The country is waking up this morning to the prospect of a hung Parliament, possibly the worst result possible for running the country although in some ways not a bad thing as it will probably ensure some compromise and balance.
The Pound fell on the international markets and this will definitely impact online retailers. In the short term it means that your products are even cheaper overseas and if you’re selling in Dollars or Euros you should see more attractive rates for repatriating your funds. However this also means that if your purchase raw materials or stock from overseas you’ll be paying more and, if the pound doesn’t recover, your prices will have to rise. You may also pay more for services if the companies you deal with either don’t bill in Sterling or their costs also rise (think couriers and fuel costs).
It throws the government’s plans for BREXIT into disarray with negotiations due to commence in just a couple of weeks time. Far from having a strong mandate to proceed, it’s now not even a given that our current Prime Minister will remain in power for the long term (and possibly not even the short term).
It looks like the UK is back to essentially two party politics with the bulk of the electorate reverting to vote for either Conservative of Labour. However this is just one election and it could change again in the future, if people are unhappy with the way BREXIT proceeds it’s not inconceivable that UKIP see a resurgence and equally the Scots could revert to voting for the SNP in greater numbers.
It’s too early to assess how the election may fully impact your business and personal taxation. Labour are greatly strengthened and their policies obviously resonated with the electorate, but equally the Conservatives are so weakened without a clear majority than it would appear unlikely that they’ll be able to push through every change they wanted. Certainly the so called ‘Hard Brexit’ is going to be tough to push through and with a weakened hand the Conservatives are likely to have to consult more fully with Parliament.
What do you think the affect on your business will be, both in the short term and into the future?
3 Responses
Well . . the “Lady in Grey” didn’t see that one coming, did she? This is what can happen when those in power get greedy for even more power, for us as UK citizens it’s mostly good news. But it does throw BREXIT into a completely different scenario, whilst those who wish to keep previous trading terms alive others will mourn the loss of possibly a stronger stance. In a bust up of “the 26 against the other one” we now have to tread more cautiously . . but I actually think one year on from the original referendum that is actually what more of those in business now want.
We’re small time sole-traders but it’ll effect even us, it’s as Chris says we need to take the positive with the negatives. Much of the cost of our raw materials will increase unless the Pound recovers but we now also see that the North American market for certainty is somewhere we need to be selling in strongly.
Well she went for the mandate and she did not get it. From a Scottish Point of view it gave us some stability which has been lacking in years , you are way wrong with your statement people will revert to voting for SNP in greater numbers, we voted on Thursday “expecting a hard brexit” we dont want, but we just wanted rid of the “indyref2” the greater of two evils.
However whatever happens we got some stability in this part of the country and a breather for five minutes at least.
Glass half full when we woke up on Fri, one problem squashed and another one arisen. I just do not get it if you wanted Brexit surely you needed to vote for the people providing it, all very strange wish people would make their minds up.
Anyway free trade with the rest of Europe is a must, whatever anyone says, personally stay in the single market. Most our profitable sales go into the EU these days, Uk is just a battle to the bottom in price.
Also free movement is important to myself as my partner is an EU citizen and we had that hanging over our heads.
It appears to be a right old mess now, we will probably end up with YET another election in 3 months and more instability and god knows what with at the end of that.