http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202004/17/WS5e990b23a3105d50a3d16dfc.html

The United Kingdom should ask for an extension to its post-Brexit transitional period, to minimize economic chaos unleashed by the novel coronavirus, said the chairwoman of the International Monetary Fund.

Kristalina Georgieva said an extension would ease uncertainty as the world economy hurtles toward "a global recession we have not seen in our lifetimes".

"My advice would be to seek ways in which this element of uncertainty is reduced in the interests of everybody, of the UK, of the EU, the whole world," she said during a radio interview with the BBC that was broadcast on Thursday.

She urged the nation and the bloc not to "add to the uncertainty".

While Boris is in charge, it's not gonna happen! We will finally get rid of the shackles of the EU at the end of the year, deal or no deal.

P.

(who never voted for access to the EU in the 1st place.)

---

While Boris is in charge, it's not gonna happen! We will finally get rid of the shackles of the EU at the end of the year, deal or no deal.
P.
(who never voted for access to the EU in the 1st place.)

No one did, except those in Westminster.

Look's like a lot of what the EU was demanding of the UK has fallen apart when you look at what is happening due to Covid-19.

The North and South are pursuing radically different policies that will influence the shape of Europe after the pandemic is over.

Germany's top court decision clashes with European Central Bank in revolutionary ruling, threatening to undermine confidence in the euro and kills off any hope of eurobonds or joint debt issuance.

With all his outbursts about Britain, wonder what Donald Tusk has to say about his country now?
BBC live Report 10:17

Although the number of infections and deaths is much lower in Poland than in many western European countries, the pandemic has caused unprecedented confusion over whether to hold presidential elections this month.
According to Polish law, the first round of the election is scheduled to take place on Sunday, with Poles going to voting stations despite the coronavirus restrictions. Postal voting would be available to the over-60s.
The governing Law and Justice party has proposed holding a postal-only presidential election as a safe and legal way to hold the ballot this month. With only four days left, the lower house of parliament, the Sejm, is due to vote on the proposal later on Wednesday or on Thursday.
If parliament rejects the postal-only election then, by law, Poland is heading for a traditional election on Sunday. But that is not likely to happen. The state electoral commission has said the election cannot be properly organised in time.

So there is likely to be some form of postponement. The postal-only proposal, if passed, allows for the election to be held on May 17 or May 23.
Other potential solutions would postpone the election to a later date. One long pushed by the opposition is for the government to impose a state of natural disaster, which automatically bars any elections, and would put off the ballot until August at the earliest.
One of the reasons Law and Justice wants to hold the election in May, despite the pandemic, is because it calculates that its ally President Andrzej Duda, could win in the first round. If the election is postponed for months, President Duda's chances could be diminished by rising unemployment and an overall gloomy economic scenario.

Will we see the price of imports decrease?

Apparently Boris has stated import tariffs, between 2.5% and 8%, imposed by the EU will be removed on 1st Jan 2021.

I read Wiggo's post 2052747 on Trump's bursting bubble and then stayed on the CNN site and found this, Four years after Brexit, support for the EU surges in Britain

London (CNN)Four years on from the UK's Brexit vote, a majority of British voters would now opt to remain inside the European Union, says new research.
According to the European Social Survey (ESS), a pan-European poll carried out every two years, 56.8% of respondents in the UK indicated that they would vote to remain inside the bloc, an increase from 49.9% the last time the survey was published in 2018. The most recent survey shows that of those questioned in the UK, 34.9% said they would vote to leave and 8.3% said they would not vote at all.
The findings -- shared exclusively with CNN -- come in the same week that marked the fourth anniversary of the 2016 referendum. The intervening years have seen the UK engage in divisive internal debate about precisely what form Brexit should take, complicated negotiations with Brussels on how the country would leave the bloc, and painful political deadlock that only ended on January 31 this year, when the UK finally left the EU.

The survey also reveals that support for the EU has grown broadly across the continent.
The latest survey of 26 countries, four of which are not member states, reveals an increase in support for EU membership, suggesting that speculation that other countries would quickly follow the UK to exit the union is possibly unfounded.

The latest survey of 26 countries, four of which are not member states, reveals an increase in support for EU membership, suggesting that speculation that other countries would quickly follow the UK to exit the union is possibly unfounded.

Unfounded? Not if Poland has any say in the matter.
Don't think Brussels will think kindly of its members cherry picking what treaties they want.

What with Brexit & Covid-19...
The farce continues
...wonder how they're going to balance the books.

No worries, the kids & grandkids can pay the bills.

Birmingham isn't in the north. And I am sure that the Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds corridor (M62) is much more of a power house. And you also need to consider Sheffield and Bradford in that group, plus the connection to the North Sea at Hull.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UK_cities_by_GVA

edit] and with a little more looking I find that the southern part of Lancashire makes the third biggest contribution to the UK behind London and Manchester and ahead of Birmingham.

Well, somebody is gonna have to !!

What I find incongruous it that Britain invented the world's railways with Stephenson and the Rocket. Now look. Japan has the Shinkansen bullet train, France has the TGV, Germany the ICE trains etc. The UK lags well behind. And arguably Irish workers built a lot of the USA's railways as well.

To be fair, nobody could have foreseen the Covid-19 Pandemic, that needs paying as well these days. Not only the kids and grandkids long term, but, higher taxes for all of us, very shortly.

If the North desperately want the extensions to Leeds and Manchester, let them raise the money. The government pays for what comes in and out of London, our capital city. Seems fair do's to me.

Need to start financing the rest of UK at better rates and let Londoners finance themselves, instead of all of the UK financing things we don't want or use in London.

Note that London has the anomalies of:

• A history of a free trade zone that promoted lucrative business and that also gave its name to our currency;
  
• A well established banking/finance centre;
  
• The London Stock Exchange.
  

Everything else has expanded outwards from that with The North (of Watford Gap!) merely providing 'materials and labour'...


All in our greedy world,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Note that London has the anomalies of:

• A history of a free trade zone that promoted lucrative business and that also gave its name to our currency;
  
• A well established banking/finance centre;
  
• The London Stock Exchange.
  

Everything else has expanded outwards from that with The North (of Watford Gap!) merely providing 'materials and labour'...

& taxes. Isn't H.M. Treasury doing well. :-)

Note that London has the anomalies of:

• A history of a free trade zone that promoted lucrative business and that also gave its name to our currency;
  
• A well established banking/finance centre;
  
• The London Stock Exchange.
  

Everything else has expanded outwards from that with The North (of Watford Gap!) merely providing 'materials and labour'...


All in our greedy world,
Martin

Take the banking/finance and the stock market out of the London contribution as they are National assets and what do you have left.

Take the banking/finance and the stock market out of the London contribution as they are National assets and what do you have left.

A very big housing estate and a lot of 'hospitality' sector?

Then also, there is a very good concentration of world leading excellent museums and galleries there...


What did the Romans do for The Britains?

All in our greedy world,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

What did the Romans do for The Britains?

Built long lasting roads unlike todays builders. :-(

Time was when Britain drove on the left of the roads.

Now we drive on what's left of the roads.

LMAO but oh so true...
...sadly.

He added: "Trade talks are over. The EU have effectively ended them by saying they do not want to change their negotiating position."
Speaking in Downing Street earlier, Mr Johnson suggested the EU was unwilling to seriously consider the UK's preferred option of a comprehensive free trade agreement based on the bloc's existing arrangement with Canada.

Trade talks over say No 10

Australia option
This could all have been avoided if they hadn't spent 3 years dithering since 2016.
Just wondering, come Jan 1st, how many companies will give an extra loading to their prices to assist them in recovering lost profits from 2020?