If that were the case how come France, Italy, Spain and Greece don't seem to have benefitted to anything like the same degree?

Because they have a completely different set of economic circumstances and clearly didn't do what they needed to do to leverage their position in the EU to their advantage; and they didn't retain their own currency?

Interesting interview with the French Agriculture Minister on Newsnight last night; he relayed a story of meeting with his UK counterpart pre-referendum during which he asked what would happen if there was Brexit; said counterpart replied, "There will be no Brexit." In his words - "I was more worried about it than he was." Which does seem to bear out the view that the Remain campaign were far too casual about the prospect of Brexit - the political establishment assumed Remain would win, and Boris got on board purely as a strategy to oust his old Eton rival from Downing Street - and ran for the hills when the unthinkable happened.

I see the economy has grown 0.5% since the Brexit vote, rather than shrunk dramatically.

i see that too!

0.5% growth, over which period exactly ?

I'm no rocket scientist (which is a good thing) but, I deal with a diverse range of businesses and to a man, they are currently "not buying".
The inflationary pressures, due to the weakening pound have slowed things down far more than most would have expected.
There was a scramble to take goods at pre-referendum rates (which would cause a small "spike" in demand) but, the current outlook is the gloomiest I have known since the Thatcher era.
Of course, any business involved in the export market will be feeling pretty good at the moment but for the rest, it's going to be a long dark winter.

Also, news that payments into the exchequer are significantly down isn't good news for anyone.

Keep looking on the bright side though, everything is just fine

Last quarter. What's rest of Europe doing?

Gloomiest outlook since Thatcher era! You mean since the economy was turned around and boomed!

Well done to Sunderland (Nissan)for securing their mid-term future.

I see the government are denying a "Sweetheart" deal.

Maybe it's Sunderland's reward for being complicit in the Coup de Grace?

I'm feeling better already, the futures bright, but then, why does the hollow feeling grow & grow?

It was funny watching Gove this morning though, I mean, he was getting interviewed by Ben Shephard for God's sake, but even good old Ben had him squirming. It just goes to show the caliber of people running the Government, for a second I nearly said the Country, but then I came back to the real world.

The papers, the news, those personnel in power being interviewed, even the 'experts' who predicted free-fall post Brexit, to a person are positive about the figures......except you

Who should we believe??

You keep on believing that.
Politicians are duty bound to try and be positive, they have to be.
Remember, we haven't even begun to actual process yet and one thing that is in black and white (ie not conjecture or spin) is the value of Sterling.
The UK is a massive net importer of goods and with 12-15% currency based inflation, what do you think the next 12 months have in store for the uk population.
Any significant rise in inflation will force interest rates to increase and then things will get really interesting.

Btw 2% growth (if the last quarter was to be the trend for the whole year) is not exactly boom time and is below the Governments budgeted forecast. Therefore, even if we are moving forward at this level (2%) further borrowing or cuts will be necessary.

So Nissan threatens to leave the UK for Spain and France to which the government bribed them to stay. Unbelievable. the government is even using it to promote Brexit working! When will the brexit camp ever stop lying?

I act for numerous companies in manufacturing who are losing contracts hand over fist since brexit that it's not even funny anymore. Whilst not on the scale of companies such as Nissan, it is all relative with hundreds of people fearing for their jobs

Regards

King James

Just loving all this Brexit stuff.

It will be fascinating to see what the actual deal will be but the reality is that financially we will be no worse off but no better of either (although in the short term we will be hit hard inflation and increased interest rates).

At the minute it appears that the Uk will pay €5billion to be part of the single market. This might include protection for the financial sectors passport.

There will be a deal not to kick any immigrant-rants out who are already here.

We will have to sub every big employer in the country to stop them threatening to take jobs abroad.

What is likely to be the only change is that we will have some deal to stop new EU immigrants coming here.


So we will have gone through all of this just to satisfy British racists who want to keep foreigners out.


Absolutely hilarious if it was not so tragic.

Why are they racists?

At what point does "anti-immigration" become racism ?

