BREXIT vote aftermath

[Guest Mauro]

[XXL]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/michael-gove-conservative-leadership-boris-johnson-david-cameron-andrea-leadsom-text-message-a7125821.html

Michael Gove: Britain’s worst political serial killer thwarted by a text message

The Westminster Chainsaw Massacre is over. The Justice Secretary has finally been ousted from the Tory leadership race. But was it all worth it?

As Macbeth said in one of the Simplified Shakespeare for GCSE texts Michael Gove once tried to outlaw in schools: “Oh God. I have totally ballsed this up.”

We shouldn’t laugh, because the consequences for us all are uniquely terrible, but one minor footnote to the Tory leadership ballot is that in the second round, with five candidates having been whittled down to three, Michael Gove’s votes actually decreased by two, down from 48 to 46, and as such he will forever after be known as Britain’s worst political serial killer.

Criminologists argue over the precise meaning of that term. How many killings are required to qualify as a serial killer? But having dispatched his old best mate David Cameron in spectacular and prolonged public fashion, knifed the favourite to replace him in an even more ugly spectacle, and then to be derailed in the act of botching a third attempt surely meets the criteria.

That a shabby little leaked text message was what came finally to expose him was fitting enough in the end. On Wednesday night, Gove’s campaign manager Nick Boles texted potentially wavering Tories saying: “In the national interest surely we must work together to stop AL [Andrea Leadsom]?” Political machinations, like rhythmic gymnastics, do not make life easy for those whose job it is to judge them, but the minus two it achieved in votes seems like a fair enough score for his efforts.

Arguably this does the man a disservice. Cameron and Johnson are hardly his only victims.

In a short concession speech, Gove said he now hoped for a “civilised, inclusive, positive and optimistic” debate about Britain’s future. Hope indeed. Hope for a “civilised” debate when there’s a 500 per cent rise in reported incidents of racism. Inclusive when the favourite to be next Prime Minister pointedly won’t rule out deporting three million people.

Positive when the currency and the stock markets are crashing, all the major banks are about to forecast self-inflicted recession and if you point this out to the people whose fault it is they’ll accuse you of “talking Britain down”. And optimistic because, well, when everything else has gone that’s all you’ve got left.

Hope eh? As Billy Bob Thornton’s Bad Santa warns an overly entitled nine year old boy: “Kid. Hope in one hand and sh*t in the other and see which one fills up faster.”

Of course, the man himself has recast his act of Boriscide as a heroic dash into a burning building to drag out the vulnerable baby that was the nation, an analogy that slightly loses its way when you consider who it was that set the building ablaze in the first place.

Goodbye to the visionary then. The radical. And welcome to the only two people left standing at the end of the Westminster Chainsaw Massacre. One, a Home Secretary of six years service, whose greatest hits include driving “Immigrants Go Home” billboards around racially charged neighbourhoods and whose unrivalled longevity in the role owes most to a unique approach to it in which every potential cock-up has been outsourced to G4S, and the other an anthropomorphised Daily Mail Comments section.

At some point, in the quiet moments to come, Britain’s worst political serial killer will have plenty of time to reflect on whether it was all worth it. Don’t imagine he’ll change his mind. The defining characteristic of the radical is that he knows he’s right. But there is cause for sympathy. Serial killers find gratification for their abnormal desires in the act of killing itself. For Gove it was a means to an ends that never arrived. Britain broken for a dream unfulfilled. A tragedy for us all to share. A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

[XXL]

Four firms cut value of UK property funds, Aberdeen fund extends suspension

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xBT2omZ7Fg

http://uk.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-property-l-g-idUKKCN0ZN1UE

Four fund managers cut the value of their UK property funds and a fifth extended a 24-hour trading suspension on Thursday, as the industry seeks to stem a tide of redemption requests since Britain's vote to leave the European Union.

A slump in the value of the pound and volatile stock markets since the referendum on June 23 have unnerved investors who are worried that the uncertainty will slow down business investment in Britain and hit demand to rent and buy commercial property.

In recent years Britain's commercial property market has exploded in value. Demand, centered on London, has come from retail investors, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies and private equity firms. From 2012 to 2014 the market grew 20 percent to 787 billion pounds ($1.02 trillion), according to data from the Investment Property Forum.

