O/T:- ⚠️Impressed with the leadership [The UK Party Politics Thread]

[Med Pie]

A lot of the allure of Brexit was about pulling away from the EU and going back into the fold of English speaking / commonwealth countries. A free trade deal with the USA was spoken about.


Although it's been badly negotiated, with the Indian and American and I think Australian (?) deals, that's exactly what was happening.


We actually got a 10% tariff slapped on us by the USA. A lot of it is to be decided still but hopefully we will avoid their poisonous food.

The last government was negotiating with China and British farmers were angry about that because it would've allowed cheap low wuality imports in. Not sure hownthat ended up.

We got some kind of deal with India but Starmer was criticised for allowing Indian immigration as part of that.

Not that he 'allowed' it but he encouraged it by making them exempt from NI contributions

The fact is even the brashest most brazen politician in the biggest economy in the world has had to walk back a lot of promises about how amazing his trade deals will be and how other countries will capitulate. I feel sorry for the fisherman but it's hard to get trade deals done as I think is quite clear for all to see now. Sometimes you have to give away something you don't want to.

They asked for a four year agreement and got twelve, on what planet is that good negotiating?

The days when we could whopp our collective cock on the desk of some faraway country and demand trade on our terms are long gone by about 200 years.

Going back over old ground I know, but maybe having more or less free trade with our nearest neighbours and being part of their collective negotiations with other countries (increased bargaining power) for trade deals wasn't that bad.

'Collective' being the term, under EU rules, we wouldn't have been allowed to make deals with America to reduce tariffs or any other, bilateral agreement.



I know there was unhappiness with immigration but I think we've seen that wasn't purely an EU issue.

Instead of reducing immigration, his actions have opened the gates, quite literally, to the potential for hundreds of thousand more to enter the UK, legally.

I think Starmer is OK. Obviously lacking in charisma but that was priced in, and at least he's just getting on with his job without being all over the TV and newspapers. He seems quite pragmatic to me.

I'll state again, I am not anti immigration but we need doctors, dentists, nurses, not hundreds of thousands of cabbage pickers with a less than basic grasp of our language, but if BFP can take his Poodle on holiday, we surely got a great deal!