Westminstenders: Prepare for what we said would never happen

[RedToothBrush]

I think that there may be a run on tinned tomatoes and pasta coming. Pizza will no longer have mozzarella in 2021.

On the plus side turnips are in season.

They inherited the highest rating, Aaa, from Labour...and squandered it.

Somewhat ironic - the same credit-rating agency [Moody's] in 2010;

"A leading credit-rating agency urged George Osborne to stick to his austerity plans yesterday as fresh evidence of weak bank lending to businesses and homeowners added to fears of a double-dip recession."

"Moody's Investors Service said it was maintaining its top-notch AAA rating for the UK and warned that any political backsliding by the coalition could still lead to the downgrade feared by the chancellor."

"But while the ratings agency expressed confidence that Britain was resilient enough to shrug off the impact of the biggest package of spending cuts since the second world war" ...

www.theguardian.com/business/2010/sep/20/britain-keeps-aaa-credit-rating

That was 10 years ago
Under very different management

Moody in 2010 didn't mention anything about leaving the UK's main trading partner & regional trading bloc

• because what lunatic would ever think of doing that !

The post-referendum political situation has been chaos, one crisis bungled after another

All because a catfight in the Tory party got out of hand
... and resulted in a chaotic Brexit and transition,
with No Deal or Bare Bones to look forward to, next year

The aftermath of the Great Financial Crisis needed different policies to normal

However, those countries that went for austerity suffered for it
The UK was the most keen in Europe on austerity and gave it up last
Countries like the USA - under Obama - that went for stimulus instead, boomed

Nobel-prize winning economist Klugmann has criticised the policy of austerity as damaging

• and criticised Obama for not being brave enough for a really masive stimulus

It took until 2019 for average UK wages in real terms to catch up with 2007 wages
Only Greece and Portugal suffered a similar longterm % hit to real wages

(FT paywall) British business groups sound alarm over no-deal Brexit

https://www.ft.com/content/32053b1c-9164-43ef-8904-7087e21ffb1e

The groups - ranging from the CBI, TheCityUK and techUK to the National Farmers’ Union, British Retail Consortium and the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders -
said that securing a quick agreement “matters greatly for jobs and livelihoods”.
....
Executives have warned that many companies are not prepared for the disruption, red tape and expense of having to trade with EU counterparts next year.

Smaller companies in particular are struggling to prepare for a no-deal outcome as they seek to survive the economic downturn caused by Covid-19.

A poll of members by the Institute of Directors this week showed that nearly a quarter of companies may not be ready for the end of the transition period.
Nearly half said they were not fully prepared.

All because a catfight in the Tory party got out of hand ... and resulted in a chaotic Brexit and transition, with No Deal or Bare Bones to look forward to, next year

With the potential break up of the UK on the cards - and all because Cameron hadn't got the guts to stand up to the misnamed ERG.

https://www.ft.com/content/32053b1c-9164-43ef-8904-7087e21ffb1e

More than three-quarters of UK firms say they need a deal quickly,
according to the groups.

“With each day that passes, business resilience is chipped away.”

“It is absolutely clear that it’s in nobody’s interest - and certainly not patients -
to face the future with uncertainty around how medicines will be regulated, tested and moved throughout Europe and the UK,”
said Richard Torbett, chief executive of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry.

Paul Everitt, chief executive of ADS, warned that the UK’s aerospace, defence, space and security industries would face major disruption without a deal
“through delays to cross-border trade, costly administrative requirements and a new regulatory system”.

He added:
“Businesses in our sectors are facing a daily struggle to survive as a result of the Covid-19 crisis,
which has put 30,000 aerospace jobs at risk.”
....
Steve Elliott, chief executive of the Chemical Industries Association, which represents businesses responsible for half a million jobs, said the industry needed a deal.
.....
Terry Jones, director-general of the NFU of England & Wales, said:

“The EU, as a single trading bloc, is the most important international market for UK agri-food products,
and given its size and proximity will continue to be so in the future.

That is why it’s critically important that a tariff-free, quota-free deal is struck as soon as possible.”

www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/killing-jeremy-corbyn

@Clavinova Doesn't matter what Moody's say, the tories still squandered that AAA rating.
Austerity was fine for the first term but then should have been relaxed.

CV has highlighted how shite our public services really are, yet still you C&P trying to defend your lord n masters

Terry Jones, director-general of the NFU of England & Wales

Overall, their members voted for Brexit and the NFU at the time, took a neutral stance.

I'll be honest and admit that I'm not so impressed with the ratings agencies that greased the slipway to economic disaster in the global collapse in 2008. But other people seem to care what they think, which is more the point.

