Pound euroTHE British pound is ‘crashing’ after a new ICM Guardian poll put the Leave campaign ahead.

The Tuesday afternoon poll revealed 52% of people are backing Brexit, compared to just 48% wanting to stay.

The result sent jitters through currency traders who immediately began selling off Sterling.

It has dropped by more than 0.6% against the dollar.

Traders are planning for huge negative impacts in the case of a Brexit.

Joe Rundle of ETX Capital told press last week: “We’re planning for a 20% fall in sterling and a 20% rise in the dollar, so a 40% move.”

The British public go to the polls on June 23.

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23 COMMENTS

  1. Why the panic? This is a typical scare reaction from the bankers and the people who really control the EU . The European Round Table!
    The EU has helped ruin our Aircraft, Shipbuilding , Steel, Coal, Energy, Car manufacturing along with many other industries. Where are they now? France and Germany of course!

    If we were voting to join the EU and ultimately the Euro how many would say yes???? Wake up Britain. The EUROPEAN Union needs us far more than we need it.

    • Our infrastructure was flogged off by a series of stupid, short-sighted British politicians, it had nothing to do with the EU. It started with the Evil Crone, punting away the council housing, BT and Gas. Eagerly followed by every Knobhead who got their hands on the levers of power. It’s still going on. Gorgeous George is now rooting in the bottom of the bucket for the last dregs, even the Land Registry is in his sights. Pathetic.

    • Sorry Jean you are just plain wrong, it wasn’t the EU who were responsible for the loss of those industries but successive governments of both ilk and greedy unions who priced themselves out of a job. Those industries may have shrunk (we still build aircraft and ships) but they have been replaced with others which is why the UK is still the fifth biggest economy in the world. I do despair when people say we don’t make anything in the UK anymore. That said it seems the lets blame it on the Jews sorry immigrants plan is working for the Brexit campaign.

  2. Jean, I suppose the EU are to blame for the latest NHS figures as well, which show £1.8 billion spent on non-EU migrants. And what about the massive UK deficit, EU’s fault again I take it? Illegal immigration? EU’s fault again? Three big problems – all caused by UK governments. Blame the EU when it’s correct to do so, but to suggest the EU destroyed the UK is pure nonsense – UK governments are doing that fine without the EU.

  3. I worked for British steel before it got sold off nothing to do with the EU it was unnecessary strikes and workers who thought clocking each other in and out of work was their right getting paid for doing nothing it happened in a lot of industries

    • Oh, give over Frank. Even an epidemic of “clocking” isn’t enough to bring a giant industry to it’s knees.
      No, that special talent lies at the top of the heap, with asset-strippers and short-term plunderers of the infrastructure. Your sort of finger-pointing went out of style with the demise of organised labour and the death of unions.

  4. Frank,
    I worked in the Netherlands and I can well remember an old Dutchman close to retirement telling me in Dutch that – ” Dutch workers had better conditions and terms of employment before WW11 than British workers have today” – that was 1980.

    A Dutch worker will retire on 90% of his salary – made up of State and private pension. The private pension will yield 300% more than an Englishman investing in a UK private pension.

    I met a whole bunch of British toolmakers who had moved to the Netherlands, to quote them – “the only way you would get us back to the UK is in bodybags. Here we are treated with respect, there is one canteen where everyone eats the same food, all drinks machines are free. We have showers, excellent holiday and sickness pay” – so tell me Frank do you know any British workers who were treated to the same level of respect then or now?

    There is your problem and it’s been like that from the beginning of industrialisation and nothing has changed. The big construction companies destroyed the unions in the 1970s and they prefer to employ East Europeans than their own – I know who the traitors are and so do you.

    • You obviously had very bad employers in the UK but I had a very different experience. I worked in an office in London (a British firm) from 1988-2001 and these are some of the benefits we received: non-contributory, final salary pension scheme (now closed to new members), private health insurance for myself and partner, permanent health insurance, life insurance (3 x salary) in-house gym, visiting in-house doctors, free eye tests, staff restaurant, free drinks and biscuits all day, showers, en-suite bedrooms for people working very late into the night, overtime paid at double time with taxi home, two bonuses a year, 5 weeks paid holiday per year (now increased) and of course sick leave. At the time, I thought it was all pretty normal but perhaps not? We didn’t have a union either!

