Flip Flop Economics
Remember when it was the jam? Early stages of Brexit the Fantasy (Season 1) we had Andrea Leadsom argue that ‘British jam, tea and biscuits will be at the heart of Britain’s Brexit trade negotiations’ – (because if there’s anything foreigners admire about Britain it’s our food).
Now it’s flip-flops.
Liam Fox – still apparently openly referred to as the “the International Trade Secretary” has heralded the sales of “sunglasses, flip-flops and ice-creams”.
The future is bright.
If anyone thinks the case for independence is dwindling, worry ye not. Brexit is fulfilling all of its promise as an exercise in national humiliation and impending economic chaos. The unfolding shambles will make a joke of Better Together’s efforts to ridicule Scotland’s economic future with a chocolate coin.
Remember that?
Today we’re told that the Brexit pound is tanking and £1 will be soon be equal to the Euro, the currency shunned and ridiculed by the Better Together campaign. And today we hear that David Davis has landed a lucrative £34,000 for six days work.
So if you were believing the yarn being spun about the early demise of the Yes Movement, and you’re watching the men who put the Flop into your economy pontificate on television, just watch the edifice of the British State slide into the sea in the coming weeks and months and remember, we’re just on our holidays …
Tick-tock,
Flip-flop.
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The Brexiteers are hanging their hat on “something turning up” which is why we have all been waiting so long for any sort of action from them.
Their hopes that other countries might follow suit have been dashed so now it will be only a Blighty exit and sink or swim on their own.
I am perplexed by Scottish cringers who think that cutting yourself off from Europe is OK but unthinkable when it comes to parting company with England.
Strange people.
A single market of 60m people is better than one of 500m in their minds.
Some people need to go back to school.
spot on mike
wired for sound
clock ticking
Am I entirely alone in finding the pure entertainment value of this fiasco is off the scale already ?
Tragedy & Comedy
Absolutely not………..I have had a smile on my face since 19 Sept 14th because I always knew England would vote to leave and Scotland would vote to remain. And I always knew the Tories would win the election in 2015.
I have been just waiting for the inevitable ‘Perfect Storm’ to arrive. The storm clouds are on the horizon and getting closer by the day.
The Yes movement is becalmed at present but when the wind starts howling and the rain begins to fall…..we will be ready and it will be all hands on deck.
Meanwhile just enjoy the ‘Calm before the Storm’ and laugh out loud
The thing we have to keep focussed on is the people who really drove the LEAVE campaign fronted by Mr Farage and, for decades via its media drip fed anti EU messages, so that eventually a combination of circumstances arose which delivered the very thin majority (although not in Caledonia or Hibernia).
These people were not particularly worried by immigration. Although some are, undoubtedly, xenophobic and racist, they use immigration as a way of controlling wages. What they wanted was the destruction of trade unions, the removal of all regulation (slash red tape!!) except that which favoured their interests, the weakening of human rights, ending environmental controls, and ultimately castrating mass democracy.
So, while for the great majority of us Brexit is really troubling, the shadowy 1% will benefit from the hardest of Brexits. All of them have dual nationalities, can shift their funds overseas at the click of a mouse and pay no taxes on their earnings.
So, no, Gordon Bradley, I am not smiling. I hope we can get an independent Scotland from the wreckage, but with the drift towards the unionist parties and the fact that the population increase is almost entirely from further of Scotland I thing it will be a close run thing at best. Since September, 2014, the people of Scotland have faced an unremitting barrage of ‘NoIndyref2’.
They can,t/won,t ever see they can,t/won,t ever think,they are beyond recall and there is no point trying to engage them in any dialogue.Foreigners must look at Scots in dis-belief scratching their heads in trying to understand our lack of vision.
In the hairdressers the other day, young worker had voted No cause parents had. All have now changed their minds following Brexit. A lovely young person but not at all knowledgable about politics (eg.couldn’t remember the name of the Prime Minister).
