Brexit, the economy and house prices part 5

Rough_Justice

fewgroats wrote: »

So imperial taking over from metric in 2019 seems rather unlikely then?

The thing is that despite the protestations above, imperial never really went.

In many ways personally I prefer metric in many instances but if we're brutally honest, the whole system was forced upon us and was (and as I will soon show you, still is) widely unwanted.
Yeah yeah yeah, the pro-EU straw-grabbers try to say that wanting to use imperial as we used to is nothing more than longing for the past but conveniently ignore the fact that we still very widely use this imperial system every day and in lots of ways.

Ask a farmer what size that field is & the answer will invariably be imperial, acres.
What does the speedo on a UK car measure and what are our speed limits in?
How tall are you?
How much do you weigh (I'm assured by one that knows that the slimming club measures weight loss in lbs and weight in stones/lbs).
What size does a woman buy her bra in?
Or a man buy his jeans in?
What man ever exaggerated the size of his ..... er ............ doodah in millimetres?
Why is a jar of Golden Shred marmalade (and loads more besides) 454g?
Why does milk come in a 2.272 litre bottle?
What size glass of beer does a man order in a pub?

There are lots more examples as I'm sure we can all agree, and none of them really point to it being an "old people's game"; it's more to do with national identity.
Like it or not, many British still identify with much that is from the imperial era.
It is after all less than ten years ago that traders were still being prosecuted for selling by the pound and ounce so combined with all the above, suggesting that only an older generation were used to imperial units of measurement is wrong.

Will we see a widespread return?
Unlikely TBH and probably not really wanted but we should be allowed a choice.

Enterprise_1701C

I personally am not particularly concerned about which measurements we use.

I am however, somewhat confused at why I have to buy several metres of fabric that is 48/54/60 etc inches wide. :rotfl::rotfl:

gfplux

No deal is rearing it’s head. I find it very worrying as now the EU seem to have finally got Theresa Mays message that “a no deal is better than a bad deal” I am hoping this is just playing a game but it makes me slightly nervous.
This from Lux Times.
https://luxtimes.lu/luxembourg/32417-financial-firms-in-luxembourg-implement-no-deal-plans
———
“Financial firms setting up shop in Luxembourg have already begun to implement plans for a 'no-deal' should Britain crash out of the European Union (EU) without a trade agreement, according to Luxembourg for Finance chief executive Nicolas Mackel.

UK Brexit secretary David Davis reportedly considered suing the European Commission for advising companies to prepare for a no-deal, according to a leaked letter to prime minister Theresa May, despite the British government itself setting aside £3 billion (€3.4 billion) for such a scenario.

In Luxembourg, relocating companies are already taking steps to ensure they are able to continue operating across Europe come 2019 – with or without a deal.

"[Companies] are in the process of implementing 'no-deal' scenarios by requesting a license, by setting up entities, by moving people, by starting to book contracts here, by starting to move funds here," Mackel told the Luxembourg Times.”
——-

cogito

gfplux wrote: »

No deal is rearing it’s head. I find it very worrying as now the EU seem to have finally got Theresa Mays message that “a no deal is better than a bad deal” I am hoping this is just playing a game but it makes me slightly nervous.
This from Lux Times.
https://luxtimes.lu/luxembourg/32417-financial-firms-in-luxembourg-implement-no-deal-plans
———
“Financial firms setting up shop in Luxembourg have already begun to implement plans for a 'no-deal' should Britain crash out of the European Union (EU) without a trade agreement, according to Luxembourg for Finance chief executive Nicolas Mackel.

UK Brexit secretary David Davis reportedly considered suing the European Commission for advising companies to prepare for a no-deal, according to a leaked letter to prime minister Theresa May, despite the British government itself setting aside £3 billion (€3.4 billion) for such a scenario.

In Luxembourg, relocating companies are already taking steps to ensure they are able to continue operating across Europe come 2019 – with or without a deal.

"[Companies] are in the process of implementing 'no-deal' scenarios by requesting a license, by setting up entities, by moving people, by starting to book contracts here, by starting to move funds here," Mackel told the Luxembourg Times.”
——-

Will they still get sweetheart tax deals that Juncker used to specialise in?

gfplux

While reading Lux Times I came across this news about M&G funds. The news was originally announced in June 2017 but has/is taking place in March 2018.

https://luxtimes.lu/economics/32418-m-g-proceeds-with-fund-transfer-to-luxembourg
—-
“London-based M&G Investments is formally beginning the process to transfer the assets of four UK-domiciled open-ended funds to equivalent funds on its Luxembourg platform.

