Sterling underwhelmed as PM May offers to quit if her Brexit deal passes - Polidicks

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-sterling/sterling-underwhelmed-as-pm-may-offers-to-quit-if-her-brexit-deal-passes-idUSKCN1R822M May’s last-ditch attempt to persuade rebels in her Conservative Party to back her lifted the pound slightly but uncertainty about how, or even if, Brexit will proceed kept investors wary. Britain’s parliament are trying to find an alternative to May’s Brexit deal and at 1900 GMT lawmakers will take part in a series of indicative votes on how to break the impasse. Eight options range from leaving abruptly with no deal to revoking the divorce papers or holding a new referendum. With British politics at fever pitch traders are struggling to navigate the blizzard of headlines. The pound is volatile but remains around the same levels it traded at in late January. Sterling on Wednesday traded in a narrow range reflecting suspicion in the market about the parliamentary votes yielding a decisive conclusion. There is no guarantee the so-called indicative votes will bind the government. May has admitted she lacks support to put her Brexit withdrawal deal to a third vote and that has kept sterling under pressure. But with May telling lawmakers on Friday that she would quit before the next phase of Brexit negotiations as the price for getting her deal ratified, some of the most influential Brexit-supporting rebels, such as Jacob Rees-Mogg, could back her deal. “I think chances of May’s deal passing are higher than the market is expecting at the moment,” said Justin Onuekwusi, a portfolio manager at Legal and General Investment Management based in London. The pound rose 0.25 percent to a day’s high of $1.3245 in a broadly quiet session. Against the euro, it strengthened 0.3 percent to 85 pence. As the United Kingdom’s three-year Brexit crisis spins towards its finale, it is still uncertain how, when or even if it will leave the European Union, though May hopes to bring her deal back to parliament later this week. “The possibility of no outstandingly well-supported option, however, remains, and would potentially obfuscate things still further,” Paul Markham, a portfolio manager at Newton Asset Management wrote in a blog post. Still, on a weekly basis, the British currency was slightly firmer indicating that the recent events in the Brexit process have been welcomed with some cautious optimism though the risks of more political uncertainty have capped gains. In a sign of how nervous the currency markets have become, expectations of how much the currency would move in the coming weeks have climbed faster than bets on how volatile the pound will be over a year. One-month implied volatility in the pound has climbed by a quarter to nearly 13 vol and the spread between the one-month and one-year maturities has widened to its highest level since the British referendum vote in June 2016.

Wait, offers to quit if her deal passes? Am I misreading something? My mistake or smth?

She's considering doing a Cameron except she's telling us in advance she might be doing a Cameron, rather than his spontaneous 'woopsies i lost, BYE'. Two PMs in a row that lack a backbone; strong and stable indeed.

so basically break the country even more then leave? and people still keep voting for them??

People are idiots and will vote however the newspapers scare them in to doing, which as they're mostly owned by Murdoch means the Tories.

If I die within the next 10 years let it be known that I want my spine removed, polished, gift wrapped and sent to the houses of parliment with the gift tag "This is for you seeing as you clearly haven't fucking got one of your own."

Calling huge swathes of the country idiots is exactly why there's the notion that remain is full of elitists

Doesn't change the fact that they are idiots though.

Literally don't give a shit what they think about me.

I don't think people are stupid at all. I think people are angry with the way neoliberalism has degraded their lives over the last few years. I think some of the anger at the EU is misdirected and manipulated by the media, but that doesn't make them idiots. It makes them angry and they don't know who to blame.

Imagine this being your legacy? Like, being remembered for presiding over the worst pull-out since Jimmy Saville realised impregnating teenagers was ill-advised. I mean, I should find it funny but I can't think of anybody to replace her.

They are idiots for voting for something they have zero clue about, except "it will make life better". It takes like a minute to google and see what EU brings to the table, and what you will be lost. The funniest articles to read after the Brexit vote were the one's where Brexiters were surprised about the stuff that they will be loosing, especially the EU funding.

this is true but it also doesn't touch on how conservativism which they support has been the driving force of those neoliberal policies that degraded their livelihoods.

Not stupid people don't vote against their interests. What I think you mean is that people don't WANT to be stupid and who the fuck does? But that doesn't mean they aren't, they're stupid and the government or whatever party makes sure they stay stupid so they keep voting against their own fucking interests but benefiting the government, uncontrolled tabloids don't help either and they're actually a pretty big problem in the UK.