      • A worker should not have to rely on the relative beneficience of an employer. There are inalienable human rights, summed up as “fairness”. Granted, some of the yummy stuff you list Jane – (Gym? dear me) ought to be earned. But it doesn’t take a huge leap of the imagination to list the basics of a fair days work, for a fair days pay. (No, that doesn’t mean zero-hour contracts)

    • Stuart,
      Slightly confused here, do you not mean a Dutch worker retires on 90% equivalent to his once salary.
      I take it that once a person when retired receives no payment from an employer such as a “salary” but relies on a state and private pension same as those in the UK that are on a similar pension scheme. I also take it it’s obligatory to take out a private pension scheme in Denmark due to the population being just above the population of London and the state could not afford the same state pension scheme as in the UK.
      Am I wrong?.

  5. Jane G,
    you know very well that the benefits you received were far above anything enjoyed by the ordinary working people, so now tell us what your work was and what kind of company it was – a totally disengenous comment and you know it.

    Bruno, my English is perfectly clear. No, most Brits do not enjoy a private as well as State pension and when they do they are inferior in performance to a Dutch private pension because in the UK, pensions are a total rip-off with all kinds of charges, most of which are hidden. However CEOs and other board members of public and private companies have totally superior pension conditions, very often based on final salary which are ramped up in their final year so that the pension is enormously increased + of course PHI very often like Jane G.

    Re. Denmark – the size of a country, or it’s population is irrelevant to any State pension paid.

    • Nothing disingenuous about my remark, just fact. This kind of package was the norm in London and other firms offered similar packages. It was a large law firm and I was part of the support staff, nothing special. I do not want to join you in a race to the bottom, suffice to say, all British employers are not terrible and I doubt all Dutch employers are fantastic. It does beg two questions, if the UK is as bad as you make it out to be and Holland is so great, why are people clamouring to enter the UK (Calais being a case in point) and why didn’t you stay in Holland and reap the rewards?

    • Stuart, I think my English is also quite clear. I did not say all Brits enjoy a private pension scheme but those on a similar private pension similar to Denmark. But assume one is not on a private pension scheme in Denmark what would their state pension be, would it be the same as a Brit pension providing both pensioners had been fully paid into a state pension. As you well know there have also been thousands of pounds available (also in a part cash payment) to Brit pensioner’s that were involved in a private pension scheme who are also on a very good pension, perhaps the same as a Danish pensioner. Just curious that’s all..

      • Actually Stuart I have just looked it up. Regardless of having a private pension scheme which both employees can join either in Denmark or Britain the basic state pension in Denmark is (converted from DKK) is £113.24 per week whereas in the UK the basic state pension is £119.30 per week.
        Now the difference here is that while in Denmark it’s compulsory to take a private pension scheme whereas in the UK it’s not, but those in the UK that do take the private scheme also retire on a handsome pension.
        Please no more about pensions as it’s now gone off the original subject.

  6. Jane G,
    lawyers, non productive parasites, that feed of others and charge obscene fees to support exactly the kind of benefit package that you know full well has never been enjoyed by those who produce product or service that actually benefits society – as I said, a totally disingenuous comment. As Will Shakespeare said – kill all the lawyers, he was right then and even more so now. Europe has allowed this parasite to multiply just like the USA, to the detriment of society as a whole.

    Bruno, you must know that the lowest State pension in western Europe is the UK one. Just take a look at the stats on European private pension schemes and you will see that the UK’s are the worst with the possible exception of Spain. Now if you are self employed or run your own business and work in an area where you can enjoy a comfortable income, then SIPPS – self invested personal pension schemes are brilliant – if you develop skills at research into investment areas, you can then build up a very good pension pot. For those who are not afraid to handle their own wealth and future, it is possible to achieve really astounding returns but for all other pensions a total rip-off.

    • You think everyone is a parasite, one way or another. You are rude, intolerant and have zero respect for anyone who comes from a different background to yourself or dares to hold different views. Life has not been kind to you has it? Perhaps that is why you sound so angry and profoundly unhappy in all your posts.

      You may hate lawyers (along with the ever growing list of other people you hate) but they are what you might call a necessary evil and most of us use them from time to time. My former employers did not have to offer any of these benefits to myself and my colleagues, they could have just offered us a basic salary and told us to suck it up. It was a large international law firm that provided myself and many others with a decent living and treated us well (I have very fond memories of my time there) but your spite and hatred prevents you from seeing it this way, how very sad.

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