Amanda

‘The money machine is misfiring’: City blames Brexit for UK’s £20bn productivity headache Poor output since the leave vote has landed Rachel Reeves with a bigger-than-forecast budget spending gap

Shocking losses all thanks to Brexit! Hundreds of bankers & billions of pounds of assets moved to Frankfurt to sidestep Britain’s shock EU departure

440+ other City companies followed suit, moving almost £1tn between them – roughly 10% of the entire UK banking system to financial hubs across the EU

Michael Gove admits that post-Brexit trade deals were bad for farmers Michael Gove has admitted for the first time that the Australia and New Zealand trade deals negotiated by the former Tory government did not protect Britain’s farmers.

This deserves more attention than it has received.

Gove: "we were too anxious as a government to secure those deals in order to show that Brexit was working".

Exactly as so many of us warned at the time, and as the government denied at the time.
www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/country-and-...

Omar Hayek, MSF occupational therapist, smiles and gives a thumbs up as he supports a patient.

💔 This is Omar Hayek. He was a kind man, the sole provider for his family, & one who brought the highest level of professionalism to his work as an occupational therapist for @msf.ca.

This morning, Omar became our 14th colleague killed in an #Israeli attack.

Nigel Farage uses private company to pay less tax on GB News earnings Exclusive: Reform leader’s use of personal services firm is a practice criticised across the political spectrum

“Farage claimed last year to have “bought a house” in his constituency but the property is actually owned in the name of his partner, meaning he legally avoided higher-rate stamp duty on the purchase of an additional home – given he already owns other properties”

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Harold Wilson in 1968:

Fomenting Antisemitism Not Combating It

The Trump people claim to be fighting antisemitism, and the media often accept that framing. I believe, on the contrary, that these actions are antisemitic in intention and in execution.
I explain in a short video:
snyder.substack.com/p/fomenting-...

Our media & social media reform petition has reached the 2500 milestone! Thanks to everyone who is supporting it.

But we need more support. We are only a quarter of the way to get a government response & need 40 times the support to have a chance of a debate.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/70...

Trump and DOGE Defund Program That Boosted American Manufacturing for Decades President Donald Trump says taxing imports will strengthen domestic manufacturing. Hours before announcing new tariffs, his administration cut support for centers that help US firms do just that.

President Donald Trump says taxing imports will strengthen domestic manufacturing. Hours before announcing new tariffs, his administration cut support for centers that help US firms do just that.

NEW 🧵 Is human intelligence starting to decline?

Recent results from major international tests show that the average person’s capacity to process information, use reasoning and solve novel problems has been falling since around the mid 2010s

What should we make of this?

www.ft.com/content/a801...

Imagine this: On the evening of March 8, you and your spouse unlock the door to your apartment building. As you step inside, two men—not in uniform—push their way in behind you. They tell you your visa has been revoked and that they are there to deport you.

Becky Burke of Book Island (a picture book publisher in the UK founded by my fellow Tokarczuk translator Greet Pauwelijn) was "detained" by ICE at the Canadian border on 2/28. Her father asked that her story be shared in case someone can help her. He writes:

MAGA freak on #r4today defending JD Vance by echoing far right talking points from the UK - calling migrants an invasion.

Are we joining the dots yet?

They want our anger directed at homeless foreigners instead of the billionaire bully boys who are looting the whole world.

If Trump was President in 1940

This is Marco Rubio explaining how the USA promised to defend Ukraine forever if they got rid of their nuclear arsenal left after the Soviet Union fell.

This is why lil marco was sinking into the couch. He was hoping we wouldn’t find it…so don’t RT right now this very second.

The ‘west’ is over. In the Trumpian era, Europe is on its own | Alexander Hurst Trump and JD Vance are clear: the US is no longer an ally, but an antagonist to democratic values, says Guardian Europe columnist Alexander Hurst

The “West” is over — it’s only Europe and a few allies now. Time to get real and start to see dependence on the US as a fifth column

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Kennedy speaking at his inauguration, looking young and vital.

Jan 20, 1961. A blizzard the day before. Temperatures well below freezing. Without a coat or hat, JFK gave a speech we still quote today. Robert Frost, 86, recited a poem. Steinbeck and Hemingway and Rothko were among the VIPs. A million people gathered in the cold to hear it.
This is the precedent.

