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Speaking the truth about brexit

(543 Posts)
varian Sat 04-Jun-22 19:39:18

Sir Anthony Gormley whose mother was German has just applied to become a German citizen and of course an EU citizen. He tells the truth about brexit. It is time more public figures told the truth about this self afflicted disaster.

www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/jun/04/antony-gormley-to-become-german-citizen-due-to-tragedy-of-brexit

DaisyAnne Wed 15-Jun-22 15:52:51

Katie59

growstuff

Exactly! The vast majority of people in Japan aren't investors, nor is economic growth necessarily a condition for the standard of living of a population. The important thing is that the Japanese are still going about their daily lives and the country has not "gone bankrupt".

So you think halving the value of the currency is acceptable. Sterling has fallen from 1.70 to 1.20 against the US$ in a decade is that good.

Japan is now “post industrial” most products are now manufactured elsewhere, their companies have factories worldwide including the UK. The government has been printing money for decades to keep the domestic economy going.

Too much QE or borrowing does devalue the currency which increases the cost of imports, the UK Brexit plan was to take advantage of cheaper imports, to do that we want a strong not weak currency. The government tries to control what happens internally, we cannot divorce ourselves from international finance, our own pension funds invest internationally to make a profit to pay us, if they depended only on UK investments pensioners would be far worse off.

The above is a direct quote from Investopedia. It should be marked as a quote, not passed-off as your own.

Katie59 Wed 15-Jun-22 14:13:53

growstuff

*the UK Brexit plan was to take advantage of cheaper imports*

Do you honestly think there was a "Brexit plan"?

I would bet anything that if you'd asked people in 2016 why they were voting to leave, the vast majority wouldn't have come up with cheaper imports as a reason.

The plan - such as it was or is, that we make more beneficial trade deals outside the EU, freed from EU regulations and stopping cheap labour from overseas.

Or what did you think the plan was.

MaizieD Wed 15-Jun-22 12:04:23

growstuff

Janet12

Yes, I read it and more and also a great deal of time weighing up the pros and cons of leaving the EU. Yes, there were lies, from both sides of the campaign. I respect the views of friends and family who voted to remain but I voted to leave. Nobody promised it was going to be easy but, as the saying goes, sometimes things that are worth having don't come easily.
There are many reasons why people voted leave. I am tired of remainers perpetuating the myth that everything was wonderful when we were part of the EU and their simplistic view that all leavers are racist and uneducated.

Isn't it time that those who voted to remain, respected the views of people who voted to leave and to accept the results of a democratic vote?

I don't know one single person who claimed that everything was wonderful about the EU. I'm tired of leavers claiming that! What they did was balance up the pros and cons and decided the argument to leave wasn't strong and voted to maintain the status quo, while still supporting efforts for a better deal from within.

It is a fact that those who voted to leave had, on average, lower educational qualifications and were older than those who voted to remain. If you want to see a fact as a criticism, that's your business. It's also a fact that there was dog whistle racism (and even blatant racism) amongst some of those who voted to leave.

I'm also tired of people bandying around words like "democratic" without understanding what it means. FWIW almost half of those who voted wanted to remain, so if you put all votes into a gigantic melting pot, you'd end up with something very far removed from the "hard Brexit" which some people now advocate.

Additionally, Janet22, all the prominent Leave campaigners promised it would be easy. EU and the rest of the world, countries flocking to do brilliant trade deals with us, It'd all be over by tea time they day after we'd voted to leave. If you didn't notice that you must have been completely cut off from all contact with the media...

growstuff Wed 15-Jun-22 11:56:06

PS. Anybody who really did think that seriously needs their bumps feeling!

growstuff Wed 15-Jun-22 11:55:05

the UK Brexit plan was to take advantage of cheaper imports

Do you honestly think there was a "Brexit plan"?

I would bet anything that if you'd asked people in 2016 why they were voting to leave, the vast majority wouldn't have come up with cheaper imports as a reason.

growstuff Wed 15-Jun-22 11:52:33

Janet12

Yes, I read it and more and also a great deal of time weighing up the pros and cons of leaving the EU. Yes, there were lies, from both sides of the campaign. I respect the views of friends and family who voted to remain but I voted to leave. Nobody promised it was going to be easy but, as the saying goes, sometimes things that are worth having don't come easily.
There are many reasons why people voted leave. I am tired of remainers perpetuating the myth that everything was wonderful when we were part of the EU and their simplistic view that all leavers are racist and uneducated.

Isn't it time that those who voted to remain, respected the views of people who voted to leave and to accept the results of a democratic vote?

I don't know one single person who claimed that everything was wonderful about the EU. I'm tired of leavers claiming that! What they did was balance up the pros and cons and decided the argument to leave wasn't strong and voted to maintain the status quo, while still supporting efforts for a better deal from within.

It is a fact that those who voted to leave had, on average, lower educational qualifications and were older than those who voted to remain. If you want to see a fact as a criticism, that's your business. It's also a fact that there was dog whistle racism (and even blatant racism) amongst some of those who voted to leave.

