If we take the market value of quoted companies as a measure of success for economies to create and grow major businesses, the US dominates. The Ā top ten biggest in the all world index are all US. 7 of the top ten are digital technology giants, with Goggle appearing twice in the list with its two kinds of shares both in the top ten by their individual value. There is then a car company, a financial company and a healthcare company.
You have to go to number 14 to find a non US company. That Ā is Taiwan Semiconductor. The rest of the top fifteen are all US, adding an oil company, a bank, and two pharmaceutical companies to the top ten.
So we see the pattern. The EU with its 120 million more people and its self promoted single market has not just missed out on the great growth opportunities in on line shopping, data search, software supply, social media and semiconductor design and production. It has failed to get a large bank, pharmaceutical or energy company using older technology Ā into the top fifteen as well.
The EU which has taken the net zero revolution more seriously than pre Biden America has not produced an electric Ā car company that can keep up with Tesla. It has let China dominate in producing solar panels and wind energy. So what is wrong?
The EU has gone for the high tax high regulation model. Much of the tenor of EU regulation is hostile to innovation, seeking to lay down Ā in law how the main companies currently design and produce a good, limiting the ability to change or challenge the established products and players. There is less entrepreneurship. Major companies have a long gone entrepreneurial past and a bureaucratic Ā present management reacting more to government than to customers. These Ā businesses often seem out of touch with consumers and so vulnerable to better and more modern US and Chinese offerings. There must be reasons why JP Morgan is bigger than any EU commercial bank, why Tesla not a German company pioneered high priced electric cars and why the main pharmaceutical companies and new drugs are from the USA.
The UK too lacks a top fifteen company. Its long association with EU laws has not helped, and its current business taxes are too high.
August 29, 2023
It comes down to the objectives of governments and their knowing how to achieve them. TheTories do not have any clear objectives for the UK. Individual Tories might – do in fact, like Sir John – but as a party they don’t. They want to win the next general election more than anything. And that determines the policies they adopt. But beyond recognising the major concerns of the public and somehat cynical promises to address them these policies have little of substance in them. There is no philosophy of conservative government in the Party to give its polices substantial weight and effectiveness. The result is it is weak and ineffective in government.
The EU is very clear on its objectives and a thrusting capitalist society is not what it wants. It wants a fair society with all treated reasonably and nobody too far out of line including not too far ahead. Part of its means is suppression of national government and democracy. That and an enhanced disconnection from ordinary people is the legacy the EU has left the UK, spreading through the political class like a cancer. These values and aims are out of line with long standing British culture but too many in Whitehall and Westminster still yearn for the easy going discourse with like minded colleagues across the Channel rather than dealing with the mundane concerns of dull and boring constituents.
Until the Tory Party develops a conservative philosophy of government and applies it to clear objectives in the national interest – if it can work out what the nationall interests as distinct from its own in fact are – it will be neither fit to govern nor to present itself for election.
I cannot make it any clearer thatn that.
August 29, 2023
P G. +1
August 29, 2023
Having an anti business government doesn’t help.
Driving manufacturing and exploration overseas in pursuit of net zero is a killer.
The worst is yet to come.
August 29, 2023
This government had an opportunity today to back the people, to back business and block the ULEZ ā¦.it choose not too
August 29, 2023
Yes, Sunak would rather play politics.
August 29, 2023
PG +2
August 29, 2023
I donāt think the Tories want to win the next election. Nobody demanding to be PM wants the job – itās a bump on the road to the nirvana of being the ex-PM of Great Britain which is status, no work and more lucrative. They have dished their electoral chances almost deliberately.
August 29, 2023
No mention of China. They are taking business everywhere.
A ruthless and determined pursuit of national self interest. This does not fit in with the free market explanation of success.
The paleoconservatives in America recognise the merits of economic nationalism. Trump paid lip service to this with talk of bringing jobs back to the United States but not a great deal was actually achieved before he lost power.
August 29, 2023
Agreed. There is hostility to private enterprise and the profit motive in the UK, manifested in the misguided urge by many to nationalise businesses and industries. It is evident that both the EU and the UK political classes have made future benefit promises they cannot possibly meet. The absence of a thriving private sector coupled with the inescapable demands of an aging population will ensure their non delivery.
Recently I compared the profitability of a selection of AIM and FTSE companies with S&P 500 companies. The focus was on IT and manufacturing companies. AIM companies performed the worst, not surprising as many ware relatively early stage. The FTSE companies were better but unremarkable, but the paucity of choice for an investor was striking. By contrast the US companies earned very strong returns on equity. In most instances the returns earned were far superior to those earned in the UK with a few notable exceptions such as Boeing and GE. These returns will be reduced as higher interest rates bite and companies must refinance debt but at least US companies have the benefit of huge capital markets and a culture attuned to private enterprise and risk that simply does not exist in the UK.
August 29, 2023
I thought that Saudi Aramco would have been in the top 10/15?
Reply Still under government control, not a private sector company. Does have a minority quoted shareholding.
August 29, 2023
And here we go again! Like a dog with a bone, you simply won’t let your obsession with the EU drop. John, we have left. It’s over. You got your Brexit. You seem deeply unhappy about it
August 29, 2023
If we really had left, he probably wouldn’t. The problem is, thanks to the anti-democratic Establishment, we are only half out.
August 29, 2023
Donna
+1
August 29, 2023
Donna, well said! We need to kick the eu totally into touch.
First we MUST remove all internal borders including Northern Ireland.
If the eu want to protect its internal market, then it can build its border within the Republic.
Boycott all eu goods and produce.
August 29, 2023
We canāt – we have no energy and must buy from them.
August 29, 2023
Lemming, Sir John posted some facts about the slize of listed companies and postulated on why the largest are all American, not European. It sounds like you are pro-Remain – what is your explanation for the EU not being represented in the top 10?
August 29, 2023
Lemming
Unhappy indeed. We still follow EU regulations, they are still on the statute book. The Windsor betrayal put a border down the Irish Sea. We follow EU regulation closely in just about every field. BRINO.
August 29, 2023
@ Lemming – perhaps you have your own obsession with the E.U. for your criticism of Sir John wholly ignores his clear similar interest in the U.S.A. despite us leaving in 1783.
August 29, 2023
One of the big problems in the EU is that its single market is far from complete. The now 27 nations have allowed as yet too little integration in services, in the digital area and in finance (no real banking union as yet).
Start-ups have to move to a larger market like the US to really scale up. For a more integrated EU one needs 27 noses pointing in the same direction. That is a very slow process, usually only progressed by facing crises.
