All bound for Mu Mu Land?

I suppose this could go in a number of ways.

I was going to do this post as a Thursday Thirteen, but it got out of hand with all the Operation Yellowhammer undertones linked to the possibility Britain will leave the EU on March 29 without a deal in place.

I can't shake off the ship of fools, even with Marina Abramovitch's arrangement below.

Just look at the stuff on the table. It still makes a useful and edgy metaphor.

We all know it is negotiation posturing, keeping a hard end-date to avoid further procrastination, but still have a 'don't confuse me with the facts (or experts)' situation.

Here's my two pennorth.

Money



1. JPMorgan Chase & Co chief executive Jamie Dimon said the bank would probably use Frankfurt as the legal domicile of its European operations after Brexit, though jobs could be put elsewhere as well.
2. HSBC chief executive Stuart Gulliver confirmed possible plans to move 1,000 jobs from Britain to Paris in case of a so-called "hard" Brexit, and said recent reforms from the French government would be positive, if enacted.
3. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are planning to spread their operations across a number of cities including Dublin and Paris.
4. Lloyds, Standard Chartered, Credit Suisse, Citigroup and Nomura are among the banks that are planning to expand or set up new offices in Frankfurt in light of Brexit.
5. Hubertus Väth, the managing director of Frankfurt Main Finance said: “All in all, we expect a transfer of €750bn to €800bn in assets from London to Frankfurt, the majority of which will be transferred in the first quarter of 2019.”
6. The City minister, John Glen, backed Bank of England estimates that Britain is likely to lose about 5,000 City jobs by the time the UK leaves the EU on 29 March 2019.
7. Nomura Holdings has set up new offices for certain operations in Paris and Frankfurt as part of its Brexit preparations, but says it headquarters remain in London.
8. Other Japanese firms, including Daiwa Securities and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, plan to move their main EU bases out of London.

Stuff



9. Carolyn Fairbairn, director-general of the CBI, said the failure to sort out Britain’s departure from the European Union was damaging Britain’s brand abroad and had joined a list of systemic risks to the world economy.
10. Ford has predicted that a no-deal Brexit will result in costs of $800m (£612m) during 2019 alone, in the latest in a series of stark warnings over potential disruption to British manufacturing.
11. The Swiss pharmaceuticals company Novartis has said it is stockpiling drugs in the UK before a possible no-deal Brexit, which it warned would be “hugely impactful” for patients.
12. Jaguar Land Rover, the UK’s largest carmaker, informed employees on Thursday that it will shut down its four main factories for an extra week at the start of April on top of a previously planned maintenance pause because of “potential Brexit disruption”.
13. Airbus manufactures aircraft wings in the UK and employs 14,000 people in the country. Chief executive Enders stated: “It is a disgrace that, more than two years after the result of the 2016 referendum, businesses are still unable to plan properly for the future.”
14. The BBC is considering Brussels as the location for a new EU base after Brexit to allow it to continue to broadcast across the continent.
15. Sony will move its European headquarters from the UK to the Netherlands to avoid disruptions caused by Brexit.
16. Appliance maker Dyson recently announced it was moving its (small) headquarters to Singapore, from Malmesbury in Wiltshire, although it said it had nothing to do with Brexit.
17. Panasonic has already moved its headquarters to Amsterdam, mostly because of tax issues potentially created by Brexit.
18. BMW plans to shut its Mini plant for a month after the UK’s official departure from the European Union, to minimise the impact of a no-deal Brexit that it fears would cause a shortage of parts.
19. Toyota has warned that a no-deal Brexit would affect investment and would temporarily halt output at its plant in Burnaston.
20. Honda has already planned a six day halt in April to plan for "all possible outcomes caused by logistics and border issues”.

Slush



21. Prominent Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg has defended the move by a City firm that he helped to found to establish an investment fund in Ireland ahead of the UK leaving the European Union.
22. Theresa May’s husband Philip May is a Senior Executive of a £1.4 trillion investment firm Capital Investment, which provides wealth management for UK investors, based out of Luxembourg.
23. Originator of much of the Brexit turmoil, Nigel Farage confirmed two of his children have both British and German passports, which would allow them to take advantage of free movement rights post-Brexit.
24. A quarter of the UK cabinet flew out to the Davos World Economic Forum on Wednesday at a time when the government is struggling to resolve the Brexit impasse, prompting the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, to accuse them of wasting time at a “billionaires’ jamboree”.

Even the Queen has pitched in: “As we look for new answers in the modern age, I for one prefer the tried and tested recipes, like speaking well of each other and respecting different points of view; coming together to seek out the common ground, and never losing sight of the bigger picture."

All bound for Mu Mu Land
They're Justified, and they're Ancient,
And they drive an ice cream van.
(just roll it from the top)
They're Justified and they're Ancient,
With still no master plan.
(to the bridge, to the bridge, to the bridge now)
The last train left an hour ago,
They were singing "All aboard"
All bound for Mu Mu Land,
Then someone starting screaming "Turn up the Strobe"
(bring the beat back)
(Hey hey)
All bound for Mu Mu Land (justified!)
(Hey hey)
All bound for Mu Mu Land (ancients of mu mu)
Rap:
Justified and Ancient, Ancient and a-justified,
Rocking to the rhythm in their ice-cream van
with the plan and the key to
enter into Mu Mu
Vibes from the tribes of the JAMs.
I know where the beat is at,
''cause I know what time it is.
Bring home a dime,
Make mine a "99"