Government watch

Japan has been in that position for years now. I did read all about the problems they have but have forgotten

Thanks daphne. I feel we are far more comparable to Japan - we are certainly not comparable to Greece which, I see, the neoliberals are trying to use again to scare people.

I didn't know about the advice not to invest in the UK! Brexit worries I assume.

... and banks Jen! Now I think I had heard that but I must listen to more about Japan.

Japanese banks are leaving London as well. Going to Frankfurt, I think.

No links GG, but I do know that Japanese national debt is huge - something like 145% of GDP. Yet nobody talks about the country being bankrupt. Interest rates are extremely low. In some cases, they're negative. Neverthless, people still buy government bonds, because thy're considered so safe.

I also know that Japanese companies have been advised not invest in the UK. Pharmaceutical companies have been advised to relocate to another EU country once it's known where the European Medicines Agency will be.

Cameron can just keep his nose out, he has already done irreparable damage to this country's future with his daft referendum, he should hang his head in shame.

Another question hoping to fill a gap in my knowledge - does the UK have a population target. I don't mean an immigration target but an overall population one?

Many thanks if you can fill the blanks for me.

Does anyone know about the Japanese economy. I actually know very little but my perception is that is has grown little - a stage I believe many of the older cultures will reach - but that they do not have the problems of the extreme rich and extreme poor that we do.

Links, literature references or personal knowledge all welcome. I am feeling I should know this.

I see Cameron is making a last ditch attempt to prop up his reputation, by lambasting Tories who are calling for an end to austerity.

So the divisions are beginning to get very complicated.

So there is a sharp division between soft and hard Brexit Tories

Sharp division between Tory Leavers and remainers

Sharp division between austerity chasers and those who for reasons of their own want to loosen the purse strings

Sharp division between those chasing the leadership - the knives are out just as they were a year ago.

Only Cameron can say that "hard working people seeing their pay suppressed is good for them"

She has shown a huge lack of emotional intelligence. I would have thought that essential for a negotiator.

Theresa May (bloody difficult woman and proud of it) has proved herself to be an utterly useless negotiator.

Unsurprisingly as a result of May's one thousand million bung, the Sormont talks appear to be have failed.

So Government from Westminster. How does that work with a government in hock to one of the political parties?

I would be wrong for the LibDems to vote against something they believed in just to spite the government. I think they realise that any implication that they may be propping up the government in any way would finish them off completely.

The LIb Dems may vote with the Tories if it the Tories are proposing something which is essentially a LibDem policy, such as making better provision for dealing with mental health. Norman Lamb has strongly argued the case for this for many years.

This is not the same thing as voting with the Tories to keep them in office. It is more akin to the Tories supporting Stella Creasy's QS amendment to allow women from NI to have free abortions on the mainland. No-one has suggested they did that to help the Labour Party.

The LibDems will continue to oppose most Tory policies, as they did when they voted against invoking Article 50, unlike Corbyn who instructed his MPs to support the Tories, imposing an unnecessary three line whip which fortunately many ignored.

The LibDems will not enter any coalition or DUP-type deal with May's government.

What is it with them all?

Report in Guardian that Lib Dems willing to support Tories case by case - no formal agreement

There is a rumour that Labour will support the Tories in the Repeal Bill.

I need to understand that argument.

Another article in the Guardian and written by Steve Richards suggests that the along decades of privatisation and cuts to the state appear to be over as far as the Tory party is concerned.

Personally inwouldnt hold my breath.

Remember the problem there is with the funding of Islamic extremism in the U.K. from the Middle East and countries like Saudi Arabia?

May is sitting on a report and refusing to release the details of evidence of this funding.

Why oh why do we suck up to countries such as these??

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/03/cure-nhs-nurses-pay-rise-royal-college-nursing

What a good idea. Labour's wasn't it?

It does make you wonder what the Tory MPs stood for last month.

And doctors, and the forces.
I am sure they can find a little bit more for them if they really want to, though.

And on lifting the 1%. Apparently the nurses pay has already been agreed. I wonder if the nurses had a say in that!

We don't need to the government is doing it for us.

Kafka's Das Schloss was not finished when he died. He left a message to his friend, Max Brod, that everything he left behind had to be burnt unread and to the last page. Brod couldn't bring himself to do it, and he wrote the last chapter.
Who is going to write the last chapter here?

So they have rowed back on the fuel price cap. So only copying Labour up to a point here.

...and Kafka wanted his works to be burnt after he died, didn't he [probably to protect people from such dystopian worlds...]. I'm afraid this dystopian world is with us and we can't seem to get rid of it .

It is like living in some Kafkaesque nightmare at the moment. If I read a book with this plot of Brexit/Trump/U-turns/U-turns/toxic liars owning the printed press.....I would throw the book down as being unrealistic and far fetched.