Trade wars - how will it effect the UK?

I’d hazard a guess that their own presidents are 100% more popular in their own countries right now than Trump is Rula. In what respect do you think threats of tariffs have worked exactly, do you think that relationships with the rest of the world and trust in the USA will improve as a result?

rula if you read the Trump thread you will read that the so called "concessions" made by Mexico and Canada were already in the pipeline (Publicly so, as in military on borders). Trump didnt have to threaten.

He settled quickly as the financial markets were threatened with freefall.

He's a mouthy bully.

Ironically, Trudeau is now more popular than he has been for some time.

The spectacle of the big match and usually respectful Canadians Booing the US national anthem will not go away.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZTvivK-dbs

Casdon

Obviously people who don’t read the Independent and the Guardian pretend they aren’t European, in the face of the evidence - oh well.

And here you go again casting aspersions…..🤨

Wyllow3

rula if you read the Trump thread you will read that the so called "concessions" made by Mexico and Canada were already in the pipeline (Publicly so, as in military on borders). Trump didnt have to threaten.

He settled quickly as the financial markets were threatened with freefall.

He's a mouthy bully.

Ironically, Trudeau is now more popular than he has been for some time.

The spectacle of the big match and usually respectful Canadians Booing the US national anthem will not go away.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZTvivK-dbs

He settled quickly as the financial markets were threatened with freefall.

Yes, I think it had a lot to do with the market slide.

Has achieved nothing, lost a lot of good will, and soft power built up over the years has taken a real hammering.

Who, but an idiot is going to allow integration with USA into their systems, with Musk in the driving seat? It is a massive risk to do so.

One aspect of the agreement with Mexico that hasn’t been mentioned on here is that, according to the Mexican president, Trump promised to deal with the flow of guns from the US to Mexico. Mexico apparently has very strict gun laws which make them difficult to obtain. So it is illegally sourced US guns which are empowering the Mexican drug cartels. The US is partially contributing to its fentanyl problem.

It will be interesting to see if Trump keeps his ‘promise’… (if I were the Mexican President I wouldn’t trust him any further than I can spit, as the saying goes)

All this just depends if you have a deep loathing of Trump, as do many people do. On GN anyway.

I don't think much of him at all.

However, for those that support Trump, this is easily seen as a win for him.

What we're seeing in the western world is the slow death of the left. Happening all over Europe.

Maybe time to adjust to this new normal.

Rula

All this just depends if you have a deep loathing of Trump, as do many people do. On GN anyway.

I don't think much of him at all.

However, for those that support Trump, this is easily seen as a win for him.

What we're seeing in the western world is the slow death of the left. Happening all over Europe.

Maybe time to adjust to this new normal.

Maybe time to adjust to this new normal.

For those of us of a more centrist mindset, that will be difficult.

A dominant Right or Left is not good groundwork for building on or maintaining democracy.

Talking of 'norms', I can't express it any better than Nesrine Malik writing in The Guardian:

"Even optically, Trump’s alliances with tech billionaires is crude and visible, but it mirrors the billionaires and influencers who flocked to Kamala Harris’s campaign, more of whom publicly backed her than Trump. Biden continued the practice of previous presidents, Republican and Democrat, of tapping up super-rich donors for ambassadorial positions before Trump made the quid pro quo explicit with his cabinet of billionaires. And even the liberal argument that Trump’s mere temperament, character and disposition is self-disqualifying runs up against the fact of his predecessor. Biden’s stubborn clinging on to power, and people being asked to ignore their very eyes and ears as his capacities faded, proved that contempt for the public’s intelligence is not the preserve of the right."

For those who believe The Guardian is a left-wing scourge - I recommend the op-ed piece by the above columnist, it is as balanced a piece of writing as you are likely to see anywhere. She is, basically, saying that Trump is only building on what is already there...

Whitewavemark2

The fact is we are European. We share cultures and history.

I remember a guy in the Pub telling me 'I am pure Anglo-Saxon me' and I replied 'ah German, Dutch or Danish or a mixture'. He didn't like it!

We are all a mix, some more than others. Celts, Romans, Anglo-saxons and Vikings, Normans, Huguenots, and so much more. That is what makes us adaptable, gives us good genes and tolerance- well it used to until very recently.

The UK is in a most precarious position- floating in isolation between the EU and the USA, adrift. And KS has the most difficult job to do- empty coffers, and will have to try and make the very best of the above. There is a chance he will pull it off- but Trump is unlikely to allow him/us, to get the best of both worlds and win on both sides. If we get a good deal with the USA, Trump will make us choose, that is for sure.

Sovereignty, they said. !

^ And KS has the most difficult job to do- empty coffers,^

We do not have 'empty coffers'. We have a central bank that we own and which could provide us with a completely no strings attached overdraft if ordered by the government to do so.

