Politics

5 lurkers | 77 watchers

Fellrunning 11:25am 11:25am, 21 Jul 2017 1904 posts	Fellrunning Cautiously happy with what Gove has been saying. I would like to see him move further on things like local markets and collectivism but it's a good start. Won't win him many friends amongst the big landowners. However as I'll be at a land managers conference where he'll be speaking in a few weeks I'll be sure to make encouraging noises. Credit where it's due....	0
SFL 11:33am 11:33am, 21 Jul 2017 1109 posts	SFL I'm sure you're right but big landowners are always going to vote conservative anyway so he doesn't really need to worry too much about upsetting them, especially while Corbyn has plans for a Land Value Tax.	0
ChrisHB 11:40am 11:40am, 21 Jul 2017 15125 posts	ChrisHB I am also cautiously happy with Gove's latest position. One thing that must be said for him is that he gets things done. As for flights, if we cancel the agreement that allows air services between ourselves and Europe without replacing it, then there can be no flights. The airlines' worries AIUI are that government doesn't seem to have realised this. There are other questions regarding foreign/ownership of airlines, but airlines will presumably repatriate themselves if that becomes an issue.	0
SFL 11:47am 11:47am, 21 Jul 2017 1110 posts	SFL To put it in context - one of the EU's main aims in the negotiations is to prevent any other country from wanting to leave. You might think that preventing flights from the UK to the EU would be a good way to do that, to send out a message to other countries to show the problems that it can cause, but that would ignore the more important financial argument: The spanish tourism industry is worth 116 billion euro's per year to Spain, 23% of which is from the UK. So UK tourism contributes 27 billion Euro's each year to Spain. As much as the EU leaders have agreed to unity on Brexit, Spain aren't just going to roll over and agree to this and the EU won't try to enforce it because of the risk that Spain will also want to leave.	0
J2R 11:54am 11:54am, 21 Jul 2017 653 posts	J2R My big worry, which is why I'm a scaremongering Remoaner, is that there are dozens and dozens of areas where the government hasn't realised the implications of what leaving the EU means. As we move from the fatuous sound-bites of 'taking back control' to the nitty-gritty of awkward details, this will surely become ever more apparent.	0
Chrisull 11:59am 11:59am, 21 Jul 2017 11579 posts	Chrisull SFL - Land Value Tax WAS NOT in the manifesto, it was one of those floated by Corbyn off the cuff, I believe. In fact fullfact confirms this, the Lib Dems have also said they would consider it too.... Link (roll over me to see where I go) In principle some of the thinking behind it is very sound, stops the Duke of Westminster and the rentier class just sitting on land and plenty of the Paul Dacre's of this world too, who just sit on acres and acres of land doing fuck all with it. This is the problem with the idle , land-owning rich (as opposed to people who work or farm the land, I do make a very important distinction) who just sit on the land and as it increases in value, and they draw the proceeds. This is fundamentally wrong, doesn't help the economy or the country and stems back to feudalism. However the land value tax has some serious drawbacks too and that is what stops Labour from endorsing it.	0
macca 53 11:59am 11:59am, 21 Jul 2017 26097 posts	macca 53 so just on tourism we (personally) spend 50% more in Spain than the 350 million a week we allegedly send directly to Brussels? makes our EU membership fees seem pretty reasonable to me.....	0
SFL 12:58pm 12:58pm, 21 Jul 2017 1111 posts	SFL If the EU included a full English breakfast every day and as much beer as I could drink I would be inclined to agree.	0