Britain is going to be Tory for at least 10 years.

[Scot Dutchy]

You will need a food bank account number shortly to get food run by the Bank of England Food Department.

[mistermack]

You couldn't make it up - and if you did people would call you a liar.

I find that hard to believe.

Edit. I also find it hard to believe that Scot Dutchy isn't congratulating the UK that the pound is bouncing back upwards.
Since he was full of crap when it was falling, I suppose silence is what you would expect when it rises.

Consistency never was his strong suit. Or understanding markets.

[Rum]

You couldn't make it up - and if you did people would call you a liar.

I find that hard to believe.

Edit. I also find it hard to believe that Scot Dutchy isn't congratulating the UK that the pound is bouncing back upwards.
Since he was full of crap when it was falling, I suppose silence is what you would expect when it rises.

Consistency never was his strong suit. Or understanding markets.

Well for once you have no argument from me!

[Brian Peacock]

Labour and the Liberal Democrats have accused ministers of seeking to subvert democracy by proposing a rule change that would guarantee the government a majority on crucial committees that scrutinise legislation.

The plan, detailed in a motion by Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the House of Commons, seeks to change the rules on membership of public bill committees, often referred to by their former name, standing committees.

As part of the progress of a bill through the Commons, a committee is set up to scrutinise it in detail. This is often the period when the most amendments are made and potential problems addressed.

The party makeup of such committees is based on the composition of the Commons, meaning that since the election in June, when Theresa May lost her majority, newly formed committees would seek a political balance.

However, Leadsom’s motion, to be considered on Tuesday, says that while parity should be sought on other types of committee, this would not happen on public bill committees.

The rules should be interpreted, it reads, such that “where a committee has an odd number of members the government shall have a majority, and where a committee has an even number of members the number of government and opposition members shall be equal; but this instruction shall not apply to the nomination of any public bill committee”...

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... _clipboard

At the moment we have a minority government, one supported by a loose voting alliance between the government and the political wing of the old testament (DUP) in which the minor supply partner enjoys no execitive participation. Surely even a idiot can see that this is a move to undermine constitutional convention and legislate for a majority where none exists?

[pErvinalia]

You couldn't make it up - and if you did people would call you a liar.

I find that hard to believe.

Edit. I also find it hard to believe that Scot Dutchy isn't congratulating the UK that the pound is bouncing back upwards.
Since he was full of crap when it was falling, I suppose silence is what you would expect when it rises.
.

Dead cat bounce.

[Scot Dutchy]

You couldn't make it up - and if you did people would call you a liar.

I find that hard to believe.

Edit. I also find it hard to believe that Scot Dutchy isn't congratulating the UK that the pound is bouncing back upwards.
Since he was full of crap when it was falling, I suppose silence is what you would expect when it rises.

Consistency never was his strong suit. Or understanding markets.

Do you know why the pound is rising? Because things are not going well or do you not understand.

1. Pound falls
2. Cost of imports rise as money loses its value
3. Inflation rises because imports are costing more
4. Banks have to raise interest rates to counter inflation
5. Pound rises because interest rates are going to rise.

It is called speculation. Happens to third world currencies. Welcome to the third world.

[Scot Dutchy]

Dead cat bounce.

Exactly

It is nothing to be happy about but Brexiteers have little understanding of these matters.

A yoyo currency is bad for the country as it produces instability.

[mistermack]

Edit. I also find it hard to believe that Scot Dutchy isn't congratulating the UK that the pound is bouncing back upwards.

Do you know why the pound is rising? Because things are not going well or do you not understand.

So when the pound falls, it's because things are going badly. And when it rises, it's because things are not going well.
On the other hand, when the Euro rises, it's because things are going well. And when it falls, it's even better.

That's as dumb as it gets.

Or is it?

I can't wait for your next post.

[Brian Peacock]

When the pound falls it's good for exporters.

UK exporters have 'hoarded' gains from fall in sterling, says ONS

Britain’s manufacturing exporters have “hoarded” the gains from last year’s fall in sterling by putting up prices rather than increasing output and sales.

The Office for National Statistics said exporters could have allowed their prices to decline in line with the fall in the pound, making their products more attractive to foreign buyers, but chose to boost their profits instead.

Illustrating the uncertainty following the Brexit vote, which has made exporters nervous about expanding production, analysis by the ONS shows that UK companies increased export prices by 12.7% year on year in the months after the referendum in response to a 16.9% fall in the exchange rate.