The “growth plan” for Brexit was that it would “unleash” UK from the “shackles” of EU.

And therein is the clue why there has been no growth.

The plan was no more substantial than vivid words deployed in some newspaper column or political speech.

Flimsy boosterish rhetoric, and nothing more.

So sorry Ben, it’s a lovely picture

Independent front page 5th jan 2025 Five years on, the true cost of Brexit £30.2bn Cost of Britain's divorce settlement from the EU (HM Treasury) - not counting any ongoing impacts to the economy £27bn Drop in goods exports to EU in 2022 alone due to the introduction of trade barriers since Brexit (LSE) with food, agriculture and fishing among worst-hit sectors 15% Long-term hit to UK trade (OBR) as revealed in Budget forecast £2.8bn Annual decrease in UK food exports to the EU (Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy) 6 in 10 Britons think Brexit has gone badly (YouGov) 118,000 Tonnes drop in seafood exports (Marine Management Organisation) 3.6M+ Number of immigrants into UK since the end of EU free movement (ONS) despite claims it would reduce the flow 1,227,800 EU nationals who left the UK between 2016 and 2021 56% Proportion of dairy producers struggling to find workers (Arla) EU nationals who left the UK between 2016-21 (ONS) 16,400 Number of businesses that stopped exporting to EU due to Brexit trade rules (LSE) 1/3 Drop in EU students at UK universities 2.3m Net migration since end of free movement

Weaker, poorer, unhappier, more divided and with an emboldened and radicalised loud minority who champion overt racism and selling out to Musk and Trump…
This is where Brexit has led us. Over and above these dismal numbers. That is the true cost.

This is not what he said and they know it. Something very disturbing has happened to much of the British press and a fair amount of conservative politics. The extremist Musk tail wagging the formerly mainstream dog.

Where's Nigel?

Today's the THIRD meeting of the Long Term Plan for Towns (Clacton) Board. Nigel Farage hasn't attended ANY since being elected. Clacton's 1 of 55 towns to benefit from levelling up investment.

He's been in the USA for 2 of them. Guess where he is this weekend?

Extract from article… “This is something that we can understand instinctively. There is a reason why Farage is such a regular feature on our TV screens, in a way that equally eloquent trade union leaders and left-wing firebrands simply aren’t, and it’s because, unlike them, he is simply of no real threat to the interests and priorities of the people who own or run those outlets.”

“The rise of Farage is part of a much broader global trend in which people who have the most power and money are rebranding themselves as part of a supposedly anti-establishment movement. This can be seen most clearly in the rise of Elon Musk who has used his own ‘anti-establishment’ credentials to secure a position for himself inside the govt of the most powerful nation in the world.”

Ugh. You’re so spot on. The establishment deviously and cynically promoting its own, to shore up its power, influence and interests… deceiving and gaslighting its citizens and failing us all as it does so.

Welcome Hugh

When farmers claim such small financial returns on their land/work surely more scrutiny should be given as to the reasons, eg our food supply systems and financial power of the supermarkets? Rather than the current uproar relating to Inheritance tax

Jeremy Clarkson, James Dyson, the Earl of Derby – they’re up in arms about paying tax on the vast areas of land they own.

Small farmers are worried that changes to Agricultural Property Relief (APR) will affect them. But who are the big landowners complaining the loudest? Thread: 1/

Labour can no longer hide from the cost of Brexit Weak growth and a Trump trade war could force the party to change its Europe policy.

“Labour can no longer hide from the cost of Brexit. Weak growth and a Trump trade war could force the party to change its Europe policy”
By David Gauke
www.newstatesman.com/comment/2024...

Welcome 😃

We care Ben, that fish and chips looks delicious 😋

I am not sure if anyone cares
what a 27 year old with autism
and special needs has to say,
but I want to help inspire others.
I lost both my parents when
I was 19. I was attacked
and bullied.
But it hasn’t broken me.

Can you share this post
if you care what I have to say?

Hi, just joined yesterday and enjoying the calmer and welcoming atmosphere here