I am so weak-willed. I decided not to mention Trump again today, but as I was writing to that effect I was already planning the next post.
His planning (which is even more impulsive than mine) began weeks ago in a series of interviews from the other side of the Atlantic. In the latest, he urges Britain to have the guts leave the E.U. without a deal if we have to. In the very next sentence he says that he has hardly begun to exploit the untapped market of the U.K. and is looking forward to dumping billions of dollars worth of U.S. goods on the British market. His tact and subtlety is a gift to anyone who has previously doubted his intentions regarding the Special Relationship.
Given the recent record on performance, I cannot see any British government being able to resist an all-out attack from American exporters, and given the recent record on negotiation skills there is no way we would be able to get a word in edgeways if it came to protecting our own manufacturers and farmers. Without the E.U. Britain will be powerless against a thug like Trump.
Right now, our brand-new, state of the art, Royal Navy aircraft carrier is covered in U.S. warplanes. It is cruising around the edge of Iranian waters, waiting for instructions from America. Saudi Arabia are gearing-up to getting involved too.
I don't get where you are coming from with this. The US is already our biggest trading partner as far as I am aware.
ReplyDeleteDid you hear that interview? Why do you feel compelled to defend Trump? You have had more than enough time to 'give him a chance ' haven't you?
DeleteI didn't hear the interview. I speak only as I see. We export to the US. The US economy is doing alright.
DeleteWell if you had heard the interview you would have heard him gloating on potential exports - both ways - following trade negotiations which he says are already formulated and on his office desk waiting to be signed.
DeleteHe added that Britain's trade with the U.S. had the potential of dwarfing any other we currently have with the E.U., which suggests to me that the E.U. are currently our biggest market.
Is it really your desire to have to rely on the U.S. for our future economic well-being? Do you really think that everything will work out just fine and we will all be better off by turning our backs on Europe?
Biggest single market. Last count exports were £236 billion to the EU, but the figure is falling. We take almost twice as much from the US as we send over there, according to what I have just read, and it is about half of the value of our exports to Europe.
DeleteYou're banging on about trump again
ReplyDeleteRachel's banging on about politics
And I'm just banging on
What a boring lot we are
Don't worry about it John. You have more pressing things to worry about.
DeleteYes but you still love us John. I'll change my subject tomorrow, perhaps.
DeleteJohn, boring, but very relevant.
DeleteSorry, I think it cannot go uncommented on. This effects everyone, world wide, and has partly come into being because not enough people talked about it in the first place.
DeleteThat's me told
DeleteTake no notice.
DeleteI didn't really
DeleteI know.
DeleteTrump is urging us to embrace their chlorinated chickens!
ReplyDeleteThat's just the tip of the iceberg. We chlorinate our own iceberg lettuces already.
DeleteThe serious point is that it is not the chlorine which is the problem - we consume about 1000 times more of it every time we jump in a municipal swimming pool. Any slaughterhouse which has to use chlorine to wash dead chickens is telling you that its hygiene standards are far lower that the EUs.
DeleteAll salads in bags are chlorinated, that's why it tells you to wash them. All salads go to McDonalds chlorinated in a big giant sack and are not washed before serving. Chicken is imported from China and Brazil not grown to our standards but allowed into the EU because it outside EU regulations. (I know a lot about food because my next door neighbour of old was a food scientist and worked in the food industry as an adviser. Foreign imports of meat have been fed on GM foods which is not allowed here but is allowed abroad) Would you like me to go on?
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DeleteSorry Gary but I have decided that your personal comments were too nasty to keep up here. Rachel is a good friend of mine and I will not have her attacked and just stand by and watch. We may not agree about these issues, but we might understand without hard feelings. You are welcome to come back whenever you like.
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DeleteSorry Tom, and sorry Rachel.
DeleteCompletely accepted. Thank you.
DeleteThanks Gary. No hard feelings. And thanks Tom.
DeleteThis is enough to get John weeping into his Nescafé.
DeleteUrsula,my apology wasn't really about the facts in my comment, and I stand by them. I spoke/wrote in anger, and even though I have witnessed far worse on Tom's blog, it is his blog, and it was my own attitude that I didn't like in my comment.
DeleteIt was your personal attack on me that I did not like and your seemingly misunderstanding about my comment about salads and McDonalds. I am not a buy-in-bag instant salad person,or a McDonalds freak or instant food freak, by any means and I was merely passing on information that I learned from my food scientist friend. I fully accept your apology and your views but not when they are aimed and worded at me via a personal attack in the manner they were and not as a comment on Tom's post.
DeleteGary - ignore that mad woman Ursula. she is so thick skinned and self obsessed that she will not stay away. She is a minor irritant and nothing more.
DeleteRachel, I know exactly what you did not like in my comments, that's why I stand by the facts that I put into word. My judgement of you is what I apologized for, but you seem unable to see it. Tom, my problem is not with Ursula, as I haven't seen many of her comments, unlike others. I enjoy your posts, particularly those about your very skilled work. Do you have a contact of some sort I can use to ask a couple of things about this comment misunderstanding?
DeleteThank you Gary. I did understand your apologies; it was just that your later response made me, wrongly, have second thoughts.
DeleteCould you both have this little discussion in private now? I am getting fucking bored and it is attracting the wrong sort of attention. Get a room.
DeleteYou started it Tom.
DeleteLearning about, and reconciling ones differences is a beautiful thing.
DeleteWhat did I start? I think I spoke my mind about something. That is all. Anyone who shaves with a hunting knife should think twice before telling others about reconciliation being a beautiful thing I think.
DeleteBye bye.
DeleteIt's a shame you chose to leave Tom. I did have questions that I wanted to ask of you, but feel it wrong now that you only want me as a follower.
DeleteI'm coming back if you'll have me. I was pissed at the time.
DeleteRight. I'm back. What did you want to ask?
DeleteWhen we're just a little island of has beens off the coast of Europe we'll be sitting duck for all the crap in the world because that's all we'll be able to afford.
ReplyDeleteUnless of course your name is Rees Mogg et al.
And pity the poor animals when EU animal welfare regs are no longer required.
DeleteI think that most of the British farmers who are not global giants will stick with the animal welfare regs as normal. I am not worried about British farmers unless they are forced out of existence by pharmaceutical companies masquerading as farmers. You know who I am talking about.
DeleteMost importantly, the UK must be very careful that any future trade agreements are not dependant on the USA having access to the NHS; which is what they really want.
ReplyDeleteI had hardly thought about that. How awful. I don't trust any politician either in power or waiting for it with that. They have sold everything else worth selling and the NHS is the largest running company in Europe, if not the world.
DeleteOne thing that I find myself agreeing with Trump about is handing over part of the software design of 5G to a large Chinese company. Why would you unless some other sort of deal has been made behind closed doors?
Delete