soalbundy

18 minutes ago, The Renegade said:

That is true, but does not negate what the poster said

 

tebee actually makes pessimists look like optimists.

He is merely facing the possible negative outcomes for the UK and for himself although since he is already integrated in France he will doubtless be able to get a permanent residents permit after Brexit, I was able to in Germany before the EU. I think even leavers are resigned to the financial negative outcomes of Brexit in the case of a hard break, it's a bit rich to expect remainers to show the same calm acceptance.

13 hours ago, Eloquent pilgrim said:

No offense tebee old bean, because I think you are a decent sort; but you truly are one of the most negative and depressing souls I have ever come across. I believe you could make water out of wine if you tried.

 

Chin up man, get some love and support for your county of origin coursing back through your veins

Your country of origin isn't a choice, a religion, it's a coincidence.

11 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

Best of luck, we have 4 kids ranging from 4 up to 14 and access to the internet is for an hour per evening, after house chores, weekends a little longer.

 

We won't allow them to turn into internet Zombie's like their parents ?‍?

Whether they are zombies or not depends on how they use the media.My 11 yr old British/Thai son who has been attested with a high IQ plays Roblox games with other kids around the world, 4 of them have formed an online group,play against each other and my son uploads the games stored on the computer to youtube, he has over a million 'hits' and gets virtual money from Roblox with which he buys other games to play and upload, I no longer understand what he is doing. I used to laugh when he told me he is going to be a youtuber and become a millionaire, now I don't laugh anymore.

1 minute ago, Bluespunk said:

Not even close to correct.

 

Do you even understand the term transgender?

chick with a dick who wants to be a real woman, not someone you would want to take home to mother.

2 minutes ago, Bluespunk said:

If you'd like to read on in this thread, I say age discrimination is also wrong.

 

If someone can do the job and have the best qualifications, then that is what matters.

 

As for what transgender people know themselves to be, they know who they are better than you.

They think they know who they are but they aren't fooling anyone else.

1 minute ago, Justfine said:

A buffalo in a giraffe suit is still a buffalo.

It doesn't even give a good impression of a giraffe, there's the horns...

Maybe he wanted to commit suicide, walk into a ladyboy bar and punch one in the face.

His face is completely bandaged. He hasn't spoken to us yet said the police inspector unnecessarily. 

come on fella's let's be friends, the trough is big enough for all of us.

13 hours ago, The Renegade said:

Well done.

 

You have now identified that both camps told lies.

 

This does not really come as a surprise to anyone that has a brain.

 

However, to answer your main point.

 

Access and membership are 2 different things.

we are still waiting to see what this access will look like.

12 hours ago, nauseus said:

And after the Cologne station incident we all know how forthcoming the German press are! 

Ah ! a fellow reader of the German press, with the exception of the Bild Zeitung they aren't as hysterical as the British boulevard press, something you have no doubt noticed.

10 hours ago, aright said:

You seem very relaxed about the current situation.

So Mr Gersbach is wrong 850000 jobs aren't at risk .

Prof. Gabriel Felbermayer from the IFO Institute in Munich is also wrong is he when he says "Trump tariffs and a no deal Brexit would cost the German car industry around  10bn euros.but the negative synergy of the two together would be worse than the sum of the parts. There is less leeway for trade diversion. Industry would be badly hurt, and nobody wants this kind of escalation,” 

You haven't mentioned Audi or VW. In the event of tariffs Audi is the worst hit since it doesn't manufacture cars in the USA and VW has 4 plants in Mexico which will attract tariffs when exporting to the USA.

Currently the USA gainfully employs 36000 workers making German cars. If they double output I am sure the Americans will enjoy the extra 36000 jobs. You don't seem concerned about job losses in Germany.

 

Peter Navarro, the ultra-hawkish White House trade adviser, argues that Germany has locked in a semi-permanent trade advantage through the deformed  structure of the euro, allowing it to amass and hold a current account surplus of over 8pc of GDP.The implicit Deutsche Mark is “grossly undervalued”, he argues. The intra-EMU exchange rate is misaligned. To the extent that there is a self-correcting mechanism, it is through "austerity" policies in the South.This means that the eurozone has become a contractionary black hole, hollowing out world demand. It distorts the global economy. Germany has not shown any willingness to correct this. Berlin deems the eurozone surplus to be a virtue.

 

If you add to this US concerns regarding defence spending, Mr Trump says " Why should the Americans fork out billions to ensure Germany can run up a huge trading surplus under a protective umbrella they are not prepared to pay for?" . Barack Obama made the same point, calling the EU nations “complacent”, and urging them to increase spending at least to the two per cent of GDP required by Nato, but no one took him seriously.

 

They cannot ignore Mr Trump

 

 

but it hasn't happened yet and in the link I posted it showed that this isn't as easy as he thinks, the fact that HE invited the Europeans to talk about tariffs and not the other way round shows this is dawning on him. He must be worried about his voting base being targeted on all fronts, Mexico, Canada, China and Europe, wouldn't be the first time that the blusterer stumbled. As I see it the future is electric powered cars, something German car makers have been gearing up for, BMW already has such a factory in China up and running and that is probably the market of the future with CKD (completely knocked down) deliveries and high end complete units from Germany. It wouldn't surprise me if Germany and China formed a much closer trade alliance in future due to Trump, a sort of 'your enemy is also my enemy' Russia is also on the EU's doorstep, once the theatrical sabre rattling stops that large amount of trade between the two can pick up again. Trump ought to be aware that once the industrial nations get used to a consumer world without America they will be sidelined, Europe alone has double the population of America. 

