Graham,

I like this one...

"There has been a decline in business investment, but you could hardly blame the government for the ending of the mining boom."

Quite hilarious when you think of how the Coalition likes to totally breeze past to "slight imposition" of the GFC and the stimulus in saving Australia's bacon - and leaving us as one of the best post-GFC economies in the world.

When Abbott was conning his way into govt on the back of the so-called "debt and deficit disaster" the GFC was nowhere on the radar.

But now you pull out "Oh what about the mining downturn!"

I haven't got time to dig around for the 11% source as we're off to the Historical Society for a morning's volunteering...but will have a look for it later.

Where have I mislead, Graham?...it's pretty straight forward in the wash up of Brexit that the likes of Johnson and Farage told major porkies to get the plebs to vote "leave".

Yep the EU cheered when the Palestian PM made up the lie of Israel poisoning their wells. When he admitted it was a lie there was silence from the leftist media. Thankfully the Brits have treated such liars with contempt. Why do the left fear and hate truth so much.

It is in the nature of votes and campaigns like Brexit that exaggerations will be voiced on both sides as the committed seek to convince the uncommitted. That the Leavers stretched the truth is undoubtedly true. But none came close to the suggestion that leaving the EU could result in WW3 as opined by the now lame-duck PM.

It is also in the nature of these votes that the losers will assert that it was those same exaggerations that swung the vote and that those who voted the 'wrong' way were too stupid to see the truth, unlike the Remainers who were ( in their mind) completely unswayed by the lies told by their side.

What is gratifying about this vote is that a freedom-loving people accepted the potential economic hit that may or may not come, as the price of regaining their voice and some control over their future.

That there will be economic losers from this is undoubtedly true. But equally there will be economic winners who have, until now, been ignored and disenfranchised by their political masters in both London and Brussels. Groups like the British fishing industry who were treated as so much cannon fodder and deserving of nothing more than the two fingered salute by the likes of Geldof.

What is so terrifying for the political elite in this is the realisation that free people given a free vote will ignore the exhortations and threats and vote for what they believe is right.

We saw the same thing here in the republican vote and it is why the left and the homosexual lobby are so desperate to avoid the homosexual marriage plebiscite. It's also why the so-called reconciliation referendum never quite materialises.

Britain is in for a rough time and tough decisions will need to be made. But the British will be making those decisions, not some unelected and unaccountable bureaucrat in another land.

Good for them.

Graham,

On the 11% company profit drop:

"In the two and a half years since the 2013 election, company profits have fallen 11% to their lowest level since 2010. This has occurred with the global economy registering decent growth and interest rates at record lows. In the six years of Labor government to 2013, company profits rose 28% despite the global financial crisis which plunged the world economy into a deep recession."

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jun/04/the-anti-business-labor-hyperbole-wrong-just-look-at-the-facts

Yabby,

Regarding the UK forging a deal along the lines of Norway...

"If you want full access to the single market, you have to pay the EU. Norway, the example everyone quotes, makes a per capita net contribution of €107, we currently pay €139 per capita. I could never see why it was worth leaving for €32 a head. We would have to abide by most EU rules, including those that harm our interests without having the power to alter them. That €32 is just about enough to give everyone one small weekly shop, as long as they confine themselves to stocking up on white bread and turnips. What’s the point?"

"The Tory leaders of Vote Leave, those supposedly civilised and intelligent men, are creating the conditions for a mass far-right movement in England. They have lined up the ingredients like a poisoner mixing a potion, and I can almost feel the convulsion that will follow.

They have treated the electorate like children. They pretended that they could cut or even stop immigration from the EU and have a growing economy too. No hard choices, they said. No costs or trade-offs.

Now the Tory wing of the Brexit campaign, the friends of the City and big business, insists that we should remain part of the single market. So should you, if your job depends on Britain continuing to have access to EU markets, or you do not want your taxes to rise and services cut. Britain has fantastic levels of public and private debt, low productivity and a trade deficit. Few apart from the wealthy can view the loss of European markets with nonchalance."

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/06/brexit-lies-opening-terrifying-new-opportunity-far-right-britain/

Just a bit more from the Spectator article in the question of immigration:

"In Norway’s experience, this actually results in far higher inward EU migration than the UK, when measured as a percentage of the countries’ total populations.

I do not believe millions who voted to leave will accept that uncomplainingly. Johnson, Gove, Duncan Smith, Hannan, and Grayling – our generation’s guilty men – assured them that they could slash immigration from the EU at the same time as protecting their jobs, and spending tens of billions on taxes and services. They behaved as if the English could have it all: free access to the European single markets and immigration controls. They never said that a waiter would cough loudly and deliver a bill.

Now they are wriggling like lawyers trying to dodge the judge. We did not quite promise that, they maintain. You should have looked at the small print. ‘It is said that those who voted Leave were mainly driven by anxieties about immigration,’ intoned Johnson this morning as he prepared to U-turn and accept the conditions full access to EU markets entail. ‘I do not believe that is so.’

This is just incredible. No dictionary on earth has enough insults to describe the frivolity and cynicism of the Tory right. For the left-behind leave voters of working-class England, immigration was why they wanted out..."

"What are they going to do when Tories tell them they cannot have what they voted for?

They will not say that they were fools to believe Vote Leave. Very few of us willingly accept that we have been stupid. The right-wing press will not admit it has egregiously misled its readers either. ‘Never apologise, always complain’ might be its motto.

Instead, I fear that millions of voters and their leaders in the press and on the streets will say that the’ guilty men’ have ‘lied’, ‘betrayed’ and ‘stabbed us in the back’. The opportunities for the brutish leaders and financiers of Ukip, and the greater brutes of Britain First and the BNP appear dizzying."

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/06/brexit-lies-opening-terrifying-new-opportunity-far-right-britain/

Poirot, we have a free trade agreement with America. We do not pay them a fee. We have free trade with NZ and they can come here, but they can't just go on the dole here. All sorts of deals are possible, where everyone benefits and there is no good reason why the same cannot happen between the EU and Britain except one.

If you look around Europe, people are sick of the invasion going on from both the Middle East and Africa and Brussels prevents their countries from doing anything about it. In fact most are sick of the dictates of Brussels, where they have no say in any matter. I bet you that if referedums were held in Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, France and a few others, most people would vote to have their own controls and borders back, as what is going on in Europe is a disaster. So the EU as envisaged by a few, is basically a failure. The Eurocrats in Brussels know that and are terrified that others might join Britain if Britain were to succeed in this. That is the only reason why they object to a normal free trade agreement, as happens all around the world and want to punish the British.