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UK food price inflation hit 16.2% in October – cost of food basics surging

bbc.co.uk

21–30 of 364 posts

Re: UK food price inflation hit 16.2% in October – cost of food basics surging

#21

I’m quite curious how this will end in the UK. Regardless of how much Brexit has to do with this, I think the lack of actual Brexit opportunities and the contribution it has to core inflation is at one point going to change the political landscape.

To compete after Brexit the UK needed to break with the status quo and that most likely meant, as many Brexiteers suggested, going for low tax low regs. Indeed, if the level of taxes and regulations in the UK is the same as in the EU then why setup a business in the UK rather than in the EU? We see that the current government is unwilling to go down that path, although Covid did throw a major spanner in the works of…

> going for low tax low regs.

The problem with this strategy is that the major trading blocks of USA, EU and China will not allow the UK to undercut them. So if the UK goes down this path, then companies based there will find themselves cut off. The UK domestic market is not large enough on its own.

Re: UK food price inflation hit 16.2% in October – cost of food basics surging

#22
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brexit has removed one way to keep wages down - import more people. I don't think that the central bank solution of putting up interest rates to reduce the number of jobs is going to help, people still need to eat.

Brexit has caused immigration from non-EU countries to increase. According to the government's own statistics we've seen massive increases from countries like India despite the anti-immigration rhetoric displayed by the Tories. We've also got a partnership with India that helps fill in the gaps. Not to mention the record study visa's issued to India. "India first again. I’m delighted that Indian nationals were issued…

Ok, but net migration is still way down:

>An estimated 202,000 citizens from other EU countries immigrated to the UK in the year to September 2018, and about 145,000 emigrated abroad. So EU ‘net migration’ was around 57,000—roughly the lowest level recorded since 2009.

>In the year before the referendum, net EU migration was estimated at 189,000, so there’s been a large fall following the vote.

Obviously other countries are going to make up a higher percentage of those immigrating, but the total amount of immigrants is down according to that article.

Re: UK food price inflation hit 16.2% in October – cost of food basics surging

#23
post #4

I’m quite curious how this will end in the UK. Regardless of how much Brexit has to do with this, I think the lack of actual Brexit opportunities and the contribution it has to core inflation is at one point going to change the political landscape.

Some stuff in the media today about a Swiss style deal with the EU.

This is 100% the government testing the waters to see how such news would be received by the public.

Re: UK food price inflation hit 16.2% in October – cost of food basics surging

#24
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To compete after Brexit the UK needed to break with the status quo and that most likely meant, as many Brexiteers suggested, going for low tax low regs. Indeed, if the level of taxes and regulations in the UK is the same as in the EU then why setup a business in the UK rather than in the EU? We see that the current government is unwilling to go down that path, although Covid did throw a major spanner in the works of…

Any attempt to do that would be political suicide, as indeed Liz Truss recently demonstrated.

Liz Truss made big mistakes in implementation: they did not discuss their plans with key stakeholders and they they did not prioritise measures (why abolish the 45p rate now?) but they did get that growth must be much higher priority, if not highest priority. Again, the level of debts is really weighing on things: without Covid debts Liz Truss's budget would have been well received.

And of course even many in her own party were out to kill her, which did not help.

Re: UK food price inflation hit 16.2% in October – cost of food basics surging

#25
I genuinely fear for the UK. It's going to be a very different country in ten years, and I fear it will be a weaker, poorer and more divided one.

I don't know for sure what the main cause of our current problems is, but I know that it's not a single issue. Brexit, Covid-19 and the war with Russia – not one of these issues alone is the cause of our problems.

My hope for the country rests in the fact that it still has wonderful, tough, resourceful people in it, and that it has survived worse catastrophes than this in the past, and come out okay.

Re: UK food price inflation hit 16.2% in October – cost of food basics surging

#26
post #14
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some stuff in the media today about a Swiss style deal with the EU.

Swiss type deal isn't working for the Swiss anymore. EU was putting pressure on the Swiss to accept a comprehensive deal to replace the dozens of agreements that they have. When the Swiss refused, the EU simple lets one by one pass without renewing them. This has e.g. happened with the Horizon Europe research program which Switzerland is no longer part of.

> This has e.g. happened with the Horizon Europe research program which Switzerland is no longer part of.

That’s so self-destructive - surely the EU needs Switzerland’s powerful universities more than Switzerland needs Horizon?

Re: UK food price inflation hit 16.2% in October – cost of food basics surging

#27
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brexit has caused immigration from non-EU countries to increase. According to the government's own statistics we've seen massive increases from countries like India despite the anti-immigration rhetoric displayed by the Tories. We've also got a partnership with India that helps fill in the gaps. Not to mention the record study visa's issued to India. "India first again. I’m delighted that Indian nationals were issued…

Ok, but net migration is still way down: >An estimated 202,000 citizens from other EU countries immigrated to the UK in the year to September 2018, and about 145,000 emigrated abroad. So EU ‘net migration’ was around 57,000—roughly the lowest level recorded since 2009. >In the year before the referendum, net EU migration was estimated at 189,000, so there’s been a large fall following the vote. Obviously other countr…

You're comparing two years which were both when we were in the EU, and also ignoring non-EU immigration, and trying to draw some conclusion from this?

Re: UK food price inflation hit 16.2% in October – cost of food basics surging

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To compete after Brexit the UK needed to break with the status quo and that most likely meant, as many Brexiteers suggested, going for low tax low regs. Indeed, if the level of taxes and regulations in the UK is the same as in the EU then why setup a business in the UK rather than in the EU? We see that the current government is unwilling to go down that path, although Covid did throw a major spanner in the works of…

> going for low tax low regs. The problem with this strategy is that the major trading blocks of USA, EU and China will not allow the UK to undercut them. So if the UK goes down this path, then companies based there will find themselves cut off. The UK domestic market is not large enough on its own.

Considering that the US is much lower regs than the UK and has domestic tax havens, and that I doubt this is a problem for China, I think you exaggerate. It's the EU that is worried of being undercut and that's why they are trying to tie market access to EU rules.

Re: UK food price inflation hit 16.2% in October – cost of food basics surging

#29
post #10
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're all curious about it. It probably has to start with the main opposition actually acknowledging that Brexit is harmful. At the moment they've all been ordered to shut up about it.

This seems to coincide with inflation of food prices in the US where there was no Brexit.

Inflation in UK is twice as high in the US.

Re: UK food price inflation hit 16.2% in October – cost of food basics surging

#30
I left the UK for the US in 2019. My I-485 was approved this week. I haven't been able to travel back to the UK since 2019 first because of Covid and then because of the pending I-485 petition. I'll be going back for the first time once my card is delivered.

Reading about what has been happening over the past years in the UK while sitting in the US is really strange. Sometimes it feels like reading about a cartoonish banana republic in a novel aimed at young teenagers.

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