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AntiBrexit vote
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Bank of England: “Biggest drop in living standards in 30 years”
[link=https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/redirect-to/?redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lbc.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fenergy-bills-crisis-bank-of-england-warning%2F]https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/energy-bi…gland-warning/[/link]
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Today’s winner of the “really bad analogies” game is …
[link=https://thehill.com/policy/international/598897-uks-johnson-compares-ukrainian-resistance-against-russia-to-brexit] Boris Johnson compares Ukrainian resistance against Russia to Brexit[/link]
I know that its the instinct of the people of this country, like the people of Ukraine, to choose freedom every time, Johnson said. I can give you a couple of famous recent examples. When the British people voted for Brexit in such large numbers, I dont believe it was that they were remotely hostile to foreigners.
Its because they wanted to be free to do things differently and for this country to be able to run itself, he added.
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[link=https://www.ft.com/content/021c629d-5853-4111-9600-ab5f0eb65a35?shareType=nongift]https://www.ft.com/conten…5a35?shareType=nongift[/link]
Brexit a huge drag on UK exports, damaging the economy –
[b]Britains 14 per cent fall in goods exports stands in contrast to 8.2 per cent rise for rest of world[/b]
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How low can you sink …
[h1]Brexit: UK signs trade agreement… with US state of Indiana[/h1] The UK is to sign its first trade agreement with an individual US state, with more expected this year as it attempts to show post-Brexit progress.
The Memorandum of Understanding with Indiana seeks to boost the £1.1bn ($1.4bn) worth of goods the state already buys from the UK.
[link=https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/redirect-to/?redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fnews%2Fuk-politics-61604784]https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-61604784[/link]
Sunswept uplands!
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[b]Boris Johnson Faces No Confidence Vote as Tory MPs tell him to Go [/b]
Conservative lawmakers dealt Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain a potentially lethal blow to his leadership on Monday when they triggered a no-confidence vote that could force him from power a little more than two years after his landslide election victory, the [link=https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/06/06/world/uk-boris-johnson-no-confidence/the-prime-minister-faces-a-decisive-vote-on-monday-evening?smid=url-share]New York Times[/link] reports.
[link=https://apnews.com/article/boris-johnson-london-government-and-politics-d1bc8ce279ee43a8854c53c698bc0e57]Associated Press[/link]: If Johnson loses the vote among the 359 Conservative lawmakers, the party will choose a new leader, who will also become prime minister. If he wins, as seems more likely, he cant face another challenge for a year under current party rules though a narrow victory would leave him a hobbled leader whose days are likely numbered.
The [link=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-45953182]BBC[/link] explains the process. -
Larger no vote than expected, 211 to 148, so about 41% of the MPs wanted him out. Theresa May resigned six months after 36% of her MPs wanted her out.
But Id bet bojo going to cling on to 2025.
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[img]https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/https%3A%2F%2Fd6c748xw2pzm8.cloudfront.net%2Fprod%2F5f9049b0-e64b-11ec-85ff-9d3b8cdacaa4-standard.png?dpr=1&fit=scale-down&quality=highest&source=next&width=700[/img]
The only parts of the UK that are growing are (the brexiters most hated) London and (still in the single market) Northern Ireland.
[link=https://www.ft.com/content/296a0c59-4b54-42e0-a37e-6f389880f582]https://www.ft.com/conten…42e0-a37e-6f389880f582[/link]
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Britains Trump, Boris Johnson finally in trouble for his lies & inability to produce on his numerous empty promises?
So much for all of Britains troubles being caused by the EU. British Conservatives latest brag is the NHS becoming as expensive as the US healthcare system.
