Brian Abroad

I was recently in Britain.  While I was there it was announced that during November their GDP slid .3 of 1%.  In the months ahead it will shrink even more, maybe down another one percentage point. The main reason being the uncertainty of Brexit, plus the world economy is quickly slowing down.  Lower interest rates today are of little to no benefit and will be for months to come.  

It is the world economy that is the real worry.  Britain has one serious problem, as does Canada, 1 in 10 retail stores are going broke or in the process of closing. So many businesses cannot compete with online commerce.  I noticed the British tavern is disappearing.  It is easy to see why.   McDonald’s and Pret (a world restaurant chain) sell lunches and dinner meals substantially less and the food is eatable. 

London’s number one shopping district,  Oxford Street,  was busy but not as much as in my past visits.  Some stores had few customers.  To attract shoppers into their store, Microsoft has a McLaren in it for everyone to dream about owning. There is plenty of construction on going especially on government buildings. 

I took the train to Orlay Airport.  I noticed only four apartment buildings had solar power, no where else.  There was a small wind farm along the coast. That was the only one I saw.  Tiny Cook Islands has more solar power than England.  In France almost every small town there has wind farms working, but no solar power.   For Britain there is plenty of work to do to switch to solar and wind power, which will take years to accomplish.

What a golden opportunity for Canada this could be.  We could be selling billions of dollars worth of gas & oil to them.  We have free trade with Europe (and TPP) and Britain will want trade deals.  As usual, Ottawa is doing nothing to encourage business to go after these markets.  These countries would buy all we can ship.  I guess Ottawa is afraid of offending the U.S., Russia, Saudi Arabia and China.  Trudeau makes it clear he believes Saudi Arabian oil and Russian gas is better for Europe than ours.  And the heck to with potential jobs in Western Canada and Ontario (steel).

In two years  Britain will be outperforming Canada because they will have to work extra hard to overcome Brexit.  Ottawa will continue to talk the talk and do zero just as it has done for the past 4 years.  At least Britain will attempt to move forward and will probably be successful.

I also went to the Seychelle Islands, which is worth a visit.  At breakfast a special guest arrived - a crayfish walked up from the beach, about 50 feet crossed a busy road and walked another 25 feet and into the restaurant.  The owner directed the crayfish back outside.

A British newscast mentioned that Trudeau announced that he is going to be tough on Iran. ----It must have been the nightly joke.