August 29, 2023
Oh …. the answer is “more EU.” There’s a surprise (not); it’s the constant argument of those who won’t accept that the sclerotic EU model is failing.
August 29, 2023
@Donna: why should I agree with you, when I can see that EU support among its citizens has been increasing.
August 29, 2023
P.S. Even in the UK, although that is now too late.
August 29, 2023
Deluded Peter. We still don’t want the EU. What’s to like with the bureaucracy of unelected dictators.
August 29, 2023
Maybe those not enamoured with the EU were afraid to say so for fear of having their bank accounts closed.
August 29, 2023
Yes all the polls before the Brexit vote showed we were dying to Remain. Gerrymandering opinion polls does not change opinions.
Stop cheating, manipulating, bribing, bullying, threatening. Thatās what we hate about the EU and is old and traditional Banderite politics.
August 29, 2023
‘Support increasing’ amongst small selections asked by poll companies, I wonder how many people here have been asked for their views this past three years; no one I know has been asked. The people I know are happy with the onshoring of some of our manufacturing, especially those living in the Midlands it is booming there, unemployment low in the East Midlands, they are happy with their higher pay.
They are unhappy with the frozen personal allowances, the clawing back of child benefits if one parent earns just over the higher rate tax, the extra taxes and the reduction on pa’s on dividends when they use their money on risky investments. Having to change supermarkets to get better deals and stop using their usual favourite brands because they happen to be on the ONS list and peak at review times.
They are unhappy with their mortgage rate going up from under 2% to over 5% even though that is still historically low; our house price rises got out of hand because those loans were there, and the younger generation thought those rates were forever.
We didn’t experience the travel problems blown up by our media going abroad. Our media is none-stop London-centric remoaners and if those people are the only ones you are listening to, you are kidding yourself. Sadly people in the North think re-electing Labour will give them much bigger pay, many more holiday, less work, a 4 day week, tax the rich not us that will cause our decline not leaving the EU.
August 29, 2023
@a-tracy
Media like the Daily Express? the Daily Mail? GB-News?
Good there is a boom in the Midlands. If I make it to my family in the Midlands this year I will see it with my own eyes.
August 29, 2023
I read The Guardian, my husband bought a subscription to The Telegraph at Christmas, we also read the FT. I sometimes catch the BBC and the Daily Express as it is free online as it is full of adverts but the constant Meghan and Harry is a switch off.
Iām confident they will confirm my impression and back up the information from my friends and family in the Midlands, it is very difficult to hire in the Midlands right now other than in some small pockets in the West Midlands. Cadburys reshored manufacturing as have several other companies š
August 29, 2023
Very true, Peter. Note how Mr Redwood claims the EU has chosen a high tax model. In truth the EU doesn’t tax at all, the States do, and in very different ways. So, as so often, it turns out that when the Brexiters explain why they dislike the EU, they never understood it in the first place
reply VAT is an EU imposed tax. EU has added various levies including emissions trading carbon tax.
August 29, 2023
Lemming, did you know the EU took a % of all VAT on all rest of the world imports into the UK? I believe recently they taxed us on imagined goods; they said some companies underdeclared from China without evidence of each company and products for our government to rebill. So the EU does tax!
August 29, 2023
I can assure you that no company ever based its decision on where to locate on the rates of VAT. What matters is most of all corporation tax and income tax, and the EU does not affect corporation tax and income tax in the slightest. That’s for States, not the EU. I know you Brexiters hate the EU, but it does still amaze me that your hatred is so divorced from understanding how it actually works
reply The UK lost court cases over corporation tax impositions
August 29, 2023
Lemming, youāre being a bit hysterical, I donāt hate the EU, I speak two European languages, have family there and am completely ambivalent about it.
I was responding to your false claim that the EU ādoesnāt tax at allā. I gave you an example of an EU tax. Here is just a fine: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/08/uk-faces-fine-eu-chinese-imports.
As you profess to know the EU well you surely also know the co-operation agreements that exist within the EU on taxation rates? I can send you some reading materials if you like.
August 31, 2023
Lemming – https://european-union.europa.eu/priorities-and-actions/actions-topic/taxation_en
“The EU does however, oversee national tax rules in some areas; particularly in relation to EU business and consumer policies, to ensure: the free flow of goods, services and capital around the EU (in the single market) businesses in one country don’t have an unfair advantage over competitors in another taxes don’t discriminate against consumers, workers or businesses from other EU countries.
Summaries of EU legislation on taxation
The single market allows goods and services to be traded freely across borders within the EU. To make this easier for businesses ā and avoid competitive distortions between them ā EU countries have agreed to align their rules for taxing goods and services. Certain areas benefit from specific agreements, such as value added tax (VAT) or taxes on energy products and electricity, tobacco and alcohol.”
August 29, 2023
Lemming, did you know the EU took a % of all VAT on all rest of the world imports into the UK? I believe recently they taxed us on imagined goods; they said some companies underdeclared from China without evidence of each company and products for our government to rebill. So the EU does tax!
August 29, 2023
@ Lemming – And here we go again! Like a dog with a bone, you simply wonāt let your obsession with the Brexit vote drop. Lemming, we have left. Itās over. Remain deeply unhappy if you wish but recognize you are blighting your own outlook by doing so.
August 29, 2023
For full integration you must dispense with 27 noses and have 1. Admit it Peter. I donāt care if thatās what people want, but stop pretending that all the sub-states will be maintained.
1 bank
1 debt
1 currency
1 citizenship
1 flag
1 government
No nation
No loyalty
You have achieved most of that already.
August 30, 2023
lots of countries are not part of the EURO, there is no citizenship, there is strong country loyalty and the debt is still national.
Lynn, you do write a lot of nonsense
Reply There are EU citizens, the EU is now borrowing in its own name where member states become collectively liable,there is an EU foreign and security policy and EU embassies. Why do supporters of the EU know so little about it or deny many of its features? Surely if you like the EU you are pleased there is a single currency, common policies on most things and a powerful EU lawmaking government?
August 29, 2023
PVL : āThat [greater EU integration] is a very slow process, usually only progressed by facing crises.ā
Yes, reduced democracy and greater authoritarianism is pursued by creating crises. Net Zero is a prime example. It is designed to produce an energy and hence poverty crisis in western countries. If anthropogenic CO2 were to be a problem for our climate, which it isnāt (just look at the Antarctic Vostok ice core data), then no sane person would select our energy to come from expensive, weather dependent, unreliable, intermittent, low energy density, high materials usage, short life span, wind and solar renewables supplied by China, a country described by our security services as āhostileā, rather than affordable, reliable, abundant and secure nuclear.