[link=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/22/opinion/boris-johnson-britain-elections.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuomT1JKd6J17Vw1cRCfTTMQmqxCdw_PIxftm3iWka3DLDmwYiOMNAo6B_EGKb615ZsB23TObQsRGNvolXv1ux-5ZekFpRgK0o5yCg9IFPyAx48qVb18B4qjsD_o-4CO4KS6wMvt-z7my-B6IbzboW62PzSAjd156pcQyIUX50HRe2qzEQuQi3IYo3fgnAYtoBmtVPFn8tPPrCR19PN6UPFqLukRtBbYvCXyElsWc6rkAbAxWFVnGKXt-6ms349haU8gFaOe9d1VzPZqj3shCTzBgP4yrBJYuRobLlL4MsbTFrByEy8fe1OxXUk2UVSmCZ2uLMyJ_gDTS&smid=url-share]https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/22/opinion/boris-johnson-britain-elections.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuomT1JKd6J17Vw1cRCfTTMQmqxCdw_PIxftm3iWka3DLDmwYiOMNAo6B_EGKb615ZsB23TObQsRGNvolXv1ux-5ZekFpRgK0o5yCg9IFPyAx48qVb18B4qjsD_o-4CO4KS6wMvt-z7my-B6IbzboW62PzSAjd156pcQyIUX50HRe2qzEQuQi3IYo3fgnAYtoBmtVPFn8tPPrCR19PN6UPFqLukRtBbYvCXyElsWc6rkAbAxWFVnGKXt-6ms349haU8gFaOe9d1VzPZqj3shCTzBgP4yrBJYuRobLlL4MsbTFrByEy8fe1OxXUk2UVSmCZ2uLMyJ_gDTS&smid=url-share[/link]For Boris Johnson, Britains embattled and scandal-ridden prime minister, nowhere is safe.
On Thursday, that may become inescapably clear. Two local elections one in a traditional Tory area in South Devon that the party has controlled almost continuously since 1885, the other in a postindustrial seat in North England that the Tories took from Labour for the first time in 90 years in 2019 will deliver a decisive assessment of Mr. Johnsons flailing popularity. As things stand, the Conservatives are set to [link=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/wakefield-tiverton-by-election-boris-johnson-labour-b2105097.html]lose both[/link].
Mr. Johnsons ability to win over such disparate people and places affluent farmers and neglected manufacturers, the shires in the South and old Labour heartlands in the North once ensured his position at the top of the Conservative Party. Yet now, as Britain hovers on the brink of economic recession, the constituencies that previously united around the prime minister appear to be rejecting him. For Mr. Johnson, his authority frayed by a recent [link=https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/06/06/world/uk-boris-johnson-no-confidence]no confidence vote[/link], a double defeat would leave his tenure hanging by a thread.
But the Conservatives problems are much bigger than the prime minister. After 12 years in office, under three different leaders, the Conservatives have collectively set the stage for Britains woes. The balance sheet is dire: [link=https://fullfact.org/economy/employment-since-2010-wages/]Wages havent risen[/link] in real terms since 2010, [link=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/28/world/europe/uk-austerity-poverty.html]austerity[/link] has hollowed out local communities, and [link=https://www.ft.com/content/7204c062-1047-11ea-a225-db2f231cfeae]regional inequality[/link] has deepened. Britains protracted departure from the European Union, pursued by the Conservatives without a clear plan, has only [link=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/29/business/uk-companies-brexit-trade.html]made matters worse[/link].
As the prices of food and energy soar to [link=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/18/business/uk-inflation-economy.html]record levels[/link], Conservatives can point to causes outside their control: the pandemics global disruption, lockdowns in China, Russias war in Ukraine. But they cannot explain why, in this time of global crisis, Britain is afflicted with particular severity. [b]According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Britains economy [link=https://www.ft.com/content/ee2ce542-eb19-48c1-9a1d-57a8200a47ae]wont grow at all[/link] next year a bleak forecast shared only, among major economies, with Russia.[/b]
That should concern the Conservatives, whose dismal economic record is visible everywhere, from rising levels of poverty to chronically underfunded public services. In the National Health Service, to which Conservatives love to pronounce their loyalty, wages for health care workers [link=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jul/22/nhs-staff-have-lost-thousands-in-real-pay-since-2011-study-finds]have fallen[/link] in real terms, and an estimated [link=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/mar/03/staffing-crisis-deepens-in-nhs-england-with-110000-posts-unfilled]110,000 positions[/link] lie vacant. As the [link=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/apr/14/number-of-people-on-nhs-waiting-lists-in-england-at-record-high]waiting list[/link] for medical attention hits an all-time high, ever more Britons are going private: The average amount now spent by households on health care, as a percentage of G.D.P., is [link=https://www.ft.com/content/dbf166ce-1ebb-4a67-980e-9860fd170ba2]nearing levels[/link] in America. For a country so proud of its public health care, its an especially painful development.