Yay. I never Understood the NFU. Position.

On the other side, I can understand why farmers voted that way. All the new regulations about animals, traceability etc.... was ‘imposed’ by the EU. I’ve heard so many times my PIL grumble about that. And yes as a farmers with a (very) small farm, they were probably hit even harder with it.
But no one ever reminded them what the main market was/is. This is where the NFU failed imo

Not all agencies are dedicated to the public good unfortunately. International agencies dedicated to the creation of money for the rich certainly are not dedicated to public social good in any one country, including this wet rock off the European peninsula. We need to learn that fast. And then decide what to do about it, equally quickly.

The big problem that the left has in the UK is not the toxicity of its leaders. It’s that to grasp the concept of public good in the first place requires an idea of delayed gratification first, which is absolutely in direct conflict with the consumerist culture pushed on us all (starting with the baby boomers and Bernard) post-war. A second is that it needs a grasp of history, which has been discouraged by the same priorities, and perhaps even politics, which is not always a moral force and thus has lost all legitimacy here.

Bernard? Bernays. Too few value the traditional humanities education, because it does not result in direct and immediate wealth.

I can't but help feel that a lot of my generation are quite dismissive of formal education simply because they were failed by the system, but at a time of prosperity managed to do OK for themselves as adults. The post war settlement wanted secondary education for all, but was still wedded to the grammar school model. The supposed tripartite system hardly got off the ground - it may have worked if it had done, I wouldn't like to guess.Hence 75% of the population were tagged as failures at 11. Secondary moderns were a very hit and miss affair - some were good, some were diabolical.

Grammar schools weren't as wonderful as they are portrayed on MN - my own girls Grammar school was good in parts, but certainly was a long way from being a centre of excellence. As a comprehensive, it's a thousand times better.

The lack of value placed on education is a major issue. Blair was right in that it’s a lifelong affair too, and not everyone can specialise in the same thing. Every civilisation needs a dedicated class to run things, yet that needs watching; and then the gap between what becomes classes grows too wide to bridge and good faith is lost on all sides. I’m stumbling my way through more of the bleedin’ obvious here, it’s obviously too late on a Sunday.

It’s interesting you point to prosperity, or enough of it, gained without education as a cause in its decline though. The trouble is the kind of humanities education required doesn’t create wealth. It consumes it.

But wasn't that how the GFA came into being - by finding points of convergeance?

@Peregrina
It was a case of points of convergence plus pressure from Westminster, and the personal interest of Bill Clinton along with the work of George Mitchell also made a big difference.

The DUP are not completely unrealistic wild men. They push really hard for the option that only benefits them when they sense they have found a soft place, but they take a different approach when it is clear the cards are stacked against them. Once it was clear that the Westminster government was on board with the process that led to the GFA they knew the final outcome was not in doubt and that their best hope was to try to influence it rather than stop it.

@Meuniere

Boris Johnson 'plans to resign next spring after complaining about £150k salary'

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson-plans-resign-next-22863780

That sort of stuff annoys me. Because he is basically shafting the country and then refusing to take any responsibility for it whilst he is leaving others sorting the mess out.

Yes. Like Cameron before him.

Boris Johnson will be gone by Easter. Smirking as he leaves.

And after he goes, then what? The best talent has been purged. The selection of the new leader will take place after a long dark winter of Covid, Brexit and economic hardship. The wheels are coming off already, in particular in the North. I’m not sure any of the current cabinet will be a shoo-in after that.

I’m not sure any of the current cabinet will be a shoo-in after that.

Given the stupidity of the Tory party members we will probably be welcoming the third woman PM - Priti Patel!

I agree that just getting rid of BJ is not 'the answer'
But I cant imagine any of the others would be quite as lazy / venal?
I'd imagine Sunak would be the least worst next PM?

Anyone but Gove would be better than BJ.

Nope Priti Patel would be every bit as bad as Bozo.

Following my own thought trail, how on earth have we got to this point where the creation of money - money, purely as in currency, not resources - even internationally in the full meaning of that term, has automatically become so deeply, intrinsically linked with the notion of public good in one small nation, so much so that challenging that link in any, even mild, way is deemed idiotic? Even to the point of exposing and unpicking any of the complexities involved?

That is the heart of the problem for the left in the UK. It used to be a truism that money is the root of all evil.

I can and have always tracked the evolution of the cultural processes actually. Still it’s something of a shock when you clearly and explicitly put the two directly next to each other and realise how alien a link-up it really is.