He is now saying he might exempt Britain from trade tariffs. Talk about on the hoof policies. The % mark up on imports from China is planned to be 60%. A debate on the radio indicated that he won’t want to stop the war in Ukraine too quickly because the arms industry generates so much employment in the US. I’m not to sure about that argument. The planned tax cuts will require more borrowing. I’m guessing he is banking on import duties generating the difference? This will lead to giving with one hand and taking with the other, perhaps he has been getting advice from Keir?
Say what you like about Trump but he’s going to put a stop to gender reassignment and he doesn’t believe in all this climate nonsense. I’d vote for him just on that basis.
And don’t you think tariffs on imported good will mean they will have to produse stuff in house and provide lots of jobs. Something we should be doing here.
except usually countries on whom you impose tariffs then do same in reverse and there goes your export market.
"not believing in climate nonsense’’ - yes that sounds like Trump.
as does demonising minorities.
backwards goes any effort to minimise environmental damage and any inroads into internal unity
Project 2025.
Trends exist on both sides of the Atlantic.
1 Like
I don’t think it’s that easy, Bob. That’s what some people might think at first glance but who do they think will have to pay those tariffs? Contrary to what Trump wants his voters to believe, tariffs will be passed on to consumers by the importers of foreign goods and lead to increasing inflation.
Take the example of putting tariffs on imported steel. If you own a steel company in the USA, you’ll be delighted (How many own such a company?) If you consume steel by buying a product with steel or metal components as families do very often, you will have to foot the bill. Trump’s policy will run counter to their interests.
The manufacture of products and the services offered have become so diversified that it is unrealistic to think each country can manufacture any product itself at short notice if they are no longer imported. That may have been possible, say, in the case of horseshoes but not today.
2 Likes
I am not a supporter of gay / gender assignment and / or any ALt Life desires / policies, what I do hate / fear is the influence Christoascist America will have on personal Rights and censorship, the USA is entering the the “dark ages”, if history has shown us anything is that religious influenced states and their policies will not end well. We will be no different than any Islamic country, or any religious influenced state, religious state have proven to be intolerant, unforgiving, and extremely barbaric. Do not tell future generations (as the Germans did of Fascist Germany) you did not know, you did not want to know, you just did did not want to know. Adolph Hitler told the world in Mein Kampf of his intentions, and Fascist Don has done the same in his speeches and interviews, Fascist America you will/ should be held accountable, Donald you are our Adolph Hitler, Trump supporters you are / will be / should be responsible for the atrocities Trumps reelection will lead to.
One thing that signifies stupidity are the posters who proclaim traitor Don’s reelection will lead to lower grocery prices, how dumb can you get,. Tariff’s are taxes which kills competition which raise prices, I would ask how dumb can you get, but through your ignorant comments you have just showed us, it’s control and manipulation of an unproven belief in a “Deity”, humans are dumb (especially Americans) that way.
The only reason we had a higher standard of living since the 70s is because of imported goods. That is now starting to reverse. It costs a great deal to create infrastructure and production skills.
I was reading about the risk to our future radioactive isotope supplies (for treating cancer). There are only so many nuclear reactor sites in the world that produce these. You might remember from Covid pandemic days how we have to import these and how supply chain risks are a threat to future cancer treatment. The British government has been warned about this for years but this hasn’t encouraged them to build our own facilities. Apparently we are a lower priority for world supplies since Brexit. Why do you think the government haven’t built the facilities to produce it here?
1 Like
Her policies of, for example, price controls say differently.
Harris and Walz are marxists through and through
2 Likes
I take it youve never run a business.
1 Like
It was because of the socialist government in the 70s Annie.
1 Like
You can’t keep blaming the 70s for the situation we are in today.
1 Like
And yet the Democrats still lost - in just about all swing states at the moment
1 Like
I think you are both looking at the extreme, obviously tariffs would be placed on imported things that we could produce now and until alternative production here could be established.
