Actually...I really don’t. Against my better judgement I was intrigued for a moment, and then I saw the logo behind the presenter ...a bulldog, a Union Jack.......and all recommended by TTR!
No thanks...not for me, life’s too short but entirely typical of you to launch into personal attack rather than respond to what he’d said.
It has been the perfect cover for Brexit but the effects of Covid are now coming to an end and like a retreating tide, it is revealing what is really going on beneath the surface. The latest quarterly trade figures paint a grim picture of UK trade. Since 2018, which the ONS thinks is the best guide, our exports to the EU have shrunk, from £43.4bn in the second quarter of 2018 to £40billion now.
But even these figures do not give the whole picture. Because as Covid restrictions and disruption ended, the world’s economies woke up and globaltrade routes reawakened. Or they did for nearly everyone.
For some strange reason Global Britain – the new world-beating behemoth, suddenly freed from the chains of EU control and ready to stride around the world cutting new trade deals left, right and centre – seems to have stayed in bed.
The evidence is clear. The UK is now a less globally important trading nation, is rapidly being left behind by its rivals and trade is becoming a smaller part of its economy. If you don’t trust me you just have to look at the latest analysis from the Office for Budget Responsibility, the government’s own economic watchdog.
Wages up 4 and a bit % but when you take inflation into account the real terms income has gone down by 3%.
Also intriguing to know that the 4+% is mainly down to double figure rises in the financial services industry. The rest are down at around a 2% average and some have 0%. Their real term income is down by between 5% and 7%.
Yeah but...yeah but...none of this has anything at all to do with Brexit. Nothing at all...not even the tiniest little bit.
It’s all going swingingly...the ‘future’s bright’, just as Man of Pride predicted and Uncles Boris and Nigel promised back in 2016.
We have our independence back, we can even set our own tax rates, drive on the left, drink actual pints, eat bent bananas, stand unashamedly in front of the Union Jack, join the slower queues at airports and pay more for fuel than almost everyone else...oh, wait a minute!
I presume Amster is looking at Average Weekly Earnings inflation in real terms, which is provided by ONS as an adjustment against CPI, readily available for anyone to interrogate, you can download it from the ONS site and see for yourself.
The problem with these % stats, is that they only represent an average for the working population, rather than real term impact on a personal level.
For example, NLW increases 6.62% to £9.50ph in April, which sounds great, until you realise that for many people on that wage have seen their cost of living increase by 20+%, as unfortunately food, energy, fuel etc doesn't increase as a % of salary.
I'm not dismissing anything as being rosey here, as the stats indicate that the tale is worse for those close / on / beneath the bread line.
But it is difficult to draw any direct Brexit conclusions on these particular stats (for or against), as there is no reliable data set to draw upon.
I think it was Swale that said earlier on in the thread that it would be impossible to clearly draw any such conclusions on the data as other matters will mask it, he was right, unfortunately this stuff proves nothing.
Look out Ramshank, expect incoming flak from Granmaa (anag). How dare you suggest Brexit is not the root of all evil
Oh well done Mr ‘Spongertakeoff’...very good, only taken you six years.
Nice to see you put your head over the parapet after so much silence over Johnson and Brexit.
The difference between you and Ramshank is that he at least presents an argument and doesn’t just resort to juvenile ridicule however, to get back on topic. Do I blame Brexit as the ‘root of all evil’? I don’t think so...although I do think of it as a huge mistake made by gullible people who were misled by liars.
At this point you usually run out of answers and start making yawning noises however...if you, or anyone else, could provide any actual benefits, or likely benefits to have arisen from the Referendum decision of six years ago it would be hugely appreciated.
In defence of GP, he's provided plenty of answers over the past six years, many well thought through on complex issues (in the same way Ramshank has above), but when the responses he gets are so one-dimensional (mainly from yourself, sometimes from Swale) its no surprise he's resorted to yawning. I wondered about GP/RR's change over the years but now I get it, and its the same with me (in my case Swale more than yourself, and insulting rather than one-dimensional). Maybe Ramshank will be more resilient