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Post by captainconfident on Dec 25, 2020 10:11:11 GMT
Thoughtful article in the NYT. www.nytimes.com/2020/12/24/world/europe/brexit-deal-boris-johnson.htmlOn a positive note, I have an export enquiry from Belarus which I will be able to process using the very expensive Customs software come January, if it works. However in an irony symbolic of Brexit, the last delivery of the year, a truck coming from Sweden carrying excise goods under Single Market arrangements, seems to have vanished having failed to show up in the UK for a week. Don't know what will happen if it hits the UK border after the 31st.
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Post by captainconfident on Dec 24, 2020 17:35:15 GMT
Johnson: It's a blatent lie from the Godfather of pathological liars. That's the new normal, according to the Tory playbook. But Johnson was doing this long before it was codified into modern Conservatism. I don't think he can help it.
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Post by captainconfident on Dec 24, 2020 15:57:23 GMT
Well thank goodness for that. That's the America deal in the shredder then, as the UK can't align to the standards of both. No more chlorinated chicken debates. So, we end up with the EU as our trade partner just as before, except there are huge amounts of costly procedures and non tariff barriers to hurdle that we didn't have before.
The EU needed this more than us because they are by a huge margin the bigger goods exporter. Britain is in greater part a services based economy. I guess that the services deal which would benefit us more than the EU is going to follow shortly?
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Post by captainconfident on Dec 21, 2020 10:50:41 GMT
Forget the Euros or dollars, those who wanted it will soon get the whiff of empire they were so yearning for, as we look for countries who have something on sale that we can still afford.
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Post by captainconfident on Dec 18, 2020 10:01:36 GMT
The problem for the business sector (and anyone not on a fixed income) is that Brexit comes in two flavours. 1950 "We don't need them" flavour and "Global Britain" flavour. Global Britain is self evidently an open free trading country. 40% of that trade is with the 500m people next door, so a trade and prosperity deal with them is obviously the top priority.
If you're going the other way, 'no deal' with the neighbours is fine. We can ride it out. Tighten our belts, eat 'sovereignty' for dinner instead. Strangely the traditionally business and trade friendly Conservative Party has been captured by this side of the Brexit argument.
Why did this happen? I think it's because the Tory politicians used to lead the people, however unwilling the people might be at first to be lead. Britannia Unchained and Global Britain is the destination they would like to lead towards. But the Tories have diagnosed their coalition of Southern retirees and 'Red Wall' voters as critical to future electoral success and that this bloc, their focus groups tell them, is Nationalist, closed borders, defend us with the gunships in belief.
Because they are a party machine devoted to winning elections at any cost (unlike Labour where eternal bickering and ideological purity is more important than actually presenting a coherent plan to the voters),the Conservatives will choose 'Sovereignty' over trade in order to keep their voter coalition together.
The proof of the above: As an obstacle to getting a trade deal to benefit the UK economy, fishing is a trivial consideration. In terms of National Sovereignty and the Daily Mail, fish are everything.
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Post by captainconfident on Dec 17, 2020 10:11:06 GMT
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Post by captainconfident on Dec 14, 2020 18:49:37 GMT
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Post by captainconfident on Dec 14, 2020 0:04:43 GMT
Yes they blinking well should. We have a government crowing that it has a mandate from the people for its antics. No they didn't. It was the choice between the devil and the deep blue sea. They came first in a 2 horse race where both horses were rubbish. But if you are one of those rubbish horses, you want to keep the race to two. So Labour won't do this and will bicker with itself in obscurity until they get the chance to run again.
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Post by captainconfident on Dec 13, 2020 17:56:42 GMT
Fella I work in transport logistics and customs clearance. Your comment about me salivating at the thought of disruption for chance to prove a point to you had everyone in the office today laughing. Thanks for cheering us up. If you work in the industry you would have thought a more complex bureaucratic process of shipping goods is of benefit to you because then you have the opportunity to charge more and delight in explaining the intricacies of the process. Your comment also appears to confirm my long held belief of most scare stories being project fear as I expected, most of your colleagues appear to agree with you regarding brexit. Thus their esteemed representatives who make it to the BBC and others are also very likely Remainers who want to continuously warn us what we have done or should do is a bad idea but appearing to do so from a position of knowledge and neutrality. This unit was spun out of a UK company where I am still shareholder and for which we do most of the work. I do get the feeling that there are large numbers of armchair Brexiteers out there for whom Brexit is an abstract concept. Edit Thanks for the very charitable 'like' michaelc . The thing is, me being a Remainer is a moot point. We've left now and it's about the Gvt making a deal now, not making some philosophical point about 'sovereignty'. Actually the goods we handle are not subject to tariffs but these will effect the prosperity of UK customers' ability to buy and exporters to export, threating UK companies and jobs. If we trade under WTO, there is exactly the same loss of sovereignty. To quote todays paper, " These mean that any tariffs offered to one country must be offered to all. Sovereignty over the rules will simply transfer from Brussels to the WTO head office in Geneva." Actually I do think there will be a deal, because it is necessary for both sides. Please realise that no deal is likely to kill Brexit in the long term and Brexit fans should really be kicking the Gvt very hard up the backside to get an arrangement that allows some future chance of prosperity'
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Post by captainconfident on Dec 13, 2020 13:26:42 GMT
Project fear? And what's to stop the same action from a small number of disgruntled fishermen if a deal is done but they don't like it?
