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yorkie1999

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By yorkie1999, in General Chat

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Facecloth

Facecloth

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From the FT, behind a paywall so copying and pasting.

 

What an Ikea bed tells us about Boris Johnson’s Brexit plan

British unwillingness to face tough choices since the 2016 referendum is a tragedy

To understand whether Boris Johnson’s plans for Brexit will work, consider the humble Malm bed from Ikea. The frontrunner to become UK prime minister denies he is already measuring the curtains for Number 10, but if he was checking out bedroom furniture on this week’s visit to Belfast, the bed would set him back £315. Alternatively he could drive to Dublin Ikea and buy the bed for €350. The prices match at Wednesday’s euro exchange rate of €1.114 against sterling.

In Belfast, having charged 20 per cent value added tax, HM Revenue & Customs would receive £52.50, while in one of the two Ikea stores near the Irish capital, Irish Tax and Customs would collect €65.45 from its 23 per cent VAT rate.

Let’s wind the clock forward four months to Mr Johnson’s dream Brexit, in which the EU signs a basic free trade agreement with the UK and keeps the Irish border open with no tariffs, no checks and no border infrastructure.

 

Under EU rules, British people would become eligible for an Irish VAT refund on their purchase of the Malm bed in Dublin. So long as they showed proof of residence in Northern Ireland and declared the goods would leave the EU, they would get a refund. The trip to Dublin would save Belfast consumers almost 20 per cent, not bad for a 100-mile drive and a bit of bureaucracy.

Their tax avoidance would be completely legal. It is a feature of EU nations’ VAT systems that they seek only to tax residents of the bloc. The UK has said it will not charge its VAT on personal imports after Brexit, so is inviting this activity, which will become significant. Belfast’s retailers should be afraid, very afraid. They need look no further than the destruction of most British music retailing when it was challenged by VAT-free CDs posted from the Channel Islands in the 1990s and 2000s.

The Irish government would have its own invidious choices. It could break the EU customs’ practices and refuse to impose Irish VAT on a Malm bed imported by Irish residents from Belfast’s store at the land border. That would be likely to see a reverse flow of shoppers going north and both sides would be rash to assume lost revenues would be small.

A second unpleasant option would be to put in place VAT import controls on the border, effectively breaking the Good Friday Agreement which has kept the peace on the island of Ireland. Third, the Irish government could attempt behind-the-border checks. In this example, that would mean officials literally snooping inside the bedrooms of its citizens.

It is precisely these obvious problems that will ensure the failure of Mr Johnson’s proposals. Similar suggestions have already prompted Sabine Weyand, the deputy Brexit negotiator for the EU until her recent promotion, to tell MPs last year that it was “very important” for the EU to “ensure that VAT is levied correctly” because it is a significant source of revenue for every EU member state and the tax already suffers from significant cross-border fraud.

The British attitude has been to wish such problems away. VAT is not properly addressed in the recent report on “alternative arrangements” that Mr Johnson said was a “brilliant” solution to the Irish border question. This lack of seriousness has been a feature of British attitudes since the 2016 Brexit referendum. Three years on, trade-offs are ignored and the UK still pretends there is a halfway house that allows both freedom from EU rules and frictionless trade.

The unwillingness to face tough choices before or after the referendum is the real tragedy of Brexit. It is possible to have a functioning tax system either with border controls, as Switzerland imposes, or by being an integral part of EU systems. Instead, we are told by Mr Johnson that these genuine problems are solvable if we believe hard enough and have faith. It is enough to make anyone cry themselves to sleep in a tax-free Ikea bed.

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Buce

Buce

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11 minutes ago, Innovindil said:

Remember when these guys were fleeing the country because of brexit? :rolleyes:

 

Yeah, me neither.

 

No, you're confusing them with:

 

  • Barclays. ...
  • Dyson. ...
  • Honda. ...
  • HSBC. ...
  • Lloyds of London. ...
  • Moneygram. ...
  • P&O. ...
  • Toyota.