I'm also tired of people bandying around words like "democratic" without understanding what it means. FWIW almost half of those who voted wanted to remain, so if you put all votes into a gigantic melting pot, you'd end up with something very far removed from the "hard Brexit" which some people now advocate.

growstuff Wed 15-Jun-22 11:44:11

Japan is now “post industrial” most products are now manufactured elsewhere, their companies have factories worldwide including the UK.

Is that such a bad thing for the Japanese? They're still profiting from the companies they own. Moreover, they provide work for UK (and other) workers in countries which can't afford to (or won't) invest.

growstuff Wed 15-Jun-22 11:41:00

Katie59

growstuff

Exactly! The vast majority of people in Japan aren't investors, nor is economic growth necessarily a condition for the standard of living of a population. The important thing is that the Japanese are still going about their daily lives and the country has not "gone bankrupt".

So you think halving the value of the currency is acceptable. Sterling has fallen from 1.70 to 1.20 against the US$ in a decade is that good.

Japan is now “post industrial” most products are now manufactured elsewhere, their companies have factories worldwide including the UK. The government has been printing money for decades to keep the domestic economy going.

Too much QE or borrowing does devalue the currency which increases the cost of imports, the UK Brexit plan was to take advantage of cheaper imports, to do that we want a strong not weak currency. The government tries to control what happens internally, we cannot divorce ourselves from international finance, our own pension funds invest internationally to make a profit to pay us, if they depended only on UK investments pensioners would be far worse off.

But Japan hasn't gone "bankrupt". Japanese still lead normal lives. Ultimately, what is reported in the pages of the FT (or elsewhere) doesn't have a huge affect because Japan has a sovereign currency, just as the UK does. Other factors have a more direct effect on people's wealth and quality of life.

The UK's national debt as a ratio of GDP was 237% in 1816. The country didn't go bankrupt - in fact, it went on to prosper and become one of the richest and most powerful countries on earth. It was 238% in 1947 - again, the country didn't go bankrupt.

The risk from high debt ratios comes from interest payments, which are historically low. The "value" of a currency against other currencies is, as I'm sure you know, a two-edged sword. Devaluing a currency can give exports a boost. Don't forget that public debt = private assets. Individuals (and pension funds, etc) are profiting from public debt.

www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/debt_history

Janet12 Wed 15-Jun-22 11:00:52

Yes, I read it and more and also a great deal of time weighing up the pros and cons of leaving the EU. Yes, there were lies, from both sides of the campaign. I respect the views of friends and family who voted to remain but I voted to leave. Nobody promised it was going to be easy but, as the saying goes, sometimes things that are worth having don't come easily.
There are many reasons why people voted leave. I am tired of remainers perpetuating the myth that everything was wonderful when we were part of the EU and their simplistic view that all leavers are racist and uneducated.

Isn't it time that those who voted to remain, respected the views of people who voted to leave and to accept the results of a democratic vote?

Katie59 Wed 15-Jun-22 07:42:33

growstuff

Exactly! The vast majority of people in Japan aren't investors, nor is economic growth necessarily a condition for the standard of living of a population. The important thing is that the Japanese are still going about their daily lives and the country has not "gone bankrupt".

So you think halving the value of the currency is acceptable. Sterling has fallen from 1.70 to 1.20 against the US$ in a decade is that good.

Japan is now “post industrial” most products are now manufactured elsewhere, their companies have factories worldwide including the UK. The government has been printing money for decades to keep the domestic economy going.

Too much QE or borrowing does devalue the currency which increases the cost of imports, the UK Brexit plan was to take advantage of cheaper imports, to do that we want a strong not weak currency. The government tries to control what happens internally, we cannot divorce ourselves from international finance, our own pension funds invest internationally to make a profit to pay us, if they depended only on UK investments pensioners would be far worse off.

growstuff Tue 14-Jun-22 21:38:32

Exactly! The vast majority of people in Japan aren't investors, nor is economic growth necessarily a condition for the standard of living of a population. The important thing is that the Japanese are still going about their daily lives and the country has not "gone bankrupt".

MaizieD Tue 14-Jun-22 21:24:24

Katie59

Japans economy is in a terrible state, the Yen has lost half its value against the US Dollar in the last 10 yrs, many years of QE has crippled the currency.

Here is one comment

“Negative Effects of Debt, QE and QQE
Japan's enormous public debts are a sore spot for investors. In a research report, hedge fund manager Ray Dalio argued Japan's real debt burden, including private debts, relative to its GDP was around 449%, ranked 19 out of the 20 countries he measured. Huge debt servicing costs directly reduce the potential for savings or investment, limiting future economic growth and current returns.”

Like to cite your sources, Katie59?

Poor old investors, eh? Unable to leach money out of the Japanese economy...

Surprisingly enough, 'investors' aren't the most important people in an economy...

Whitewavemark2 Tue 14-Jun-22 21:17:35

Apparently we can expect to hear very little from the EU in the coming days as Johnson tries to stoke the fires and burn the NI protocol.

A couple or so of reasons.

The EU seem to think that they have gone as far as they intend to go. Initially they had hoped that Truss would be willing to negotiate, but she has simply snipped from the sidelines and refused to negotiate. The EU said that there is no discernible negotiator or mediator. Trust has disappeared.

