Mediaboss Marketing

Big hikes in corporation tax. A sweeping programme of nationalisation. Large increases in the minimum wages, a 20-1 cap on executive pay, and, just in case it gets lost in that blizzard of promises, hefty tax increases on anyone earning more than 80,000 a year.Even in a normal year, the leaked Labour party manifesto has more than enough in it to make anyone in business or industry feel just slightly nervous.

But hold on.This is hardly a normal time for the British economy. We know Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell would like to pretend it simply wasnt happening, but 2017-22 will also see the most crucial, and in many ways scary, challenge the UK has faced since the first full bracing blast of Thatcherism in the early 1980s. We will be leaving the European Union, our main trading partner. And we will need to work out a slightly different economic model.

So try this thought experiment. You are sitting in your office in Taipei or Delaware contemplating your investments in the UK. You are already a bit worried about Britainleaving the EU and the Single Market, and all this talk of tariffs barriers and more forms to fill in. Then, on top of that, you are suddenly confronted with a government intent on raising your taxes, limiting the pay of your senior staff, increasing your wage costs, strengthening trade unions and confiscating your property.If you were already uminng and ahhing about whether to stay invested in Britain after 2019, that will surely tip you over the over the edge, and persuade you to get out.

True, it may not be the case that the UK goes for the full Singapore after we leave the EU, as much as some of the more swivel-eyed Brexiteers might like that. We wont necessarily become a drizzlier offshore island full of swaggering billionaires. But we will have to work out what our competitive advantage will be, and frame a convincing pitch about why global companies should base themselves in London or Manchester rather than Lyon or Madrid.

Some of that may have to do with language, the rule of law, skills, and infrastructure. Some of it will have to do with encouraging more domestic innovation, promoting entrepreneurs, turbo-charging manufacturing, and making sure that technology invented in the UK is also developed and exploited here. But lets be realistic. A big part of the pitch will be about competitiveness. We will be the low-tax, light-regulation destination in Europe.If you are fine with high taxes, lots of rules, and strong unions, you can choose France or German or Belgium and get full access to the Single Market into the bargain. If you prefer to be left alone to run your business the way you and your customers like it, then the UK will be the destination of choice.

Of course, some people on the left may not approve of that, and that is fair enough.They dont like free markets, and favour more state intervention and more regulation. But they surely need to come up with a credible alternative for how we can prosper after Brexit. Instead, Labour is doubling down on old-fashioned socialism at precisely the moment when we need to be making ourselves more competitive, not less.In any normal time, its plans would almost certainly destroy wealth. But for the coming five years, they are even crazier than normal.

Visit link:
The last thing Brexit Britain needs is Labour's old-fashioned socialism - Spectator.co.uk (blog)

Prime Minister Robert Fico sees the violation of human rights in the last regime as a big mistake but pointed to values created by people.

Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) will never let himself be forced into calling the period before 1989 a black hole, he said in Parliament, adding that the violation of human rights was a big mistake but people created a lot of value.

Should I spit on peoples faces? Should I tell a pensioner he has not done anything and that he should be ashamed for the regime he lived in? Im talking about the value that was created, which you could distribute to the West for a crown, Fico answered to a question raised by opposition MP Ondrej Dostl (Freedom and Solidarity/SaS), as quoted by the TASR newswire.

Dostl asked the PM as part of the Parliament's Question Time about his position in the socialist regime. Fico said on May 1 in Nitra that he is not one of those people who claim that there was a black hole here before 1989.

Dostl requested an answer from him as to what the main cause was that prevented Slovakia from developing like other countries in the democratic West, after WWII.

Fico said that he cannot be blamed for the after-war arrangement of Europe.

Maybe I would like to have had an influence in it, however, what happened after 1945 was out of my control, stated Fico as quoted by TASR, adding that the past is assessed by historians and that this period has already become a part of secondary-school textbooks.

A black-and-white vision of the world seems to be not very helpful in our efforts to understand history, assumes Fico for TASR, adding that both groups, those glorifying, as well as those execrating the regime before 1989, are extreme.