For Conservatives, the chaos of Mr. Johnsons prime ministership offers another appealing alibi. Having first ridden on the back of Mr. Johnsons unruliness, Conservatives now claim that it is impeding their ability to address the serious problems facing the country. They often complain that they just want to get back to governing. [b]But the truth is that Conservatives gave up on governing long ago a fact that accounts both for Britains current mess and Mr. Johnsons appeal in the first place.[/b]Gave up on governing. Sounds like Republicans.
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[h1][link=https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/redirect-to/?redirect=https%3A%2F%2Firishtimes.com%2Fireland%2F2022%2F06%2F27%2Fapplications-from-britons-for-irish-citizenship-soaring-since-brexit%2F]Applications from Britons for Irish citizenship soar by almost 1,200% since Brexit[/link][/h1]
Records released to The Irish Times by the Department of Justice show that in 2015 there were just 54 people from Britain granted Irish citizenship. The following year, when the UK voted to leave the EU, the figure almost doubled to 98. This then increased to 525 in 2017 and 685 in 2018, with a slight dip to 664 in 2019 before rising to 945 in 2020 and 1,191 last year.
In 2015, successful British applications accounted for 0.4 per cent of the 13,543 total applications from about 180 countries across the globe. This increased to 12 per cent of last years total of 9,788.
The figures do not include successful applicants from Northern Ireland. There were none between 2015 and last year, but there have been five to date this year. Anyone born in the North before 2005 can claim Irish citizenship. An automatic right to such citizenship as for anyone born on the island was removed from the Constitution the same year.
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Looks like it’s close to the end of the line for Boris Johnson.
Over a dozen cabinet members have resigned and some of them are calling for him to step down.
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[b]Clownfall: Britain after Boris[/b]
[image]https://www.economist.com/img/b/834/469/90/media-assets/image/20220709_LDD001.jpg[/image]
Boris johnsons government has collapsed at last. For months Britains prime minister wriggled out of one scandal after another. Now, irretrievably rejected by his own mps, he has accepted that his premiership is over. He has asked to stay until the autumn, but he should go immediately.
Mr Johnson was brought down by his own dishonesty, so some may conclude that a simple change of leadership will be enough to get Britain back on course. If only. Although [link=https://www.economist.com/britain/2022/07/06/the-toxicity-of-boris-johnson]Mr Johnsons fingerprints[/link] are all over todays mess, the problems run deeper than one man. Unless the ruling Conservative Party musters the fortitude to face that fact, Britains [link=https://www.economist.com/britain/2022/07/06/boris-johnsons-successors-will-face-a-monstrous-in-tray]many social and economic difficulties[/link] will only worsen.
[link=https://www.economist.com/leaders/2022/07/07/clownfall]https://www.economist.com…s/2022/07/07/clownfall[/link]
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[h1]The Worst, Best Prime Minister[/h1] [b]Boris Johnson achieved almost nothing except for one very big thing: Brexit.[/b]
[link=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2022/07/boris-johnson-resignation-brexit/661510/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_term=2022-07-07T13%253A39%253A58&utm_content=edit-promo&utm_campaign=the-atlantic]Tom McTague[/link]:
The events of the past 24 hours are a sordid and quite extraordinary almost-end to a sordid and quite [link=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/07/boris-johnson-minister-of-chaos/619010/]extraordinary career[/link], one that was profoundly inane in one respect and incontestably historic in another. He is perhaps the worst prime minister in modern British history but also the most consequential, leaving a legacy without an -[i]ism[/i] or a following, but one that will outlast anything bequeathed by his recent predecessors.
