Quote of the day 3rd December 2013

"In reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself.”

(C.S. Lewis)

Comments

Jim said…
Off Topic (sorry)

Its just I see that our glorious PM is away speaking about the UK-China trade deal.

well i could have saved him his flight time and fare.

I find it so odd that no one thought to inform him that the UK does not have a trade deal with China.

Well ok the uk can access the EU - China trade deal, then i guess we do have a 3.57% share of a vote on the EU side of how things should be done, China of course has a full negotiating position which it can use to negotiate, its not shackled to "little europe" you see.
Chris Whiteside said…
The trip to China is about creating more sales opportunities for British business and thus more British jobs. There is a role for national governments in doing this even while we are in the EU.

There was an excellent article by former Labour supporter Dan Hodges in the Telegraph in which he systematically demolishes the four contradictory arguments which Labour and others have put up against the PM's trip to China, and I will be putting up a link to it later this evening.
Jim said…
I say again, the UK and China do not have a trade deal to allow creaton of more UK - China thus we cant extend an offer to china can we?

You want to export goods and services to china then fine, ok, but we need to import by the same amount dont we, other wise we "owe" and that wont end well.

THIS IS YOUR WAKE UP CALL, COME ON DOWN THE COFFEE IS AS GOOD AS IT SMELLS.
Chris Whiteside said…
During the visit to China some £6 billion worth of deals have been signed.

An EU trade deal with China would be worth having, and it is one of the things which Cameron is keen to promote, but it isn't the main purpose of the trip.

Sadly the Commission has been less keen, describing such discussion as "premature" and if you meant to criticise that attitude then I agree with you. However, Britain can and will raise the matter in the Council of Ministers, where our share of the votes on such a deal is about three times more than 3.57% - Britain has ten out of 87 votes on the Council of Ministers.

But as I say, seeking an EU-China deal wasn't the main purpose of this trip which was help British businesses reach agreements.

And there is no problem whatsoever in balancing our exports to China with trade and investment in the other direction - over the last 18 months there has been more Chinese investment in the UK than in the previous 30 years.

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