[Sephiroth]

Sorry to contradict pip (it's rare) - VAT was introduced as a Purchase Tax replacement because we were joining the EEC and it was a requirement to shave off 2% (iIrC) for the EEC's share.

---------- Post added at 07:36 ---------- Previous post was at 07:33 ----------

I sometimes get mocked for my remarks on German hegemony; less so on my remarks a France being Germany's running dog.

Well, the Running Dog and the Ueber-meister des Welts have now signed a treaty that pretty much entrenches the hegemony to which I have been referring.

Will the Remainers on this thread welcome this enhanced piece of hegemony? Nah, they'll continue mocking me most likely.

---------- Post added at 08:11 ---------- Previous post was at 07:36 ----------

Originally Posted by nomadking

To somewhere OUTSIDE the Eurozone. So how does that work?

In relation to Dyson moving to Singapore:

1/
He expressed his opinion on the Euro in 2000 when it was a newly introduced currency (indeed then only a virtual currency). To remind, Dyson threatened to move production from the UK if it did not commit to joining the Euro.

2/
Some of us (readers of the Torygraph and FT for sure) understood at the time that the exchange rate basket favoured Germany because the likes of Greece, Italy and Portugal had their deficits fudged which gave Germany an advantage when the final Euro value was declared.

3/
Much water has passed under the bridge (see Greece for details and now Italy) and I doubt that Dyson would be as sanguine now about the Euro, 19 years later. Indeed the UK's stand-off from the Euro proved most valuable in 2008 (when we lent those now perfidious Irish £7 billion to bale them out). So the Eurozone is no longer attractive to Dyson.

It seems to me that if Dyson has moved production to Singapore, then why not move the HQ to put his company in the best place for expansion into the local markets now that he is well established in Europe. Dyson's move says more about the EU's failures than Brexit.

https://www.manufacturingglobal.com/...itting-ps801mn

So all this hysteric stuff (not by Nomadking but by the usual suspects) about Dyson cutting & running away from Brexit or words to that effect are ridiculous, posturing hot air.