Voter intelligence

[whotobeakiller]

High rates, cheap/free parking at out of town shopping centres...there are many different reasons that have little if anything to do with the EU

 

Those things you mention don't help at all but how are Businesses supposed to compete with Big online organisations whom are free of the EU admin burden and the lower rates of corporate tax if not any at all. The EU should have looked to balance the burden and exoenditure out properly and fairly. Less competetion would have meant less competition for lower consumer prices in the long term...The EU looked after the richest coorporate hierarchy hance why the gap between richest and poorest has grown massively

[JOHNNYAITCH]

Those things you mention don't help at all but how are Businesses supposed to compete with Big online organisations whom are free of the EU admin burden and the lower rates of corporate tax if not any at all.

 

The corp tax thing is nothing to do with the EU..that's a global issue that needs to be addressed.

 

 

The EU should have looked to balance the burden and exoenditure out properly and fairly. Less competetion would have meant less competition for lower consumer prices in the long term...The EU looked after the richest coorporate hierarchy hance why the gap between richest and poorest has grown massively

 

I don't hold the EU responsible..it's the UK govt that sets corp tax rates in the UK and as part of the global economy allows global organisations to organise their tax affairs to minimise the tax they pay or are liable for where rates are highest.

 

It should be a level playing field and it isn't ..but that's not down to the EU.

[whotobeakiller]

The fall in the pound after the Brexit vote is making it much harder for small business than the EU ever did.

 

There isn't many small busineses around anymore...have't you visited Tunstall, Stoke and Burslem lately??

[whotobeakiller]

The corp tax thing is nothing to do with the EU..that's a global issue that needs to be addressed.

 

 

 

 

I don't hold the EU responsible..it's the UK govt that sets corp tax rates in the UK and as part of the global economy allows global organisations to organise their tax affairs to minimise the tax they pay or are liable for where rates are highest.

 

It should be a level playing field and it isn't ..but that's not down to the EU.

 

So on that basis...the EU doesnt help anything at all...unaccountable and ultimately unelectabe so they don't have to take responsibility. You win my argument on those comments alone.

[SuperValiant1876]

There isn't many small busineses around anymore...have't you visited Tunstall, Stoke and Burslem lately??

 

There are plenty of small business enterprises around. About 5.4m of them to be precise.

 

The reason for less retail shop business is the prices that stuff can be bought for online without the overheads of renting a shop and employing staff but people are still making SME's work through online selling. Nothing to do with the EU at all, just moving times. Once rents and car parking catches up you will see plenty of shops. Have a walk down Hartshill high street there is plenty of small shop businesses doing ok. Your argument that there isn't any small businesses is flawed and only out by 5.4m.

[For Us All]

From the Guardian:-

 

Commenting on Tony Blair’s call for a cross-party movement to halt Brexit, Corbyn said the speech had been “unhelpful”. He added: “The referendum gave a result, gave a very clear decision on this, and we have to respect that decision, that’s why we didn’t block article 50. But we are going to be part of all this campaigning, all these negotiations about the kind of relationship we have in Europe in the future.”

 

He added: “The referendum happened, let’s respect the result. Democracy happened, respect the result.”

[mr.hobblesworth]

have you visited Tunstall, Stoke and Burslem lately??

 

Have you!?

[Paul6754]

I need to be fair to the EU (gulp). The state aid rules do help to ensure that governments don't prop up failing business and industries. For example, when Estonia put millions in to the national airline the state aid rules eventually got enforced, the airline was forced to repay the government funding and consequently had to close down. And that is fair for BA, Virgin etc. The same has / is happening re Polish shipyards etc. This was an issue in the Port Talbot steelworks, the solution had to be compliant with these rules. That is tough, no doubt, but committed to fairness. In this case I think where state aid rules run in to trouble is where the competition is very global (China) and then the state aid rules of the EU can harm the whole of the EU as well as the UK.

