Labour’s u-turn on supporting the Brexit Referendum result.

[TheaSaurass]

Can anyone believe a policy this party campaigns on for votes at a general election?

Media supporters may call it a ‘shift’, but it’s a honking great u-turn, as weeks ago Corbyn on a Sunday political programme was asked to clarify Labour’s actual position (as attracted Leave and Remain votes at the last election) and he stated that Labour's position was that the UK WAS leaving the Single Market, otherwise we wouldn't be leaving.

And while the man currently setting Labour policy Keir Starmer says the time for “constructive ambiguity” is over this totally undermines the government’s position ahead of EU negotiations resuming next week.

Instead of getting on with Brexit, Labour will only support a transitional period from 2021 to 2023 (leaving open the option to stay in for good), so while May did not get the election result she wanted, who can say she wasn’t right not to trust a parliamentary Labour Party pretending they supported Brexit, to get government legislation through parliament.

Clearly they NOW feel there are more votes for leaving the question if we leave the EU, open.

“Labour makes dramatic shift on Brexit and single market”

”Labour is to announce a dramatic policy shift by backing continued membership of the EU single market beyond March 2019, when Britain leaves the EU, establishing a clear dividing line with the Tories on Brexit for the first time.”

”In a move that positions it decisively as the party of “soft Brexit”, Labour will support full participation in the single market and customs union during a lengthy “transitional period” that it believes could last between two and four years after the day of departure, it is to announce on Sunday.”

”This will mean that under a Labour government the UK would continue to abide by the EU’s free movement rules, accept the jurisdiction of the European court of justice on trade and economic issues, and pay into the EU budget for a period of years after Brexit, in the hope of lessening the shock of leaving to the UK economy. In a further move that will delight many pro-EU Labour backers, Jeremy Corbyn’s party will also leave open the option of the UK remaining a member of the customs union and single market for good, beyond the end of the transitional period.”

”The decision to stay inside the single market and abide by all EU rules during the transitional period, and possibly beyond, was agreed after a week of intense discussion at the top of the party. It was signed off by the leadership and key members of the shadow cabinet on Thursday, according to Starmer’s office.”

I don't think we have clout. I do think it's possible to live without lettuces for several weeks in the summer or courgettes. Remote parts of the US or Australia and even just possibly the Uk don't have daily deliveries of whatever , we'll survive.

Eu will be looking to find places to supply,
which is very much a different kettle of fish to having orders you wish to place.

You can grow oranges, but if nobody needs oranges they will be left to rot.

You can grow oranges, but if nobody needs oranges they will be left to rot.
Have you been to Crete ?

So we will start growing oranges will we? Not yet, despite climate change. I have a fig tree - it doesn't crop reliably. Two years ago, the figs set and ripened early so I had a good crop. Last year was late and it was too late for any of them to ripen. This year I have had a handful.

Fruit can be processed, and processed products can be stored longer and exported further afield than fresh fruit.

As for fresh fruit - markets in eastern Europe continue to grow.

Do you remember #marmitegate ?
How upset so many people were that it was in short supply and that the price had risen?
Multiply that brouhaha by 1000 or more when 'we'll survive' becomes the order of the day and many people will find it very difficult to survive.

Multiply that brouhaha by 1000 or more when 'we'll survive' becomes the order of the day and many people will find it very difficult to survive

Well if people are whipped up by scare stories in the media then they will find it difficult to survive. But if they are reasonable they won't. I actually am not that old and remember a time before fridges ......yes i know it's hard to believe but there was a time without fridges and freezers.

I am as old, and I remember the time before fridges etc. It was difficult to keep milk and butter fresh in the summer. But, I recall diets being extremely monotonous during the 1950s - we didn't have the variety of foods available today.

I don't think the Press whipped up Marmitegate or Shrinkflation - people began to observe it with their own eyes. In fact, many didn't connect it wit the falling pound, which fell immediately after the Brexit result.

People weren't reasonable during the war. My parents and grandparents used to talk of shopkeepers who were 'little Hitlers'. My grandmother refused to patronise the butcher ever again that she'd gone to during the war, because he'd diddled her then.

missbabbs the vast majority of the media is firmly behind Brexit, scare stories are extremely thin on the ground.

Going back to the War years: there was a reason they booted Churchill out. There was a reason for supporting the NHS. It took the Establishment by surprise, but people had had enough.
I don't think human nature has changed.

Yes, I agree post war years but it was more jobs and housing rather than just food.
Brexit should produce more jobs as incomers leave with the falling pound, there's no excuse for lack of housing though not particularly a Conservative issue.

