“Based on the most recent data, the value of all goods & services exports per employed person in RoI was €126,630 per year, compared to just €17,627 in the UK. Total trade in Ireland was 178%of Ireland’s gross domestic product, higher than the EU overall (77%) and the UK (54%)
“In the meantime, London’s new Brexit strategy is to inflict as much commercial damage on Ireland as possible. Given that Ireland didn’t ask for, or vote in, the Brexit referendum and, in recent decades, has been an impeccable neighbour...
3/. “and a calm, dependable partner in the British-created tinderbox that is Northern Ireland, this new aggression seems unjustified. However British sensitivity towards Irish concerns has never figured highly in Anglo-Irish affairs.”
4/ “Part of the new British approach has been a relentless campaign to paint itself as the victim of Irish inflexibility, simultaneously emboldened by a Rule Britannia assurance that Ireland can, and will, be brought to heel.”
5/. “This unstable combination of whingeing victimhood twinned with pompous self-regard has characterised much of Britain’s negotiations thus far. What has been absent are economic facts.”
As we have seen with some remarkable & gross errors from Rees-Mogg & Digby Jones recently
6/. On a conservative estimate, the Irish are now over 25 per cent richer than their UK counterparts. Irish income per capita rose from €13,934 in 1995 to €40,655 in 2018 — growth of 192 per cent.
7/ “In contrast, UK income per capita rose from £21,716 in 1995 to £30,594 in 2018 — growth of roughly 41 per cent. Ireland is growing nearly five times faster than the UK every year.”
And whilst the U.K. TALKS about being “Global Britain” Ireland is doing it.
In. The. EU.
8/ Ireland & England are in competition with one another.
“Which looks more attractive, the country that is open to everyone, with fully free access to the EU & no barriers to work,...
9/ “...or the country that needlessly erects tariffs & borders against the trading bloc with which it does half of its trade?
Ireland can’t stop the UK if it intends to go down this route, but the EU single market and customs union are far more important for us.”
10/.
“We understand the yearning for sovereignty, identity and independence, believe me. But just one piece of advice: the first 70 years are the hardest, after that it gets easier.”
Ouch. But fair.
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It is the argument that simply “governing well using all levers available”, as Stoller put it in the first half of Biden’s presidency, does not necessarily translate into popular gratitude or political success.”
“They cite the Inflation Reduction Act, the president’s $500 billion green energy strategy, the American Rescue Plan Act, which helped to lift 2mill children out of poverty, & the US’s generally dynamic economy as achievements to which the public responded with a collective shrug
Politico described Stoller’s diagnosis as “good policies no one understands”. Obamacare had similar results.”
There has to be a continual storytelling which connects to people’s day to day realities.
Their ability to do the weekly shop without grinding anxiety.
Potholes!
I’ve been thinking about the broad but shallow majority Labour has and what it means
1/. It is the result not just of a profound disgust at Tory political behaviour even from their own traditional voters but also of a highly intelligent and organised electoral strategy.
2/. It is pretty obvious that Lab and Lib Dem struck some sort of non aggression pact in a large number of seats to their mutual benefit. It took a lot of the poison out of tactical voting that we saw in 2017 and in 2019 in particular. So did the change in leadership.
As @Samfr pointed out : the seats where there was no such non-aggression pact and the opposition was split, this resulted in saving MPs such as Braverman & Mel Stride
In just 42 seats in England and Wales was the Tory vote bigger than the combined Lab/Lib one.
They don’t tax your state pension. But your state pension is added to any other income you have and that IS taxed…(basically treating your state pension as part of your normal personal allowance (PA). Not enough to meet the PA limit.
7 out of 8 pensioners do not GET the full new state pension. Most are on the old state pension (or less) of c £8,800 pa.
So that arrives untaxed.
However that does accrue so that if you have any additional income once it reaches the £12,570 threshold (inc your state pension) THOSE income sources as taxed as normal…as they should be
Even on the NEW full state pension you are way off the PA still.
We’re just pausing over tea to discuss the location of the DC solar panel isolation switches as the loft is not a good location for me up a wobbly loft ladder and very awkward loft hatch
They are going in the spare bedroom cupboard so easy for me to get to
The team is absolutely lovely.
Tomorrow the roofing panel team will arrive: James and Rhys who have both been doing this for 4 years.
James is ex military
Rob and Andy (electricians and survey team)
Geoff (sales consultant) has been in solar for years.
Just thinking about my young Ukrainian Refugee today.
Two years ago today she was awoken by her brother in law, a customs official, telling her to get out of Kyiv straight away. Forget her home and job there. The Russians were invading.
She left to go to her parents
So did her sister and her two young children. To a tiny village in the Poltava Region. All living together in their parents house.
What must it have been like for her? Realising that the war was not going to be over quickly and her lost home and lost job were now her reality
Meanwhile her cousins were fighting at the front. The loss of life and destruction of property all too real and the grim stories of torture, rape and deportation of children growing louder.
Suddenly having to take off to a foreign country she had never visited to survive