But in the last week more than 18 billion pounds ($23.26 billion) of retail investor cash has been frozen as funds run by M&G Investments, Standard Life Investments and Threadneedle Investments, among others, suspended trading to allow time to sell some of the buildings, a process which can take many months.

The move to cut the value of a fund is a less extreme method of controlling redemptions, as it effectively forces those looking to leave to accept a lower price than was established the last time the property portfolio was valued.

Three UK property funds aimed at retail investors, managed by Legal & General Investment Management, F&C and Kames, said they made cuts in the value of their funds.

Retail funds, including all seven which this week have suspended trading, normally allow investors to take out their cash daily.

Several firms which operate funds aimed at institutional investors told Reuters they had made no changes, and had seen little redemption demand from investors. These funds typically only allow redemptions on a monthly or quarterly basis.

"There has been no immediate impact and we have not witnessed an increase in redemptions from the fund's institutional investor base, who it would seem are taking a strategic view," said Howard Meaney, head of global real estate - UK, at UBS Global Asset Management.

However, institutional investment manager CCLA, which invests money for a range of charities, religious groups and the public sector, also said it had cut the value of its funds since the Brexit vote, by 4.5 percent.

"We felt that the...adjustment was an appropriate and proportionate response to the heightened risk of uncertainty, but not more than that," CCLA's chief investment officer James Bevan told Reuters.

[XXL]

[XXL]

https://next.ft.com/content/cd25409e-445c-11e6-b22f-79eb4891c97d

George Osborne pledges to safeguard City’s investment banks

Chancellor promises to use ‘every possible measure’ to protect industry after EU vote

George Osborne promised leaders of the world’s biggest investment banks that he would use “every possible measure” to safeguard their industry in the aftermath of the UK’s vote to leave the EU.

The chancellor met with regional bosses for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Standard Chartered and Goldman Sachs on Thursday to discuss the fallout from the referendum’s result, which banks had warned could cost the City tens of thousands of jobs.

The executives and Mr Osborne published a joint statement saying they were “determined to work together” to address the challenges thrown up by Britain’s decision to leave the EU. Citigroup’s regional head — who was unable to attend the meeting — later added his name.

The Treasury would not comment on the specifics of the meeting, but two people briefed on the discussions said Mr Osborne and his team told the banks that “where possible, every measure will be deployed to constructively safeguard and protect” the UK’s financial services industry.

He also touched on his plans to cut the corporate tax rate from 20 per cent to 15 per cent, but did not give any indication of when the reduction might be introduced. A banking source pointed out that since most banks have large deferred tax assets, the tax cut is not a major issue for them.

The banks did not make specific commitments to retain operations in London but stressed that their preference was to maintain as much of their existing presence as they could. The Treasury’s own analysis suggested up to 285,000 financial sector jobs were linked to Europe and would be at risk if the UK voted Leave.

The Treasury was unable to offer any reassurance that banks would retain the crucial “passports” they use to access other EU markets from London, but officials said they understood how important these were. The loss of these passports would trigger the biggest jobs exodus, since banks would need to find alternative homes for their EU businesses. Paris, Frankfurt and Dublin are already aggressively courting banks.

In their joint statement, Mr Osborne and the banking leaders paid tribute to the UK for having “one of the most stable legal systems in the world, a brilliant workforce and deep, liquid capital markets unmatched anywhere else in Europe, all of which are underpinned by world class regulators”.

“Today we met and agreed that we would work together to build on all this with a common aim to help London retain its position as the leading international financial centre,” the statement said.

The bankers also discussed the markets fallout from the referendum result, with the bankers assuring Mr Osborne that while there was volatility, there was “no panic”. Sterling is hovering around 31-year lows against the dollar, having fallen more than 20 cents since the vote, but UK large-cap stocks have largely recovered from their initial losses.

[Gaudet]

First legal attempt to prevent Brexit set for preliminary hearing

Claim argues result of referendum is not legally binding and only parliament can authorise triggering of article 50

The first legal attempt to prevent the prime minister initiating Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union is to be heard later this month.

A high court judge, Mr Justice Cranston, has set 19 July for a preliminary hearing of the judicial review challenge brought on behalf of the British citizen Deir Dos Santos.