Spreading half-truths uselessly polarises society and diverts attention from addressing current hot issues, stated the prime minister, as quoted by TASR.

Fico explained that when saying he does not see a black hole here before 1989, he means in respect to work and the generations of people who are pensioners today and added that if this was not the truth, there would have been nothing to privatise in Slovakia.

Meanwhile, Dostl is of the opinion that society should not relativize the crimes of fascism and communism but take a clear stance on totalitarian regimes.

What would you tell a person who does not perceive the wartime Slovak state as a black hole but as a time when people worked too? asked Dostl, as TASR informed.

Fico told Dostl he is an extremist in his opinions. The PM believes that reasonable people draw a lesson from positive things and refute and condemn the negative ones.

11. May 2017 at 22:38 |TASR, Compiled by Spectator staff

Thank you for singing up. Shortly an email will be sent to the address you provided to verify your e-mail.

Error! Please try to register again later, your e-mail was not registered.

Your email is not in a correct format.

Original post:
Fico: Slovakia wasn't a black hole during socialism - The Slovak Spectator

Tensions Between Russia And Ukraine Blend Into Eurovision Contest NPR The finals of the Eurovision Song Contest are being held on Saturday in Kiev. This year's event is in Ukraine, but tensions with neighboring Russia threaten to overshadow the festivities. Facebook; Twitter. Google+. Email ...

Read more here:
Tensions Between Russia And Ukraine Blend Into Eurovision Contest - NPR

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrives at the White House ahead of Oval Office talks with President Donald Trump, a rare honor bestowed on a non-head of government. Newslook

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- President Trump, right, talks to Ukraine's Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin as Vice President Pence listens at the Oval Office in the White House, May 10, 2017. Trump said the U.S. supports Ukraine, Klimkin told USA TODAY.(Photo: Embassy of Ukraine)

WASHINGTON Ukraine's foreign minister said he receivedassurances from President Trump and Vice President Pence of support from the United States, as Russia expands its influence in separatist-held eastern Ukraine.

In an interview with USA TODAY, Pavlo Klimkin said, "Without U.S. engagement, it's not possible to sort this out, because Russia has respect for the United States."

Klimkins visit to the White House Wednesday was overshadowed by Trumps meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Trump expressed his desire to work with Ukraine to peacefully resolve the conflict, theWhite House said in a statement.Pence emphasized that the negotiated cease-fire agreements remain the most viable path towardpeace."

"It was very important to hear," Klimkin said.Russia'sactions in eastern Ukraine are makingpeace harder to achieve, headded.

For example, Russian rubles must now be used as currency in the Donbas region, instead of Ukrainian hryvnas,for all transactions, including payingemployees ofUkrainian companies. That mandate, in place since March 1, required transferringlarge amounts of currency from Russia, which Klimkin said could not have happened without Russian approval and involvement.

In addition,Russian President Vladimir Putinissued a decree Feb. 18 recognizingpassports and other documents issued by the self-described Peoples Republic of Donetsk and Peoples Republic of Luhansk.

On March 17, separatist authoritiesseized private and Ukrainian state-owned factories and mines, he said. One result is that owners in Ukraine have no legal way to communicate with Ukrainian companies in the Donbas, Klimkin said. Commodities, such as coal and iron ore produced in the separatist-held areas, are being illegally transferred and sold in Russia, he said.

And, Klimkin said, Russian state-owned mediaand the separatist-held region also started talking about the nation of Donbas, which never existed.

Its not a random sequence of actions, hesaid. Its an intentional sequence to bring the occupied Donbas far, far away from Ukraine.

Read more:

Russia downplays President Trump's firing of FBI Director Comey

Eastern Ukraine city in crosshairs of renewed fighting

At least 12 Ukrainian soldiers killed in disputed east

The fighting in eastern Ukraine, which started after demonstrators ousted a pro-Russian government in February 2014, has escalated in recent months, despite cease-fire agreements negotiated with Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany in Minsk, Belarus. While Russia denies arming the separatists, Ukrainian, U.S. and other Western authorities have documented Russian military support and direct involvement in the conflict that has resulted in10,000 Ukrainian deaths.