Brexit should produce more jobs as incomers leave with the falling pound
Hmmm
the jobs that the departees do have not been done by the British since the 1920's
and if wage rates are put up high enough to encourage the British off benefits, then the inflation in the shops will be eye watering
(especially as cheap imports will no longer be happening)

Brexit will not produce more jobs. If anything it will produce job losses. We have less than 5 % unemployment and the majority of our natural population is old. As people leave there will not be enough people in companies/organisations to do what we need. Organisations will find it difficult to fulfil obligations. Other companies will then not to work with them. They will lose contacts/orders and the cycle continues. Only the naive think it will create employment.

theworld
the majority of our natural population is old.
ABSOLUTELY
Speaking as one of the immigrants,
the demographic pyramids of the whole of Western Europe and North America are ONLY being propped up by immigrants
and without them, the whole ponzi scheme of pensions and welfare and care for the elderly falls apart

Def makes Labour MORE electable.

The squeeze on cash-strapped British households is expected to be illustrated this week by official figures likely to show that inflation picked up last month, outstripping growth in pay packets.

City economists are forecasting that the consumer price index (CPI) rose at an annual rate of 2.7% in July, up from 2.6% in June. The figures will be released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Tuesday, followed by labour market data the next day which are expected to show wage growth stagnated while unemployment continued to fall.

Inflation is expected to resume its upward path following June’s surprise slowdown, when weaker global oil prices pushed down the cost of petrol and diesel, providing some respite for consumers. However, in May, inflation had hit a four-year high of 2.9%.

Coupled with low pay growth, the rising cost of living means real wages are falling, heaping pressure on households. Consumers are using their credit cards to fund spending and the Bank of England has expressed alarm about the increase in personal debt...

...Analysts are pointing to higher utility prices in July, following gas and electricity tariff hikes by EDF in late June, while food and furniture prices have risen steadily on the back of the fall in sterling.

Philip Shaw, the chief economist at Investec, pointed to a further fall in petrol prices and the abolition of mobile phone roaming charges across the EU in mid-June as keeping inflation in check. He forecasts inflation will stick at 2.6% in July, before rising gently in coming months to 3%.

Alan Clarke, the head of European fixed income strategy at Scotiabank, is predicting inflation of 2.8%, partly due to food prices which have been rising in recent months in sharp contrast to this time last year, when the supermarket price war was still raging.

He said: “Food price falls came to a fairly abrupt end in the aftermath of the Brexit vote, particularly on the back of the sharp fall in the exchange rate. Indeed, food prices have risen for seven of the last eight months – with last month being the exception.

“Overall, we view last month’s downward adjustment in inflation as temporary and the peak in inflation is yet to be reached.”

The Bank of England is predicting inflation will reach a peak of 3% in October.

In its latest predictions for the UK economy published last week, the central bank raised its inflation forecasts for the months ahead and cut the growth outlook for this year and next. It also downgraded its predictions for wage growth, as it warned that uncertainty surrounding Brexit had discouraged some firms from awarding pay rises.

Wage growth has been lagging behind price rises and this is expected to continue in coming months.

www.theguardian.com/business/2017/aug/13/uk-inflation-tipped-to-rise-again-with-wages-forecast-to-stagnate

It's one thing to have no fridge - it's quite another to not be able to afford the food that once went into it, or to have to choose between food and other essentials.

This is not an opinion piece. It is a roundup of expert opinion.

Cast your mind back to March 2008. The financial markets have been in turmoil since the previous summer and in the previous month the Labour government has been forced to nationalise the troubled bank Northern Rock. Few realised it at the time but the economy had peaked. A deep and brutal recession was about to begin. In that month, the average basic weekly wage, excluding bonuses, was £473.

The recession officially came to an end by late 2009 and after a couple of years of weak and patchy growth, the worst seemed to be over. Activity picked up, unemployment started to come down. Yet more than nine years after the slump of 2008 began, wages – the yardstick by which most people judge whether the economy is doing well or not – have not recovered. In fact, according to the Office for National Statistics, they have gone backwards. The average basic weekly wage, adjusted for movements in prices, now stands at £458...

...As John Philpott, who runs the Jobs Economist consultancy, noted: “What’s remarkable is that pay growth, however measured, is so weak at a time when employment is at joint record rate of 74.8% and unemployment at a 42-year low of 4.6%, driven almost entirely in the latest quarter by relatively strong growth in full-time jobs for employees on permanent contracts. Hard times and near full employment make strange bedfellows, highlighting the extent to which a deregulated labour market with an abundance of workers available to fill low wage vacancies has altered the UK jobs landscape.”

Pay curbs in the public sector are a factor but they are not the whole story. Just as in the early 19th century, private sector employers feel no need to pay higher wages. Despite the fall in the jobless total, they can tap into a large pool of unskilled, deunionised, insecure workers. History is repeating itself.

There are jobs.
Employment is almost at full capacity.
The jobs do not pay enough.
The pound is falling.
Imported food (assuming it makes it through customs) will cost more.

www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jun/14/uk-pay-squeeze-recovery