3 minutes ago, aright said:

Of course they can't and of course Germany's car industry can build further factories in the USA and China which will benefit those economies but what are Germany's jobless going to say about that?

 

 

"Exports equal 46pc of GDP in Germany, but only 12pc in the US. “Further punitive tariffs on cars from Trump would do massive damage to the German economy,” said Hans Gersbach from the German economy ministry. Roughly 850,000 jobs in Germany depend on the car industry. An eighth of all jobs are linked to the sector in one way or another.

The difficulty is that Brussels cannot wave tariffs on US cars alone even if it wants to. The EU has to extend the same zero rates to China, India, and emerging Asia to be compliant with World Trade Organisation rules."

America isn't the only market in the world and Germany's car factories are highly automated, if you walk into an engine making plant you have to look for workers. Yes it could be difficult but anyone who can afford a high end BMW or Mercedes won't be put off by a higher price and the 'normal' model buyers are buying a product already made in the USA anyway. It hasn't come to this yet, Trump, not the EU, has invited for talks over tariff's with Europe, 

http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/05/investing/trump-tariffs-european-cars/index.html

This won't be as easy as he thinks anyway.

1 minute ago, Kieran00001 said:

 

It better bloody mean stay in some bits, Leave promised again and again that leaving the EU would not mean leaving the customs union.  If that changes then we need another referendum, they can't add things later.

pro EU Tories have warned May they will block Brexit. The way is being cleared for Javid to become PM at years end. Tax increase to pay for NHS increase in funding. Working out a treat isn't it.

1 minute ago, aright said:

The EU has been lucky as well and the chickens are coming home to roost. Recent elections show the people have clocked the EU, they have been ignored and they realise the train will not stop and it only has one destination.

It is an economic reality that the way the Euro is currently set up is a major cause of the horrendous youth unemployment rates in the Mediterranean countries. A further reality is that the chief beneficiary of the current arrangement is Germany, Do the EU care? No the project means everything and young people just have to suffer on its alter. 

There is further grief in sight.....if Trump proceeds with his tariffs the German automobile industry and Germany itself will have serious economic difficulties   

 

BMW has its biggest factory in the USA as has Mercedes and both also produce in China.

Germany can't be blamed for producing goods people want. It wasn't foreseen that the Euro would be weaker than the DM in fact I can remember being told at the introduction of the Euro it would be as strong if not stronger than the DM (Germans loved their DM and were fearful of change), it wasn't and this worked to Germany's advantage.Other countries (the Southern lot) didn't do their homework, were pleased with a (for them) strong currency and spent and borrowed like a drunk on a binge. Germany, under Gerhard Schroeder (labour) rearranged Germany's finances at the peak of its industrial power to prepare for downturns (the firm I worked for also prepared accordingly) while an indebted Greece ordered new submarines (from Germany, should the manufacturers have said no,you can't afford it). Before the EU I can remember Germany standing as guarantor with their DM for Italy's oil imports, they weren't so scathing then nor did they buck up their ideas.

1 minute ago, aright said:

What's this "they" business; don't you mean "Germany will win either way because Germany controls the flow of money"

Call it like it is dear boy.

The super rich aren't confined to one country and they have no allegiance to their birth country, an American would sing the 'star bangled banner' while shorting the Dollar just as easily as a Rees Mogg would set up a firm in Ireland while saying brexit is good for the UK (and he isn't even super rich). Governments only seem to have power, they are told what to do.

2 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

OK so you don't want to refer to a 'Brexit Dividend'.

 

Let's use the exact words you used above and apply the same argument:

 

"The UK's contribution to the EU budget currently stands at a Net £8 Billion a year.

That will stop being passed to Brussels when the UK leaves the EU."

 

On what basis can yo claim that the UK will stop sending £8Billion a year to the EU on leaving the EU?

 

Neither the government nor Brexit supporters know what the final deal is going to be.

 

The government can't allocate money that the government does not have and has no means of being sure it will have.

 

It's another example of one of those British proverbs Brexiteers seem eager to forget.

 

'Don't count your chickens before they hatch'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

May has said that in order to give the NHS more money taxation must rise, so now we know, not from the nonexisting savings.

5 minutes ago, Grouse said:

Thank you soulbundy. Always good to have a personal spell checker ?

mein Vergnuegen.

7 minutes ago, The Renegade said:

How bizarre

 

I was under the impression that all those stabbings and shootings in London, was a result of poverty

possibly, there seems to be more of it in the UK than elsewhere in the EU but the UK governments have never really cared much about their people. I haven't been back to Germany for 13 years so I can't say what its like now, certainly not the level of violence shown in the UK according to German newspapers that I read. I think it is more to do with lack of prospects amongst the young and drugs of course.

1 minute ago, 473geo said:

Out of interest and to assist Colin, what was the budget to feed your great dane?

It was sometime ago now, A 3kg bag of pedigree pellets and 6 large tin cans of dog food (I mixed the meat in with the pellets) would last a week, about 500 Baht a week I think. I bought him in Angthon, cost me 30,000 Baht, there is a website, type in great dane Thailand.