Agreed completely!
To be honest, the Lib Dem and Green vote are probably only so low because the FPTP system drives voters to only support the two major parties.

The level of dissatisfaction with the current political class, combined with tactical voting, may well see a some huge upsets for the two big parties this time though! It is not unfeasible to see 20K majorities overturned this time out! The youth vote will have a big effect this time and they are often not targeted by polling organisations who weight their polls to the average voters!

 

I'm being stung a fortune by the EU and Royal Mail for buying goods from outside the EU.

Last week I was stung £26 for ordering a plastic bead from China. £18 went to the EU and £8 went to Royal Mail for handling fees.

I've been asked to review flashlights and be an affiliate partner for a huge USA based outdoors company but I've had to refuse as the EU import duties will make it very hard to do it.

 

How do you mean, should I get respectable companies to smuggle goods into the UK, I don't think so.

 

Do you have the little postage costs label to hand Matt, could you post a photo as I regularly buy from China and am sure I don't get charged to that extent...but am now worried I've misunderstood the costs!?

 

Buying goods from the EU, the VAT is "usually" prepaid at the rate in the EU Country you are purchasing the goods from which can be lower than the UK rate.

You are paying the UK Customs not the EU if buying from China.

Using your quoted figures
£18 UK Customs VAT charge would equate to a goods value (including postage) of about £90.

Goods below £15in value rarely get charged.
Import Duty is not due until the value of goods (only) is above £135

The £8 to Royal Mail is their administration/handling charge for collecting the VAT and clearing your item through Customs.

 

That was my understanding, which was why I wanted to see the postage label Don

 

Just to clarify the tariff system for you:

You are not being stung, there are tariffs on imports, that's the law and is irrelevant of EU membership, you will still have to pay tariffs on any imports once we leave the EU, only then we will also have to pay tariffs from imports from the EU aswell which we currently don't have to pay. Any trade deals we do, MAY reduce or remove tariffs on certain goods, but not all goods, so even with a US/UK trade deal, it is not guaranteed that there will no tariffs and such a trade deal will be many, many years away or a really bad deal for the UK!

Currently, the import tariffs to the UK from outside the EU are set by the EU - As part of the EU, we have a say in those tariffs and also have a veto to any tariff changes (we used our veto to block tariff increases on steel imports for example).

While the tariff is set by the EU, it is not the EU who collects the taxes. VAT is usually applied to imports unless you are a VAT registered company and they are set by each country individually. The taxes are collected and kept by the country of import. So in your £26 plastic bead example, the £18 import tariff (+VAT) you paid goes to the UK Exchequer not to the EU! The £8 to Royal Mail is what you get when you privatise the postal service - daylight robbery!

If you bought non EU goods imported to another EU country, say Germany, If the price was also €26, then €18 would be paid to the German government in tariffs and VAT (although actually German VAT is 1% less and they could reclaim the VAT), they would save on the handling fee, so the importers costs would be €44. If they then sell it to you in the UK, they would need to add their profit margin, the German VAT on the new sale price, but there would be no import tariff to the UK, so the price you pay will be higher than if you imported directly from China (or wherever). If the importer is selling enough of the product in the EU though, he may be able to do a deal with the supplier for a bulk order, because the tariff is calculated as a percent of the purchase price, he would not only pay less for the goods, but also less import duty. In this case, he may be able to add his profit margin and VAT and still be below the cost for you to import directly! Obviously, once we leave the EU, then tariffs may be applied for goods purchased from the EU, depending on the final relationship we manage to negotiate.

 

This is pretty funny! Conservatives have been so busy guestimating and costing a Labour manifesto, they forgot to work on and cost their own manifesto!

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...fPaQ7pMGKUu3A5

 

Just looking at Brexit between the main parties means to leave vote Con, to remain vote Lib or Lab.
Lib want to kill Brexit.
Lab promise another referendum with 2 options, leave on their terms or remain. Since they want to remain, their deal is likely to be so unpalatable that we remain or virtually the same as we've got now so we effectively remain. The country has already voted to leave so why is remaining back as an option?
Con is the only main party committed to leaving.