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Within about six months of becoming prime minister, Johnson completely undid the complex, imperfect, and specifically British version of EU membership that had taken 50 years to construct. Whether Johnson was right to argue for Brexit, ever believed in it at all, or used it only for personal advancement is beside the point. In place of that membership, he negotiated a thin trade agreement with the EU and an internal trade border within the United Kingdom itself. This settlement is now part of international law, and is cemented in domestic politics by the Labour Partys confirmation that it would not challenge its fundamental tenet. If a future government proposed to take Britain back into the EU, it would have to do so from a position of weakness; no status quo ante is available.
Johnson has not changed the soul of the nation, but he has left a scar that will endure. His successor will now have to see whether the Johnsonian whirligig was all worth it. Johnson lost control because of a series of idiotic failings and misjudgments summed up by that most tawdry and bafflingly pitiful scandal, Partygate, when he became the first prime minister in history to be fined for breaking the law, by attending his own birthday party.
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The Four Seasons Lanscaping posting on Twitter and tagging Boris with an invite for a press conference was delightful.
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Remember when the liars peddling Brexit said US trade deal would make it all worth it.
[link=https://twitter.com/lbc/status/1548948886491889664?s=21&t=_RQ8Q7acigphEJK8_wAadg]https://twitter.com/lbc/status/1548948886491889664?s=21&t=_RQ8Q7acigphEJK8_wAadg[/link]
“The United States doesn’t want to negotiate a free-trade deal with the UK at the moment, International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan admits”The United States doesn't want to negotiate a free-trade deal with the UK at the moment, International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan admits#CallTheCabinet | @annietrev | @NickFerrariLBC pic.twitter.com/QvpZcDn7vO
— LBC (@LBC) July 18, 2022
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Do they export anything other than oil that people want? A few cars for rich folks?
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[link=https://www.ft.com/content/571dbb52-971f-49e5-9159-3bc73b497742?r=2fku&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email]Financial Times[/link]
“Britain faces a protracted recession and the worst squeeze in living standards in more than 60 years after the Bank of England raised interest rates sharply and forecast inflation would hit 13 percent by the end of the year”
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BOE says economic downturn to last 15 months. Inflation set to hit 13% – economy set to shrink 2.1% by end of 2022. Outlook worse than for the US and EU.
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[b]British Pound Falls to All-Time Low Against Dollar[/b][/h1]
The United Kingdom is be plunging into a currency crisis after the pound plummeted to a record low, the [link=https://www.ft.com/content/c7f815b6-e7f2-43d2-b160-b7b3182e63b4]Financial Times[/link] reports.
The pound was trading as low as $1.035 early Monday morning, continuing an alarming trend triggered by a raft of tax cuts for corporations and the highest earners unveiled Friday.-
should it have ever been higher than the dollar?
I remember my first time going to Canada like 20 years ago or so. We felt like elites getting our $1.60 Canadian to $1 USD.
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[h1][b]Labour Party Surges in Britain[/b][/h1]
A new [link=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/labour-surges-in-polls-as-clown-show-economics-turns-off-voters-9c83jvwz3]Times of London/YouGov poll[/link] finds Labour has surged to its largest poll lead over the Conservatives in more than two decades, with voters turning against Kwasi Kwartengs tax-cutting budget.
The poll puts Labour 17 points clear of the Tories a level of support not seen since Tony Blair won his landslide victory in 2001.
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[link=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-28/boe-to-carry-out-purchases-of-long-dated-uk-bonds-to-calm-market?srnd=premium]Bank of England Steps Back Into UK Bond Market to Restore Stability[/link]