Secondly the EU are watching what is going to happen regarding the potential new leadership.

The EU is determined not to play Johnson’s game and get sucked into the drama he is attempting to create for domestic reasons.

The EU will simply start the wheels of court action in a quiet and calm way but with the steely determination that they will come down on the U.K. like a tonne of bricks. They intend there to be no emotional involvement.

The EU have decided that there is nothing more to be said.

Best for Britain

Katie59 Tue 14-Jun-22 19:26:33

Japans economy is in a terrible state, the Yen has lost half its value against the US Dollar in the last 10 yrs, many years of QE has crippled the currency.

Here is one comment

“Negative Effects of Debt, QE and QQE
Japan's enormous public debts are a sore spot for investors. In a research report, hedge fund manager Ray Dalio argued Japan's real debt burden, including private debts, relative to its GDP was around 449%, ranked 19 out of the 20 countries he measured. Huge debt servicing costs directly reduce the potential for savings or investment, limiting future economic growth and current returns.”

HousePlantQueen Tue 14-Jun-22 12:46:29

volver

^Maybe in the hope that such misinformation gets stopped in its tracks and doesn't enter the mainstream as the truth.^

This. Definitely this.

This is the main reason why I post on some threads. By ignoring the irredeemable nonsense and seriously malicious information I feel as if I am endorsing it, so feel obliged to post in an often pointless attempt to stop some of the worst of it being taken as truth. Blinking hard work though as the source seems to be endless

Dinahmo Tue 14-Jun-22 11:43:32

growstuff

Japan's debt is 266% of GDP. I've never read that Japan is about to go bankrupt and collapse.

When the Tories were electioneering back in 2009 they started mentioning the UK's deficit as though it was something very, very bad. I remember at the time wondering why they were talking about it so much when the the USA and Japan had higher deficits. The other countries that had higher deficits than the UK were China, Germany and France.

As regards the state of Greece, sure that is partly self inflicted. As I recall they spent much of the money from the EU on lowering the pension age of state employees.

I am not aware that any of those countries is bankrupt but perhaps I've been sleeping for the past 13 years.

MaizieD Tue 14-Jun-22 11:40:33

growstuff

Japan's debt is 266% of GDP. I've never read that Japan is about to go bankrupt and collapse.

Japan, like the UK, has a sovereign currency. So it can run big deficits. So could we if we were minded to.

The euro causes problems for some EU countries because it removes their control over the currency and Germany, with its strong economy expects the poorer countries to follow its economic model (tiny deficits or even surpluses). I'm glad we never joined the euro (and we wouldn't have had to even if we'd remained in the EU)

growstuff Tue 14-Jun-22 11:04:49

Japan's debt is 266% of GDP. I've never read that Japan is about to go bankrupt and collapse.

Petera Tue 14-Jun-22 10:57:37

Allsorts

Your truth isn’t what most of us sees. Look at the countries in debt, Greece, Portugal, a list of them, just Google it. I believe in sound facts, sure Brexit needs tweaking, every transition dies and everything worth while,

The UK debt is just over 100% of GDP, the average EU debt is just over 75% of GDP.

Of the 27 EU countries, 7 have a higher debt to GDP ratio, 20 a lower. Just Google it.

Can we tweak Brexit in the direction of the EU performance?

growstuff Tue 14-Jun-22 10:02:28

Nobody's denying that some EU countries have economic woes, just as the UK does. That's because they're sovereign countries and behave independently of the EU most of the time.

The "truth" about the 4,000 new laws in NI is somewhat different from the one which the DUP and Telegraph would like people to believe. That was the only so-called "truth" I was challenging.

growstuff Tue 14-Jun-22 09:58:43

Allsorts

Your truth isn’t what most of us sees. Look at the countries in debt, Greece, Portugal, a list of them, just Google it. I believe in sound facts, sure Brexit needs tweaking, every transition dies and everything worth while,

What do you mean by "most of us"?

volver Tue 14-Jun-22 09:41:36

Do we need to have the "truth is absolute" discussion again?

Brexit needs tweaking. That's a corker.

Allsorts Tue 14-Jun-22 09:40:08

Your truth isn’t what most of us sees. Look at the countries in debt, Greece, Portugal, a list of them, just Google it. I believe in sound facts, sure Brexit needs tweaking, every transition dies and everything worth while,

DaisyAnne Tue 14-Jun-22 09:26:22

RichmondPark

*anything even remotely seamless and it'll have another 27 'exits' to deal with.*

Unlikely once they look at the state of our economy compared to nations within the EU.

Quite. From the outside looking in which other countries would like to be the UK right now?

We were not a "great power" anymore, even when we joined the EU. The whole point was to be part of the world's largest trading bloc and second-largest economy.

What we did have was soft power that we had honed for centuries. This government have now thrown that away too.

We now look more and more like a banana republic.

volver Tue 14-Jun-22 09:16:17

We're always being told that there are many people who read and don't post (Hello to you all ??‍♀️) I always hope that some people see all the posts and take a broader view, not just believe the rot churned out by the apologists for this government.