The figures will disappoint Brexit campaigners who have urged exporters to make the most of the fall in sterling by expanding production and increasing employment.

The ONS said export volumes improved last year, despite exporters’ price increases, due to the improving global trade situation. But the rise in exports was matched by an increase in imports, offsetting the benefits of higher prices.

Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: “Exporters have responded to the pound’s depreciation by raising their sterling prices, with the result that their profits have surged but their goods haven’t become much more competitive....

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... g-says-ons

[mistermack]

That seems a bit of a non-story.
Companies often also take a hit on profits for a while, when the currency moves the other way, rather than constantly change prices to customers. They try to smooth out the changes, as too much variability is bad for business.
Some buyers might hold off buying, hoping for a better price, if prices are too volatile.

[Brian Peacock]

Yes, hoarding cash is a good idea in times of economic insecurity but, as the rest of the article points out, extracting greater profits over re-investment transfers money out of the economy and into assets - and while companies are quick to hike their charges when sterling falls they're very slow to reduce them the currency rallies. While this is an economic issue whose scope is far broader than that of this thread it nonetheless demonstrates that the governments actions continue to burden the general population with the role of economic cannon fodder in the service of corporate greed.

[mistermack]

Yes but working against that is the fact that companies are also fighting for market share.
They can't do both unless there is no competition.
While you are trying to cream off bigger profits, someone else has the chance to nip in and gain market share at your expense. So companies are always walking a tightrope, and their scope for creaming off big profits is usually limited by the market.

In this case, I would have thought that directors have been looking at what the markets are likely to do in the future, looking at what the competition are doing, looking at their output levels to see if they have spare capacity etc. etc. Each company is in a different slot.
But if they have judged that the pound might bounce a bit, then they would be wise not to cut their prices too hastily. The extra that they might make in profits now might be needed to offset lower profits after then next market movement.

In the end, it's all informed guesswork. If you knew what the markets were going to do, you'd be a billionaire, like Scott Dutchy.

[Scot Dutchy]

Edit. I also find it hard to believe that Scot Dutchy isn't congratulating the UK that the pound is bouncing back upwards.

Do you know why the pound is rising? Because things are not going well or do you not understand.

So when the pound falls, it's because things are going badly. And when it rises, it's because things are not going well.
On the other hand, when the Euro rises, it's because things are going well. And when it falls, it's even better.

That's as dumb as it gets.

Or is it?

I can't wait for your next post.

You are really showing your ignorance. Aren't you embarrassed?

When currencies rise for a good reason then it is fine. The Euro is rising because there is growth in Eurozone. There is no growth or very little in the UK and the pound is rising for the wrong reason; speculation. Once profits have been made by the speculators it will drop again requiring the bank to put up interest rates again and the spiral continues. Cant you remember the 70's and 80's? Inflation was 24% and interest rates hit 17%. Mortgages were almost impossible to get and if gotten were almost unpayable.

[Brian Peacock]

Boris Johnson ought to be fired, furious Tories tell May

Senior Conservatives have denounced Theresa May as “too weak” to unite her cabinet and run an effective government after she refused to sack her foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, for breaking ranks over Brexit.

Johnson infuriated Tory MPs on both sides of the European debate when he spelt out his own personal vision of a hard Brexit in a newspaper article, only days before May is expected to outline possible areas for compromise with Brussels in a speech in Florence.

Downing Street insisted that May still had full confidence in Johnson, although he had not informed her of the content of his article. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Johnson insisted that the UK must not pay any money to the EU for access to its markets after Brexit and made no mention of a transition period after 2019 to avoid a “cliff-edge” for UK businesses.

May is now understood to back a transitional deal that could involve payments to the EU for access to its markets during a period of two to three years after Brexit, and to accept that the UK will need to follow the single market rulebook in that time.

Johnson’s article was seen across the Tory party as the start of a leadership campaign to replace May, in which he would position himself as the champion of a clean break with the European Union, in contrast to May and the chancellor Philip Hammond who are pushing for a gradual exit.

Several former Tory ministers said yesterday it was clear that Johnson was setting out his leadership stall and tempting May to sack him, in the knowledge that she had not got the authority to do so.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... ous-tories

And there was I thinking BoJo had burned all his leadership boats.

[pErvinalia]

BOJO as PM.. God help us.