As I write (08:54 hrs) the 28 GW of installed wind power is providing just 3.4 GW of power (up from a minimum of less than 1 GW during the last 7 days)
August 29, 2023
I think you’ll find there’s almost 40gw of installed wind power.
August 29, 2023
I+W :
I have taken the 28 GW figure from Wikipedia – 14 GW onshore + 14 GW offshore.
Strangely the BEIS/DESNZ “UK Energy in Brief” 2023 (for 2022) does not tell us the installed wind or solar capacities, only the total amount of energy generated in a year (TWhrs), which is 80.2 TWhrs for wind giving an average capacity factor of 33%.
Solar is 13.4 TWhrs from 14 GW, giving a capacity factor of 11%
August 29, 2023
@Original Richard:
I don’t believe in these complot theories.
For me climate change, covid, migration, war in Ukraine are not invented crises.
August 29, 2023
PVL :
There is climate change, as there always has been and always will be, with or without anthropogenic input. However I do believe climate alarmism – that the oceans (Al Gore) and the planet (UN Sec Gen) is boiling – is initially a “complot” which was then latched onto by western energy grifters and others seeking power.
It is the BBC and climate activists who are the climate deniers as they deny there was any climate change until the introduction of man-made CO2 from the Industrial Revolution, despite the very clear evidence of the most recent ice age ending just 11,000 years ago with no anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Plus the almost regular warming and cooling of the planet as shown by the Antarctic Vostok ice core data for the last 450,000 years, all again with no anthropogenic input. The data also shows CO2 following temperature not vice versa.
With regard to Covid, migration and the war in Ukraine I am still undecided.
September 3, 2023
OR, oh yeah, if they are such deniers, I wonder why BBC2 and Open University have recently produced a series of programs called āThe Earthā that documents all the climate changes that the Earth has had since its formation, Snowball planet (800-700mya), the End of Permian extinction (280-270mya), etc.
August 29, 2023
@Peter Van Leeuwen
ie the USA is a single country …. the EU is not … and it is unlikely it ever will be ?
August 29, 2023
The Treaty of Rome says yes! Did you not know?
August 30, 2023
@Lynn Atkinson: “ever closer union between the peoples of Europe” (Treaty of Rome) is open to different interpretations and certainly doesn’t prescribe a single state.
August 29, 2023
@oldwulf: Indeed. I see it as unlikely that the EU will ever be a single country.
The EU27 may still achieve more/better integration for areas/challenges which trancend national borders (e.g. pandemics, climate, foreign threats) but will remain to consist of 27 seperate nations.
August 29, 2023
Lie! That how you trick the nations to surrender themselves. By the time they work out what has happened, and they they are not sovereign (eg Portugal apparently thought it could conclude a trade deal with the U.K. after Brexit šš¤£), itās too late.
Portugal no longer exists, because it does not even have a bank and currency, it never can – until the EU collapsesšš»
August 29, 2023
@Lynn Atkinson:
Portugal and the UK signed a deal on bilateral cooperation on 13-6-2022.
Your idea that Portugal wouldn’t understand how the SINGLE market works is pure nonsense.
August 30, 2023
Lynn,
I just wish you would not constantly advertise how little you know about Europe and the EU
August 29, 2023
Actually , the big problem is the eu.
It must be destroyed!
August 30, 2023
MFD,
It would be useful to understand the reasons for this rather primitive proclamation
September 3, 2023
āDelenda unio europaea estā MFD the Elder
August 29, 2023
David Copperfield. Dickens
āBritannia, that unfortunate female, is always before me, like a trussed fowl skewered through and through with office-pens, and bound hand and foot with red tape.ā
Colonists took the red tape with them to the US and the revolution-causing Stamp Act was bound in it, if that makes any difference to anything.
People talk of the āentrepreneurial spiritā which is meant to be prevalent in the US and lacking in the EU/Europe too. In the US people are far more willing to become entrepreneurs than in Europe. Apparently the EU often puzzles over this.
I have read a good conspiracy theory, however unlikely sounding. It goes like thisā¦The genius in a garage US myth is just that. Many a genius has allegedly been set up and supported beyond Europeās wildest dreams by the US govt.
August 29, 2023
No entrepreneur is āset up and supportedā by any government. That is the whole point.
August 29, 2023
I agree, Lynn, we didn’t get 1p worth of help.
When we did try to get a repayable grant to help buy a new warehouse and increase the size of our operation and workforce, the hoops weren’t just too high they were on fire.
Young people since 1998 have been deterred from working in small businesses. It has continued under this government, the people they send to SMEs are few and low calibre.
August 29, 2023
Tax is too high, thatās why you wanted a grant. You donāt get āgrantsā in a capitalist country, you keep the majority of your own money.
August 29, 2023
We were working in a very socialist council area, it was from the Council a business development area grant, we wanted to fix up an old unit rather than continue renting a unit, but you had to prove in your application you could survive without the money which was a bit daft because we wouldnāt have applied for a repayable grant if weād have been able to get a bank loan. It wouldnāt have been a gift as it was repayable with interest but they were supposed to be attracting developing growing businesses and helping them to grow in their area to improve the local area, but they really werenāt interested in SMEās.
August 29, 2023
Did you see today āGermany has approved ā¬32bn (Ā£25bn) in corporate tax breaks across four years to boost its stagnant economy. The tax cuts aimed at small and medium-sized businesses were passed by Germanyās ruling coalition government on Tuesday. Chancellor Olaf Scholz said: āIt is of great importance that in this situation we start an offensive by this government to boost growth in this country.ā
A tax cut for SME is seen as a boost to growth!!!!
August 29, 2023
a-tracy
I was talking about the US.
In the U.K. the govt. doesnāt only not help ā¦it actively destroys businesses.
As we all know.
August 29, 2023
Not even in a conspiracy theory?
Are you certain?
Are you really sure that entrepreneurial genius actually exists?
August 29, 2023
Who do you thinks sets up companies? The PM?
August 29, 2023
Sadly you havenāt read my post and have no idea what I am saying.
The US doesnāt have a PM does it?
It is a conspiracy theoryā¦.a conspiracy theory. ( About the USā¦America)
That certain āgarage geniusesā were chosen as young men ( of no particular talent) but very good lineage, to set up Silicon Valley type enterprises with much govt. help ( yes ok taxpayer).
Not true but quite interesting.
It contrasts very well with the beginning of my postā¦the Dickens quote.
But donāt worry about it.
