Morning all!
Nothing news wise for me to report on this morning.
However, whichever side of the Brexit fence you sit on, Tim Martins (Chairman of JD Wetherspoon) comment in the latest Half Year Report is worthy of a quick read.
Without wishing to spark some kind of political debate, as always, all comment most welcome.
Wishing you all an excellent weekend!
In case people missed it there was an after hours announcement from NEX Group yesterday:
The Board of NEX Group plc ("NEX") notes the press speculation and announces that it has received a preliminary approach by CME Group Inc. ("CME") regarding a potential acquisition of NEX.
https://www.investegate.co.uk/...
timarr
My morning smallcap tweet:
Graphene Nanochem (LON:GRPH), Clear Leisure (LON:CLP)
Graphene NanoChem (GRPH) fails to find new nomad*, listing cancelled on Monday but planning a resurrection via a takeover and new IPO. * After 'mutually agreed resignation of Panmure Gordon'. Nothing fishy to see here, move along.
Clear Leisure (CLP) places £300k at 0.7p, a 25% discount.
Brexit, I just wish they'd get some traction one way or the other and knock some heads together. I feel we have a very weak team of negotiators and the EU don't want to negotiate at all. What a mess.
Tim Martins is a bit of a cliche pub landlord. Thinks he knows best despite having no expertise or experience in the areas he talks about.
He sounds as though he doesn't expect a free trade deal to be signed between the EU and the UK - hence why he talks about food tariffs. In this scenario it isn't nearly as simple as he makes it. WTO rules require you to have non discriminatory tariffs outside of free trade agreements. Removing tariffs would certainly reduce prices, as it would allow the cheapest suppliers of food to sell their produce at an even lower cost than domestic producers currently (NZ lamb costs much less than welsh lamb to produce for example). Over time this would threaten our food security as UK farms are put out of business.
He also doesn't mention regulation which prevents the sale of much of the cheap food in the UK from around the world - notably the US. Scarily the US is insisting that part of a free trade deal with the them would require the UK to adopt US food standards. Again this would definitely keep prices low/where they are but the cost would be reduction in animal welfare standards, risk of disease and fraud (like horse meat scandal).
I'm not certain these sorts of measures would be passed due to the costs associated with them deemed too high and ergo we get higher food prices.
Also from an environmental perspective it's nuts to get your food from half way around the world instead of the major continent on your door step.
Horse meat scandal ????
Risk of disease ????
Aren't there many, many examples of that whilst we were fully fledged members of the EU racket club?
And as for the food on your doorstep argument - why not the UK before you go riding off to Euro la la land - or is that too obvious?
And you accuse Tim of knowing best !
Yes, if you reduce food standards, (downgrading the current UK food standards to be in line with US standards) risks like food fraud and bad food will increase, not sure what you are getting at here?
Also regarding why we cant produce all our food domestically and require to import (or ride off to euro la la land as you put it) it, is due to weather patterns. Food that is in demand in the UK cannot be produced all year round in the UK, for example tomatoes and courgettes.
Yes do want hormones in your milk with are banned in the UK and EU on health grounds to humans and cattle. Not to mention GM crops. They also use growth hormones in beef cattle which is banned here. There is also an issue with some pesticides which are banned here.
