thecrashingisles

It's simply not true to say that "not one single agreement since Brexit has equalled, never mind bettered our EU connections to the rest of the world". To take one example, the Australian FTA that's just come into force reduces trade barriers compared to the position had we remained in the EU.

UK defies Brexit fears to top Europe for finance investing https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/uk-defies-brexit-fears-to-top-europe-for-finance-investing-n2m7bcdmm UK attracted the highest number of inward foreign direct investments in financial services in 2022, increasing its share of the European market to more than a quarter.

You have to commit to joining the Euro at an indeterminate point in the future. That's not insignificant because it means you are agreeing that EU policy should be directed towards the goal of a single currency for everyone.

Either you respect Bob from Stockport's vote or you don't. You can't arbitrarily decide that in one particular election he must have been manipulated and therefore his vote is tainted. Unless of course you want to argue against a system that depends on persuading Bob from Stockport?

If you look at voter demographics, the people you are talking about tend to vote Labour. Even in 1997, the Tories would have won if you just took the votes of ABC1 professionals, but among the "susceptible" DEs Labour led 59% to 21%, giving them a landslide. https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/how-britain-voted-1997

This is a very disparaging way to talk about traditional Labour voters.

If only they had known that the UK would continue to be an attractive place generating many jobs and growing faster than Germany…

A revealing comment about your own views if you think the only point would be to reduce immigration.

A nice example of the misuse of the word 'find'. It's not an empirical finding but an estimate that's no better than a model.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65698529 The UK is set to win a battle with Spain to host a multi-billion-pound electric car battery plant in Somerset, the BBC understands The boss of Jaguar Land Rover-owner Tata is expected to fly to London next week to finalise the deal. Some in the car industry have described the plant as the most significant investment in UK automotive since Nissan came to Britain in the 1980s.

Since that publication, the IMF has revised up their forecast for the UK by a full 1%. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65669399

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/23/panic-immigration-brexit-wages-uk-economy In fact, the new post-Brexit migration system has achieved its key objectives. By ending free movement, it has reduced the flow of relatively lower skilled and lower paid workers to some sectors. But by liberalising migration flows from the rest of the world, it has substantially increased those coming to work in the NHS, the care sector, and high-skilled and high-paid roles in information and communications technology, finance and professional services. It’s too early to say what the overall balance sheet will look like – but as well as alleviating workforce pressures on the NHS and social care sectors, the rise in skilled worker inflows, alongside the rise in international students, is likely to have increased not just GDP but GDP per capita, benefiting the UK economy and public finances. And, most of all, public opinion appears to be intensely relaxed about rising inflows when the economic case is clear.

Reports of Britain's pariah status have been greatly exaggerated.

“Free trade with the EU good, free trade with other countries bad.”

The figures for Paris are possibly distorted if they don't include the RER system.

EU urges members to deport more migrants ineligible to stay https://apnews.com/article/european-union-migration-deportation-returns-asylum-dd76171c27878aa26842af2955f8ee2b

The moment when the long run trend in net migration went from zero to hundreds of thousands per year was 1997.

Ever since 2008 it's actually been underperforming the rest of the UK economy.

And Germany. Poland is a phenomenal success story.

She seemed to be more on the lockdown sceptic side of the debate based on some of her comments.

Based on his other comments it doesn't sound like he intended the usual negative meaning of that phrase in English: "I had a good personal relationship with him, I like him as a person, he's funny but he's serious nevertheless." I think he intended the meaning of "un sacré type" - more like "a hell of a guy".

Germany's biggest fashion retailer filed for insolvency today. Obviously being hit hard by Brexit. https://www.manager-magazin.de/unternehmen/handel/peek-und-cloppenburg-stellt-insolvenzantrag-a-0c4aedd6-4019-48dc-b949-42dbcef66ff0

The idea that EU free movement was the one thing stopping British people being "hemmed in to one country" is fatally undermined by the fact that more British people moved to countries outside the EU even while we were members.

As a net beneficiary of fiscal transfers, how it's doing is less relevant as a comparison.