Brexit, the economy and house prices (Part 3)

A_Medium_Size_Jock

*Warning*
An article from the Express is next.

From the EU budget sign-off comes this example of spending:

n particular controversy has been sparked by one grant to Athens, of a total of £5.3 million, for the transportation of asylum seekers between the Greek islands where they arrived and the mainland.Greek authorities chartered a number of vessels, including tourist boats, to ferry migrants across the Eastern Mediterranean as well as provide them with “snacks” and “accommodation” for the short journey.
However, for 12 days of the project the ships were idling inactive in port with no work to do but still got paid under the terms of their contract, at a cost of £365,000 to the European taxpayer.

Yes yes I know, the detractors will :eek: at a few ships being paid to sit in docks. As if that were not bad enough though comes this:

On top of that, the auditors raised concerns about the fact the firms carrying out the work - which were already benefitting from an EU grant - charged refugee adults £53 a ticket and children £26 for the trip.

Yup, not only were these firms paid by the EU to transport migrants but they actually charged them as well!

EU figures show 150,000 asylum seekers were transported by the scheme over the course of seven months, meaning a potential income ranging between £3.9 million and £7.95 million.
The Court of Auditors said: “The income from migrants contributed to the revenues and consequently, to any profits, of the shipping companies. EU legislation does not allow beneficiaries of EU grants to obtain profits from the implementation of a project.”

http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/859756/European-Union-EU-court-of-auditors-bloc-budget-Ukip

System

setmefree2 wrote: »

With each passing day it's becoming more obvious.....

.....that you and I live in parallel universes....

Don't you ever get tired of being such a doom monger? Especially as you've spent 18 months with your doom monger claims being proven wrong....

When you want to engage in debate let me know. Until then keep up with the spamming and the occasional angry personal outburst.

System

A_Medium_Size_Jock wrote: »

Like we could just walk away & the EU can legally do zero.
All this "but ...... but ......... but ....... " from the pro-EU brigade is just that; bluster.
Any money lost on intra-EU trade difficulties might just be worth compensating for what the EU are so desperately trying to wheedle out of us - plus (as you say) we can freely pursue trade relations with others.

The ministry of the bleeding obvious is busy today. We're a sovereign nation and I certainly wouldn't argue that we can't just walk away. Parliament could've voted at anytime to leave the EU the next day and stuck two fingers up to triggering article 50 first as well.

Given we can, within reason, do absolutely what we want the question about what we can do is moot. The questions we're trying to ponder are about what we should do.

The only people happy with the negotiations to date must be those who would've been happy for us to leave in a marked manner in the first place.

A_Medium_Size_Jock

Moving away from The Ministry of Silly Talks with this, briefly charting the rise of right-wing populism in Europe:

Alternative for Germany is the latest right-wing party to make an electoral breakthrough in Europe. AfD got nearly 6 million votes, or 13 per cent of the popular vote, the biggest ever electoral success for a party that far on the right of the political spectrum in recent German history.
By our calculations, it means at least 30 million people have voted for broadly similar right-wing populist parties in EU countries in the last five years:

https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-the-rise-of-right-wing-populism-in-europe

A_Medium_Size_Jock

Some dissenters have commented upon the supposedly questionable content of some influential media websites.
Here's a light-hearted * example of the dreary yet serious content as supplied by our own BBC, regarding a German and his car:
"Carrot-coloured sports car damaged by hungry German donkey"

The police suggest Vitus may have confused the car for a carrot. The donkey's owners can still appeal.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41418556




* Light-hearted.
As in humour.
Not therefore intended to be taken seriously.

System

It's almost as if those near 4 million people in the UK who voted UKIP in 2015 have been airbrushed from history.

A_Medium_Size_Jock

The Economist on Catalonia:
Catalonia prepares for its independence referendum

The propaganda battle gets ever nastier

One of the Generalitat’s main targets is international opinion. It has set up ten “embassies” abroad and plans more. Yet the only foreign leaders who have expressed support for the referendum are Nicol!s Maduro of Venezuela and Nicola Sturgeon of Scotland.

https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21729767-propaganda-battle-gets-ever-nastier-catalonia-prepares-its-independence-referendum

Also this:
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2017/09/28/536774/Spain-European-Union-Catalonia-Romeva

GreatApe

Conrad wrote: »

James O'Brien on LBC said this morning only a tiny minority at the top feel life in Britain is getting better.

