Business Insider: Theresa May only has two Brexit options left: Capitulation to the EU or a second referendum

His position — that Britain will eventually win a soft Brexit package from the EU — is a common one among analysts and economists in The City's investment banks. They believe no government could survive the economic damage of a hard Brexit. [...]

"So how will the current deadlock be broken? The chances of the EU conceding ground remain ultra-slim. Its economy is motoring, while cutting the U.K. a good deal would risk fuelling separatist movements elsewhere. It can run down the clock, waiting for the U.K. to capitulate as the cliff-edge draws nearer." [...]

"The PM, meanwhile, will stick to her unworkable proposals for as long as she can. Later this year, however, Mrs. May must decide, and we expect her to opt to keep Britain tied to the EU with a customs union. This would solve the Irish question and minimise the administrative and economic disruption. It is also the only plan that can command a majority in parliament." [...]

It's an extraordinary scenario, and it is essentially speculation on Tombs' part. What makes it significant is that, outside parliament and the Westminster media echo chamber, this is how the smart money sees Brexit playing out.

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The Guardian: Has the time come for a wealth tax in the UK?

The latest politician to push for a change of tone may raise a few eyebrows. It isn’t John McDonnell or Jeremy Corbyn, but David Willetts, the Conservative peer who was a universities minister under David Cameron. Lord Willetts will attempt to make the case for greater wealth taxes in a speech on Monday.

The reasons are clear. The public purse will be out of pocket by roughly £160bn by the mid-2060s as the number of people over 65 grows by almost a third, while the working age population is expected to only increase by about 2%. The government’s own forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility, reckons healthcare spending will need to almost double from 6.9% of GDP in the early 2020s to 12.6% by the mid-2060s because of demographic shift alone. [...]

|The divide between rich and poor is growing and it’s proving increasingly difficult to earn your way to riches. Wealth taxes are being considered as a result, with work also being done by the Institute for Public Policy and Research expected to be published next month. [...]

The trouble would be implementing the changes required. Polling shows wealth taxes are viewed as the most unfair way for the government to raise money, even though the accumulation of wealth is often passive – particularly for property owners. [...]

The French economist Thomas Pikketty has argued that without change, inheritance will eventually matter a lot more when determining a person’s life chances, as it did in ancient societies. Past wealth, he says, will tend to dominate new wealth – and successors will tend to dominate labour earners.

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The Observer view on Theresa May’s Brexit speech

May’s speech, signalling a fundamental parting of the ways, was a defeat for the business people, trade unionists and community leaders who rightly fear for the country’s future prosperity, cohesion and jobs. It was a defeat for young people, British and European, who, more so than older generations, will perforce inhabit an ugly new world of harder borders, work permits, bureaucracy and pervasive state intrusion. [...]

Bad because, in overall terms, the proposed settlement is neither one thing nor the other. Britain will not have its cake and eat it, in Boris Johnson’s preposterous parlance. It will simply have less cake. May rejected the single market largely because of its freedom-of-movement provisions. Even though employers have been telling her for months that Britain relies on EU workers, the prime minister remains foolishly frit of Daily Mail spectres of invading foreign hordes.

Yet even as she rejected it, May recognised the benefits of the single market, sought continued, frictionless, access to it, and lamely admitted that we will all be the poorer for being outside it. What kind of leadership is this? Such self-contradictory thinking would give Descartes a headache. The same applies to her Through the Looking Glass “customs partnership” wheeze that, she said, would “mirror EU requirements”. If she means future customs arrangements will be reversed, back to front and inside out, she may well be right. What a nightmare of red tape is now in prospect from those who promised a liberating bonfire on the cliffs of Dover and will create, instead, a giant lorry-park.

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Deutsche Welle: EU moves toward wage equality for foreign workers

It is not yet law, but the principles are now clear: Posted workers sent from their home country to another in the European Union should, in future, receive higher wages and have the same rights as local workers. "This is very good news," said Marianne Thyssen, the European Commissioner for Social Affairs and Labor Mobility. "We don't want wage dumping." [...]

Social security contributions and income tax will continue to be payable in the home country of a posted employee. This means that a Polish company that sends its workers to Frankfurt can continue to pay the lower social security contributions in Poland. This will enable them to compete with domestic German companies. [...]

Until now, Poland in particular has been against any reform. With 500,000 posted workers it has the highest number among EU member states. However, EU Commissioner Thyssen has the impression that the Polish side will accept the compromises. "We can also pass the new law with a qualified majority," Thyssen said, which means that it can happen, if necessary, without Poland.

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Politico: Exiled Puigdemont endorses jailed Sànchez as next Catalan president

The potential election of Sànchez will also depend on a court decision. He’s been in pre-trial detention since October and will need a judge’s permission to attend the parliamentary session at which he would be named regional president. [...]

He also announced the creation in Belgium of what he called the “Council of the Republic,” an unofficial group that is expected to promote the Catalan independence project — as well as safeguard a position for himself.

Earlier in the day, the pro-independence majority of the Catalan regional parliament paid tribute to Puigdemont. In their symbolic declaration, the secessionist lawmakers stated that Puigdemont is the “legitimate” candidate for the presidency, condemned Madrid’s “authoritarianism” and defended October’s referendum.

Yet they fell short of ratifying last year’s declaration of independence or pushing forward with reelecting their former leader — a move that could have triggered further judicial action against the separatists. [...]

Enric Hernández, the editor of Catalan newspaper El Periódico, said pro-independence forces are trying to combine a “government of a republic that doesn’t exist” with “the limitations of the actual [Catalan] autonomous government.”

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