I wonāt be standing in the next election. Phew!
August 29, 2023
Perhaps if the Not-a-Conservative-Government stopped kow-towing to the WEF and the EU, we might stand a chance of producing innovative companies that would, in time, grow to become world-leading.
Sadly, there’s not a chance of that happening under any of the branches of the Westminster Uni-Party. We’re no longer in the EU, but we remain shackled to it, with NI held hostage to ensure “we behave.” And Starmer has already made it blindingly clear that he is just another WEF Puppet, just like Sunak and Hunt.
Starmer will be pushing the Green Lunacy and continuing the policy of trying to force expensive, inefficient, impractical and unwanted “alternatives” to the products we already use and which most want to keep: gas or oil-fired boilers and petrol/diesel cars.
August 29, 2023
@Donna
Your comments about the “Green Lunacy” are reactionary, incorrect and show no concern for the obvious damage to the planet that is being caused by burning fossil fuels. Renewable electricity last winter displaced more than a third of the UKās entire annual gas demand for power generation, the equivalent of 95TWh of gas ā equal to 110 tankers of LNG, saving us Ā£billions in import costs. In 2022, UK renewables provided 38 per cent of the countryās electricity generation, nearly as much as gas (at 40 per cent) and we became a NET ELECTRICITY EXPORTER for the first time since 2010. Over 1.5 million people are now working in the UK green economy
Incidentally, I voted for Brexit in the referendum, mainly because I was swayed by the sovereignty issue. I did not vote for the extreme “hard Brexit” demanded by Nigel Farage, Richard Tice and their Reform Party, which has seriously damaged foreign inward investment and caused the loss of much of our exports to the EU.
August 29, 2023
You canāt qualify Sovereignty, Brexit or pregnancy.
I read an article in Biznews today from AFRICA on the hopelessness of solar power and the necessity to maintain their nuclear power plants (which the French built and apparently canāt maintain).
August 29, 2023
SG, what were the costs of creating that renewable electricity compared to importing it?
August 29, 2023
@A-Tracy
The last UK government auction secured a record 11 gigawatts (GW) of new renewable energy capacity that will generate electricity nine times more cheaply than August 2022 gas prices.
The projects are all due to start operating within the next few years up to 2026/27 and have agreed to generate electricity for an average price of Ā£48 per megawatt hour (MWh) in todayās money. This is nine times cheaper than the Ā£446/MWh current cost of running gas-fired power stations.
Most of the new capacity ā some 7GW ā will be offshore wind. Notably, for the first time, these projects will come in cheaper than onshore wind or solar.
The projects would save consumers an estimated Ā£1.5bn per year by the late 2020s and cut annual average bills by ~Ā£58, with all of them effectively subsidy-free.
August 29, 2023
SG : āIn 2022, UK renewables provided 38 per cent of the countryās electricity generation, nearly as much as gas (at 40 per cent) and we became a NET ELECTRICITY EXPORTER for the first time since 2010.ā
Wind and solar provided 29% of our electrical power with āother renewablesā (burning rubbish and wood pellets, 11%). So wind and solar provided around 6% of our total energy needs after many years of expensive subsidies.
We did export more electricity but generally this was at negative prices to avoid the larger constraint payments.
It is insanity to select a renewable energy system which is expensive, weather dependent, unreliable and insecure requiring a parallel backup system of fossil fuels because there exists no economic non-fossil fuel backup. Expensive and intermittent power will bring poverty to the UK.
If anthropogenic CO2 was an issue then nuclear would have been selected instead of wind and solar.
āGreen lunacyā is an apt description. The Antarctic Vostok ice core data over the last 400,000 years shows that whilst both temperature and CO2 levels are at their historically very low levels, the planet has been regularly warming and cooling with no anthropological input and furthermore CO2 follows temperature and not vice versa.
August 29, 2023
Original Richard
I do wish that you would stop writing such common-sense posts as you may well be hurting other people’s feelings which in this day and age is not allowed. You naughty, naughty man you.
Brilliant stuff keep it coming
August 29, 2023
+ 1
August 29, 2023
The ice core data also show the repeated ice ages that correspond to the Milanovic cycles of the tilt of the Earth and shape of of our orbit around our Sun. All those scientists in Worstminster know this of course.
September 6, 2023
āClimate myths: Ice cores show CO2 increases lag behind temperature rises disproving the link to global warmingā, 16/05/2007, new scientist.com
Only the present group of denialists (or people who do not care leaving their ācomfort blanketā for a while and reading a bit more widely than their preferred websites) think that nothing is happening right now, or that it is linked to the same processus than those during the freezing and melting of the different ice ages and/or cooler periods.
There is indeed much place for discussion, whether going for mitigation, adaptation, geo-engineering or whatever.
Only the really limited people still go with your type of āargumentsā that everything is hunky dory.
August 29, 2023
@Sakara Gold
I wasn’t aware that anyone had voted for “Brexit” in the referendum.
“Brexit” was not on the ballot paper.
August 29, 2023
Brexit was a stupid word used by the screwballs who support the eu!
August 29, 2023
@Sakara Gold
From what I have read (principally outside the MSM) the net zero/green lunacy science is not settled. At the moment, I am not sure that “reactionary” comments about “green lunacy” are necessarily a bad thing.
August 29, 2023
You say you did not vote for a hard Brexit which has caused… we have not had a real Brexit let alone a hard one. We would have been far better off with a real Brexit go for growth Brexit.
A bit more CO2 plant food is net benefit to the world anyway.
August 29, 2023
By Market Cap
Apple, 2.95 trillion
Microsoft, 2.52 trillion
Saudi Aramco, 2.09 trillion
Alphabet, $1.59 trillion
Amazon, $1.33 trillion
NVIDIA, $1.06 trillion
Tesla, $813.2 billion
Meta Platforms, $739.9 billion
Berkshire Hathaway, $736.8 billion
TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor), $528.5 billion
Well they all look rather or very over valued to me. Especially Tesla – once people work out that CO2 is not really a problem but an asset and that EVs are more expensive, far less convenient and create more CO2 not less anyway. Taiwan Semiconductors has rather a large shadow hanging over it.
August 29, 2023
Tesla stock price has always been an investment conundrum to me but may be due to American peoples attitude to risk and the markets. Same as why their stock markets always outperform the rest of the world. Why?
August 29, 2023
Timaction, I think Tesla just attracts retail investors who like him and believe in him and arenāt swayed by big advisors, just the same as apple attracted retail investors who believed in Steve Jobs. People just like futuristic people with drive, focus and ambition.