 

Jaguar Landrover only axed 4,500 jobs and shut down a plant in Wales.

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Innovindil

Innovindil

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14 minutes ago, Buce said:

 

No, you're confusing them with:

 

  • Barclays. ...
  • Dyson. ...
  • Honda. ...
  • HSBC. ...
  • Lloyds of London. ...
  • Moneygram. ...
  • P&O. ...
  • Toyota.

 

Jaguar Landrover only axed 4,500 jobs and shut down a plant in Wales.

I'd go back and find the posts, but I really cba on a friday night lol

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Alf Bentley

Alf Bentley

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46 minutes ago, bovril said:

 

Nightmarish moth with weird ‘tentacles’ FILMED dangling from ceiling in Bali

https://www.rt.com/news/463468-weird-insect-winged-tentacles-indonesia/?fbclid=IwAR2DUNVtX7brzMEJm41EqKGiOJqSSHCKdA1hbjFSaObksW9_5ZxYM7GBOek

 

Moth? That's not a moth!

 

You know how, millions of years ago, some fish adapted and came on land as amphibians? Well, it's happened again....

 

That's not a moth, it's an octopus. The octopus has evolved and taken to the air. There's a media blackout as the elite don't want people to get scared and stop buying commodities. Corporate profits must be protected.

 

But it's happening. As we speak, octopuses are flying in through the Fenland mist above King's Lynn and flying in up the Thames, through the London smog (why do you think Sadiq expanded the low emissions zone?).

They're flying in and they're throttling people in their beds.

 

Sleep well.

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Nick

Nick

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7 hours ago, Wymeswold fox said:

An individual got asked to leave a hospital, after asking a staff member there if they could see a white doctor.

He had the nerve to make a complaint after his request was rejected..

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-48883475

Hope on his way home he didn’t need the expertise of a black paramedic or police officer.

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Buce

Buce

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7 hours ago, Wymeswold fox said:

An individual got asked to leave a hospital, after asking a staff member there if they could see a white doctor.

He had the nerve to make a complaint after his request was rejected..

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-48883475

 

20 minutes ago, Swan Lesta said:

Hope on his way home he didn’t need the expertise of a black paramedic or police officer.

 

Depressingly, this is more common than you might think, particularly with the elderly.

 

Mrs B works in elderly care and it isn't at all unusual for patients to demand to be treated by a 'proper' nurse or doctor, especially in the dementia unit. There is even one in whose care plan it is noted that she will make false complaints against non-white staff.

 

Somebody more controversial than me might mention that it's this demographic (white and elderly) who are electing our next PM and overwhelmingly voted for Brexit. Probably a good job it's not them posting.

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Izzy

Izzy

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35 minutes ago, Buce said:

 

Depressingly, this is more common than you might think, particularly with the elderly.

 

Mrs B works in elderly care and it isn't at all unusual for patients to demand to be treated by a 'proper' nurse or doctor, especially in the dementia unit. There is even one in whose care plan it is noted that she will make false complaints against non-white staff.

 

Somebody more controversial than me might mention that it's this demographic (white and elderly) who are electing our next PM and overwhelmingly voted for Brexit. Probably a good job it's not them posting.

 

Image result for looking around gif

 

 

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Strokes

Strokes

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2 hours ago, Buce said:

 

 

Depressingly, this is more common than you might think, particularly with the elderly.

 

Mrs B works in elderly care and it isn't at all unusual for patients to demand to be treated by a 'proper' nurse or doctor, especially in the dementia unit. There is even one in whose care plan it is noted that she will make false complaints against non-white staff.

 

Somebody more controversial than me might mention that it's this demographic (white and elderly) who are electing our next PM and overwhelmingly voted for Brexit. Probably a good job it's not them posting.

When my dad is seriously ill and his dementia gets aggravated, he can be racist. It’s totally out of character for how he normally is or was.