Certainly when people are told to go back to your "own country" or to "go home", the line has been crossed and following the Brexit vote, this has become more common.

Because other than keeping a few foreigners out Britain will get absolutely nothing out of leaving Europe no £350 million for the NHS no real control over the economy because we will still be doing most things through Europe nothing nada.

But still we can tell a lot of East Europeans you are not coming in.

The huge argument going on in the Tory party about what is important in terms of the Brexit discussions is fascinating with some such as Liam Fox saying nothing is more important than controlling immigration and others such as the chancellor saying no the economy comes first.

Despite all the hot air and the "leave" brigade saying that Europe need us just as much as we need them, I just cant see us staying out of the "single market".
A weaker pound makes exporting more attractive but, balancing this with currency inflation is like walking through a mine field.
There are dark clouds gathering and it's time that we saw some strong leadership and direction from the Government.

Drifting along until a deal is sorted will put the economy into a nose dive.

Hilarity ensues.

Finding it a bit funny that for the last five months or so, leavers have been telling everyone "It's democracy, get over it!" to those questioning them.

Today they are all up in arms. Guess what? "It's democracy, get over it!"

At least there may now be some open discussion in parliament about where the country should be going because, up to now its all been threat and counter threat and broken promises all round and due to the cross party nature of the "remainers" and "brexiteers", nobody can or will ever be held to account.

I had to smile, watching Question Time last week, when the Tory on the panel said that we would use our influence within Europe to put pressure on Russia over the Syria situation !
If it wasn't such a sad statement, it would have been hilarious.

Churchill once used the phrase "Lions led by Donkeys"

There dont seem to be any lions on either side so its more Donkeys led by Asses, although leadership of any kind has completely disappeared.

The Country is just floating like driftwood and likely to finish all washed up, destination unknown.

nothings changed, still going ahead with it. just another hurdle to pass over to slow the process again!

No nothing's changed, only the Tories are now heading for the Supreme Court to try & overturn a point of law.

No nothing's changed, yet if they lose next time, they will no longer be able to implement their own brand of Brexit. They will then have to listen to the whole house & the dreaded other place

No nothing's changed, yet TRESemme may have to call a snap General Election.

Remember the referendum result was purely advisory.

Be interesting to see how UKIP react if it ends up being stopped by the Lords , you could see a huge surge in support for them , especially if they went into an election on a ' dissolve the second house ' ticket

Brexit means Brexit. But the point is this means at least half a dozen things to different people. The word Boot can be used referring to a computer a car or even your foot. As wrencat point out we are drifting rudderless at present. The High Court ruling points out the supremacy of Parliament. It's rather ironic people then don't want proper debate and clarity on what a Brexit actually is or it to be scrutinised and agreed by Parliament. We a least need to agree on what terms we actually want to seek. It doesn't undermine the negotiations but sets out clear parameters. At present no one knows what we are seeking to achieve.

What this decision and the government reaction to it sort of proves is the government really don't have a clear plan as to what they want to achieve in implementing this. They are terrified of setting out the key parameters as the leave campaign was not a clearly defined objective it meant different things to different people. As soon as you state what your parameters are some of your supporters start to question if they are getting everything they wanted. The government will need to set out if they want to be in the single market or have more restrictive barriers. In some respects this is a good thing as any negotiation is a compromise and no matter what your political considerations if we are to leave it should be in the interests of the whole country and not just a few (in government or positions of influence).

And right on cue, Gina Miller, who led the legal challenge to obtain Parliamentary consent, is now receiving death threats. Delightful.

The one thing that has been achieved with the Brexit vote and it's undeniable, politics has actually gone downhill.
Before, during and after the vote, we have witnessed lies, deceit and hate at a whole new (and disturbing) level.

The ruling yesterday is only a technicality and will cause delay to the departure from the EU and may even force another general election.
However, although I was a "remain", not implementing the result of the referendum would be utterly wrong, although I feel that many, many people have begun to realise that extracting ourselves from the EU, is far more complicated than anyone could have imagined.

For any legal minds out there, is it possible that while we are still within the EU, the next appeal could be taken to to the European Court