of how it was making doing business easier for them

Are they aware of all the changes that will affect their business ?
Evn businesses that never directly export or import may find their suppliers or customers do

How well will they all do when suddenly the regulatory environment changes, when after transition there is no longer frictionless trade or frictionless services

• and services don't seem to be mentioned in the govt plans for an EU trade deal.

I remember quite a bit of profiteering when decimal currency came in

Many retailers took it as an excuse to make price rises, by rounding conversion upwards very generously

I do feel pretty angry about this:

Brexit already costing more than UK's net contributions to EU over 47 years

www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/brexit-cost-more-than-uk-paid-in-to-eu-1-6463383

To be fair, decimalisation did bring them significant one-off costs, with new tills and staff training etc

but my impression - admittedly as a teen in a v low income one-parent family - was that the cost of shopping rose suddenly

We've somehow got to make up the Brexit costs so far, despite having torn up our trading arrangement with the neighbouring bloc that take 45% of our exports
and lost the trade deals with countries that take about another 25%

So how do you think we make up the Brexit costs, BigChoc?

Personally, I envisage a continued slow decline, much like the Eastern Bloc saw after the war. Will Hutton in yesterday's Observer seemed to be hopeful that we would rejoin in the nearish future. I don't know how successful he has been as a prophet in the past!

Businesses are still hoping that we will stay in the single market, regardless of what Johnson says.

Public sector officers think the same but have to bite their tongues because of the blue rosettes in their members' chambers.

Lots of people still do not believe that a hard Brexit will happen and thus are not worried about it

"So how do you think we make up the Brexit costs, BigChoc?"

peregrina I see to way to do it
It would take a govt of all-time political geniuses leading us, to successfully change the UK economy & trade

Instead we have the political dregs