What UK business person in the last ten years can you say impresses you?
August 29, 2023
Sensible physicists (the honest and independent ones) know it is at best a gross exageration & simplification at worse a complete and utter con trick and ruse for more taxes and control). Also clearly an economic disaster.
Khan a good example that ULEZ is clearly fully supported by Sunak.
August 29, 2023
If nothing else, read Dr. Judith Curry’s recent testimony to the US Senate. She’s a solid, experienced climate scientist who resigned an academic post (in her mid 60s) to ‘be more independent’ on the subject. She now mostly advises insurance companies, who need to know the probabilities of future events to set their prices correctly.
There are a few more like her. How tragic that in academia you now can’t think and speak independently. In the past, this was the very point of universities.
I know a UK professor in this position (late 60s). A younger colleague called him a ‘climate change denier’ for pointing out some almost inescapable home truths about the timescale and extent of ‘net zero’.
August 30, 2023
budget.senate.gov 22/03/2023 āRisky business: How climate change is changing insurance marketsā, J.A.Curry.
August 29, 2023
ā ā¦ the obvious damage to the planet that is being caused by burning fossil fuels.ā
That ādamageā of which you speak is very far from āobviousā. Indeed, much of it is imaginary, a result of very inaccurate modelling.
As for the 1.5 million – inefficient processes always employ more workers. If you wanted to dig holes and then fill them in again, you could, in theory, employ the whole country. You would not, however, be producing anything useful.
August 29, 2023
+1 we pay them without requiring them to dig a hole.
August 29, 2023
We don’t need to import LPG. We could use our own gas reserves and frack …. if the idiots in the Establishment weren’t so Eco-obsessed.
As is repeatedly pointed out to you, so-called renewable energy requires massive subsidies AND backup from reliable sources, so it costs us twice.
And there is nothing environmentally-positive about windmills which slaughter thousands of birds and bats, including raptors and rare sea birds, and are now also implicated in the destruction of whales.
There is no evidence, other than in computer models, that there is a “climate crisis” caused by CO2 ….. let alone our 1% of global production.
August 29, 2023
āWhen people shout and scream that you canāt feed the world on sustainable approaches to farming, itās absolute nonsense, an organic approach can increase yields enormously.ā
Good old King Charles going on about food waste in the Telegraph today.
But we do not really āscream and shoutā King Charles we just state it as it is so patently true for anyone who knows about farming! Stick to your quack medicine, talking to plants, your Aston Martin (run perhaps on āorganicā waste cheese and wineā, your private jets and your hypocritical net zero lunacy andCorrect selling honours perhaps – this rather than adding yet another bonkers religion to them perhaps your majesty? Just a polite suggestion.
August 29, 2023
Exactly. That’s why windmill technology dropped out hundreds of years ago. Fracking our own gas of course makes sense. Why do our Eco warriors in Westminster think it makes sense to import this stuff from around the world but not produce our own? Or import wood chips from America for Drax? Madness with bells on. Why aren’t our our eco clowns outside the Chinese/Indian Embassies?
August 29, 2023
Dear me Saki, you swallowed the bait hook line and sinker! Sad!
August 30, 2023
I’m fascinated by ‘renewable electricity’ and would like an explanation compared to ordinary ‘electricity’.
It implies once used it can be sort of renewed like restoring a fine watch.
How is that done, is it cheaper, less harmful than just producing electricity as before?
September 3, 2023
You are just being humorous, arenāt you?
August 29, 2023
Ever since Thatcher sold off the state infrastructure industries and used the proceeds for government general expenditure, rather than investing them for the future, British companies have been bought out by foreign money.
Particuarly if they are tech firms, like Cambridge based Arm, Abcam or Cobham. Or Cadbury, Morrisons, RSA, G4S, Vectura, John Laing, Meggitt, Ultra Electronics, Sky. Or huge swathes of London commercial and residential property
In the first half of 2021, private equity investment jumped to the highest level since 2017 according to KPMG, which tracked 785 private equity deals in the UK with a combined value of almost Ā£74bn.
The government allows/encourages foreign money to buy up successfull British firms – especially those which export – because we have few other sources of foreign currency. It is enabled because the weak value of sterling against foreign currencies, which is in turn caused by the twin deficits.
August 29, 2023
@ Sakara Gold – so foreigners’ interest in buying British businesses arose only because the Thatcher government applied the proceeds of denationalizations not to a special fund but to the Exchequer’s revenue account?
August 29, 2023
Formula 57
Yes in comparison with Norways national social fund derived from North Sea oil and gas. Plus the funds derived from council house sales that were embargoed from building social housing. Two opportunities missed by Margaret Thatchers government who preferred it to go into a black hole called the Treasury to be sqandered over generations.
August 29, 2023
Only foreign money can buy up successful British firms, because UK money has all been taxed away.
August 29, 2023
Some truth in this. Not only that, but the sellers often move overseas before they sell the shares for 5 years plus so as to save on CGT and to keep more of the proceeds they invest aways from this “piss down the drain” government.
August 29, 2023
…………..all been taxed away to pay for welfare in all its forms/foreign aid and refugees they won’t stop or deport back to France.
August 29, 2023
It is also enabled by the government policy to import everything. The money endlessly flowing out of the country to pay foreign firms for imported goods (and services) has to be balanced by selling assets – companies and property.
Itās interesting how nearly everything wrong with this country – that Mr. Redwood points out, day after day – is caused by successive governments- most of which are Tory governments.
August 29, 2023
It is good news, though, that Cadbury in 2017 brought back to Britain a Ā£75m investment, four new lines built, the production of all Cadbury Dairy Milk products now originally made in the UK, the temporary production elsewhere was moved back to Bournville it should NEVER have been moved out.
They aren’t the only companies reshoring since Brexit.
August 29, 2023
@Sakara Gold
I think you are probably right in that the UK will have to rely on inward foreign investment until such time that we have an economically competent Government. Hopefully, the next Government will be more economically competent than the current one.
However, there are currently some positives:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/billions-in-foreign-investment-sees-thousands-of-new-jobs-across-the-uk
August 29, 2023
Hopefully, the next Government will be more economically competent than the current one.
When not a high bar but unlikely as it will almost certainly be an even more Socialist government led by Labour.
August 30, 2023
Much of that STATE INFRASTRUCTURE was originally in private hands until the Socialist government of Clement Attlee nationalized it.
August 29, 2023
Unfortunately neither political party have either the talent or the motive to move forward
August 29, 2023
Barrie Emmett
They had some talent but it was banished to the back benches so as not to cause them further problems in implementing their madcap schemes.
