Chancellor Kern: UK should pay 60 Bio. € (Br)exit-fee

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Alternatively, how about the UK does what they want and you get nothing?

     This seems more likely than the wishful thinking displayed by the liberal internationalists in this thread, given the success Theresa May has had in placing Britain in a position of strength. By issuing the threat of making her nation a tax haven, the EU bureaucrats are desperate to meet her demands. It's quite brilliant, really.

I'm sorry, but this is totally delusional.

For a start for the UK to become a serious tax haven they would have cut spending massively. Will this happen? Highly unlikely. Secondly, the EU can easily restrict access to the UK market for banks and individuals post-Brexit, that is in part what the debate about 'passporting' is about (and the EU already has its own tax havens like Liechtenstein, which the UK could never match). The UK is in an extremely weak position and there's no reason to think that the EU will roll over unless you are a deluded Brexiteer.

     I saw plenty of concerned European leftists, but European leftists taking something seriously is probably evidence enough that it's delusional nonsense.

What the hell are you talking about?

There is no chance of the UK becoming a serious tax haven - it would have to compete with Liechtenstein for example. It's too big.

In many ways it already is. It is really shoddy in terms of transparency, has a low corporate tax rate, has the whole non-dom farce and the City of London is basically the heart of the international tax avoidance network.

Of course though, like you said, it has way to many spending commitments (you know welfare, universities, schools, the NHS and all that yucky stuff) to match Liechtenstein's tax rates.

I mean, UK public spending is about 43% of GDP. If it wanted to even match Switzerland (which is still not anywhere close to Liechtenstein levels), where public spending is more like 34% of GDP, it would basically have to cut spending by the equivalent of the whole NHS. Imagine how that goes down.

Oh yeah, that's the other thing. Wanting to be a 'European Singapore'

The rate of Corporate Tax in the UK is the exact same as Singapore, and only slightly larger than Ireland's, who will continue to have single market access after Brexit

(And not that's even mentioning Singapore's land use policies and the fact that's a city state, completely incoherent goal for the UK to become).

[afleitch]

(And not that's even mentioning Singapore's land use policies and the fact that's a city state, completely incoherent goal for the UK to become).

Not if you don't think there's a UK outside of London. Which appears to have been economic policy for the past thirty years.

[Ban my account ffs!]

I say the government of the UK buys 60 billion euros worth of awful Mozartkugeln and then unceremoniously dumps them into the English channel while taking accolades for doing a great favor to the world.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Alternatively, how about the UK does what they want and you get nothing?

     This seems more likely than the wishful thinking displayed by the liberal internationalists in this thread, given the success Theresa May has had in placing Britain in a position of strength. By issuing the threat of making her nation a tax haven, the EU bureaucrats are desperate to meet her demands. It's quite brilliant, really.

I'm sorry, but this is totally delusional.

For a start for the UK to become a serious tax haven they would have cut spending massively. Will this happen? Highly unlikely. Secondly, the EU can easily restrict access to the UK market for banks and individuals post-Brexit, that is in part what the debate about 'passporting' is about (and the EU already has its own tax havens like Liechtenstein, which the UK could never match). The UK is in an extremely weak position and there's no reason to think that the EU will roll over unless you are a deluded Brexiteer.

     I saw plenty of concerned European leftists, but European leftists taking something seriously is probably evidence enough that it's delusional nonsense.

What the hell are you talking about?

There is no chance of the UK becoming a serious tax haven - it would have to compete with Liechtenstein for example. It's too big.

     I'm just saying that people who I would expect to know something about what was going on were taking it seriously. While I emphatically supported Brexit, I should figure it won't be that easy.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

PiT are you speaking in riddles or something?

[Tetro Kornbluth]

(And not that's even mentioning Singapore's land use policies and the fact that's a city state, completely incoherent goal for the UK to become).

Not if you don't think there's a UK outside of London. Which appears to have been economic policy for the past thirty years.

Of course, how silly of me, the UK ends at the end of the London Green Belt. At least that's how the Singapore-ists in the May government seem to imagine it.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Most of succesive British government made no secret they want to be in the EU not to build a more united Europe, but to have an influence in the table. Sorry, but to expect the EU "sure, everything stays the same, except your membership" is silly. It's been one-sided too long already.

[ApatheticAustrian]

to be totally clear:

there was NOTHING to win for the UK in financial terms and regarding representation. nothing at all.

[2952-0-0]

Part of me thinks May wants the negotiations to fail while publicly supporting them, and thus by autumn 2018 it becomes clear she needs to hold a referendum to ratify any potential deal that has occurred.

Then she holds a referendum in spring 2019 which asks "Should the UK ratify the draft agreement we reached with the EU?" and promises that a No vote will be deemed a mandate to return to the negotiating table for a better deal.

Then, since the draft agreement has satisfied precisely no one, both hard Leav-ers and Remain-ers campaign for a No vote, which wins decisively.

May then hemms and hawws for a while after the referendum, and then when she asks Brussels to reiterate "take it or leave it", she "decides" to "respect the will of the people" and un-invokes Article 50.

She then faces a revolt from the Brexiteers, and then survives it by daring them to do better. Then the rebels quietly resign.

[Torie]

There is some court that can issue a monetary judgement against the UK in litigation, if the parties don't agree on a number?  Is it crystal clear that is the case?

[Antonio the Sixth]

May then hemms and hawws for a while after the referendum, and then when she asks Brussels to reiterate "take it or leave it", she "decides" to "respect the will of the people" and un-invokes Article 50.

Except you can't do that. Once Article 50 is triggered you automatically get out within two years, no matter what.

[ApatheticAustrian]

May then hemms and hawws for a while after the referendum, and then when she asks Brussels to reiterate "take it or leave it", she "decides" to "respect the will of the people" and un-invokes Article 50.

Except you can't do that. Once Article 50 is triggered you automatically get out within two years, no matter what.

obviously, yeah but could be a big part of the after-brexit negotiations.