Also, how cheap do things have to be before we realise that the price is no longer realistic in a world where we are using valuable earth resources that are not sustainable and won’t last forever, not to mention pollution from the excess of mass production. Should we be asking, are we paying too little for the things that will soon be rare and valuable?
We live in a throwaway world because commodities are cheaper to replace than mend, so think also about the problems created in the disposal of waste.
We are not even trying to become self reliant, and the amount of imports entering the UK each day is mind blowing. Even our energy is supplied by some foreign country when the wind doesn’t blow or the sun doesn’t shine.
In the seventies we produced and mined many things, all of which produced wealth for our economy and skills for our workforce. Those skills have been lost and been replaced by IT skills, no hands on experience. Try and find a bricklayer, electrician, joiner or plumber today. We have to import those as well while our young folk are qualified to hell in media and IT and end up serving you a burger in McDonalds… 
When were we last totally self-reliant OGF? 9th Century? The majority of historic wealth in this country which continued to coast us along a bit last century came from the British Empire. The international trade links as a result of said empire have kept us as a major world player. That money enabled us to fund the vast infrastructure we still have. The railways, the sewers the roads etc. Self-reliance only takes you so far in a highly predatory world. Little republics are ripe for invasion and exploitation.
The US is probably one of the few countries in the world that can probably be fully self reliant, but that is when you take new technologies out of the mix. Much of the energy we require is to power this new tech.
2 Likes
I never said we could become self sufficient Annie, but we could do a helluva lot more than we do now. We produced our own steel, ships, even motor cars. Coal mines all over Yorkshire and Derbyshire, not to mention further up north. There were engineering factories making tractors, and Sheffield was the place for a good blade or some top quality stainless steel. Farmers grew stuff, and only posh stuff and unseasonal stuff came from abroad, mostly stuff we could do without. Apples in Tesco come from New Zealand, France, South Africa and Germany for god’s sake…
And brussel sprouts actually come from Morocco… 
Flowers from Kenya…
We are a country full of lazy gets, no wonder folks are coming in and taking over…
1 Like
Trump won all seven swing states.
1 Like
Yes and most goods were out of reach for ordinary people. We had a situation where a large part of the population was living in “Rising Damp” or “Steptoe and Son” type accommodation, crumbling post-war infrastructure and totally uncompetitive, entrenched industries run by blinkered and lazy management with no strategic vision.
1 Like
Yes, Trump has won by our electoral college system for states.
However, look at the numbers of actual votes. Pretty close.
Harris/Walz votes 70,858,691 47.9% of all votes.
Trump/Vance votes 74,535,467 50.4% of all votes.
1 Like
I think you need to take off those rose-tinted specs and look back at the reality of the 1970s
I was still a schoolgirl in the early 1970s but I vividly remember sitting at home in the cold in the evenings with no fire and only a candle for lighting because there was no coal and electricity was rationed for every household to just a few hours a day - there wasn’t enough for everyone.
There was economic stagnation coupled with increasing inflation and high unemployment. In the early 70s, I remember seeing the long queues of unemployed people spilling out from the doors of the employment exchange building in Teesside, the heart of industry.
Work security was volatile and I recall lots of working men being laid off at a moment’s notice.
My memory of the early 1970s was being cold, miserable and hungry all the time.
I moved away from the North to find work in London after I left school - but the 1970s hadn’t finished dishing out the gloom.
Didn’t the Country nearly go bankrupt and have to get an IMF Loan to bail us out?
All the public services were creaking at the seams due to mis-management and under-investment - I used to travel by train often and the service was even worse then that it is now. Then we had another Winter of Discontent in the late 1970s - and the rubbish piled up in the streets …
eeeuww …, it was horrible - can I borrow your rose-tinted specs for a bit to get rid of those memories when everything was gloomy, dirty and grey? 
Anyway, we digress from the thread topic with talk of U.K. in the 70s.
2 Likes