August 29, 2023
The Tory’s won’t allow a…… conservative……….. anywhere near the reins of power. Ask Sir John, Sir Bill, Sir Jacob, Liz Truss etc.
August 29, 2023
There is a rumour that US companies pretend to embrace a greencr*p agenda while secretly lobbying against all things green.
August 29, 2023
I suppose that once a country has done way with coal and steel and plastic it canāt really manufacture much at all.
Whatever happened to the UKās plans re becoming a financial hub rather than an āold hatā manufacturing country?
Whereās that new Hong Kong? Or even the detestable HS2?
The best laid plans etc
August 29, 2023
There is, quote ‘a tidal wave of reshoring’, returning production and manufacturing back into the UK google it.
August 29, 2023
Given that as of January 2023 about twice as many (medium and small) companies as before were looking at nearshoring their supply chain, and that this survey was a global survey, isnāt it a bit rich to talk of a tidal wave for UK companies?
As the French would say Ā“Do not mistake bladders for lanternsā.
impact.economist.com āTrade in transition 2023ā, 58 pp.
August 29, 2023
+++
August 29, 2023
Well there is a tidal wave of import-replacement industries setting up in the Russian Federation.
August 29, 2023
It was a quote from CIPS i thought Iād put that. I like to talk up our country Hef rather than down talk it all the time and only look for negatives.
August 29, 2023
Ah, banks! I’m in the process of being de-banked by Intelligent Finance, which is part of Lloyds. (Not just me, for having watched GBN and voted the wrong way in 2016; the bank is shutting down.) But I get the impression that Lloyds is shedding customers to comply with an EU Commission order going back to 2014 – one that benefited EU banks. If that’s the case, why?
August 29, 2023
The west is about to lose a lot of banks. Those that remain need to kow-tow to their customers, especially the ones with golden eggs to deposit, even if they are bantam sized.
August 29, 2023
Sir John,
Another generalisation which as usual is unsubstantiated. The American economy is more successful in terms of growth but entrepreneurship is thriving in countries such as Sweden and Denmark with Denmark owning the most valuable company in Europe together with LVMH, NovoNordisk and Sweden having more multinational companies than most other European countries compared to its size and population.
But it is of course easier to criticise all 27 countries and the Eu, when Brexit has not worked as you promised.
August 29, 2023
How can you dispute numbers that are accepted worldwide.
You reveal the confused and delusional thinking that is sinking EUROPE.
Facts, empirical argument and reality must be faced.
Why did Musk, an Anglo Saxon, go to the USA instead of Europe with its larger population? Why do we stand and watch starlink cross our skies in wonder like the Africans do – no understanding of how itās done and no hope of equalling the achievement?
Because of your bigoted attitude shared by the āleadersā of Europe. – there I have left the EU out of it and included the U.K., so drop that little red herring do, and answer the question.
August 30, 2023
Lynn
Nobody is running away from the facts I am simply making it clear that entrepreneurship is thriving in some countries and you cannot cut the EU over the way done by John
August 29, 2023
@ bill brown – you dont find any substantiation in the words “The top ten biggest in the all world index are all US. …You have to go to number 14 to find a non US company. That is Taiwan Semiconductor” then?
We can acknowledge Airbus as an E.U. success but alas it is the exception that proves the rule rather than the desirable opposite.
August 29, 2023
My reaction to todayās post is āso what?ā Anyone would thing giant corporate businesses – like any of the firms mentioned – are intrinsically a good thing. Some things lend themselves to monopolies. Search engine, social media and such like donāt really work if there are hundreds of suppliers. Other areas of business lend themselves to a dominant position by virtue of the economies of scale.
Two things, Mr. Redwood.
1) You allow any innovative, successful, fast growing UK business tonne sold to foreign buyers
2) You allow the giant US corporates to remit their profits to Luxembourg or another low tax country
You canāt facilitate success for US companies and then complain when they are more successful.
August 29, 2023
British entrepreneurship would be aided if the government actually encouraged it. Fact is anyone setting up a company in this country is classified in the “no good deed shall go unpunished” category.
You have to be legally trained in order to employ anyone in this country, and even then your actions can be called into question in a spurious tribunal claim.
August 29, 2023
Sir John you cannot put all the blame for the lack of UK technolgical development over the decades since the 1960’s down to the EU.
We invent things but can’t produce them on a large scale. This does need investment of capital from private source or tax payer. The Government controls the tax payer money. But there is also a general public lack of interest in producing technolgy which does not help.
It should be remembered that the world’s first working computer was made by the GPO a Nationalised industry. So why are there not computers with GPO on them to compete with Apple, Dell, IBM ? An interesting thoughtš
August 29, 2023
Most of the companies you refer to provide services, and there is no single market in the EU for this.
The EU also tends to set minimum standards, from which member states often put more regulation on top. An example is the way the UK government used to gold-plate EU regulations. A more recent example is the ban on ChatTDP in Italy. There are also separate cultural and taxation issues you need to deal with in each country.
The reality for a start-up in Europe is that you have to deal with each country individually, stalling rapid growth compared to the United States.
August 29, 2023
Maybe one day we will see from Sir John a list of once British companies which were willingly sold to foreign buyers, perhaps later broken up, or manufacture now elsewhere, and a list of companies fully currently British owned either old or new. Do any make unique fully patent protected products?
And how many of the sales or other losses of ownership were supported or not prevented when they could have been by the Conservative (The Destroyer of England ) party.
Somehow the day will not come.
Reply In a free society owners of businesses can sell them to foreigners if they wish, just as we can buy foreign companies in their markets.
August 29, 2023
So your unrestricted ideology over-rides any issue which could include national or vital home company interest; this clearly cannot not exist in your view and is not worth having. Has it done us an over-riding good and benefit, ending up having the majority of our country foreign owned?
Since the country, is in effect bankrupt, and we have very few home owned companies how many overseas businesses have been recently purchased which have then become profitable assets – obviously available for immediate resale in your view.
The idea of a national sovereign fund was totally rejected when it could have been set up with savings from leaving the EU subscriptions. Government decided to fritter it away and no-one could now say how we have benefitted.
How have we clearly benefitted from such a clear sale to anyone of anything? Profiteers in business can sell purely for greed whatever the asset. If there were restrictions they would probably work harder to keep the business going. No wonder everything is short-term here and we gain nothing
August 29, 2023
Reply to reply: We donāt have a free society – if you run a business you have a mass of rules, regulations and taxes to comply with. And that lack of āfreedomā is why foreign companies buy UK businesses – or expand into the UK – and remit their profits elsewhere.