 

There may be State aide rules but do they work, are they always enforced and do some countries find a way around them. "The French government currently owns a 13.7 percent stake in Peugeot after it agreed to take part in a recapitalization investment plan to help the company in 2014", from the office of the French President. Must say I'm sceptical.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-peugeot-idUSKBN1532KN

[jjvale_03]

 

The BBC is a fine institution, a real national treasure and has a legal duty under the terms of its constitution to be unbiased, accurate and truthful in its reporting, which it almost always is and always has been.

 

If you believe this then I really feel for you.

[SourceOfTheTrent]

If you believe this then I really feel for you.

 

Obviously I do believe that to be the case.

 

Could I ask what your opinion of the BBC is? Also, which news organisations do you trust to be superior to the BBC, as in more truthful and less biased?

[Guest TommyMac]

So you can't answer then. Again, how does Blair wanting to fight on despite the referendum result and not leave Europe differ from Farage's stance when he thought that the leavers had lost?

 

I totally disagreed with Farage's stance so I guess I'm free to tell the war criminal to go **** himself?

[SourceOfTheTrent]

Although I was totally opposed to the war in Iraq and argued against it at the time to keep calling Tony Blair a war criminal is attempting to make him appear more guilty than others who, throughout history, have done similar things. On the basis of taking Britain to war surely Asquith has to be our worst war criminal, yet no one accuses him of it? What about Churchill with his disasters in Gallipoli and Salonika? In more recent history what about Thatcher, who almost engineered the Falklands Conflict by withdrawing naval defence whereas a few years earlier David Owen, as Foreign Secretary, had let it be known to Argentina's junta that the Royal Navy had submarines patrolling the area in order to head off any ideas they had about invading. Do many people call Thatcher a war criminal?

 

To me all war is criminal and Britain has a pretty poor track record of brutalising other nations so I don't see Tony Blair, in supporting our supposed strongest ally, as any better or worse than many of his predecessors.

 

BTW I'm not a particular fan of Blair, I see his years in power as a bit of a mixed bag.

[Warren]

Part and parcel of the way people voted leave ws the fact that the EU does make it hard for smaller business whilst giving every assitance to the likes of Amazon and Virgin. Why do you think most of the local high streets have empty shops and no sense of community??

 

Well, Liverpool doesn't have empty shops nor Birmingham. Liverpool is local to me. In the opposite direction down the Wirral I can go to Cheshire Oaks. Further than that Chester - where this is some issue with smaller shops closing. Birmingham is thriving - there a couple of weeks ago. The issue with Amazon is a genuine one in terms of not being taxed equitably. But just as supermarkets have closed most small shops, the overall trend which is rational for shopping this way can't be bucked.

 

Where I live, Greasby on the Wirral, can trace its history back to 7,000 BC when it was a meeting place for nomadic tribes. It is the oldest settlement in Merseyside and the eighth oldest in England. Still going strong for various reasons. The pub I drink in is circa 300 years old, and could have gone out of business a few years ago when a new landlord ran it the wrong way. But another new landlady is getting it right now. So things have to succeed and fail in capitalism over time, and in my opinion the EU / EC as currently structured is failing in many ways and falling behind the East and USA etc. My experience of the public sector is that change can be very slow unless really severe adversity is faced when the political will can be found to make the changes needed. The EC / EU may be there shortly. This is a telling year or two as it is for the UK as well.

 

I was pleased to see a better article about the Vauxhall situation today. Vauxhall is profitable, Opel isn't. Vauxhall about 30% more productive. So, with the skilled and quiet hands of May, things could turn out ok.

[JOHNNYAITCH]

So on that basis...the EU doesnt help anything at all...unaccountable and ultimately unelectabe so they don't have to take responsibility. You win my argument on those comments alone.

 

There is plenty that the EU is directly or indirectly responsible for..the example you gave is not one of them.

 

We are leaving and time will tell if that is good or bad for us and everyone else..I believe we will suffer but then we will never know what would have happened if we had stayed in for certain.

[jjvale_03]

Obviously I do believe that to be the case.

 

Could I ask what your opinion of the BBC is? Also, which news organisations do you trust to be superior to the BBC, as in more truthful and less biased?

 

i) Lower than a snake's belly.

 

ii) https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump