You Couldn't Make It Up
Department:
- A priest ousted for sexual misconduct with a girl in his care is now in charge of a pregnant-teen agency. Details here.
- A demonstration of Kim Jong-un's largesse in the aftermath of the Workers' Party congress has backfired after his citizens turned their noses up at his gifts of toothpaste and blueberry-flavoured spirits. The toothpaste, a toothbrush made in North Korea and a bottle of liquor supplied to every household were "trifling" and of poor quality. To add insult to injury, anyone who collected one of the gift sets was charged 1,500 won (£1). It could have been worse . . . In 2013, Mr Kim ordered that every member of his entourage receive a copy of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf". And were presumably shot out of a cannon if they couldn't recite it backwards.
Russia's Endless
Propaganda: This has been termed a 'fog of falsehood', at least in
respect of Ukraine. You can download a relevant Finnish article here.
Separately, more than two million people are said to have marched in
more than 50 countries across the world in honour of the recent
Victory Day, on top of 650,000 in Moscow. According to a Russian
critic:- Putin has successfully tied the date to himself to the
extent that if you are against Putin, you automatically, and even
unwittingly, are against all the grandfathers who fought in the War."
An increasing number of Russian critical voices are said to
have expressed concerns about elements of fascism in these mass events
and their ideology. One wonders why.
Brits
in Spain: How many of us are there? No one knows. And the range of
guesses is wide. Here's David Jackson on the subject: The
population figures used by the Spanish (and no one else) come from
the National Institute of Statistics. According to them,
there are 263,029[sic] Britons living in Spain. With the new tax law, the
dreadful Modelo 720 - where one has to declare one’s
worldwide assets – how many foreigners have simply thrown in the
towel and left Spain for a more welcoming country like Portugal, or
have returned in disgust to their country of origin? And, why own a
property in Spain if you can no longer let it without enormous
inconvenience?
Psychic Beliefs. Some
of us would argue that gullibility is the essence of these. So it's
not so surprising that the credulous are regularly fleeced. To the
tune of 180 MILLION dollars here.
A Key Question: From
the same site comes this comment on an important issue. Or a-tissue.
Geddit?You will. Some more quickly than others.
Finally . . . A
multi-purpose note. After a dear friend in Madrid and I had exchanged a few
mock insults yesterday, she sent me this useful model apology . . .
The EU is holding our
economy back – and Brexit could set it free
The Leave campaign
shouldn’t feel the need to adopt a defensive position on the
economic impact of leaving the European Union; there is a “British”
option.
That is why the recent
“Economists for Brexit” paper was such a welcome addition to the
debate in that it offers a glimpse of the economic benefits voting to
leave could bring, among them improvements to output,
competitiveness, real disposable wages and employment.
Telling the British
people that there will be instability in an exit scenario is likely
to become self-fulfilling. Sterling’s weakness reflects the size of
our trade deficit.
We imported £291bn of
goods and services from the Continent last year alone. Far from
weakening our negotiating position, this situation makes us strong as
it is simply not in Europe’s interests to play chicken on a trade
negotiation.
As Boris Johnson
recently said: “Germany has the most to lose from a messy divorce.”
Talk of a detrimental downward currency movement following a Leave
vote ignores the reality that countries all around the world are
engaged in competitive devaluation and trying to keep currencies low.
A significant
short-term drop in sterling could well follow a vote to leave, but a
devaluation, should sterling remain lower for longer, isn’t
necessarily a bad thing.
The market generally
anticipates short-term risks but in reality exchange rates over a
five-to-10-year period will reflect our economic performance,
regardless of post-exit swings. Over half of our exports are with
non-EU countries thanks to our membership of the World Trade
Organisation; and in a post-Brexit world all our trade would fall
under WTO rules in the short term. Our top export market is the
US, accounting for £45bn of the £300bn total.
This is why President
Obama’s recent intervention in the debate is not only unwelcome but
is not credible, leaving aside his breaking a long-standing
diplomatic convention of states not interfering with each other’s
democratic processes.
The range of US
political voices backing a Remain vote certainly serves the interests
of the US, but it does not necessarily serve Britain’s best
interests. Regardless of the referendum’s outcome, relations
between Britain and the US will remain of vital strategic importance
and, given the relative trade balance between the two countries and
the history of the relationship, it is in both parties’ interests
to reach a constructive deal as soon as possible.
In any scenario where
Britain is no longer a member of the EU, we would be able to focus
any trade negotiations on the sectors that are of vital interest to
the UK, rather than having to compromise with the general interests
of 27 other nations.
Europe is economically
stagnant and not where we will find long-term growth. Its economic
performance unfavourably compares with other developed nations: it is
inefficient, makes poor decisions and has repeatedly proven incapable
of reform.
The World Bank’s
“Doing Business” rankings make difficult reading for EU member
states, demonstrating year after year the deleterious effects of
over-regulation by unaccountable bureaucrats in Brussels. Open
Europe’s recent research report on Government Impact Assessments
shows that the 100 most burdensome EU regulations cost Britain
£33.3bn each year.
It went on to say that
post-exit £12.8bn could be saved annually by deregulating employment
rights, health and safety, climate change and financial services.
Even Germany recognises the problem. Its Better Regulation Council
says that at least half of that country’s regulatory costs are
derived from the EU.
Smaller companies with
little or no EU business face the full force of its regulation,
preventing the majority of British employers from reaching their full
economic potential. All this for a market that accounts for just 12pc
of our exports as a proportion of GDP.
In opting out of
the EU we shouldn’t assume that our only choices are the so-called
“Norwegian”, “Swiss”, or “Canadian” options: we can
negotiate a “British option” because, after Germany, we are the
largest EU economy. We are in a different situation since we’re not
trying to join the EU and therefore don’t face the same compromises
to be allowed in. Put simply, we’re too big to receive a punishment
beating for leaving.
Fear is the currency of
domestic and foreign voices backing the Remain campaign. Perhaps the
greatest danger of a Brexit is that other nations might follow,
deepening the wound to an already weak construct.
However, in reality
this is far more complicated for eurozone members: the Brexit option
is potentially only available to other non-eurozone countries.
Having voted to leave, we could use our EU membership fees as a
bargaining chip so that our contribution tapers over time, rather
than forcing the rest of the bloc to instantly fund the budgetary
consequences of our withdrawal.
We can do better out of
Europe because it creates a golden opportunity to deregulate the
British economy; adopt a merit-based approach to controlling
immigration; and pursue targeted economic policies that benefit our
economy over the long term, for example incentives for venture
capital that support our strengths, such as life sciences and
pharmaceuticals.
We need to institute a
regulatory framework that supports an efficient and transparent
private sector. Matt Brittin, Google’s EMEA president, has warned
that the EU will fall behind the US and China if it keeps
discouraging entrepreneurs with excessive red tape that stifles
digital innovation.
Even Spotify, Sweden’s
runaway technology success, is planning a move to the US if its
regulatory environment doesn’t improve. Isolated examples are
just that, but they underpin a more general discontent among
entrepreneurs in the UK and elsewhere in Europe that the EU simply
isn’t working for them.
Our own research showed
that, by two-to-one, SMEs felt the EU was a hindrance, rather than a
help. The assumed lack of imagination and bargaining strength in the
event of a Brexit ignores compelling economic realities.
We can be stronger out
of the EU and should not be afraid to grasp this opportunity.
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