Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Tamas]

Yay, May's speech/interview trigger another fall of the pound. I'm nearly working for free.

Why do you think I cancelled my thoughts of moving back to the UK post brexshit

Well unless the country collapses, it'll eventually go back up. But yes, if one were planning to leave UK soon, wouldn't be the best idea. Though, if I do leave and pound is down, I'll just leave that money in UK till there is a better time to repatriate that money.

Not in the next ten years or so, though.

[Tamas]

WTF I will have to mail my actual passport when I apply for permanent residence?! It is pushing it enough that I am supposed to mail them my drivers license to get a British one, instead of just showing up in person somewhere, but really? Take my prime identity document, one that could be abused in all kinds of ways in the wrong hands, put it in some envelope, and hope for the best?! Really?!

Yeah, I had to do so for my work visa. It was rather unsettling trusting the post office to send to a foreign gov't said document and that's leaving aside things like a foreign gov't controlling whether or not I could leave my own country for an unspecified amount of time.

[Josquius]

Yay, May's speech/interview trigger another fall of the pound. I'm nearly working for free.

Why do you think I cancelled my thoughts of moving back to the UK post brexshit

Well unless the country collapses, it'll eventually go back up. But yes, if one were planning to leave UK soon, wouldn't be the best idea. Though, if I do leave and pound is down, I'll just leave that money in UK till there is a better time to repatriate that money.

I really don't see it going back up in the short to mid term. It's looking like decades it ever before things recover.

The only possible hope is that America screws up even more sending the dollar down.  But that of course would have greater consequences so isn't particularly desirable

[garbon]

Yay, May's speech/interview trigger another fall of the pound. I'm nearly working for free.

Why do you think I cancelled my thoughts of moving back to the UK post brexshit

Well unless the country collapses, it'll eventually go back up. But yes, if one were planning to leave UK soon, wouldn't be the best idea. Though, if I do leave and pound is down, I'll just leave that money in UK till there is a better time to repatriate that money.

I really don't see it going back up in the short to mid term. It's looking like decades it ever before things recover.

The only possible hope is that America screws up even more sending the dollar down.  But that of course would have greater consequences so isn't particularly desirable

I'm not sure you need to worry about exchange rate to dollars, no? Unless, of course you are planning to live in the US at sometime soon. You just need Euro to stay crumbly.

[Josquius]

International trade largely works in dollars though.
The dollar lies at the centre of it all.

[celedhring]

When I applied for my student visa I had to give my passport to the US embassy in Spain (in person) and they mailed it back to me a few days after.

So the "trust your passport to a foreign administration and the post office" is hardly uncommon.

[Tamas]

[Duque de Bragança]

Surely they recommend registered shipping for sensitive documents? 

German embassy sent me my passport in regular mail.

I pick up my passport at the consulate so no risk.
Hell, they even recommend to register the mail vote for presidential elections and the president is mostly a figure head in Portugal.

[garbon]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jan/10/jeremy-corbyn-calls-for-maximum-wage-law

Jeremy Corbyn calls for maximum wage law

Jeremy Corbyn has called for a maximum wage for the highest earners, saying he fears Brexit will see the UK become a "grossly unequal, bargain basement economy".

The Labour leader would not give specific figures, but said radical action was needed to address inequality. "I would like there to be some kind of high earnings cap, quite honestly," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Tuesday.

When asked at what level the cap should be set, he replied: "I can't put a figure on it and I don't want to at the moment. The point I'm trying to make is that we have the worst levels of income disparity of most of the OECD countries.

"It is getting worse. And corporate taxation is a part of it. If we want to live in a more egalitarian society, and fund our public services, we cannot go on creating worse levels of inequality."

Corbyn, who earns about £138,000 a year, later told Sky News he anticipated any maximum wage would be "somewhat higher than that".

"I think the salaries paid to some footballers are simply ridiculous, some salaries to very high earning top executives are utterly ridiculous. Why would someone need to earn more than £50m a year?"

The Labour leader, who is an Arsenal fan, said he thought his team's manager Arsène Wenger "would probably like it very much indeed, he'd probably like there to be a maximum wage cap on the whole of the Premier League".

Corbyn said he believed taxpayers would ultimately benefit from job creation as a result of lower executive pay.

"They would have less of their enormous pay levels and more would go back into the company and our society as a whole," he said. "Economic development does benefit the taxpayer because more people work and get jobs and pay taxes. It's something we're looking at and learning from others."

In a speech later on Tuesday, Corbyn will claim that Britain can be better off outside the EU and insist that Labour has no principled objection to ending the free movement of European workers in the UK.

However, his preference for a maximum income law will overshadow the announcements for the party's policy on Brexit, even though Corbyn had expressed his view on the issue before, during his leadership campaign.

"It's a kind of philosophical question really. There ought to be a maximum wage. The levels of inequality in Britain are getting worse," he told the Herald in 2015.

Corbyn stressed he was not announcing a specific policy on a law to limit income, but said he had "got a view on it".

Pressed again, he said: "I would like to see a maximum earnings limit, quite honestly, because I think that would be a fairer thing to do. Because we cannot set ourselves up as being a grossly unequal, bargain basement economy on the shores of Europe.