Where do you even begin with a mind-set like this?

Through business every week I meet young couples with ordinary jobs making £70k+ that are full of optimism. Slightly older couples with young kids, very nice cars, nice house, building a future, just ordinary people such as the woman who started on the bottom rung at BP and now finds herself a PA where they are putting over £1k p m in her pension


Wherever I go in the Med I see Brits are by far usually the largest group vacationing or buying property. I don't see an army of gloom filled people, I see ordinary people enjoying life and making hay.


I can go right across this and neighbouring counties and find a huge bulk of people comfortably off, from the retired 53 y/o Copper on a nice pension now doing 2 days a week security consultancy to the women I know that are self employed doing things such as office relocations making a mint.


The bloke who goes to festivals just as reading with a pizza trailer making tens of thousands in under a week. The bloke with ice cream vans and buy to let property and a 31.5 m house - ordinary salt of the earth types. The woman that owns a small garden centre sold it off to developer for millions.


The over cleaner who makes about £150 p day having retired from the Army at 42 with a decent pension.


My Uncle a teacher and his wife a Midwife, mortgage paid off, nice joint income, not a money care in the world


Umpteen people I know own more than 1 property, they live anywhere from Salisbury to Cambridge, Saffron Walden to Epsom, Chichester to Cheltenham, Worcester to Colchester, Brighton to Plymouth, Evesham to Halifax.


Our friends from Stoke, he's working on NHS building projects, she's a saleswoman for a corporate hotel chain - again ordinary working class folk, living in an unremarkable house and pulling in comfortable incomes.


This tiny minority that feel good about the future, sure do get about

Do the likes of O'Brien not see all the Location Location type properties - ordinary people building lives?

Why mess with and change a system that has given all those people all that wealth and opportunity?

System

A_Medium_Size_Jock wrote: »

The Economist on Catalonia:
Catalonia prepares for its independence referendum

The propaganda battle gets ever nastier

A few posts about this. What do you think the effect will be on brexit, the economy or house prices?

Arklight

Conrad wrote: »

James O'Brien on LBC said this morning only a tiny minority at the top feel life in Britain is getting better.

Where do you even begin with a mind-set like this?

Through business every week I meet young couples with ordinary jobs making £70k+ that are full of optimism. Slightly older couples with young kids, very nice cars, nice house, building a future, just ordinary people such as the woman who started on the bottom rung at BP and now finds herself a PA where they are putting over £1k p m in her pension


Wherever I go in the Med I see Brits are by far usually the largest group vacationing or buying property. I don't see an army of gloom filled people, I see ordinary people enjoying life and making hay.


I can go right across this and neighbouring counties and find a huge bulk of people comfortably off, from the retired 53 y/o Copper on a nice pension now doing 2 days a week security consultancy to the women I know that are self employed doing things such as office relocations making a mint.


The bloke who goes to festivals just as reading with a pizza trailer making tens of thousands in under a week. The bloke with ice cream vans and buy to let property and a 31.5 m house - ordinary salt of the earth types. The woman that owns a small garden centre sold it off to developer for millions.


The over cleaner who makes about £150 p day having retired from the Army at 42 with a decent pension.


My Uncle a teacher and his wife a Midwife, mortgage paid off, nice joint income, not a money care in the world


Umpteen people I know own more than 1 property, they live anywhere from Salisbury to Cambridge, Saffron Walden to Epsom, Chichester to Cheltenham, Worcester to Colchester, Brighton to Plymouth, Evesham to Halifax.


Our friends from Stoke, he's working on NHS building projects, she's a saleswoman for a corporate hotel chain - again ordinary working class folk, living in an unremarkable house and pulling in comfortable incomes.


This tiny minority that feel good about the future, sure do get about

Do the likes of O'Brien not see all the Location Location type properties - ordinary people building lives?

This genuinely made me laugh out loud.