The claim argues that only parliament – not the prime minister – can authorise the signing of article 50 of the Lisbon treaty, which begins the UK’s formal withdrawal process.

Other legal claims making a similar point are also being prepared by the law firm Mishcon de Reya. Brexit supporters staged a demonstration outside their London office on Thursday with a banner and placards declaring “‘Invoke article 50 now” and “‘Uphold the Brexit vote”.

The politically sensitive hearing will be heard by two judges in the divisional court. The Dos Santos claim argues that: “The result of the referendum is not legally binding in the sense that it is advisory only and there is no obligation [on the government] to give effect to the referendum decision. However the prime minister has stated on numerous occasions that it is his intention to give effect to the referendum decision and organise the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union.

“The extract from the prime minister’s resignation speech ... makes it clear that [the government] is of the view that the prime minister of the day has the power under article 50 (2) of the Lisbon treaty to trigger article 50 without reference to parliament.”

That decision, it claims, is “ultra vires” – beyond the legitimate powers of the government – because under “the UK’s constitutional requirements”, notification to the European Union council of withdrawal “can only be given with the prior authorisation of the UK parliament”.

Dominic Chambers QC, an expert in international and commercial law from Maitland Chambers in London, is acting for Dos Santos.

The claim refers to recent statements from the Foreign Office explaining that it is parliament that has the power to repeal the European Communities Act 1972. It also argues that the royal prerogative – powers employed by the prime minister – cannot be used to undermine parliamentary statute.

The government, which has acknowledged receipt of the claim lodged on 28 June, is expected to argue that a prime minister can use powers based on the royal prerogative to trigger article 50. If it goes to trial, any hearing is likely to be appealed against, up to the highest courts.

In a separate development, Anthony Eskander, a criminal barrister at Church Court Chambers in London, has posted an opinion arguing that politicians supporting the Vote Leave campaign might have opened themselves up to legal action for alleged misrepresentations over claims that quitting the EU would allow an extra £350m to be spent on the NHS.

It claims politicians might have committed offences of misconduct in public office by promoting the £350m claim. The figure has been called “potentially misleading” by the independent UK Statistics Authority, for failing to take into account the UK’s rebate from the EU. Vote Leave denied during the referendum campaign that it was misleading the public.

Harry Shindler, 94, who tried to overturn the ban preventing those who have lived overseas for more than 15 years from voting, has threatened to challenge the validity of the referendum result at the United Nations.

More than 700,000 Britons resident abroad are estimated to have been denied a chance to register for the ballot. In the run-up to the referendum, the high court, appeal court and supreme court threw out Shindler’s legal claims on the technical grounds of whether EU law permitting freedom of movement applied.

Speaking from his home in San Benedetto on Italy’s Adriatic coast, the war veteran who was awarded an MBE in 2014 for his services to Anglo-Italian relations, told the Guardian: “We feel we should have taken part in the referendum. We can’t go back to the courts. We have been to all the courts that we can in England. So now we will go to the UN human rights commission in Geneva, asking them to declare the result of the referendum null and void. I am preparing a case now that will be with the United Nations.

“It’s contrary to [article 21 of ] the UN Declaration of Human Rights [in 1948] which says that citizens have a right to take part in the election of the government of their country. Universal suffrage is supposed to mean everybody. I’m doing this in the knowledge that I am supported by expats throughout Europe, I am in touch with people in France, Spain, Portugal and Germany.”

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/08/legal-attempt-prevent-brexit-preliminary-hearing-article-50

[Nessie]

I always think that if Remain had won, the referendum would have been considered perfectly valid and any try from the Leave would have been labelled as fascist and antidemocratic

This.

[Raider of the lost Ark]

What? British citizens living in other countries around the world were not allowed to vote on this issue? I did miss the fact. And I would have never expected that. I mean, it makes no sense. Denying British people to vote on something that affects them? On what grounds? This might actually be the exit from the Brexit. Somehow I have the feeling this will all end because of technicalities.

[Raider of the lost Ark]

And Osborne says he will do everything to protect the City? Where is the news? Is anyone surprised? It's no secret that the City is contributing insane amounts of money to the British household directly and indirectly, through taxes etc. Without this money there'll be huge holes in the British household which will result in cancelling many projects which are funded by the public and of course social benefits will decrease.