With a cumulative market value of £9.3 billion (€10.5 billion), the funds to be moved are the M&G Dynamic Allocation Fund, the M&G Income Allocation Fund, the M&G Prudent Allocation Fund and the M&G European Inflation Linked Corporate Bond Fund.

While M&G's Dynamic Allocation, Income Allocation and the Conservative Allocation funds are set to launch 16 January 2018 due to client demand, the European Inflation Linked Corporate Bond will only be available once the merger is complete.

The four Luxembourg SICAV funds will follow identical strategies to the current UK-domiciled funds and will be run by the same fund managers.

The transfer of assets is however subject to fund shareholder approval. In the event of a succesful vote, the full mergers of the four funds are expected to take place on 16 March 2018.”
———

gfplux

cogito wrote: »

Will they still get sweetheart tax deals that Juncker used to specialise in?

I don’t know. Juncker is not presently part of the Luxembourg Government.
However those company’s relocating staff will be warmly welcomed.
Those staff members will welcome the news on Luxembourg Inflation.
https://luxtimes.lu/luxembourg/32413-luxembourg-s-annual-inflation-slows-in-december
—-
“"On supermarket shelves, prices are falling for spirits, meat and poultry, fresh fruit, pizzas and fruit juices," Statec said. "At the end of 2017 seasonal movements also had an influence on the overall index."

The annual inflation rate across the 19-member euro zone was 1.4% in December, Luxembourg-based eurostat, the European Union's statistics body, said on January 5.”
Annual inflation in Luxembourg slowed in December, pulled down by the cost of communications, Statec, the country's statistics office said on Wednesday.

Consumer prices rose 1.4% year-on-year last month compared with 1.5% in November, Statec said in a statement. On a monthly basis they were little changed, compared with a 0.3% decline in November.

Communications costs fell 4.6% in December compared with the same month of 2016.“
—-

phillw

Matt_L wrote: »

So instead of losing 500,000 jobs, recession, emergency budget and all those other predictions made by team remain i see this in the news..

UK manufacturing output at its highest for 10 years

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42633502

As has been pointed out many times, we haven't left the EU yet.

This could easily be a pre-death rally. Maybe triggered by the fall in sterling and wage stagnation, meaning we are becoming the work house of the world. With a slowly eroding standard of living.

If you look at what is happening in the talks.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42625478

"It makes no sense to either Germany or Britain to put in place unnecessary barriers to trade in goods and services that would only damage businesses and economic growth on both sides of the Channel,"

It's clear that when things change it's going to before the worse, just how bad has not been decided yet & everybody is holding on in case it's not quite as bad as they think it will be. Even leave voters should be aware that it's going to get worse, otherwise they really shouldn't have been allowed to vote

Rough_Justice wrote: »

How tall are you?
How much do you weigh (I'm assured by one that knows that the slimming club measures weight loss in lbs and weight in stones/lbs).

This is a generational thing. Lots of people only know their height in meters and weight in kilos.

I do all cooking measurements in grams. Imperial weights are as insane as pre-decimalisation. While this might be unpopular with the new "british is best" overlords, but we know naff all about creating measuring standards.

We only have "th" because france made better printing presses and they didn't have the Thorn character, which is why we switched to Ye (pronounced The) & finally just went with The. Maybe now we've overturned the EU tyranny we can have OUR Thorn back... You'd better start using it or you hate Britain.

Rough_Justice wrote: »

Like it or not, many British still identify with much that is from the imperial era.

I don't care how they identify, as long as they don't abuse children by inflicting their views on them.

Thrugelmir

gfplux wrote: »

Those staff members will welcome the news on Luxembourg Inflation.

The ECB won't be so happy though. Despite having already pumped €2.55 trillion into the Eurozone and holding negative base rates. Inflation is falling short of the 2% target. Remember inflation erodes the value of debt, i.e. the politician's friend.

gfplux

Thrugelmir wrote: »

The ECB won't be so happy though. Despite having already pumped €2.55 trillion into the Eurozone and holding negative base rates. Inflation is falling short of the 2% target. Remember inflation erodes the value of debt, i.e. the politician's friend.

How sad for the ECB

Herzlos

Tromking wrote: »

The usual suspects getting worked up at the thought of the return of imperial measures.

More stunned by the stupidity and backwardness than worked up. The more extreme brexiteers are essentially a parody of themselves by this point.