Brexit: China wants UK trade deal ASAP, frustrated with EU's failure to conclude one

Great one, ignore MINT and BRIC countries at your peril

On the contrary I have been many times. An aunt and uncle went to live on Lake Geneva and I must have visited at least a dozen times over the years.

Not sure how extensive their manufacturing base is though. They make high end watches, and Swatch is a mass market company. But even the best Ski equipment tends to be French or Austrian or German. They make their own cable cars I guess?

It is a pretty small (if very successful) economy in global terms.

I'm no Little Englander. I'm also not arguing against trade. However, there's a big difference between fair trade and manipulative government to government deals cooked up to make Osborne and Cameron look good in photo opportunities whilst they pose in front of nuclear sites, with dodgy Chinese investment coming in

I don’t want to highjack this thread (sorry to the OP), but we need to give Corbyn a chance to Lead the party rather than having to fight mutiny every few months.

IN what way is it dodgy? Because it's Chinese. That would be racism.

Being against something emanating from China is not racist. .

Most people who live in China are (duh) Chinese. So the implication is there.

Furthermore, she did not back up her point. She just said it was dodgy, with the only association it being China.

Leadership is not about being appointed to a figurehead position and expecting the "team" to do as you say. It is about having the personal characteristics necessary to make things happen, even when the "team" does not agree with you, or is unmotivated.

Corbyn has clearly demonstrated that he couldn't lead a cow to market. He fails to respond to criticism, or to feedback, is indecisive and unable to impose himself. Those attributes do not bode well for leadership.

In a company, if this happened, it will be either a mass firing of the "team" or the CEO leaves. Since the CEO has a strong mandate to stay and move the company forward, the "team" must follow their CEO or leave the company.

I wanted Hilary Benn, but alas, he chickened out.

Tbh, I think the referendum shows clearly why Corbyn isn't up to it - he's a Leaver, he's always been a Leaver and he still is a Leaver. Why the hell didn't he say so then? If he had an ounce of real guts he would have done. Instead, we were treated to the farce that he was supposedly for Remain, but utter silence from him at nearly every important stage. He's popped up after the result for example to show his opposition to racism and immigrant-bashing, but not to my knowledge during it. He makes tweets and says the odd thing, but generally he hates appearing in the media, he dislikes interviews and he won't participate in most things he is invited to. Do you not think that as a minimum he should (a) be honest about his views and (b) as a basic for a modern leader, engage with the media?

I'm sure he's a decent guy (although it's clear that at times he is still engaged in SWP-style Trot organising and the sneaky internal manipulations that go with that) but he isn't the leader of a national party of opposition, he's a factionalist and he represents a small element, albeit, a well organised one via social media and the disastrous 'instant voting membership for £3' policy sufficient to get him in against the lacklustre people who stood against him.

However, I agree that Labour generally is in disarray and suffering from a chronic lack of leadership across the board, as we saw with Benn and Umunna. The after-effects of cynicism around Blair are also keeping supporters away and potential leaders below the parapet.

You wanted Hilary Benn? Fullofsurprises supporting someone who voted for the Iraq war and supports what in any other politician you would describe as neoliberal economics?

You are completely wrong. It is only politicians who talk of popular mandates. If a CEO is incapable of carrying his team along with him he is an inadequate leader, by definition.

The popular mandate can be summed up by the slogan Eat excrement, a billion, billion flies cannot be wrong.

IN what way is it dodgy? Because it's Chinese. That would be racism.

As a researcher, surely you should know that you need to back up your claims with impartial evidence. Otherwise you are just the same as the other backward idiots who generalise based on race.

I think that Corbyn should be given some time to show himself.

Neither progressive not leftie are synonymous with consistent or logical, you know.

Because this isn't.

By any sensible criteria, he has had plenty of opportunity to show himself. Leadership opportunities have presented themselves over the referendum, over anti-Semitism, over Andrew Fisher, and over his potential finger on the nuclear trigger. He has failed them all.

I'm sure, though, that those opposed to the Labour party are fairly unanimously pleased at its current self-immolation.