I recommend the Weekend FT. Useful for all purposes
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Whatever you do, don’t use the Mail or Express. If you do, you’ll end up dirtier than you started.
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Is that where the Black Bottom dance of the 20’s came from?
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Agree lack of intelligence, no need to announce 19% tax band yet or say ‘more is coming’ at the weekend, enhancing 2.5% GBP/EUR drop at 1am Monday. Commentators saying ‘basic schoolboy error’ or ‘what grade A-level economics’?
Though… we’re only out of it if we’ve no pensions or other income from blighty and no £ savings - which I think you are? I think you’re dollared up? 
You mentioned it’s all cyclical - good point, when we arrived in December 2020 to secure our WA rights I recall GBP / EUR was about 1.10 and I wasn’t wailing - that was what it was, wouldn’t have stopped me moving.
so here we are again…
… except lidl chickens now 6 euro not 4.50.
C’est la vie.
In this thread we’re assuming the UK government is merely incompetent - but we shouldn’t exclude the alternative view that they’re crashing the £ deliberately, as I mentioned in another thread:
EDIT - Discussion of this very point just appeared in The Guardian:
And of course. there’s yet another alternative explanation, alongside incompetence or forcing cuts: corruption.
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It smells suspiciously like , illegal ,insider dealing/trading.
Seems to be some (probably temporary) stability emerging now around £1 to 1.11-1.12€.
But I guess the market has already discounted a big UK interest rate rise - so the £ will fall again if the Bank of England doesn’t step forward with one.
Bear in mind, incidentally, that high interest rates are only bad for net borrowers (ie, the poor); they’re good for the rich because they compensate for the erosion of wealth by inflation. This is why the rich favour interest rates as a means of fighting inflation, rather than increasing taxation, which would actually be more effective in this respect.
Oh and of course the fact that higher interest rates offset the benefit of lower stamp duty - an aspect the UK media is intent on pointing out - only affects those that have to borrow to buy houses - for the rich it’s just a bonus (an aspect the UK media never seems to point out…).
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Oh dear…
The draft text of the new round of sanctions, which the Commission presented to EU ambassadors Wednesday but still needs the sign-off of the 27 EU countries, mainly seeks to use a slate of new export and import bans to tighten the bloc’s existing sanctions regime. And the targets range from everyday items to tech components that power Russia’s military.
For example, the new draft rules would eliminate the import of goods considered to generate significant income in Russia, such as “beauty or make-up preparations,” “shaving preparations, incl. pre-shave and aftershave products, personal deodorants,” as well as soap and toilet paper.
Camaeiiu (sp) the high street ladies fashion chain also filed for liquidation yesterday, a few thousand employees shown the door but the losses were massive mostly due to covid and being shut.
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They have been in big trouble for ages, they went under and were bought 2 years ago and now the same thing all over again because I think they haven’t found a new buyer.
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I saw that this morning Shiba. A pity. I buy (bought) jeans only from Camaieu (because they fit).
The nearest store to me was a 25km round trip so never went there unless I had to go to that part of the town but when I was packing a bit more weight, I could never find anything 46 and over so it put me off. Still a shame for the workers though but they must have realised something was afoot by all the reductions it showed last night and still people not buying. I couldn’t afford to buy clothes very often and they used to be quite expensive back in the day.
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Jeans - they are a nightmare here because all the shops are so different and so are the styles and cuts. Currently I found Gemo fit the best and have a good selection of leg styles.
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I follow it quite closely. It’s volatile at the moment. It was about 1.16 euros to the pound the other day. Was 1.145 this morning. If you want to change, it’s well worth having your cash ready to go and watching it closely. Starling is a great UK bank for all this . Excellent exchange rates and free euro account. Wish they did a dollar one too for personal accounts!
That’s the site I use. Very good. I had a bad experience with Revolut and don’t really trust them. There’s no FSCS protection either…
We both have had Revolut accounts whilst in France for some time and no untoward experiences at all. Same applies with our son and DIL in UK with their Revolut accounts.
Revolut continues to evolve and they are doing much to improve their support image which some have commented on in the past.
I guess your account is still active?
That’s interesting, Graham. It was like dealing with five year olds a couple of years ago! Never got beyond account set up.
I’ll maybe try again.
Merry Xmas,
Pete
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