Brexit the economy and house prices part 6

Herzlos

wunferall wrote: »

More erroneous supposition perchance?
If you haven't heard of anyone buying in years, maybe it's because either you're not listening or you spend too much time elsewhere to notice what goes on in the real world.
The continuing rise of vinyl is a prime example; even my local Sainsbury's sells vinyl albums nowadays.
And what do you think it takes to play one of those albums; try playing a 33 on a wireless speaker.

There are a lot of hi fi companies and conventions, so someone is still buying them. But in the last decade or so we've moved from everyone having one to them being quite rare.

Whilst there are a lot of UK hi fi component companies in the UK, I don't know offhand how many are built in the UK using how many UK sourced component, and therefore I'm not sure how badly they'll be affected by Brexit. Since its manufacturing and trading I think it's safe to assume they'll do badly.

buglawton

kabayiri wrote: »

It wasn't a very consistent morality play though was it?

I think the bickering masked any honourable early gestures.

My point about setting up a hard stance up front is that it would turn things around. The EU would be negotiating on behalf of member states to secure citizen rights. Then we would see what they really value : the core EU rules or jobs for the Eastern member states.

Somehow we needed to smoke out how fixed the EU position was much earlier on. Instead, we have May panic with some pivotal dinner being touted as make/break.

Perhaps May realised that the UK is addicted to an intravenous drip of cheap mobile motivated labour and we couldn't afford the EU citizens rights bluff to be called.

Daniel54

Herzlos wrote: »

There are a lot of hi fi companies and conventions, so someone is still buying them. But in the last decade or so we've moved from everyone having one to them being quite rare.

Whilst there are a lot of UK hi fi component companies in the UK, I don't know offhand how many are built in the UK using how many UK sourced component, and therefore I'm not sure how badly they'll be affected by Brexit. Since its manufacturing and trading I think it's safe to assume they'll do badly.

There is a niche higher end market for hi fi and the U.K. is quite good at it.

Many UK producers are small SMEs and and it is our SME sector which will be most damaged by leaving the single market

Larger UK companies in this small sector,like Naim,design in the U.K. but manufacture in China

Daniel54

As a member of the EU,the U.K. currently participates in around 40 trade agreements with 70 countries ( UK Gov Brexit planning paper last week) .Well worth reading David Henig’s twitter thread on the uncertainties that these will or can be rolled over in the event of no deal.

https://mobile.twitter.com/DavidHenigUK/status/1050737021885579264

Moby

Even if the entire country voted leave we wouldn’t get any better terms. It’s not how many people voted leave that determines what the EU offers us, it’s that if you want the benefits the EU offers.... (access to a wide range of skills; effective voice on the world stage, sophisticated continent-wide manufacturing infrastructure, easy access market for goods and services, etc, etc)........ you have to be in the EU. If you don’t want that, you leave and become a third country.

Oh, and if you don’t want anyone sneaking in via the back door, you have to have a hard border somewhere between us and Ireland.

That’s it. In or out. There is no ‘we are the UK, and so special’ option.....sorry brexiteers that option was never on the table.

Question now is May going to get enough support from Labour MPs to push her Customs Union plan through?

gfplux

cogito wrote: »

I assume that all those who say thet the EU are simply applying their rules are familiar with Article 50 para 2 which says that the Union will negotiate and conclude an agreement with the leaving country.

They may be applying their rules but they are most definitely not negotiating. The two seem to be mutually exclusive.

Presently BOTH sides are negotiating the withdrawal/transition agreement. They are also discussing the future relationship document.

I hope a deal will be done, then....

On April 1st discussions will start on the trade deal between Britain and the EU27 that should come into force on January 1st 2021.

wunferall

Daniel54 wrote: »

Harbeth speakers are manufactured in the U.K. and exported worldwide.The owner and designer is Alan Shaw,who is convinced beyond doubt that Brexit will be damaging for his business and for those who work in it.You can read his views here.

https://www.harbeth.co.uk/usergroup/forum/miscellaneous-incl-british-life-business-culture/today-s-uk/blogs-aa/71705-uk-s-european-union-membership-referendum-2016-brexit

It might be advisable to read more widely before forming an opinion.