How many UK people buy foreign businesses and remit the profits here to be taxed? Answer? None?
August 29, 2023
reply to reply..Sir John I’m near 80 than 70, and I have to say each decade from the 1960s to now seems to have been marked by restrictions on what we term ‘freedom’.
One of the most irritating is the almost compulsory ownership of a smart mobile phone. It started out as a business tool – the ‘brick’. Now I can’t attend a tennis match at Wimbledon without one. I’m expected to provide payment by a plastic card or mobile, cash being frowned on. Family can keep in contact, even by video which is lovely, but the downside is that it opened up spam calls, unwanted approaches and an expectation that you respond directly to a call or message. So things that started out as beneficial attract some strange restrictions.
August 29, 2023
I would guess if there is any top ten UK list, it wont include UK companies they will all be foreign. Some might rationalise that is OK, but they are paying taxes elsewhere and contributing fully to overseas economies. Using UK earnings to fund infrastructure in foreign domains.
This Conservative Government correlates a few UK jobs created by foreign companies as full blown contribution to the UKās economy, which is why we have a 70 year high on tax – someone has to pay, when so many get a free pass. Earning in the UK to fund infrastructure elsewhere is simply the removal of wealth, leaving UK domiciled people and businesses to subsidies this type of forced decline. We even give(give) foreign companies UK taxpayer money, for no other reason than for-the-hell-of-it. Elsewhere in the World those in receipt of their taxpayer money have to be part of the community putting in as well as taking out. This Conservative Government has forced the closure of UK industry, has forced the loss of UK jobs ā they call it a NetZero law, a law that only created. We must be kind and good to the planet, if your say anything that appear at odds with this religion you will be cancelled. In the meantime every such project this Conservative Government has engaged in has forced up World Pollution exponentially ā through its import only policy from the Worlds most polluting regimes. This Conservative Government are simply hypocrites
This Conservative Government couldnāt be more anti-UK.
August 29, 2023
A bit like seed corn, it thrives and produces in fertile soil. The UK which you hardly mention is not fertile soil. In fact it has not been fertilized with cheap energy, easier regulation, and low rates of taxation for a very long time. That is the story of big business in the UK from which there is a trickle down effect that should benefit the whole population. The balance and benefit is open to criticism in the USA, but in time they are well positioned to do something about it, should they so choose.
We and the EU are far too socialist and controlling. We stiffle the creation of wealth, tax far too heavily, and in the case of the UK are far too incompetent to put all that tax take to good use, witness Norway and Sweden. Even were we to have the top ten businesses in the World incorporated here in the UK, we through the unbelievable incompetence of political government and the sclerotic civil service would predate on them and squander the benefit. There is little of benefit to its population that these two arms of governance manage to achieve that you could describe as profitable or even helpful to the people. I make exception for our armed services who deliver beyond expectation despite government.
Though you are critical of the EUs creation of enterprise through inbeded socialism and I agree with you, but they are infinitely better than the UK at managing the result. By comparison of health care, infrastructure, and quality of life they are streets ahead of the UK. It is demonstratively obvious when you get the bill after a good lunch.
I think the Brits deserve what they create and get in the UK. The splendidly exotic dancers at the Notting Hill Carnival followed by ths stabbings and streets full of detritus effected by a mass of feral spectators. A million miles away from the equally exotic Moros and Christian parades in southern Spain, where nobody got stabbed and the streets were clean afterwards.
August 29, 2023
Isn’t it also the case that so many of our top companies have been poached by foreigners?
While we made it easy for our prime businesses to be taken over by anyone with money, European countries in particular made it all but impossible for UK interests to buy up EU companies.
Yet one more way that being in the EU provided a reason for us to sacrifice ourselves in some way, for the good of the majority. We were always too eager to ‘play the game’, while others found ways around the rules.
We still have that strange defeatist mentality, that we have to let the ‘other guy’ not be defeated, or that we should not prosper from someone’s defeat.
The way forward is more investment for small companies, allow them to grow, then make sure they are not tied down with rules that stop them taking in other businesses. Fundamentally, we have to stop being the fall guy and ignore the rules that work against us, just as everyone else does!
August 29, 2023
Interesting. But what of SMEs? In the EU the rules are slanted towards big companies, and in the UK we are stifling them too. They could contribute far more to our economy and society.
August 29, 2023
A good article, Sir John, but the answer is in the Government’s control. Both Labour, Coalition & Conservative Governments have overtaxed business in the UK, as now with 25% corporation tax, and overtaxed private citizens, as now with the tax allowances frozen until 2028.
Combine that with their willingness to sell growing UK companies to foreign buyers, and it is no surprise the UK has not got a company in the top 15 worldwide.
For years, the greedy Government of all colours has taken too big a share of the national income, but no PM or Chancellor of the last 30 years seems to have seen that. The UK succeeds, in its modest way, in spite of the government, not because of it!
August 29, 2023
The aspirations of the EU fall below its achievements . I have said many times that the different characteristics that exist amongst all of its members prevent the sort of co-ordination that the EU aims
at . History is a difficult thing to live down and is the root cause of the EU’s failure . We would all prefer to live in an ideal world but reality rules . The UK has enough problems of its own and staying out of the EU is a wise move .
August 29, 2023
May’s legacy is the time bomb disaster of net zero and the pathetic dithering Brexit attempt leading to the Boris botched disaster plus lots of mad woke drivel. But she did give us opt out organ donation I suppose.
August 29, 2023
Why would you index in the city of london, with all its laws & taxes ….and on ULEZ
August 29, 2023
We hear so much about China these days and how rich and powerful they are but that is not reflected in their top four companies.
Top Companies from China as of Jul. 01, 2023
Ranking Company Market Cap (USD)
1 Tencent Holdings Ltd $405.81 B
2 Kweichow Moutai Co. Ltd $294.91 B
3 Alibaba Group Holding Limited $232.15 B
4 Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd $219.65 B
However we are not “big” either, but with a population of 67M compared to USA 334M and China 1,425M we’re not that far away pro rata. The USA has a population 5 times our own and China 21 times our own.
Largest UK companies by market cap
# Name M. Cap
1 AstraZeneca 1AZN $211.06 B
2 Shell 2SHEL $203.98 B
3 Linde 3LIN $186.05 B
4 HSBC 4HSBC $147.38 B
BTW: Singapore, population only 6 M, Top company, DBS, is valued at $64B. Why can’t we follow their MO?
