General Election 2024: General UK Politics Discussion here

[Tony]

3 minutes ago, Mister Gee said:

Oh dear, never mind.

Indeed. What's a billion quid of private inward investment to you? 

[Prettytom]

1 minute ago, Tony said:

Indeed. What's a billion quid of private inward investment to you? 

Depends who is delivering it and what the strings are.

 

DP World aren’t a fit company for us to do business with.  We shouldn’t just grovel to despotic companies just to get investment. There are plenty of better suitors out there.

 

Or, alternatively, DPW could clean up their act.

[Tony]

Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear. 

 

The art of politics is not having licence to gob off. It's being wise enough to know when to shut up. 

[Prettytom]

Can anyone point me towards a talented Irony Meter repair person?

[Mister Gee]

1 minute ago, Tony said:

Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear. 

 

The art of politics is not having licence to gob off. It's being wise enough to know when to shut up. 

You’d know a bit about that wouldn’t you Anthony! You disappeared for a few years when Johnson, Truss and Sunak were in charge and now you’ve crawled out of the woodwork giving it the big un.

[peak4]

Some of the art of politics is judging which companies are appropriate to hand over our country's infrastructure.
This one, DP World, seems to be setting its eyes on dominating ownership of many of the world's ports, as well as shipping warehousing etc. in a similar way that China, as a country, seeks to control much of the worlds mineral resources. [Wiki link]
I find it all a bit troubling that we, as a nation, are happy outsourcing so much of our main infrastructure to offshore corporations, energy, telecoms, water, ports, in this case etc.
Bear in mind they also specialise in freeports.

from previous Guardian link
"The Dubai firm owns the port of Southampton as well as London Gateway, and was involved in the creation of some of the first of Rishi Sunak’s controversial freeports."

Trade: freeports and free zones  Institute for Government 
Freeports are a special kind of port where normal tax and customs rules do not apply.

Do freeports risk increased smuggling and tax evasion?
In April 2019, the European Parliament called for freeports to be scrapped across the EU as a result of a report on tax evasion and money laundering.

The report argues that freeports provide operators “with a safe and widely disregarded storage space, where trade can be conducted untaxed and ownership can be concealed.”

The lack of scrutiny on imports means that high-value items like art, for example, can be bought and easily stored in freeports without the kind of checks and controls they would normally face.

Ministers let P&O owner back into bed months after sacking scandal   Open Democracy.
UK promised DP World ‘wouldn’t get away with’ firing 800 workers illegally. But months later, the love affair resumed

 

This blog entry is also worth a read, as are the comments following it.

https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2024/06/23/freeports-are-dangerous/

 

As is this TUC Briefing to government
https://www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/2020-07/DIT Freeports consultation TUC response final.pdf

The TUC is concerned that the government’s freeports proposals as they have been presented stand to undermine good jobs, workers’ rights and the delivery of quality public services in some parts of the country which may exacerbate, rather than address, regional inequalities.
The TUC regrets that trade unions and the workers they represent have not been engaged by government in its freeports plans to date and there are no trade union representatives on the government’s Freeports Advisory Panel. 

[Mister M]

1 hour ago, Tony said:

Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear. 

 

The art of politics is not having licence to gob off. It's being wise enough to know when to shut up. 

Hey that's a point, didn't you say a few weeks ago that 'super injunction' would be the word of next week?

Edited October 11 by Mister M

[High Chaparral]

14 hours ago, Prettytom said:

Well, maybe the fact that they are a disgusting bunch who show little regard for UK employment law. Preferring instead, to sail close to the modern slavery wind.

 

I couldn’t care less if they are thinking of investing billions, we should tell them that their money isn’t welcome. There are plenty of other, more ethical companies to do business with.

At least Sir Keir Starmer has more sense than the current Transport Secretary and publicly rubuked her. Too many Labour ministers don't understand business.

[Baron99]

12 minutes ago, High Chaparral said:

At least Sir Keir Starmer has more sense than the current Transport Secretary and publicly rubuked her. Too many Labour ministers don't understand business.

It's clear that Sheffield MP, Louise Haigh is out of her depth as Transport Minister.  I don't blame Starmer for publicly shaming her. 

 

That's her second blunder in the past couple of months.  The other was being told that staff at LNER were going to take part in ongoing industrial action.  Haigh's response was  (paraphrasing), "We must get the LNER workers & the owners of LNER, whoever THEY are, round the negotiating table." 

 

'THEY' the owners of LNER are actually the Dept. of Transport, the department actually run by Louise Haigh in her capacity as Minister. 

 

Haigh? She's clearly on her departmental brief isn't she?   

 

Much easier when you were in opposition just criticising, eh Ms Haigh! 

[Delbow]

19 minutes ago, High Chaparral said:

At least Sir Keir Starmer has more sense than the current Transport Secretary and publicly rubuked her. Too many Labour ministers don't understand business.

 

Listen to this 'patriot' - supporting the sacking of British workers to be replaced by foreign serfs.