"the UK is finished"

[kyser_soze]

obviously get into the heroin business we have troops on the ground planes and boats nice cash business sorted
and previous as well

That's not a bad idea. Return to the golden days of UK piracy on the high seas and drug running.

 

[SpookyFrank]

That's not a bad idea. Return to the golden days of UK piracy on the high seas and drug running.

Stick to what you know, that's what I say. So much shipping traffic to and from northern Europe has to pass through the channel, we're ideally placed to become the new Somalia

In more ways than one

 

[Barking_Mad]

http://cynicuseconomicus.blogspot.com/

 

[dennisr]

He's saying it to manipulate the markets so he'll make a packet, the greedy arse. Sorus mkII

yep

 

[TomPaine]

They should just legalise weed and tax it. Half of Europes youth would pop over to the UK for a weekend caining session, and we'd rake the tax money in

 

[SpookyFrank]

They should just legalise weed and tax it. Half of Europes youth would pop over to the UK for a weekend caining session, and we'd rake the tax money in

Best idea I've heard in ages. Wouldn't be hard to set up a huge production base in a relatively short space of time, and we'd finally be manufacturing useful commodities once more

 

[TomPaine]

Best idea I've heard in ages. Wouldn't be hard to set up a huge production base in a relatively short space of time, and we'd finally be manufacturing useful commodities once more

I can't remember the exact details, but I read that within the first week of the lifting of prohibition on booze in the US, the government had raked in something like $8 million in tax.
Can't see why we don't do that here. Loads of green houses out in the Fens, Lincolnshire and West Norfolk, could convert these to growing weed and then sell it.
I don't even smoke and think it's a good idea lol.

 

[SpookyFrank]

I can't remember the exact details, but I read that within the first week of the lifting of prohibition on booze in the US, the government had raked in something like $8 million in tax.
Can't see why we don't do that here. Loads of green houses out in the Fens, Lincolnshire and West Norfolk, could convert these to growing weed and then sell it.
I don't even smoke and think it's a good idea lol.

It's a larger scale version of my solution to my dad's problem of how he can make money out of his small, communally owned farm

Of course, being an idiot, my dad is sticking to root veg and cream teas

 

[ChrisFilter]

Ok, so if the UK is finished and everyone pulls their money out. What happens to us?

 

[Fruitloop]

Lots of greenhouses in the Fens are already converted to growing weed.

 

[g force]

Well it entirely depends...what's really been happening is an illusion of wealth where the very successful companies are often foregin owned so the UK doesn't see the direct benefit in terms of moeny staying within the UK. Hell even Tesco's gets most of it out

Short-term it means far, far less foreign investment (athough there's a counter argument around accounting in one currency and selling in another depending on what it is a company does). Longer-term it entirely depends on the global situation.

Take financial services. Are all the banks going to leave London? No. Where would they go? Tokyo? No chance. Hong Kong? Doubtful. Frankfurt or Paris? Again highly doubtful. New York?

Technology developement...UK has talented scientists if the £ is still weak you could get that at a huge mark down wage wise.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Ok, so if the UK is finished and everyone pulls their money out. What happens to us?

Nobody gets paid, or they'll get paid with newly printed money that renders the currency even more worthless. Benefits dry up as government coffers are emptied and there's no credit available to make up the deficit. The rich flee to the Eurozone, Hong Kong etc. Public services crumble away to nothing. There's either a massive rise in crime or we get a police state or, most likely, both. The army is called in to crush mass land seizures. Bailifs and debt collectors become increasingly violent in seeking to call in every scrap of debt in the land so some traces of liquidity can be maintained. Riots, and lots of them. Etc etc etc.

I'm looking forward to it. We will soon see the state's true colours and I will have a long-awaited chance to say 'I told you so'

 

[gosub]

Ok, so if the UK is finished and everyone pulls their money out. What happens to us?

Brown invokes the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 and avoids election (again)

 

[spacemonkey]

Nobody gets paid, or they'll get paid with newly printed money that renders the currency even more worthless. Benefits dry up as government coffers are emptied and there's no credit available to make up the deficit. The rich flee to the Eurozone, Hong Kong etc. Public services crumble away to nothing. There's either a massive rise in crime or we get a police state or, most likely, both. The army is called in to crush mass land seizures. Bailifs and debt collectors become increasingly violent in seeking to call in every scrap of debt in the land so some traces of liquidity can be maintained. Riots, and lots of them. Etc etc etc.

I'm looking forward to it. We will soon see the state's true colours and I will have a long-awaited chance to say 'I told you so'

You haven't factored in the impending energy crisis.

 

[ChrisFilter]

Nobody gets paid, or they'll get paid with newly printed money that renders the currency even more worthless. Benefits dry up as government coffers are emptied and there's no credit available to make up the deficit. The rich flee to the Eurozone, Hong Kong etc. Public services crumble away to nothing. There's either a massive rise in crime or we get a police state or, most likely, both. The army is called in to crush mass land seizures. Bailifs and debt collectors become increasingly violent in seeking to call in every scrap of debt in the land so some traces of liquidity can be maintained. Riots, and lots of them. Etc etc etc.

I'm looking forward to it. We will soon see the state's true colours and I will have a long-awaited chance to say 'I told you so'

Sweet

So where's best for me to escape to?

 

[Stoat Boy]

There is part of me that thinks a bit of economic crisis could be good for the nations collective soul and certainly a massive rethink about how public money is both raised and spent can only be a good thing.

