It is very early days. Brexit has already cost me £300 in holiday exchange rate but I'm not complaining. I don;t blame Brexit,I blame my wife for not paying for our holiday before the vote. It was her job.

I am quite prepared for short term pain and even medium term pain because I am confident that leaving the EU will be good for Britain and possibly Europe as well. We will know more when the negotiation is complete and then we can discuss where we are and where we go.

Rebalancing the economy is something we really need to address and it'll take a while. Soon after every recession the consumer debt issue is all forgotten soon and consumer spending is a big focus again.

It's a shame we can't shift away from services in 2 years, replace the tax revenue and see how investment bankers enjoy Frankfurt.

I don't think enough infrastructure or really any infrastructure spending was implemented. There was also a reduction in housing from already insufficient investment/incentives. Wasnt it something like 700,000 new homes Dave said? It used to be 200,000 a year and that wasn't enough.

COYP

When the coalition were trying to reduce the deficit, they took the easy way to do it. They cut all capital spending to a minimum (although left white elephant projects like HS2 on the table) and didn't try and initially cut the structural spending.

That was a mistake - in my view Osborne's biggest one (made for political expediency). And it isn't one that has been rectified.

I may have disagreed with his small state ethos, but if he wanted to do it, then he needed to do it. They didn't go anywhere near far enough on reducing government BAU expenditure, but just cut the stuff that was actually going to stimulate growth. Which led to anaemic growth rates for the majority of his term as chancellor.

And Osborne was great* at wearing a hard hat and hig-viz jacket on building sites, but he did next to nothing to truly support a change in the makeup of the countries economy.

For me Osborne was a failure. And that is on his own measures. Like I said, his only real success was employment.

*Read "looked like a total tool"

Edited by OknotOK (14 Jul 2016 10.57am)

"It's almost like a moral decision. Except not really cos noone is going to find out," Jez, Peep Show

Fortunately I managed to buy my USD the day of vote...saved $700 on todays rates alone! Wohoooo

The Voice of Reason In An Otherwise Mediocre World

Boris Johnson, could he be the Tory Peter Mandleson - Someone who came back so often from political death under Blair, that the cabinet had to start collecting garlic and stakes.

"One Nation Under God, has turned into One Nation Under the Influence of One Drug"
[Link]

Indeed but he will need to work with the likes of Liam Fox etc etc. Diplomacy is of course a big (If not major) part of the role, so Boris will need to ensure he is the Statesman and not court jester.I believe he will be up to the task.