We had supposedly 'empty coffers' after WW2 but still manged to implement the NHS, a comprehensive welfare system and nationalise various industries. After which we embarked on a period of growth and declining inequality.

There is no reason, apart from government cowardice and its capture by the interests of the wealthy and big business, why we can't invest in the sectors we need to improve the quality of life for all citizens and kick start the growth the government keeps promising us...

Trump has said the UK is "out of line" (in one of those "off the cuff remarks") but not how.

I don't see why we should let him bully and manipulate us.

found on a friends page on Facebook

"'How about Canada building a wall, Mexico building one, and the rest of the world chipping in for a lid?'

Unfortunately Maizie there are, as you know only too well, a great many who have been brainwashed into thinking that there is a huge hole to be filled by taxation and that the country has no money other than tax receipts. I imagine they happily go along with the Reeves philosophy that managing the economy is exactly the same as managing a household budget because it’s something they can identify with. They won’t change the minds that have been made up for them any time soon.

😄😄😄 I’m game!

Whitewavemark2

😄😄😄 I’m game!

It could be a tin roof for a wanabee tin-pot dictator. 😂

😄😄

Barleyfields

Unfortunately Maizie there are, as you know only too well, a great many who have been brainwashed into thinking that there is a huge hole to be filled by taxation and that the country has no money other than tax receipts. I imagine they happily go along with the Reeves philosophy that managing the economy is exactly the same as managing a household budget because it’s something they can identify with. They won’t change the minds that have been made up for them any time soon.

🗸 🗸 🗸

Barleyfields

Unfortunately Maizie there are, as you know only too well, a great many who have been brainwashed into thinking that there is a huge hole to be filled by taxation and that the country has no money other than tax receipts. I imagine they happily go along with the Reeves philosophy that managing the economy is exactly the same as managing a household budget because it’s something they can identify with. They won’t change the minds that have been made up for them any time soon.

Who are these people you’re referring to Barleyfields? I admit to never hearing anybody say that they believe that running the country’s economy equates in principle or practice to running a household budget.

Some posts indicate that that’s exactly what they believe. Maizie’s lessons fall on many deaf ears.

Wyllow3

Trump has said the UK is "out of line" (in one of those "off the cuff remarks") but not how.

I don't see why we should let him bully and manipulate us.

found on a friends page on Facebook

"'How about Canada building a wall, Mexico building one, and the rest of the world chipping in for a lid?'

Trump: "Everyone's out of step but me!"

Casdon

Barleyfields

Unfortunately Maizie there are, as you know only too well, a great many who have been brainwashed into thinking that there is a huge hole to be filled by taxation and that the country has no money other than tax receipts. I imagine they happily go along with the Reeves philosophy that managing the economy is exactly the same as managing a household budget because it’s something they can identify with. They won’t change the minds that have been made up for them any time soon.

Who are these people you’re referring to Barleyfields? I admit to never hearing anybody say that they believe that running the country’s economy equates in principle or practice to running a household budget.

Well, Thatcher did, for a start.

Let us never forget this fundamental truth: the State has no source of money other than money which people earn themselves. If the State wishes to spend more it can do so only by borrowing your savings or by taxing you more. It is no good thinking that someone else will pay - that 'someone else' is you. There is no such thing as public money; there is only taxpayers' money.

Completely and utterly wrong.

My policies are based not on some economics theory, but on things I and millions like me were brought up with: an honest day's work for an honest day's pay; live within your means; put by a nest egg for a rainy day;

This article examines the influence of her simplistic 'household economy' views. With Thatcher quotes

bylinetimes.com/2019/11/19/thatchers-household-fallacy-led-to-austerity-and-killed-thousands-what-was-the-point-of-it/

Everyone who talks of 'black holes' and the government running out of money (which is most commentators) is subscribing to her view of the economy.

I don't know how you have manged to miss all this...

There is only one thing to be done: boycott anything made in America.

Trump is either a bully, or a seriously mentally distrubed person.

If he is capable of rethinking his policy, he will only do so, if if costs the US money.

Remember the years of Apartheid, where most of us refused to buy S. African goods?

We refused to such good purpose that chain stores and supermarkets had to stop buying goods from S. Africa,

But really, this is hijacking the thread. It needs one of its own.

I’m not sure that’s true, I think people do listen to Maizie’s view, but those who don’t subscribe to that are not necessarily people who ‘won’t change the minds that have been made up for them anytime soon’. That’s patronising people who think differently but whose views are equally valid, as well as those who are sceptics, and those who go along with whatever their own party’s line is. This applies in the wider world as well as on Gransnet.

Sorry my response was to Barleyfields.