johnnyone

I think London should declare independence from the rest of the UK.

Would probably allow surrounding counties in as well but does the SE need the rest?

Fredbargate

Johny I think you have made a mistake, the question should be does the rest of the UK need London?

jackytoo

The rest of the UK needs London and the South East to pay taxes. This is a few years ago but it will probably be the same now.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009...-variation-tax

Dick Dasterdly

Maybe they can also pay the bills for all the London based busted financial institutions and banks that are now costing everyone in the whole country so much, as well as pay for the Olympics and the Royals.

Keep them all, I'm sure the rest of the country would be a much nicer place all round without all the thieving city barstewards.

Dick Dasterdly

Now the Spanish crisis can be regarded as truly serious, first Barca and now Real Madrid's total humiliation in Germany.

Is there any hope of their further progress Stevie ?
Maybe with your super duper optimistic approach and a little Messi and Ronaldo magic, a miraculous recovery is still possible ?

steviedeluxe

The fact is that German football is on the up, and far superior at this stage to any others in Europe.
They have to be firm favourites to win the World Cup next year, although obviously Brazil and Argentina may have a say in that (it's being held in Brazil).

rugbymatt

No one gonna mention todays news about the unemployed levels in Spain? Did anyone catch the Deutsche Bank guy on 5Live this morning? Interesting analysis of the situation and categorically he stated there was absolutely no talk of Spain ever leaving the Eurozone, in fact he was adamant that Italy, Greece and a couple of others may well leave but that Spain and Port could never and no one in Spain at the top is even talking about it.

He also saw the recovery to take another 5-6 years!

Dick Dasterdly

I watched it on the Spanish news this morning, doesn't look good.

People have been reasonably patient up to now, but another few years of this and I can see things turning more than a little bit nasty.

steviedeluxe

The figures today were of the first quarter - and Jan/Feb were bad monhs in that respect. March actually saw a small fall - the first in March since 2008, although as J2 is at pains to point out, that's only because Easter (and the tourists) came early this year.
Plenty of new jobs now being advertised - Jazztel in Barcelona, Ford in Almussafes, Amazon in Madrid, Cap Gemini in Asturias. News today - Pharma company Lilly is transfering production from Germany to Spain. Add in the extra flights to Catalunya from ex-Soviet countries (doubled from 100 a week to 200 a week) and there at long last signs of optimism.

A new shopping centre opened in Madrid today. Do you think the investors behind that have miscalculated? Perhaps we'll see an empty stadium when Real Madrid next play? I don't think so

amideislas

At long last? I believe you've been a veritable fountain of optimism for a couple years now, or?

jackytoo

Lord Haw-Haw would tell us if a fish n' chip shop opened in Madrid to prove his point

Pocaloca

That's not really true though, US states are very diverse. Immigrants from different parts of the world tended to settle in different states, e.g. Germans in Minnesota, Quakers and Amish in Pennsylvania, Italians in NJ, Irish in Boston and NYC, Mexicans in California, etc etc. They all have a very different outlook on life and this is reflected in the state legislations which vary enormously.

I think the model could work in Europe - once they've sorted out the single currency! It would give the different countries/regions a lot of flexibility to keep their own culture etc while maintaining the benefits (some would say disbenefits) of having a powerful central government with international clout.

steviedeluxe

I've pointed out there is too much talent in Spain for them to be down long. They had high unemployment in the 70s, 80s and 90s too, but came back from that. They have worked out now how to get their exports increasing month on month. We'll start to see all this (and other factors) start to bring down the unemployment figures in rest of year - there will be the odd blip, but the recovery starts now, from an admittedly tough start to the year.

rugbymatt

6.2 million unemployed mate and I'm just telling you what the guy from the bank said.... maybe you should get in touch with them and ask them to stop lying.....

steviedeluxe

You've told us consistently that Spain would be forced out of the Euro, that Santander would collapse, that basically they would not recover and any positive figures were lies and you didn't believe them (eg increase in Russian tourist numbers).
You've been wrong time and time again. Lord Haw-haw? You don't even have his judgement level.