August 29, 2023
India has taken over 5th spot from us on the biggest economies list. India now is more populous than China, and thatās not counting all the Indians in other peopleās countries.
August 29, 2023
My post is mainly addressed to those few Remainers still posting here :
Constant expansion of the EU has brought in nothing but poor new members requiring huge subsidies.
As a result, the few net contributors, thankfully no longer including us, have had to stump up billions.
The latest plan is to take in the Western Balkan states and Ukraine within seven years.
Given that Ukraine would become the fourth most populous EU state, and one of the poorest in terms of per capita GDP, the cost to the few net contributors would be enormous. That alone will be enough to stifle growth but more worrying, all the money used to pay for the goods used to improve those economies will be borrowed from the ECB and will be added to the Eurozone debt burden.
August 29, 2023
With the NATS system outage 28/8 which was UK wide for 7 hours, 500+ flights cancelled, multitudinous delays and knock on problems for days, please can we have a debate about this soon Sir J?
Clearly passengers should receive suitable compensation via their travel insurance policies, airlines and in turn insurers/airlines should be able to claim from NATS?
What really happened, lessons learnt and what is needed to avoid this happening again?
reply Icannot help a debate on this as no info re what went wrong
August 29, 2023
Off topic
I spoke to a friend of mine this morning, he had a large quantity of turf to dispose of so he took it to the council tip
Excuse me, what is you wish to tip?
Turf
Does it contain earth?
Inevitably, turf is bound to contain earth
Then you will have to pay Ā£X
No wonder thereās so much fly tipping
August 29, 2023
Off topic: Guido reports “Weāre not even done with August, and already itās set the annual record as the month with the most Channel crossings. So far, 5,283 migrants were detected in the Channel this month, with three days of data still to be released. This makes August the worst month on record since Rishi pledged to stop the boats, beating the previous total of 3,299 by some 40%.”
Perhaps Sunak’s plan is to “stop the boats” when he’s confident that every criminal migrant who wants to get to the UK has been given a free ferry ride here?
August 30, 2023
The police did not stop the demonstrators until the day of the coronation. They were obviously ordered to stop them on that day, because they did.
If the government wanted to stop the boats they would do so. What am I missing?
August 30, 2023
Nothing. They don’t want to stop the boats – or the million+ legal immigrants they imported in ONE year.
August 29, 2023
Thereās something fundamentally wrong with society & democracy when governments, and not the people, decide whatās best
The people donāt want ULEZ ā¦.but govt says it good for you
The people donāt want to ban ICE cars ā¦.but govt says it good for you
The people donāt want to ban gas boilers ā¦.but govt says it good for you
The people donāt want immigration ā¦.but govt says it good for you
The people donāt want high taxes ā¦.but govt says it good for you
The people donāt want HS2 ā¦.but govt says it good for you
The people donāt want regulation ā¦.but govt says it good for you
The people donāt want digital currency ā¦.but govt says it good for you
The people donāt want environmental, social & corporate governance ESG ā¦.but govt says it good for you
The people donāt want the EU ā¦.but govt says it good for you
August 29, 2023
Read Matthew Godwinās āValues, Voices and Virtueā. It explains in great detail, using research and analysis, how the new ruling elite of technocrats gradually (at first) then rapidly (later) spiralled further and further away from the views of the people they are supposed to govern, and see nothing wrong with that.
August 29, 2023
I’ve just ordered a copy
August 29, 2023
+++
Very good indeed. Agree 100%.
And of courseā¦
The people donāt want the government but the government ā¦..
August 29, 2023
@Glen Cullen
The logical extension is that people donāt want government.
August 29, 2023
People want the government that they voted for, people want policies that were quoted in the manifesto, people want the vision & plan described by MPs before the election …..people want the majority voters views represented
August 30, 2023
At least Governments we have had to become used to!
August 29, 2023
The people donāt want to ban shale gas ā¦.but govt says it good for you
August 29, 2023
Online shopping in the EU works very well, and does so without the need for a single, dominant, monopoly-like supplier of the type that John Redwood seems to want. I used to regularly buy goods online from small businesses across the EU until this government’s Brexit messed that up with all the customs paperwork that is now required meaning that those small businesses deemed it no longer financially viable to sell to the UK, so stopped shipping here.
Meanwhile I see it reported that post-Brexit import checks on food have been pushed back for a 5th time, now to 2024.
Two Conservative government success stories. I think not.
August 29, 2023
My recent experience is that small UK businesses are doing very well as people order from them instead of ordering from outside the UK.
So Peter your experience is exactly what I am hearing.
Less imports more orders for UK companies.
Every cloud…
August 30, 2023
Except my reason for sourcing from where I did was that the products I was buying were not available from any UK supplier, and still are not, so now things are just made more difficult for me than they were before. I now buy when travelling, making detours to do so, and bring goods back into the UK in my luggage. In my case, the imports are still happening, they’re just no longer recorded officially.
“Less imports more orders for UK companies” sounds protectionist to me. Are you suggesting that post-Brexit trade barriers are intended to be protectionist? That doesn’t sound much like a global trading nation to me.
August 30, 2023
Well there is a very nice opportunity for UK suppliers to give you what you want Peter.
It seems very strange that not one UK company cen provide you with what you want.
Nor any non EU companies in the world.
August 31, 2023
Non-EU companies could, but I’d then be hit with paying import taxes and paying higher delivery charges in my experience. It’s cheaper for me to buy while travelling and import by hand. Perfectly legal while I stay below the Ā£390 personal limit each time, which I do.
August 29, 2023
O/T: economist.com 24/08/2023, Britainās failed experiment in boosting low-wage sectorā.
August 29, 2023
People are not always right.They want what makes them feel good or makes life easy.They want to be important.They want to be loved at the expense of all others,they want to be recognised for what they think is intelligence , especially by downing others and so on.There has to be some sort of control as everyone cannot have their own particular desire. So who do we trust with the future? Do we really need big business to look after our own island?
August 30, 2023
For ‘people’ replace with ‘Senior Civil Servant’ or indeed ‘Politician’, perhaps ‘Minister’?
August 29, 2023
I see that Germany is to cut taxes on its small and medium-sized companies. Hunt is now being outflanked by socialists.
August 29, 2023
Quote Daily Telegraph 29/08… “Germany has approved ā¬32bn (Ā£25bn) in corporate tax breaks across four years to boost its stagnant economy.
The tax cuts aimed at small and medium-sized businesses were passed by Germanyās ruling coalition government on Tuesday.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz said: āIt is of great importance that in this situation we start an offensive by this government to boost growth in this country.ā