UK applies to join the CPTPP (Aka the TPP).

Well.... I don't know.....look at China? Its taken the concepts of a number of political and economic theories and hybridized them into its current economic and political model.
It works for them!
Is nationalism (not the brown shirt foaming racasm version that the liberal tw@ts think of) an invalid concept? What is wrong with looking after ones own manor?
I'll have a think on that....

 

Yup. Reason number one for hanging around in the EU. They're now free to do all the things we didn't want now we've conveniently gotten out of their way and anyone who thinks the EU can't affect us now we aren't in it is playing with fewer marbles than Donny no brains.

 

There's nothing wrong with looking after your own manor. It should be priority number one for any government but no one is going to live a life of self sufficiency in the real world so making trade with your biggest trading partners more difficult is just cutting of your nose to spite your face.
The economy would collapse overnight if we suddenly stopped trading with China and we'd all starve if we stopped trading with Europe.
Mutually beneficial trade deals have to be the way forward. Just look at the damage Trump did to US agriculture with his moronic tariff wars.

 

Sure. I'm of the view that they saw the writing on the wall for western democracies and the basis upon which the state interacted with the people. The emerging economies at the time were going to subsume the ability of the west to manage their peoples expectations. What the phuck do I mean... there was going to be large scale redundancies in the traditional industries. Pink Floyd said it nicely
"If it wasn't for the nips
being so good at building ships
the yards would still be open on the Tyne"
What do you do with the unemployed? Pay them or leave them? If you pay them where do you get the money from? The basis of the welfare system was something that was going haunt this country; who pays for it? Globalism offered a way out at the expense of future asperations. The tax payers would not be able to afford the welfare system and the banking system at that time could not absord the potential government debt needed based on the expectation of falling tax revenues. So why not globalize debt through banking and financial risk management algorythms and instruments? Allow companies the latitude to expand through multi-national means in order to maximise potential taxation. it back fired. Companies in order to lower their costs utilised outsourcing and opened up overseas markets for cheaper manufacturing and raw materials and cheaper labour etc etc.. Coupled with that the use of the politically approved taxation systems that allowed them to avoided the heavier tax countries (Junker was good at that!) meant that those revenues that the politicians expected didn't materialise in the amounts they though they'd get.
There is no such thing a s free lunch

 

The EU is a political entity - its the Kantian expression of cosmoplitanism writ wrong - it is not a trade agreement!
The EU was a sort of "off the shelf Westphalia Agreement" type creation by America for a cheap buffer between themselves and Russian expansionism. It went wrong. Its morphed into an out of control political entity.
The EU is not a trade agreement

 

Not sure I can agree with you there. Sure, it's no longer merely a trade agreement but the customs union and single market are still at the heart of the EU. Free movement of goods, labour, money and services are non-negotiable.
I'm no more a fan of the creeping federalism and political union than you are but it's the dirty bathwater which keeps the baby of frictionless trade clean and healthy. You don't get to throw out the former and keep the latter. No free lunch indeed, you don't get to have your cake and eat it.
I like cake.

Ps, China, China ,China... just to keep our cockney overlord happy.

 

..........agreed...... China!

 

https://thediplomat.com/2021/01/china-wont-rush-to-join-cptpp-neither-should-the-us/

This, is a long A' video and who's got time for that...

But it's basically a bunch of Australians and New Zealanders singing UK's praises about the prospect of joining the CPTPP, so, it's not a bad watch I guess.