investment

Brexit: it’s time to stop gloating and start making some money…

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For political junkies, Brexit is the gift that keeps on giving. Every day we get a new story of how Brexit will destroy the union and cripple various sectors of the economy. For those of us who voted against it, it is hard not to have a smug I told you so attitude. But watching the excellent Ted Lasso last night one of the characters made the observation that every disadvantage is an advantage. More specifically England’s disadvantage can be …

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1994 assessment of Peace Dividend – likely to boost jobs in inward investment, export/cross-border trade and tourism, but losses expected in security sector [DED/22/234] #20yearrule

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Government papers released under the 30/20 year rule (DED/22/234) document a flurry of activity around 1994 as departments tried to calculate the possible ‘peace dividend’ in terms of new employment from inward investment, exports/cross-border trade and tourism, though officials cautioned that there would be heavy job losses in the security sector if there was a “sudden cessation of violence” in Northern Ireland.

Man who advocates driving off cliff advises friends not to be in the car…

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The Guardian reports that arch-Eurosceptic MP John Redwood has been advising clients in his day job to pull their money out of the UK: In the piece for the Financial Times, the Conservative MP – who has a £180,000 second job as chief global strategist for Charles Stanley – said the European Central Bank was promoting faster growth when the UK was seeing a squeeze on credit. “Mario Draghi, ECB president, is now doing whatever it takes, not just to rescue …

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(updated) Who will benefit from the eye-wateringly enormous £150m for ultrafast broadband?

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ULTRAFAST BROADBAND? If the £150 money from Conservative/DUP deal is solely targeted at Ultrafast broadband, it is unlikely to benefit ordinary homes in rural areas which today still have poor broadband. (Update – apparently yes, using Fibre to the Remote Node technology in rural areas … if the price [subsidy] is right for customers.)

“Now, it’s probably going to be a difficult argument with the Treasury at the minute…”

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Interesting, short, snippet from the BBC on that perennial favourite, and long promised, corporation tax cut.  From the BBC’s news in brief. Northern Ireland’s corporation tax rate is due to drop to 12.5% from April 2018 – but the RHI crisis calls this into question. “That legislation can only happen if the Treasury gives the green light,” said BBC News NI Economics Editor John Campbell. “What’s called a commencement’s clause. “Basically, the Treasury has to say, “we’ve looked at Northern …

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The John Lewis Christmas Ad is cute. Pity NI can’t have the store…

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Whilst the rest of the UK is enjoying viewing the latest Christmas advert from the UK up market department store chain, John Lewis we should spare a thought for the Northern Ireland shopper who unless they are ready to travel across the water to England, Scotland or Wales or Visit their concession at Arnott’s in Dublin, will not get to experience what all the fuss is about. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr6lr_VRsEo A John Lewis department store was first mooted at the Sprucefield site …

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What can #TeamIreland usefully learn, borrow, beg and steal from #TeamGB?

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World Champion Michael Conlon is the final Irish boxer out of the Olympics without a medal. He believes it’s a result of corruption.  Boxing has never run what you might call an open book on how it makes decisions. And it has long been a medal banker (16 since 1924) for Team Ireland. Now it’s not, the slack has already been taken up by a couple of rowing brothers from Skibbereen and a heroic woman sailor from Dublin. Other bright spots include …

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US Consulate: “We anticipate that a US trade and investment delegation will visit Northern Ireland in the first half of 2017”

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The Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Theresa Villiers, has, in effect, called ‘bullshit’ on Martin McGuinness‘ claim that a proposed US investment delegation to Northern Ireland has been postponed “directly as a result of the vote” in the UK-wide EU membership referendum. Unlike the Northern Ireland deputy First Minister, echoed by his party colleague, Conor Murphy, the Secretary of State named the source of her information …Theresa Villiers said that the US Special Envoy Gary Hart had blamed the decision of …

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The Importance of Not Being Idle – Northern Ireland’s productivity problem

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Since the financial crash of 2008, and the Great Recession which followed, the UK has been struggling with a productivity crisis. Productivity, defined here as the increase in GDP per hour worked, increased very steadily in the UK for fifty years until 2008. Since then, productivity growth has halted entirely. As is becoming traditional when looking at any sort of economic analysis, the situation in Northern Ireland is particularly bad. Northern Ireland has always had lower levels of productivity than …

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Why would you bother investing in Northern Ireland?

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Retired Irish Civil Servant Niall MacSuibhne (formerly the Irish Revenue dept) writes about what attracts multinationals to a region Ernst & Young publishes an annual review of Foreign Direct Investment in Europe and has done so for some years. These “attractiveness reports” as they are quaintly called give a continent wide picture of trends within the FDI sector, including both EU and the rest of Europe, so regularly ignored by commentators. The bad news for UKNI and those pushing the role of …

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Investment bubbles: houses, cars and tulips

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This is not really a typical slugger topic but I thought it would be interesting to look at parallels with the housing bubble in Northern Ireland (and even more so the RoI). Keep that in mind if you find what I am writing too tedious. I have a major interest in classic cars. I have a pretty encyclopaedic knowledge of 1960s onwards sporty cars and have got assorted classic car magazines for years. My real passion has always been Porsches. …

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Did Team Ireland miss a chance to piggyback off Britain’s strategic investment in sport?

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London 2012 has brought lots of tears, triumphs and disappointments… I was lucky enough to be in Weymouth yesterday for a near bid for success by Ireland’s Annalise Murphy, who did her country and her family proud by running the Dutch and Belgian women pretty close near the end. She’s 22, and now knows what Olympic loss is like, and she has the talent to come back again. She gave the many Irish who turned up in the Dorset seaside …

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