Another new Brexit thread

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Rascal said:
There are reasons why the Tories have a stranglehold, some obvious, some not so obvious. The UK for a start is a relatively conservative with a small c union of disparate peoples and differing identities, some which are clung to and some which are no longer of import to many. The Conservative party historically was known as the Conservative and Unionist party, which meant it had strong representation amongst some of the people who inhabit our islands. After WW2 the Conservatives were pragmatists and accepted the post WW2 social consensus brought about the Atlee government, not only did they accept it they enhanced it and One Nation conservatism which had a strong social message appealed to people as the Labour party of Atlee ran out of steam. The Tories have always been opportunists and as they have always struggled to have a clear ideological framework to work from, they adapt to what is the needs of the day. That is why they are successful, they change. In the 50s they carried on the work of Atlee and built council homes, they became comfortable with the NHS and bought into social programs because the Overton window of the time was on the left of UK politics. Britain never had it so good was the phrase as the country boomed, the Tories got the credit for the economic miracle and Labour were painted as the party of rationing books. The Tories can do this because of UK society, the old schol tie and the friends in the media.

The next see change was Heath, his disastrous incomes policy led to Union demands for equal wages across the board and eventually his stupidity led to the Miners strikes and what the media now portray as this country being held to hostage by over powerful Unions. This led to Thatcher. What had been happening behind the scenes though was the rise of the think tank, these organisations, predomintantly right wing bought into the Frankfurt school of economics and followed Hayek and Friedmann. Reaganism took over in the states and this was a reaction to the post WW2 consensus, where taxes had been high to pay for the social programs, but also whilst the taxes were high it coincided with the best economic growth of the century and the RW introduced discredited nonsense like the Laffer curve so that those with wealth could pay less tax and the less tax they paid the more they funded the think tanks and the party of low taxation and Neo-Liberalism became the order of he day. It was a reaction to Atlee and it had taken 30 years to happen. Union powers were curbed, under false pretences may I add but the narrative even today is the Unions were to blame even though it was Heaths stupidity that got the UK in such a mess the incoming Labour chanellor had to get a bailout from the IMF. Labours economic credibility has never recovered and even now if any Labour politician proposes a policy the first question that is asked is how are you going to pay for it? The media are now so firmly right wing Labour are fucked. The Tories get away with what ever they want and Ed Miliband gets slaughtered because he eats a bacon butty in a funny way. That is how crazy the media is nowadays. There is no objectivity and all the media is partisan.

Like you say over the last 10 years the Tories have got away with stuff that is unreal, at this moment in time the test and trace fiasco and outsourcing is nothing short of corrupt criminal negligence, but do you see it mentioned? No because Blair is the news because of travelling somewhere or something. The along came brexit which again the Tories stole from the Labour party. The Tories took us into the EU, Thatcher was the driving force behind the single market, it was an extension of neo Liberalism into the EU where social programmes still existed and social democracy was common. There is no place for social democracy in a neo-liberal world and thats why i support leave btw. I still dont believe the Tories ever wanted to leave the EU but the nutjob element on the right and the fear of Farage taking seats from them led to hold the referendum and Cameron's arrogance caused leave to win. I have always considered the brexit referendum was a two pronged assault on UKIP and Labour done so that the Tories could remain in power. They needed to marginalise Farage and they knew brexit would cause divisions in Labour, crafty cunts them Tories, they may be ideologically bereft and anyone who had read Scruton will tell you they are a party of moral vacuity with little plan apart from power and a belief in the state is shit. I could go on for hours but my fingers are hurting from typing.
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Thanks Rascal for a really enlightening post. Lived through nearly all of that - born 1949.
 
www.forbes.com

Why Gillette's New Ad Campaign Is Toxic

While it focuses on important social issues related to masculinity, Gillette has alienated a large proportion of its target market. This article provides a historical perspective on Gillette's "Best a Man Can Get" campaign and explains what has gone wrong with the updated version.
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com
 
Its good to see that minds on both sides are now being focused with an acceptance that movement is required.
 
Ancient Citizen said:
This is certainly a distraction to the topic, but did you see the Gillette ad?
If you did, you may understand why it cost Gillette $9 billion.
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The $8 billion was a non cash write down and not unexpected. Gillette has lost around 30% of its market share since it was acquired by Proctor and Gamble, so seems they reduced the book value of the brand.

P&G at end of the last fiscal year posted a profit of more than $13.02 billion, up 234% from a profit of more than $3.89 billion the previous year.

Sales are up 9% in the first quarter of this year. Gillette sales were flat.

To say an ad cost $8 billion is a stretch.
 
BobKowalski said:
The $8 billion was a non cash write down and not unexpected. Gillette has lost around 30% of its market share since it was acquired by Proctor and Gamble, so seems they reduced the book value of the brand.

P&G at end of the last fiscal year posted a profit of more than $13.02 billion, up 234% from a profit of more than $3.89 billion the previous year.

Sales are up 9% in the first quarter of this year. Gillette sales were flat.

To say an ad cost $8 billion is a stretch.
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They deserve to lose more for selling overpriced, utterly shit razors.
 
blueinsa said:
They deserve to lose more for selling overpriced, utterly shit razors.
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100%. P&G happened to be a client of mine at the time and whilst it was widely acknowledged that the advert did them no favours at all, their bigger concern was the fact that the mail order brands had come along with a superior product for a lot less. Pissing off their consumer base wasn't exactly the smartest thing to do tho, even if it did win some nice headlines at the time.
 
BobKowalski said:
The $8 billion was a non cash write down and not unexpected. Gillette has lost around 30% of its market share since it was acquired by Proctor and Gamble, so seems they reduced the book value of the brand.

P&G at end of the last fiscal year posted a profit of more than $13.02 billion, up 234% from a profit of more than $3.89 billion the previous year.

Sales are up 9% in the first quarter of this year. Gillette sales were flat.

To say an ad cost $8 billion is a stretch.
Click to expand...
Extract from P&Gs accounts

Intangible Fixed Assets

Goodwill (8,000,000,000)
 
blueinsa said:
Its good to see that minds on both sides are now being focused with an acceptance that movement is required.
Click to expand...
Every day now brings examples of how the EU is/has accepted the need to make concessions

I feel tempted to bring forward some opinion on the conditions necessary for the EU to be made to shift.........;-)

Of course both sides will make concessions - that is what negotiating is about - but at least the years of nonsense we have had on here about the omnipotent EU not having to give any ground has been proven to be - well nonsense
 
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