While you may be salivating at the prospect of this happening (and being able to say I told you so), I don't suppose the port of Calis is going to be happy at seeing their business moving to other ports because of a minority of blackmailers.
PS: looks like today's deadline wasn't realy a deadline. Talks continue.
Fella I work in transport logistics and customs clearance. Your comment about me salivating at the thought of disruption for chance to prove a point to you had everyone in the office today laughing. Thanks for cheering us up.
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Post by captainconfident on Dec 13, 2020 12:10:38 GMT
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Post by captainconfident on Dec 12, 2020 23:34:42 GMT
In the sequence of posting things I don't agree with, here is an effort from The Mail on Sunday to pin the blame on Merkel. This journalist is either spectacularly uninformed about the way EU decision making works, or deliberately misleading his readers into the idea that Angela Merkel has the power as an individual to make a Brexit deal. These negotiations are not between three monarchs who personally decide the outcome. It is between one 'monarch' who does have that power, our own Boris Johnson, and the combined will of the decision making bodies of 27 countries. Even at this late stage it is not clear that the British government understands this either. Their request to speak to Macron and Merkel individually (swiftly batted out of the ground), as if 25 other heads of state didn't matter, indicates how far Conservative politicians grasp of diplomacy has withered, from the country that drove the creation of the single market and had respected diplomats in key positions in the EU to this embarrassing groping about in the dark. A sign of the times though. From previously celebrating breaking away from the EU, the Mail journalist is whining as if the UK is being forced out and that the organisation we are leaving should somehow rewrite its rules to be nice to us. Brexiteers seem more comfortable in this role of victims who are being persecuted. It is not the image of the UK I want the world to see. Either describe to us how this is leading to a better future for the country or give it up and try to minimise the damage. www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/douglas-murray-merkel-gets-it-so-wrong/ar-BB1bSCOb?ocid=msedgdhp
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Post by captainconfident on Dec 12, 2020 17:23:09 GMT
Whatever was proposed in some long forgotten referendum was fine - ranking 1/2/3 so that the eventual constituency winner had at least 50% support of their electorate.
But the point I'm worried about is that the next 5 years is going to be occupied with the Scottish referendum and how Westminster will try to offer the opposite justifications to stop it that it used to justify the EU referendum. This genie is back out of the bottle and a no deal Brexit ensures that the Scottish vote is not only justified but has just one outcome. Not only is there an internal border splitting the UK, but the whole shebang is going to fell apart.
There are so many ironies in Brexit - the blue passport being printed in Poland or wherever, the new Land Rover Grenadier from a company run by a Brexiteer billionaire being made in France because of "bigger export opportunities", his words, And the greatest irony of all is that the Conservative and Unionist party will cause the break up of the union.
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Post by captainconfident on Dec 12, 2020 12:34:12 GMT
I don't want the United Kingdom to break up. One of the reasons is that I don't want to have to find my English identity if it is to be the country being shaped by the Conservative Party. I was very happy sharing all the islands with everyone who lives here. I won't go into the irony of the insane situation that the UK internal market has been reduced by a border in the Irish sea. The following article is by someone with whom I don't agree. It's a Scottish perspective. But the conditions in the other countries of the union have to be considered along with the reasons for their alienation from the centralised Westminster government. The picture it paints seems to me a true one so it is a red flag of danger that lies ahead. It is a long read but worth considering even if you don't like the conclusions. www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/its-time-to-break-up-britain/
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Post by captainconfident on Dec 12, 2020 10:54:59 GMT
Foreign fish should get the message and LEAVE. Only True British cod should be allowed in our Britannia ruled waves.
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