Here's a pretty balanced piece from an Aussie hifi site.
Have a read but here's (basically) a summary.

They have a new challenge now very near, the idiot sandwich of Brexit sponsored by people with no idea of its consequences and no plan of how to iterate it.
When I visited the UK last year and attended those same aforesaid factories of Rega, PMC, and Cyrus, it was obviously enough one of my leading questions.

To my surprise I was expecting doom and gloom, but actually found quite the opposite. The owners of these companies were either unfazed by it or looking forward to the freedom from EU trading restrictions. They saw the EU as being a cold dead hand of beauracracy that tended to prevent their own highly innovative and agile companies from gaining ground in external markets on the one hand while dragging them back to a common lower ground within the circumspects of EU regulation and protectionism on the other.

Like all good businessmen these companies see the opportunity rather than just the adversity.

I came away from my visits and interviews refreshed and assured that for those British companies that had survived “Greed is Good” of the Nineties and Austerity of the Noughties that making the most of Brexit would be walk in the park.

https://www.carltonaudiovisual.com.au/news/British-Hi-Fi-Brexit/

As with everything related to Brexit there are voices both positive and negative but the consensus is clear.
Brexit is an opportunity.
:T

wunferall

Moby wrote: »

Even if the entire country voted leave we wouldn’t get any better terms. It’s not how many people voted leave that determines what the EU offers us, it’s that if you want the benefits the EU offers.... (access to a wide range of skills; effective voice on the world stage, sophisticated continent-wide manufacturing infrastructure, easy access market for goods and services, etc, etc)........ you have to be in the EU. If you don’t want that, you leave and become a third country.

Oh, and if you don’t want anyone sneaking in via the back door, you have to have a hard border somewhere between us and Ireland.

That’s it. In or out. There is no ‘we are the UK, and so special’ option.....sorry brexiteers that option was never on the table.

Question now is May going to get enough support from Labour MPs to push her Customs Union plan through?

Nice though it is of someone to organise Brexit according to their own POV that's not how it really is.
For example regarding your last sentence, that is looking increasingly unlikely.
I'm hearing on the radio this morning David Davis & the DUP organising rebellion which will in effect lead to a no-deal Brexit.
What I find strange is how any remainer can seem to be so eager for this yet consistently rebel against any form of Brexit.
My conclusion must be that it is no more than deliberate provocation of emotional reactions; deliberately controversial comments.


Just to add:

1 Every country outside the EU is a "third country". That'll be most of the world then. How do they manage, not being in the EU?

2 Customs for people is vastly different to trade. People arriving from Ireland & NI to mainland UK are already checked but you probably knew this. Try reading (just for example) the travel requirements of ferry operators or airlines.

wunferall

The MEPs' expenses scandal sums up everything that is wrong with the EU

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/10/13/meps-expenses-scandal-sums-everything-wrong-eu/
Paywalled but you can register for free & read it; it's self-explanatory.

This has been talked-about briefly here and ignored by those who for some reason rather consider the EU to be an open, accountable and honest organisation.
It isn't.
Some of the comments are very interesting too.

kabayiri

wunferall wrote: »

It might be advisable to read more widely before forming an opinion.

Here's a pretty balanced piece from an Aussie hifi site.
Have a read but here's (basically) a summary.

https://www.carltonaudiovisual.com.au/news/British-Hi-Fi-Brexit/

As with everything related to Brexit there are voices both positive and negative but the consensus is clear.
Brexit is an opportunity.
:T

I have been in direct contact with a spokesman for one of those companies your piece refers to, and obviously it was an opportunity to raise the question.

You are right. He was rather more balanced than some of the grandstanding people we have the embarrassment to call MPs.

This is the point. I think many MPs are more interested in using Brexit for personal party gain over any national interest.

Where the heck was Corbyn during the Brexit referendum? It would have been easier to locate a stealth bomber in flight!

All of a sudden, they are pretending to be wise after the vote, which suggests they were ignorant during it.