Even as a Europhile that wants greater integration I think the notion that Brexiters are somehow stupid is just toxic. What it suggests is that these people are incapable of making the right decision because they're of lesser intelligence. That's not true. I live in an area where pro-Brexit opinion dominates and most of the last generation of my family supports it. They're not stupid or lesser people for thinking that way. Why are Brexiters so committed to Brexit? Is it that they would just change their minds if only they saw the facts, or accepted the facts? If we have people thinking that way then honestly we have learned absolutely sod all from this entire experience. Fact of the matter is, your average middle aged Brexit supporter didn't vote for Brexit because it would mean more money for the NHS or because it would bring economic prosperity. They voted that way because they don't believe in the European project. They believe in the traditional concepts of national identity and sovereignty that has been the de-facto political culture of all of Europe for over 100 years. Its the underlying concept that makes the middle aged Tory voter demographic so hostile and inconsiderate to immigrants and refugees, that makes them scoff at the idea of being able to live in a unified state with other Europeans. They don't care if it brings economic harm to Brexit, they don't want to identify politically as "European" or be in a European state. Secondly, the government has never promoted the idea that we should be consider ourselves more European. No real effort has been made to even question the idea that people of different nations can't integrate because they're like oil and water. Thirdly, the Remain campaign made no attempt to even engage with the idea of European identity either, it has been a massive elephant in the room since the very start but they won't even touch the issue. To this date the official position of the Remain campaign is basically that ever greater integration is just an exaggeration, even though that's the literal tagline of the EU project at this point. The education system in this country is screwed. Its pure luck whether you get any real political education before you take A-level, if you take A-Level History/Politics, and if you do, it will be a laughable wafer thin explanation of what Nazism/Communism is and that's it. Most people won't get taught the impact of WW2 on post-WW2 history, even though that defines almost everything in the modern world. Then, on top of all that, widely published and bought sections of the media perpetuate this same political culture we have now and maintain it with misinformation or just ideological attachment. Is it any wonder that Brexit happened? It was obvious to me at the time that Leave would do very well in the referendum and probably win.

Prioritising national identity over things like economic prosperity and healthcare is part of what makes people consider them idiots.

Conservatism forces neoliberalism by making the political climate and process untenable for particularly liberal political parties to succeed. You adopt a vaguely left wing social policy and an economic stance that isn't just "LOLLLL CUT ALL DA' TAXESSSS NO PUBLIC EDUCASHUNNN WE GOIN' BACK TO THE GILDED AGE!" or you get outspent by billions because the corporations are throwing all the 'Don't tax me!!!' tantrum money at your competition. Look at how Bernie instantly got out-fundraised by Beto the moment he entered the race. It's obvious exactly what happened there.

How is it idiotic if our political culture places it up high as the most sacred and inviolable thing there is? Its just what people believe. You can't motivate people to believe in a project as vast and ambitious as the EU if they don't even remotely agree with the underlying ideals of ever greater integration.

"the EU just exists to stop world war 3 and tell us to take immigrants " - someone near and dear to me.

No that's correct, she's basically offering herself as a sacrifice to try and pass her deal because most of her own party hate her.

... I'm so happy to be alive right now

Whilst I agree with what you're saying, from my experience of staunch Brexiteers in my family, it essentially boils down to ignorance. My mother bless her refuses to believe any facts or figures regarding the EU, and passes them off as "rubbish". My father, who seems to have his head screwed on more, still idly smiles and says "we got through a war we can get through this"... It's just plain refusal to believe anything other than "BRITAIN STRONK, IMMIGRANTS BAD"... One of my favourite things to hear is Brexiteers complaining that "All the immigrants come to the UK and scrounge off the state", whilst refusing to believe that the rest of Europe has just as many, if not more, immigrants than we do. It genuinely is a refusal to take initiative and investigate for themselves any facts or information. I've suggested, and provided, unbiased information on brexit and the EU and they just ignore it, then sit there and tell me I'm niave because "I'm not old enough to have enough worldy experience" or that I've been "brain washed by university" and I'm a "bleedin' heart liberal".

Blows my mind that "it won't be worse than fucking WW2" is considered a legit argument in support of Brexit.

I can see how someone who went through WW2 would have a perspective that dulls the impact of what might seem to be a "solely political" issue.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think Beemo's father was born before WW2.

Probably not. Didn't really think about that. On the other hand, my wife has written a fascinating thesis on how cultural trauma is represented and shared in different mediums. It's tangentially related, but the point is that someone can be impacted by an event without living through it, because it impacted their culture -- and it'd be very hard to argue that WW2 didn't impact Britain's culture.

That's likely, the war did have a heavy impact on the culture of every country that took part in it. Still, it's ironic that such a culture would be bent on spitting on the one institution that helped Europe rebuild while preventing yet another war from breaking out.

I'm honestly kinda disappointed that this article wasn't about Jim fucking Sterling.