But lets not forget that this country has been fucked before and has bounced back. At the end of WW2 we were virtually bankrupt and yet managed to turn it around.

I dont go in for much flag waving but this country does have a history of seemingly being in the economic mire and not seeming much beyond a pissy little Island stuck off the coast of Northern Europe but its kicked arse for a long time a long way above what is should be able to and we can do it again.

 

[King Biscuit Time]

You haven't factored in the impending energy crisis.

That won't affect us in the UK, as we'll be hitting the ground with sticks all day and might get a couple of hours of candle-light twice a week if we're lucky.

Our energy demands will be minimal.

 

[TomPaine]

... you forgot to add that the BNP rise in numbers as disaffected angry youth find their message appealing, whilst SWP continue to wave placards saying such things as "Give us food ... hands of Iran".

I recon if the shit hit the fan, the West will just start a war with someone. It's good for business and manufacturing don't ya know and you can control the population easier.

 

[SpookyFrank]

You haven't factored in the impending energy crisis.

I haven't factored in lots of things. If I were to sit here and list all the bad things that are likely or certain to happen when the other shoe finally drops I'd probably crash the server.

Tea for one thing, we're totally dependant on imported tea. There's a lot I can stand but a life with no tea? It'll be standing room only on the nation's clifftops I reckon

 

[Wolveryeti]

Some tea is grown in the UK you know. Coffee, is however, a problem.

 

[Bernie Gunther]

Don't forget climate change.

 

[King Biscuit Time]

I recon if the shit hit the fan, the West will just start a war with someone. It's good for business and manufacturing don't ya know and you can control the population easier.

Um, we've been trying that for the last few years.

 

[_angel_]

There is part of me that thinks a bit of economic crisis could be good for the nations collective soul and certainly a massive rethink about how public money is both raised and spent can only be a good thing.

But lets not forget that this country has been fucked before and has bounced back. At the end of WW2 we were virtually bankrupt and yet managed to turn it around.

I dont go in for much flag waving but this country does have a history of seemingly being in the economic mire and not seeming much beyond a pissy little Island stuck off the coast of Northern Europe but its kicked arse for a long time a long way above what is should be able to and we can do it again.

Oh fucking hell!

 

[Stoat Boy]

Oh fucking hell!

Fair enough.

But aint there something inside of you that wants to react to this sort of thing by just telling them to go and fuck themselves 'cos these colours dont run and all sorts of other macho bullshit that comes with being a little Englander at heart ?

Probably not but what the hell. If this country is going down then lets at least do so snarling and lashing out at all around us. Never bought into this bullshit about being a good loser.

Or else have it away on our toes to warmer financial climes.

But not pious self-pity or woe is me or even smug 'I always said it was end in tears' sanctimonious bullshit.

 

[SpookyFrank]

But not pious self-pity or woe is me or even smug 'I always said it was end in tears' sanctimonious bullshit.

I've always said it was going to end in tears, but I'm not smug about it, just fucking furious. The impending calamity of which we are currently staring down the barrel is going to cost me, and my whole generation, the chance to live an honest and peaceful life. I'd love to have a boring job and a family saloon and three kids and all that, but I've known since I was a teenager that I didn't have a chance in hell of ever living like that because decades of greed, stupidity and complacency have already decided the future of this country, and it's not a good one. So about the only victory I have left to look forward to is the rather pyhrric one of being proved right as everything crumbles around me.

And yes I know our prosperity has come at the expense of many less fortunate folks throughout the world, and that even in the UK the benefits of prosperity have fallen to fewer and fewer people in recent decades, but none of that is the fault of my generation. My generation has been raised to be guilty, obedient, avaricious and afraid. We have been designed and crafted as little units of productivity and now we don't even get to serve that laughable purpose. We are to be denied not only a chance to achieve the illusory, exploitative prosperity Britain is so famous for, but any chance to achieve prosperity according to our own definitions and on our own terms. Even in crisis the system will not readily squander its past gains to the people, still we will be denied the right to live off the land, still we will be denied the right to work for ourselves and our communities rather than for the profits of others. Still we will live under the control of a state that governs, when all is said and done, through violence and the threat of violence. I don't pity myself, there are still billions of humans in a worse position than me, but still I reserve the right to feel angry and betrayed.

 

[SpookyFrank]

If this country is going down then lets at least do so snarling and lashing out at all around us. Never bought into this bullshit about being a good loser.

On this point I agree with you

 

[Crispy]

But lets not forget that this country has been fucked before and has bounced back. At the end of WW2 we were virtually bankrupt and yet managed to turn it around.

Yeah, with a massive wedge of american money.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Yeah, with a massive wedge of american money.

And this time round the septics will have their cap just as firmly in their hand as we do

 

[trevhagl]

The UK might be completely fucked, but it will take more than the words of one of the chief wankers who caused this mess in the first place to convince me of it.
Let's face it, it was NuLab's listening to them that caused the problems in the first place - I don't know of a single person who considers themself even remotely of the left that ever thought PFI would be a good idea, f'rinstance. But I know plenty who hoped that 1997 would bring a reversal of Thatcherite monetarism, not an extension of it.

Very very true.

 

[trevhagl]

i think the only good thing to come out of it is New Labour will be more wary of starting new PFI schemes now everyone's watching where money goes