"We have to be something that is more egalitarian, gives real opportunities to everybody and properly funds our public services."

Asked about proposals from the backbenchers Emma Reynolds and Stephen Kinnock for a two-tier system, with easier paths for skilled migrants and caps on unskilled migrants, Corbyn told Sky he had not formed an opinion yet on their idea.

He hinted, however, that the UK might have to make some form of deal with Europe on migration if it wanted to preserve single market access. "I'm saying let's deal with the issues of exploitation, but also recognise in the article 50 negotiations, Britain is a major trading partner and that is going to have to continue, otherwise jobs are at stake."

Earlier, he told Good Morning Britain that his planned speech on migration was not a "sea change" in his previous thinking, but aimed to give "clear definition that we protect the working conditions and wage levels that are here" for any migration system post-Brexit.

"Some companies – particularly in the construction industry – are making a fortune out of getting rid of workers in this country on one set of pay and conditions and bringing in others to replace them," he said, during his GMB interview. "That creates awful tensions in those communities."

In his speech in Peterborough, a marginal Tory seat that voted heavily to leave the EU, Corbyn will say his party wants "managed migration" and to repatriate powers from Brussels that would allow governments to intervene in struggling industries, such as steel, which is currently prohibited by state aid rules.

Corbyn will say Labour is not wedded to freedom of movement for EU citizens as a point of principle. "But nor can we afford to lose full access to the European single market on which so many British businesses and jobs depend. Changes to the way migration rules operate from the EU will be part of the negotiations," he will say.

"Labour supports fair rules and reasonably managed migration as part of the post-Brexit relationship with the EU."

Kinnock said he welcomed Corbyn's comments about the principles of free movement. "The Labour party exists in order to shape and regulate markets so that they serve the common good, and a properly regulated labour market can only exist if it is supported by a system of managed migration," he said.

"For all of us who believe that migration benefits our country, the core question is how to rebuild public confidence in it. I hope that Jeremy and his team will now look at the two-tier system that Emma Reynolds and I have proposed as the right policy through which to realise our shared values and aims."

Caroline Lucas, the co-leader of the Green party, said Corbyn's stance on free movement was a "capitulation to the Tories". Her party also criticised Corbyn's ideas for an earnings cap, with co-leader Jonathan Bartley calling it an "unproven, blunt instrument which may not even help in reducing the gap between rich and poor".

[Tamas]

I don't get this country's obsession with too high wages. Surely there are other rubber bones for the public to chew on, can't politicians be a bit more creative?

[PJL]

Yay, May's speech/interview trigger another fall of the pound. I'm nearly working for free.

Why do you think I cancelled my thoughts of moving back to the UK post brexshit

Well unless the country collapses, it'll eventually go back up. But yes, if one were planning to leave UK soon, wouldn't be the best idea. Though, if I do leave and pound is down, I'll just leave that money in UK till there is a better time to repatriate that money.

I really don't see it going back up in the short to mid term. It's looking like decades it ever before things recover.

The only possible hope is that America screws up even more sending the dollar down.  But that of course would have greater consequences so isn't particularly desirable

I disagree. Most likely there will be a merry-go-round of devaluations (as to some extent is already happening) caused by various events / crises around the world (not just the west). We are living in volatile times and will be in this for the foreseeable future.

[celedhring]

I don't get this country's obsession with too high wages. Surely there are other rubber bones for the public to chew on, can't politicians be a bit more creative?

I love how Corbyn and Labour seem to have abandoned any semblance of trying to fight Brexit. Unless the reporting we get down here is massively biased.

[Valmy]

I love how Corbyn and Labour seem to have abandoned any semblance of trying to fight Brexit. Unless the reporting we get down here is massively biased.

My understanding is that Corbyn was fine with Brexit. He hates all those vile neo-liberal institutions spreading capitalism, or whatever.

If there was a different leader of the Labour Party at the time Brexit would never have passed. In my 'completely informed by Languish' opinion

[garbon]

I don't get this country's obsession with too high wages. Surely there are other rubber bones for the public to chew on, can't politicians be a bit more creative?

I love how Corbyn and Labour seem to have abandoned any semblance of trying to fight Brexit. Unless the reporting we get down here is massively biased.

Well Corbyn was never all that pro-EU (complaint that he was ambivalent in his campaigning to remain) so not surprising that he'd slide to saying it isn't all that bad given that majority of voters went for Brexit.

Today he basically parroted the leave line that if UK leaves EU then more money can be directed to the NHS.

[Tamas]

I love how Corbyn and Labour seem to have abandoned any semblance of trying to fight Brexit. Unless the reporting we get down here is massively biased.

My understanding is that Corbyn was fine with Brexit. He hates all those vile neo-liberal institutions spreading capitalism, or whatever.

If there was a different leader of the Labour Party at the time Brexit would never have passed. In my 'completely informed by Languish' opinion

I think that is correct.

Corbyn looked like some sour little kid who was dragged to some event he had no intention to go to and couldn't care less about, every time has "campaigning" for the Remain side.