Young person felt sorry for EU citizens living and working here. I engaged her briefly on the price of housing and low wages. These are the things folk can relate to . The central message must be that lives dont have to be like this forever.There are other options. In many ways the past was better and older folk have a responsibility to educate the young on how the welfare state worked before – workers rights, pensions,council housing etc. Young people can’t remember or have never known anything other than this desperate situation.
Another acquaintance (no voter ) telling me how her son sets off for work only to get a call at bus stop telling him not to bother coming in that day. I told her in my book thats illegal . In Thatcher years my dad (a self-employed plasterer who was unemployed at the time) had concerns about the health of his young son working in a timber yard on a YTS scheme. On finding him waist deep in a container shovelling sawdust up to his knees with no mask etc. dad told him to down tools and together they walked off site . I feel upset ( and proud) to this day thinking about this as they needed the money and I m sure there were sanctions even back then. I realise now my dad was teaching his son a lesson in his rights and that some things are more important than money. These days we allow our kids to put up with crap jobs , low wages just so they (we?) can say they are in work . At least its job …easier to get a job when your in a job ..its a start ..etc etc Ive done it myself and I think back to my old dad and I need to remember what he tried to teach us about exploitation.
I hope your right Mike about Bres**t
One of my motives – only one of them – in being pro-Independence – is that it will mean the end of the awful British State.
The most incredibly delicious aspect of Brexit is that these ultra-BritNats, whose primary motive for Brexit is xenophobia/racism, is that they will fulfil my heart’s desire all by themselves.
Ah – the poetic justice of it all!
Brexit and independence are fundamentally two separate things. An iScotland could be an EU member, or not, or a member of the EEA or EFTA.
The 2017 GE saw a majority of Scots voters voting for pro-Brexit parties. The SNP has since moved from an overtly pro-EU membership position, to arguing for access to the single market (so more like EEA or EFTA).
Really, at the moment, there are too many potential votes to be lost in a referendum by yoking independence to EU membership. That will need probably need another referendum, another day.
In the meantime, we need to see how the Republic/UK border is handled. If there are border controls, then I could see the appeal of Scottish EU membership being further reduced, as that would mean the same between Scotland and England.
Irrespective of what happens in Ireland,England will always threaten a Scotland not under their control with trade sanctions.
That was one of the factors in the 1707 takeover deal and was threatened again during the 2014 indy ref.
However,trade is a two way thing and they will be scraping the bottom of the barrel to come up with trading arrangements outwith Europe.
Now,who could we sell our fish,whisky and agricultural products to other than England?
I think it’s more the psychological effect, like when I was very much younger, the idea of an independent Scotland was mocked by people asking “would you need a passport to cross the border and go to England?”
is Bella still a platform for pro-Independence…or has it morphed into an anti-Brexit campaign? I think all the Yessers who voted Leave would like to know!
Its a platform for pro-independence, which keeps a sharp eye on the British State and the Brexit farce. We recently published a piece with a pro-Leave stance from a left perspective by David Jamieson. Maybe you missed it? Were you out buying Flip-Flops per chance?
If you’d like to outline how well it’s all going I’d love to hear your views
The government, the voters and the big two parties are committed to Brexit. What do you not get? I find it amazing (and poor journalism) that an anti-Brexit piece cannot include, for balance, at least one item of good that might benefit Scotland in the eventual outcome. It is just possible that all the Yessers who voted Leave might have one or two points that could be considered. (and no I am not a bearded sandal wearing flip flopper).
Give us your one item of good then.
The positive case for Brexit is like the positive case for the Union. A myth. I struggle to see any benefit to any person of leaving the EU, apart from the 1%. Are there superficial benefits for fishermen? Free rein to fish our waters? No quotas? Yes and get into an overfishing mess like we had. Farmers? Free to dump nitrates in the rivers?
Cutting Brussels red tape? Red tape is a euphemism for workers rights, health and safety legislation, product safety, restrictions on state aid for failing industries (except the banks of course). If we want to sell into the EU from outside, we will have to comply with CE marking etc. anyway.
so the whole EU is set up to help the ordinary poor punter? Or landowners through subsidies and industrialists through being able to hire cheap foreign labour? Suggest you follow the money.