 

Clearly less and less people believe a hard brexit is the answer....

 

Con is the only main party committed to leaving

You are forgetting the only true party for a proper brexit is the Brexit Party

The only hope of them is being a kingmaker if Tories fall to get a majority
​​​​​​

 

Lab do not want to remain; Corbyn has always been in opposition of the single common market...that's why lab haven't done anything useful for the past three years and there has been no effective opposition.

Apparently this election isn't about Brexit...

 

100%; De Pfeffel is just using this as an election tool, he really doesn't give a **** either way as long as he is in charge...and the Cummings is just an anarchist who wants to use the chaos the whole Brexit debacle is creating to bring the system to its knees.

Friday 13th is going to be quite a day

 

Hehe, Johnson a screwed Farage over big time, offering peerages to Brexit party member for not standing in the election! Farage must be livid after withdrawing his candidates from Tory held seats!

https://www.bbc.com/news/election-2019-50426535

I reckon this will be outright war between Farage and Cummings now, and my money will be on Farage in that battle! That move may well cost the Tories the election!

 

It's fun seeing their nefarious plotting dragged out into the light isn't it

 

It was interesting on Newsnight last night, saying the conservatives aren't targeting Labour on the Anti-Semitic argument, because their Islamophobic problem is just as bad!

 

Well I can't ebleiev they are being absolutely transparent so they must be using that to draw our attention from something else...could it be the Russian influence paper De Pfeffel is sitting on?

 

I won't be surprised if that paper leaks in a few weeks, it seems the press already know a hell of a lot about it. And they call Corbyn a traitor when Johnson is fully selling out to the Russians!

 

https://fullfact.org/election-2019/

 

I suspect the whole country, labour , conservative , lib dem, greens , brexit, etc are just sick to the back teeth of :_

1. Their own party
2. The other parties
3. Every single politician at the moment.

Just a thought..

 

Your original post made it sound like you were paying taxes on goods you imported into the UK from the EU.

 

Thought better of Rachel Riley


https://www.newstatesman.com/politic...-jeremy-corbyn

 

[QUOTE=dpb;12066547]Thought better of Rachel Riley


https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2018/09/no-nelson-mandela-did-not-snub-jeremy-corbyn[/QUOTE]


not sure that's the correct link?

 

Ahhh this...maybe hormonal as pregnant, but certainly she has put herself at risk for her beliefs, which should be respected; regardless of what we think of them.

 

lol@ calls to sack her, what’s that got to do with countdown meanwhile Jon Snow can shout **** the tories and be astonished at the number of white people still in the UK

Anyway, who thinks a SNP - Labour coalition government is a real possibility?

 

[QUOTE=ALi-B;12066554]lol@ calls to sack her, what’s that got to do with countdown meanwhile Jon Snow can shout **** the tories and be astonished at the number of white people still in the UK

Anyway, who thinks a SNP - Labour coalition government is a real possibility? [/QUOTE]

Polls suggest it will be a Tory majority...polls also show weakening support for Lib Dems with a correlation to the more we see of Jo S the further behind they fall.

Least worse choice FTW.

 

Polls suggest a lot of things; They suggested a remain victory! Erm, nope

 

[QUOTE=ALi-B;12066564]Polls suggest a lot of things; They suggested a remain victory! Erm, nope [/QUOTE]

This is true...it was close though

**** knows what is going to happen, all you can guarantee is whoever wins will have lied repeatedly through the GE campaign

 

Lots well off throwing their spare cash at the Tories....

 

Is Jeremy Corbyn unelectable - I think so...
If Labour had put up a decent leader they should of been a much stronger contender in this GE.

I actually (sort of) agree with some of Labours policies - I think certain limited 'national infrastructure' industries should be nationalised - Post Office/Royal Mail, Water, Rail etc
But I also think that the Tories 10 years of rampant decline of money for Local Councils and the determined Austerity policies leading to huge decline in normal daily/local life cannot be tolerated for much longer by most people.

There doesn't seem to be a middle ground anywhere - I've never voted Labour in my life, but I can sympathise with a (few!) of their policies - but the Corbyn/Abbot dream team - no ******* way...