5th September, 2016
Insurance market Lloyd’s may be forced to move some of its business to continental Europe as a result of the vote to leave the EU, chairman John Nelson has warned.
Posts Tagged ‘the brexit disaster’
Lloyd’s may move out of London without Brexit ‘clarity’
Posted by seumasach on September 5, 2016
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Tory split on Brexit opens
Posted by seumasach on August 29, 2016
A senior Conservative told the paper: “There’s a tussle going on here. The chief culprit is the chancellor.
“He has taken the position that there are no red lines, that you’ve got to stay part of the market and it doesn’t matter what you give way on. Hammond is operating as a blocking mechanism.”
Soon the divisions in the Labour Party will pale in comparison with those in the Tory Party. Hammond’s position is de facto “remain”. Remaining in the single market means remaining in the EU or possibly the EEA. The latter option is really quite pointless since it is merely a kind of downgraded membership. Hammond’s goal will be to split the Brexit camp and neutralise it: this is all too easy since they lack any coherent programme. As soon as a negotiation plan becomes an imperative the enormity of the Brexit fiasco will be there for all to see. As so often throughout history the worst thing that can happen to an oppositional movement is that they are put into power. Soon they will long for the old days of endless complaining and finger-pointing and, it has to be said, lying about the EU without any need for an alternative geopolitical vision.
Britain will retain access to single market and curb migration under plans considered by Theresa May
28th Auigust, 2016
Britain will retain access to the single market for financial sector and the car industry while curbing migration under plans being considered by Theresa May.
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Brexit: Don’t let Remain supporters stall
Posted by seumasach on August 21, 2016
It is not the Remain camp which is stalling Brexit so much as the Brexit camp itself. They are yet to come up with a program for Brexit. They did not do so in the course of the referendum campaign apart from vagaries about trading with the rest of the world, except China as it turns out. They will never come up with a program for the simple reason that there are no good options and no options at all that they can agree on. Without agreement on a future framework for Britain article 50 will not be triggered. The brexiteers have dedicated entire lifetimes to reaching this point and they just don’t know what to do.
21st August, 2016
Iain Duncan Smith has urged Theresa May to crack on with Britain’s divorce from the European Union as he accused Remain supporters of trying to delay the process.
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Britain, Brexit, Europe and the lessons of Suez
Posted by seumasach on August 4, 2016
“A prolonged period of diminishing influence and relative economic decline is now the likely future for our nearest neighbour. The pressure point this time will not be the threat to sterling exposed by a furious US President, but rather the threat from a diversion of FDI flows seeking secure access to the EU single market.”
We need to go as far away as Dublin to find a journalist who can nonchalantly state the obvious. Thank you, John Looby!
He also rounds the argument off nicely:
“In the longer-run, this will likely see a new generation of pragmatic leaders lead the UK back into the EU. As Heath, Jenkins and others ultimately understood in the wake of Suez, they have nowhere else to go.”
I couldn’t have put it better myself!
John Looby
4th August, 2016
Almost 60 years ago a popular and experienced Tory Prime Minister destroyed his career and plunged his country into crisis with a reckless risk which backfired spectacularly. While the retreat from Empire was never likely to be smooth, the stark weakness exposed by the debacle of Suez undoubtedly accelerated the long march to the margins.
Posted in brexit crisis, British economy | Tagged: Foreign Direct Investment(FDI), the brexit disaster | Leave a Comment »
Once again on the meaning of Brexit
Posted by seumasach on August 2, 2016
Cailean Bochanan
2nd August, 2016
“Brexit means Brexit!” but what is Brexit? Well, now we know. It is the alignment of the UK with the policy which will dominate the next US presidency: the strategy of containment or isolation of China.
Posted in brexit crisis, Containing China | Tagged: bankrupt Britain, brexit agenda, Chinese soft power, End of empire, the brexit disaster | Leave a Comment »
Brexit: Theresa May to bypass European Commission
Posted by seumasach on July 29, 2016
Every day we plunge deeper into the Brexit fiasco. We are now to negotiate with the EU by refusing to recognize it. Oh, yes! That will secure us a good deal! Already May’s facade of gravitas has cracked.
28th July, 2016
Theresa May will appeal over the head of the European Commission to the leaders of the 27 EU nations in an attempt to secure a good exit deal for the UK.
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May: cuts to EU migration MUST WAIT
Posted by seumasach on July 3, 2016
Theresa May has emerged as the realist candidate, as opposed to the more swashbuckling four brexiteers. She knows that ending free movement would collapse large sectors of the British economy and that it’s not going to happen. Just like leaving the single market isn’t going to happen. Just like Brexit isn’t going to happen. She has already put back formally leaving via article 50 until next year. It doesn’t matter how many people voted for Brexit, it isn’t going to happen because it would trigger the economic, social and political collapse of Britain. That Brexit is a completely unrealistic prospect for Britain has become clear in the last few days. It should have become clear during the campaign. We are now in the mother of all messes. In order to extricate ourselves as soon as possible it is now up to the brexiteers themselves to admit that they had failed to grasp the situation or dishonestly tried to deceive the people.
THERESA May has claimed voters will have to wait for EU migration to fall to “sustainable” levels despite the nation voting to leave the free movement bloc.
Posted in Battle for Europe, Uncategorized | Tagged: the brexit disaster | Leave a Comment »
“Brexit means brexit’?
Posted by seumasach on June 30, 2016
Cailean Bochanan
30th June, 2016
This is all becoming quite surreal. The fall of Boris Johnson seems to be a result of his attempt to present the Brexit vote as a mandate to renegotiate our membership of the EU. The theory must have been that the Europeans heartbroken to lose us, would do anything to ingratiate themselves to us.
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China, Britain and Brexit
Posted by seumasach on June 30, 2016
As I have argue insistently on this blog, the partnership with China is the only solution to Britain’s deeply entrenched economic problems. Brexit would anyway place it at risk but it’s much worse than that: Britain is now run by people openly hostile to Europe. The “golden relationship is now neither politically nor economically in China’s interest. The reality of Britain’s economic plight will now be cruelly laid bare.
Vote to leave EU robs ‘golden relationship’ of its lustre
30th June, 2016
It was all sealed over a pint of Greene King IPA.
One Thursday evening in October 2015, David Cameron strode into a Buckinghamshire pub with another of the world’s most powerful men to toast the beginning of a golden era of relations between the UK and China.
Posted in UK economy | Tagged: China-UK comprehensive strategic partnership, the brexit disaster | Leave a Comment »
In These New Times 