After the recession what should be done about the North?

darkman2

First off im not against anyone going North to shop during this period. However I do wish to have a couple of points taken up that I think are important.


NI's economy is not the type of economy any country, esspecially on a small Island, wants on their doorstep. Ignoring the rest of the UK it is a poor public service driven economy which will never see growth rates that can be achieved here.

So im just wondering what is the real situation because when we get out of recession - growth and inflation will return. Meanwhile even after sterling has stabalised the slug like economy to our north will still be there. It will still be the same public service driven subsidised economy.

Now this leads me to my question for the future - because on this basis we can assume that because the economy in the north is so crookedly bent against any form of meaningful progress in terms of living standards or growth does this mean that we have to limit our ambitions because we share a border with them? i.e are they going to hold us back because they will always be a cheaper place for consumer goods?


Once again, atm, im not against people shopping in the North. However im just curious about how, when the recession ends, we are going to accomodate somewhere that has made little or no economic progress in the last 15 years on our doorstep. That has not made the advances this country made in living standards - and thus inflation. It's particularly troubling for us because this is such a small Island - it is not like countries on the continent which border poorer or cheaper countries.


I do think we have a problem here in the future. I don't think we can tolerate not having some sort of customs border arrangement after the recession. I think this is a unique problem for us in the EU.

What do you think?

AlekSmart

It will still be the same public service driven subsidised economy.

Hear hear,good point even if only to stick it to the One Big Island brigade

Hopefully our depression will last just long enough for the sluggish,repressed Nordies to flog us bohemian Southerners elements of their repressivness such as functional integrated Public Transport with INTEGRATED TICKETING :eek: :eek:

Once we`ve got that and one or two other wee things,we can kick-start the Building Trade once more with an Israeli style border wall...?

Dannyboy83

I think its probably a good thing.
Our inept government are reactive, not proactive.
Its forces some semblance of competitiveness back into our economy.

Vat is one example.
21.5% here
15% in NI
That 21.5% hits everyone the same way, regardless of income.


Fianna Fail wouldn't give a toss about the effect on the population, only for the fact that they are losing so much money, through cross border shopping, in a way they cannot deem to be illegal. (And they can't build the Berlin Wall PT2 either. And petty nationalistic calls don't mean squat coming from a bunch of hypocrites).

So they have to react and it forces some reform.
So they have to move from high taxation to job creation instead.
You can apply that across the board, from excise duties to social welfare.

ardmacha

The UK government will not be able to keep NI in its present style in the future, given the amount of debt to be repaid.

• Cross border rationalisation of public services is one source of economies, while actually improving service!
  
• Ideally cutbacks would lead to some more economic devolution, a NI Minister of Finance could coordinate things to prevent some of the more destabilising tax differences.
  
• It would be great if the medium term effect was to bring the UK into the Euro.

But Dublin governments need to think about the impact of their policies, ignoring the advice on the Commission on Taxation for annual property taxes is a good example. Houses cannot be smuggled nor can their existence be easily concealed from the Revenue.

Tipsy Mac

If we were bordering any other country of the EU we would have the same problem, if not worse in that most countries are cheaper than the UK. The fact that people shop up north has brought competition to the retail sector and has resulted in a drop in prices.