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Buce

Buce

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Just now, Strokes said:

When my dad is seriously ill and his dementia gets aggravated, he can be racist. It’s totally out of character for how he normally is or was.

 

Yeah, I can believe that.

 

In fact, though it's a purely subjective observation, my missus says a 'dementia persona' always seems to be opposite to the person's 'pre-dementia persona'.

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Countryfox

Countryfox

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3 minutes ago, Strokes said:

When my dad is seriously ill and his dementia gets aggravated, he can be racist. It’s totally out of character for how he normally is or was.

 

Somebody more controversial than me might ask how all these elderly dementia patients get to the polling stations ...  

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Buce

Buce

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12 minutes ago, Countryfox said:

 

Somebody more controversial than me might ask how all these elderly dementia patients get to the polling stations ...  

 

They don't - they have a postal vote and you can imagine how that is open to abuse.

 

I have made this point before - we prevent under 18s from voting on the grounds of lack of maturity but there is no check on elderly mental competence.

 

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Innovindil

Innovindil

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13 minutes ago, Buce said:

 

They don't - they have a postal vote and you can imagine how that is open to abuse.

 

I have made this point before - we prevent under 18s from voting on the grounds of lack of maturity but there is no check on elderly mental competence.

 

Because it's a slippery slope I'd imagine. Who gets to decide who is mentally competent and who isn't. Are you just targeting the old? Or are mentally handicapped people in general on the list? People that are depressed can do things they wouldn't ordinarily do, do they fall into the shouldn't be allowed to vote catagory aswell? Are people with learning disabilities qualified to vote? 

 

There's a million variables and none of them easy to wade through. The minimum age of 18 isn't perfect, we all know young people that are "beyond their years", but as a general rule of thumb, under 18's are usually less mature. 

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Alf Bentley

Alf Bentley

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23 hours ago, Strokes said:

When my dad is seriously ill and his dementia gets aggravated, he can be racist. It’s totally out of character for how he normally is or was.

 

There were odd instances of my Dad being like this due to the mild dementia that came as an add-on to his Parkinson's.

Seemed to happen at moments of peak frustration with his debilitated condition, like a powerless lashing-out at the person closest to hand.

 

As with your Dad, it was completely out of character. I'd honestly never heard him make a single racist comment before - including when he was quite old.

Thankfully, the black carers he made the comments to were patient and probably well-trained and used to it happening.

They calmly pointed out to him that it was unacceptable and he was most apologetic - including some time after the event.

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Buce

Buce

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"...too often there are parts of our country, parts of London and other cities as well, where English is not spoken by some people as their first language and that needs to be changed."

 

Bozo Johnson

 

“We spoke Ancient Greek at home... I genuinely don’t know what he’s on about.”

 

Rachel Johnson (Bozo's sister)

 

lol

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Alf Bentley

Alf Bentley

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49 minutes ago, Buce said:

 

The Green Bicycle Murder: Leicester's 100 year old unsolved murder mystery.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-48838818

 

A curious case. Sounds to me like he probably did it, but the combination of inconclusive evidence and a clever lawyer got him off....

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Countryfox

Countryfox

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Usual.     P1key has argument with someone in pub.  Fight starts.   P1key gets hit.  P1key gets on phone and rings P1key mafia ...   P1key mafia turn up laden with bats and other nasty weapons ...   all hell breaks loose.    People get injured.  

 

Chemical weapons ? ..   that’s a new one.

 

 

4E501796-019B-4C02-8CA7-C7E559B19AFA.jpeg

 

 

 

 

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leicsmac

leicsmac

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Posted (edited)
On 07/07/2019 at 16:47, leicsmac said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-48898231

 

UK ambassador not pulling his punches, then.

Further to this:

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-48903915

 

I wouldn't mind knowing what areas outside of economics the UK government does feel the current US administration is effective at. Also sounds like an orchestrated attempt to bring Darroch down that has backfired because right now the blame is being pointed at everyone but him.

Edited by leicsmac
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