Billy Whitehurst

In fairness, I don't ever recall a member of the cabinet berating the US like Boris Johnson did to Russia the other day. That's probably because we were just as complicit as the US in those conflicts. It's really tough for the UK to take the moral high ground after what we've done.

Definitely. At the very least, making Jordan Henderson captain should result in a points deduction.

Oil prices are nowhere near all time lows (even adjusted for inflation). They are low in the context of the last 10 years but that period showed unprecedented highs. Additionally, OPEC has just pledged to cut production so that will push the price up. Oil, gas and related products are traded in dollars (as are Copper, Aluminium etc) so the FX rate will have a significant impact on our cost base. It's all fine though as we have a massive manufacturing base. Exports of 'innovative British jams & marmalades' that the department for international trade has been talking about will no doubt shore things up.

She really is a cunt.

There are 8 people in the team I work in. Only 2 of us are British. The people hired into the team are hired on merit. We could have hired British people who could do the job. However, we instead hired candidates who we believed would be the best at the job, it just so happened that the majority weren't British. This policy of only hiring non British people if there are no British candidates would have a considerable impact on productivity not to mention making us look like a bunch of racists.

What could be more democratic that an unelected Prime Minister, in a country with an unelected head of state, making a decision (which the electorate probably don't want) that could change the course of the country forever?

I bloody hope not given that the 6 English golfers in the team contributed a grand total of 2 points from the 15 matches they played in.

Aye, it has been ridiculously good although Kaymer and Westwood have been woeful. Picking experience over form didn't work in Gleneagles when Poulter got a wildcard and it hasn't worked here. At what point does someone spark out Patrick Reed?

Just inviting pressure, you would have hoped they would have learned after the Villa match.

Fuck me, what an awful start. USA's putting has been on a completely different level to Europe's.

I may have been a little hasty.

Thank fuck Diame is off, he almost makes me nostalgic for Sissoko. Aside from the chances we've missed, it feels like we concede every time anyone attacks us.

Somebody should probably delete Gayle's Twitter account now.

Diame looks like a poor man's Sissoko (something I didn't think possible), and I can see why Gayle couldn't cut it in the Prem. Still, a point away against a team who will presumably be one of our closest challengers isn't a bad result even if the nature of it is a bit annoying.

Gayle and Diame are to blame for this.

What the fuck was Sels doing there, he's completely lost when crosses come in.

Lovely finish from Boon's son.

Heh heh, I didn't really think that through did I? Yes, there are exceptions to every rule, although I'd hold him in even higher esteem if he got rid of the silly goatee.

Never trust a man with a goatee beard, particularly a middle aged man with a goatee.

Great stuff, much appreciated!

Off to Costa Teguise the week before Christmas to visit my folks who live there 6 months off the year. Unfortunately, their recommendations for bars/restaurants are solely based on the price of booze and whether they show the Newcastle games. If you know of any nice places please let me know. Likewise, if you are after cheap booze and Newcastle matches then I'll be happy to help as my dad has done a Phd level of research on both subjects.

If you read my post properly, you'll see that I said that these middle/back office jobs can't as easily be transferred to India/Eastern Europe (as the skill sets aren't there) whereas support staff can. These middle/back office jobs could easily be transferable to other Western European countries as the skills/education levels are already there. To enable passporting, banks will have to have a significant presence in the EU so these jobs will likely shift should there be a hard Brexit. Your assertion that all will be rosy in the city in the event of hard Brexit is simply incorrect. I work for one of these institutions, and certain departments are shitting themselves at the very real prospect of this happening. Unsuprisingly, I don't know of a single colleague who voted Brexit. For that matter, I don't have any colleagues who went to Eton, the Old Etonians tend to go and work in the cabinet rather than the city.

A lot of the points he raises are valid and will indeed result in a lot of front office jobs remaining as the reliance on English law and the inflexibility of employment law in many juristictions (although Hollande has already said that he would be willing to make concessions) will make it difficult to shift really high earners. My point is that, the front office is underpinned by an army of workers, massively outweighing front office staff, whose roles are can be transferred relatively easily. A drop of 25% of these would have a significant impact as I describe above. It doesn't take a significant loss of jobs for this to have a major impact. I don't necessarily agree with his point regarding the Universities. The UK universities are more generalist than, say, the French system which has a lot of business schools and graduates come a lot better prepared than their British counterparts.

I agree, the Tory party are in the city's pocket to a certain extent. I was just challenging Gordon Gekko Tree's assertion that hard brexit, if it hapenned, would have little impact on the city. I'm not sure why I bothered to be honest.

For every one of what you classify as a big banker, there are 10 middle office/back office/support staff. It will start with these roles first (many of banks had already relocated certain support staff to Eastern Europe/India etc prior to Brexit). These jobs will be first to be relocated to within the EU (including the middle and back office jobs which probably can't be relocated to Eastern Europe/India). While these are not the best paid banking jobs, they are still paid a lot more than most professions so this will result in a fair amount of lost income tax. Furthermore, the loss of these roles will have a knock on effect on the industries supporting them (professional services, IT, childcare, bars and restaurants, cabbies etc) so the impact will be multiplied. If the Tories go for the hard Brexit option and prioritise immigration controls over access to the single market then that will have a major impact on the city and lot of jobs reliant on it. In addition, the curbs on immigration will adversely impact the economy as immigrants are net contributors to the economy. The country could end up going backwards all because a few out of touch, racist (let's call a spade a spade) old duffers in the Tory party can't stand the fact that immigration enrichs our country.