The U.S. and the European Union have imposed sanctions on Russia for its actions in Ukraine. Secretary of State Rex Tillersontold Lavrov on Wednesday that U.S. sanctions won't be lifted until Russia reverses its actions.

The Minsk agreement requires the withdrawal of heavy weapons and the restoration of Ukrainian law in the separatist-held regions. The deal also calls for Ukraine to establisha "special status" for the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that includes self-governance andcross-border cooperation with Russia. While fighting continues, that special status provision will not be accepted or adopted by Ukraine,according to Oksana Syroid, deputy speaker of the Ukrainian parliament.

Ukrainians"will not allow it," Syroid said last week in Washington. "It's against human dignity."

Klimkin said Russia maintains 6,000 military troops,2,000 tanks and other heavy weapons in the separatist-held area of Ukraine. Unless the recent changes are reversed, he warned that the situation there will become permanent.

Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2pCHYVo

See the original post:
'US supports Ukraine' against Russia, Trump tells foreign minister - USA TODAY

KIEV Ukraine said on Thursday a visit to Russian-annexed Crimea by Bulgaria's Eurovision song contest entrant was apparently not illegal, avoiding a row that might have led to his disqualification and tainted the popular competition with fresh political controversy.

A video widely shared on social networks and in Ukrainian media appears to show Bulgarian Kristian Kostov singing at a concert on Ukraine's Black Sea peninsula in June 2014, three months after it was seized by Russia.

Ukraine has already barred Russia's contestant from entering the country because she had performed in Crimea without permission from Kiev after the annexation.

Forty-two countries are competing this year in Eurovision, an annual pageant of the colorful, the camp and the cheesy that in recent years has increasingly been drawn into politics. Ukraine's Jamala won last year with a song about war-time deportations of Crimean Tatars by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

Kostov, who at 17 is the youngest competitor this year, was taking part in the second semi-final on Thursday with his song 'Beautiful Mess.' The final takes place in Kiev on Saturday in front of a television audience of millions.

Ukraine's border service said it and other state security agencies had not known about any visit by Kostov to Crimea when he entered Ukraine to take part in the competition. "We will study the information," spokesman Oleh Slobodyan said.

In a later statement, the border service said: "We do not currently have information from our sources or any other law enforcement agencies that he may have visited the occupied peninsula contrary to the legislation of this country."

It said Kostov would not have broken Ukrainian law if he visited Crimea as a minor and before legislation came into force banning foreigners from visiting the annexed territory without permission from Ukrainian authorities.

In a statement, the BulgarianEurovision delegation confirmed that Kostov had visited Crimea "for just a few hours" when he was 14 years old as part of a children's musical group.

There was no immediate comment from Eurovision organisers.

The annexation of Crimea contributed to a collapse in relations between Russia and Ukraine in 2014.

Russian singer Dima Bilan, who won Eurovision in 2008, urged his 1.9 million Instagram followers on Thursday to vote for Kostov. "He represents Bulgaria, but he is our hero!" he said in a post.

(Reporting by Natalia Zinets; Additional reporting by Margaryta Chornokondratenko; Tsvetelia Tsolova in Sofia; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

LOS ANGELES Fringed capes, pleated skirts and bolero hats peppered the runway at the Dior Cruise 2018 collection on Thursday as the luxury Parisian label spun its own twist on music festival fashion.

MEXICO CITY Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto wrote to Leonardo DiCaprio on Twitter on Thursday in a bid to reassure the Hollywood actor his government was taking steps to protect a rare porpoise in Mexican waters teetering on the brink of extinction.

GHENT, Belgium Belgian conductor Philippe Herreweghe, who turned 70 this month, says he has no intention of retiring as he continues to discover new nuances in the music of the composer who marked his career like no other: Johan Sebastian Bach.

Read the original here:
Ukraine says Crimea visit by Bulgaria's Eurovision singer not illegal - Reuters