Introduction One interesting aspect of the unfolding of Brexit has been the emergence of strong voices with a depth of analysis and understanding of the process. There are too many to mention, but these include Prof Chris Grey (Brexit Blog), David Alan Green (FT and Jack of Kent), Prof Richard Murphy (TRUK), Ian Dunt… Read more
Category:
European Union
The Important Wrecking Amendment
Introduction I’ve been worried about the Irish border for some time – my wife thinks excessively – but growing up on the island of Ireland it tends to loom large. Last night was difficult as the chances of a cliff edge Brexit in March and the return of a hard border have increased dramatically. I… Read more
Retail own label plus
Following rather downbeat suggestions (including mine) on retail performance in the UK I fear that when the investigation by the French Autorité de la Concurrence, the equivalent of the UK Competition and Markets Authority, is undertaken and when also the FT reports (frequent paywall): “The investigation is not a big surprise — it seems like… Read more
A More Definitive guide to the DUP
It is general knowledge that there are two broad groups in Northern Ireland, the Protestant /Unionist /Loyalist (PUL) community and the Catholic /Nationalist /Republican (CNR) community. Historically the PUL community has been the majority and the CNR community the minority, but they are now getting very close to par. Nationalists tend to see themselves as… Read more
Is Italy the white hope for European reform?
The radical reformist and largely Eurosceptic coalition parties in the Italian government are declaring radical views. They have asked for 250 billion of Euro debt to be written off. Although it has been subtly since denied, it is entirely in character with their previous pronouncements and they still maintain that a pre-Maastricht system would be… Read more
Canada & Modern Money
I came accross this interesting, historical chart indicating how Canada’s debt and interest has boomed since it stopped getting its Central Bank to issue money. I believe the change was much influenced by US political pressure but it does prove, as I am sure that our Canadian Bank of England Governor, Mark Carney is well… Read more
The EU is the only ‘spring’ Europe has had in its entire history
A tweet that arrived yesterday is well worth sharing – a short speech by a Spanish MEP on what, he considers, the EU is: Yesterday I had to teach my students, in under 3 hours, what the EU was and why #Brexit was happening. It seemed like an impossible task. Then I found this MEP… Read more
This Island race
Given that we fail to train enough doctors or nurses, provide sufficient carers, or even structure our jobs, such as in the food industry, to be generally appealing, then I think we can conclude that Britain is set up, structurally, to depend on immigration. It is therefore crazy to try to restrict it. But that… Read more
Picture for the side of a bus
This is from MapPorn (I know, it’s sad, I cannot manage the real stuff). It shows the actual major trading import partners of European countries. The German takeover of European trade, including those countries not in the Euro, is pretty much complete… This indicates the flimsiness of Brexiters assumption that Britain is such an important… Read more
Président Macron’s government to sell Paris’s airports
I was most impressed with a journalist’s summation on France 2 of the proposal by Président Macron’s government to sell Paris’s airports. They are currently owned by just a shade more than 50% by the state.. The Prime Minister has said it is not part of the government’s purpose to extract dividends from infrastructure. Though… Read more