[Roland Barthes]

[Apples388]

What a load of bullshit. Brexit is happening. Accept it and move on.

The level of shit being pelted at the British people in this thread disgusts me.

[Guest]

What a load of bullshit. Brexit is happening. Accept it and move on.

The level of shit being pelted at the British people in this thread disgusts me.

Call it sour grapes.

[Guest Rachelle of London]

They've been trying to oust Corbyn for months and the best they can do is Angela Eagle?

[Guest Rachelle of London]

What a load of bullshit. Brexit is happening. Accept it and move on.

The level of shit being pelted at the British people in this thread disgusts me.

Britain is officially the new Gaga in this place

[XXL]

Theresa May will be the new British PM

# soon

[XXL]

[Guest Rachelle of London]

Fuck Theresa May! I rather Cameron come back

[karbatal]

WTF??????

[BrendanT1993]

Andea Leadsom has just argued why she should not be PM.

"she admits she has felt “under attack, under enormous pressure. It has been shattering.”

If you can't live with pressure and controversy, surely you can't be PM?

[Guest Rachelle of London]

Andea Leadsom has just argued why she should not be PM.

"she admits she has felt under attack, under enormous pressure. It has been shattering.

If you can't live with pressure and controversy, surely you can't be PM?

Probably why she pulled out of the running to be PM.

[XXL]

Andea Leadsom has just argued why she should not be PM.

"she admits she has felt “under attack, under enormous pressure. It has been shattering.”

If you can't live with pressure and controversy, surely you can't be PM?

IKR

Why announce her candidacy a few days ago then

From David Cameron allowing a referendum of such a nature when he was under no obligation to in the first place, to his stepping down, to Boris being suddenly silent after the LEAVE side got their wanted result, to him getting stabbed by Gove who then in turn pulled out himself, to Corbyn and the fight with Labour, and now this latest development. Oh I forgot about Farage doing a number at the European Parliament post vote and then stepping down to from his party leadership

I never thought I'd see the day when British politics would look so Italianesque

People all over Europe look up to British politics for pragmatism, integrity, promptness, this LEAVE vote seems to have triggered a cataclism of unseen proportions.

[XXL]

They've been trying to oust Corbyn for months and the best they can do is Angela Eagle?

[BrendanT1993]

Andrea must have heard a lot of voices persuading her to go. I'm glad she is going. This will allow Theresa May to proceed with some planning and to have a cabinet in place soon. Some confidence will be restored and the money markets will start to stabilise.

[Guest Mauro]

Cameron stepping down Wednesday; May next PM. Wow.

[billiejean]

The daily mail:

Mrs May, who famously has flamboyant footwear, will take over the Government on Wednesday night and will spend the next two days planning her Cabinet appointments.

[BrendanT1993]

Congratulations to Theresa May. I accept that she's not ideal, but then the only choice was Andea Leadsom

I think it's quite likely that we'll opt for free trade with the EU, just as Norway did, but the price for that is free movement of labour within the EU. So no change there but more stability. But it also means that the UK has no representation in the European Assembly! Is that not likely to be a disadvantage? It remains to be seen what regulations we will still have tofollow. Total disentanglement with the EU would spell disaster, particularly in Northern Ireland.

Then there is the much trumpeted talk about us exiting the European Convention on Human Rights. People get confused between the European Commission and the European Court of Justice. In exciting the EU, we will I'm glad to say still be within the European Justice system.

So, if the UK chooses the safer option of remaining within the European free trade market, it will have lost any right to shape the future of Europe or to influence who we take in. Does that look like a victory for Europe? The Norwegians warned us not to do it. Ever heard of being sold a pup

[Ai Papi Si.]

What a load of bullshit. Brexit is happening. Accept it and move on.

The level of shit being pelted at the British people in this thread disgusts me.

Not to split hairs but Americans are constantly attacked on this board. Welcome to the club. Britain's a punchline right now right alongside America. You'll go in and out of being one for years to come, just like we have been since the early 2000s. It is what it is.

[Je5u5]

[Guest Mauro]

The daily mail:

Mrs May, who famously has flamboyant footwear, will take over the Government on Wednesday night and will spend the next two days planning her Cabinet appointments.

[Guest Mauro]