Starmer on an interview on the BBC, reported in the Guardian, said he wanted closer alignment with the EU and its single market but no return to freedom of movement nor the customs union. In fact the reports suggest that he is presenting a new language for the current policy to try and stop the momentum towards the customs union. I don’t think this is an advance although he may change his mind; he often does, usually after some poor front bencher has just defended the policy. It’s all very, “The thick of it”.
This story was also reported in the FT, BBC & Independent. The BBC report is much clearer that there has been no change to the “Red Lines”.
The government and Labour MPs seem fascinated by bond yields. They present the fact that UK yields are high is seen as a short cut to arguing that the Government can’t afford the interest rates on bonds and arguing that the last word on the deficit has to be held by the markets.
This article looks at what the ‘yield’ actually is, argues it is the outcome of policy decisions, that rising yields have no effect or at least very little effect on public finances. It also argues that quantitative tightening makes the affordability of the deficit worse and that alternative debt management operations would ease the situation. It also suggests that the credit default swap price is a better indicator of the market assessment of the viability of public finances. …
The number of senior labour movement figures have argued over the Christmas break that the UK should seek to rejoin the European Union’s customs union. They leave out a call to rejoin the single market.
The customs union relates to tariffs, the single market governs common non tariff import barriers on goods & services. The single market also deals with freedom of movement of capital and labour.
I question whether joining the customs union is sufficient to deliver the increased growth that is proponents and the country seems to want.
Obviously, the single market opens the issues of free movement of people and trade sovereignty (as does the customs union). Now that it’s understood, British people seemed to want to return to the free movement and there is no national sovereignty in international trade.
I believe that the UK should join the customs union and single market now, and that Labour should put a rejoin promise in the next manifesto.
The near-fetishist concentration on in trade and economics suggests that most of our parliamentarians are not yet ready to be good citizens within the European Union. It is necessary that they change their minds, and Labour must play its part bringing this about.
The UK was and will be a better place to live within the European Union. …
Are we moving closer to joining the EU? It's been quite an eventful month, culminating in Wes Streeting’s call for the UK to join the EU’s Customs Union. This article looks at the current state of thinking of HMG on negotiations with the EU, comments on the velocity and direction of travel, contrasting the red lines vs the numerous programme adoptions, recent polling evidence that a majority of people in the UK now want to rejoin, the House of Commons vote on rejoining the customs union, and the announcement of the UK’s rejoining Erasmus+, the EU’s student exchange scheme. It concludes looking at a Guardian EB piece questioning if British Politics is fit to survive the current challenges and the Labour Party’s abysmal response. The full article, is overleaf, use the "Read More" to see it ...
I am standing for election to the LME national committee in the London region.
I’ve been a member of the LME for many years.
It’s interesting that over the last couple of weeks it seems that even the government recognises that we need a better trade agreement with the European Union and that the “reset” is not going well.
Mood is not enough.
The simplest and most complete relationship is of course full membership which I support. We need to rejoin.
Brexit is a mistake and more and more people realise this.
But the UK cannot rejoin the European Union until it is ready to be good citizens, this will not happen without Labour commitment and leadership.
If elected I will seek to bring the LME to a position where it campaigns to rejoin the single market in preparation for rejoining the European Union and calls on the Party to commit to full membership of the EU and to argue for rejoining as good citizens.
This Labour government has the impossible policy of seeking to Fix Brexit; this is not possible. The Labour Government’s cherry-picking approach is making little headway and the claim that they will not sign deals not in the interests of the British people while pursuing a topic by topic approach makes achieving deals at speed exceedingly hard and provokes resistance in the European Union and its member states.
Labour needs to commit to rejoining when the time is right, commit to joining the single market as soon as possible i.e. this parliament and if elected to the National Committee, I will do my best to see that the LME plays a role in bringing Labour to these positions.
That’s what I want to do, and that’s why I want to be on the committee as I think my views will make a difference however I’m a lifelong IT worker having worked in development, operations, and policy, finishing with time in privacy compliance. I also served on committees running the predecessor to the EU’s Horizon Europe programme. These skills and experience might be useful to the committee and organisation.
How damaging is the European union’s rejection of the UK’s attempts to join its SAFE programme; SAFE Is the European Union’s new defence funding programme.
On November 28, the UK government announced that negotiations to join the EU’s €150 billion Security Action for Europe (SAFE) defence fund had failed, marking a significant blow to what had been billed as a “reset” of UK‑EU post‑Brexit relations.
However, Euroweekly News, also states that SAFE has a 35% access to 3rd party countries, which some might consider generous given that the programme is to be funded by ECB bond issue of €150bn. The cap is however per contract which would, almost certainly, for instance, make selling warships ineligible for SAFE funding, not to mention the fact that numerous EU countries can build both warships and warplanes. The EU were asking for a UK contribution, some might say, a large contribution, to the fund, before lifting the cap to 50%. It also interests me that the whole argument is about selling to the EU, and not the UK buying European weapons, although the Euro benefit to this is massively undermined by the UK decision to buy US warplanes and more US nukes.
The UK proving once again that it is “a nation of shopkeepers” walked away from this deal.
Defence co-operation was meant to be the most advanced topic of the EU-UK May reset agreement. Even with defence on the table, cherry-picking is unacceptable to the European Union as is the UK’s insistence that every deal must benefit the UK.
I wrote a response to the US/UK Technology deal which was eventually published in the Chartist Magazine. They entitled it, “Untimely Atlanticism” with a sub title, “US AI data centres drain power and offer little for UK jobs while in Europe opportunities call “. The rest of the article, is overleaf, behind the "Read More" button. I talk about the new data centres, their immense scale, the digital colonialism, the import implications of the deal, and question the short term and long term economic benefits of AI. I finish by oitin g out the European co-operation might be more beneficial. ...
A quick note on the budget, remembering I wasn’t as critical of last year’s as some, at least not on macro-economic grounds. I was obviously against the failure to abolish the two child cap, but also against the failure to properly fund universities, students, and local government.
So this budget is, to me, a bit meh and I agree with Fisher, why wait for a year? Still nothing on HE or Local Government finance, and the wealth taxation is very weak and poorly focused. No capital gains tax equalisation, no financial transaction tax.
The freezing of tax free allowance amounts is probably more damaging to those on the margin of the upper rate tax band but as I read it, it’s a piece of accounting magic. There were no plans to change it for the next two tax years anyway, and they can change their minds, although some of the impact will occur after the next election.
I watched the first day of the EU UK parliamentary partnership assembly. The first session was on general issues & trade and the second on defence. I made some notes which you can read overleaf. Following the agenda of the meeting, I talk of Trade and Defence in two parts. Throughout, I question the UK's half hearted commitment. Use the read more button to see the whole article. ...
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