Deutschebank reported today as moving assets out of London announced last year it was signing a new 25 year lease on 469,000 square feet of office space in Moorgate London.

There are several options for our departure, but if the Prime Minister says the choice has to be Chequers or just leaving, just leaving is best.
The trouble with Chequers is it offers us a detailed and unattractive Withdrawal Agreement followed by 21 more months in the EU with more uncertainty. Many MPs have no wish to pay the EU £39 bn for that.

People are rightly tired of austerity politics on the continent, where it is an integral part of the Euro scheme which has led to deep cuts in pay and jobs in many of the participating countries. It is important the UK uses its freedom outside the Euro to follow a policy that promotes more jobs and higher pay. The good news is that the last eight years have been good years for jobs growth here, but we could do better on the pay front. We have not had to suffer the cash cuts in pay in the public sector seen in some Euro countries.

The UK economy has been deliberately slowed by policy since March 2017 when I first started highlighting the actions being taken. Tax hikes on homes and cars allied with a marked tightening of credit and money did slow the growth rate, led to a sharp decline in car sales, a big fall in buy to let activity and to a big drop in turnover in parts of the housing market. The policies were designed to do just this and they succeeded. We were told this was necessary for a combination of reasons, including the need to be more prudent and the wish to accelerate electric car sales at the expense of diesel and petrol before there were sufficient good value and attractive electric cars to buy.

The government should now relax policy a bit. Take home pay should be lifted by tax cuts, as the current tax take from employee earnings is too big. Stamp duties should be lowered to make homes a bit more affordable. Sensible rate reductions will also boost tax revenue which has been reduced by penal rates. Vehicle Excise duties should be put back to pre 2017 levels, and car loans to buy new vehicles freed up a bit. Business rates, particularly on shop premises, should be reduced.

The public services including schools, defence, the police and social care are in need of more money. They should be asked to submit bids for what extra service they could supply for increased funding, with payments made for good plans for improvement.

The tax cuts and spending increases should be financed from the EU savings, as I have explained before.

I recently called in with local Councillors to meet the Head, pupils and staff at the school.
The school is in need of some additional money for decorating and improvement works, which the Councillors agreed to assist with.
The children were enthusiastic about what they were doing and the teachers engaged with their pupils. I would like to thank all involved for the work they do.

The latest round of Project Fear stories are usually re runs of past versions of the same thing. This time they are often repeated in even shriller and more apocalyptic tones, as the clock ticks down to our exit in March 2019.

Let’s deal with a few of them:

1. They said ” The UK will lose the advantage of the EU policy removing roaming charges for use of mobiles around Europe.” This was often mentioned in the Referendum campaign as one of the few examples of a positive from the EU. This week the main mobile companies confirmed they will not be imposing new roaming charges when we leave! There is enough competition in the market to keep prices down. A company like Vodafone anyway offers free roaming for non EU countries like Norway and Turkey as well as Iceland, a country which has left the EU. It is always wise to check your contract, as the so called EU free roaming may well have a usage limit.

2. They said ” The trade deals the EU has with other countries around the world will cease for us when we leave”. Six countries have already confirmed in an international Agreement they will continue these more favourable terms with the UK after we have left. No country who has signed an EU trade deal has said it intends to cancel it for the UK.

3. They said “There will be delays and queues at the UK ports leading to food shortages”. The UK government has made clear it is not going to impose a new range of delaying checks and procedures at our ports to hold up food we wish to buy from the continent after we have left. Why would we want to do that?

4. They said “The NHS could run out of medicines and we need to stockpile before departure”. No EU pharmaceutical company that currently supplies the NHS has said it wishes to cancel its contract the day we leave the EU! They will be legally bound to carry on supplying us. The NHS and UK port authorities have not announced any new checks or delays they wish to impose on medicines approved here for use here and imported from the continent.

5. They said (Treasury and Bank of England) that we would have a recession in the winter after voting to leave, with 800,000 job losses and a house price collapse. None of this happened, with continued economic growth, record levels of employment and a stable house market.

6. The press say the Bank is now forecasting a 35% house price fall if we just leave without a Withdrawal Agreement. This has recently been denied by the Bank, which is relief, as there is no way just leaving the EU could lead to any such house price fall.

7. Some still say airlines will not be able to fly into London after we leave. The leading continental airlines are busy selling tickets for trips into the UK after March next year, and assure those buying the tickets they will be flying.

How much more of this nonsense do we have to listen to? When will more journalists push back on these absurd stories?