Brexit slowly becoming a Farce.

[Theroadlesstravelled]

[Fullerene]

8 minutes ago, Theroadlesstravelled said:

Looks like she was a fan of the Bay City Rollers.  How intimidating.  

[RiG]

Even though this was coming a mile off I'm still unbelievably angry at this news. Of course not too long ago Johnson was saying that no deal would be a failure of statecraft. Funny how things work out.

 

[coprolite]

5 hours ago, Theroadlesstravelled said:

I never knew that about Russian prossies. But are they value for money? 

[Paco]

I just caught an interview with Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary, where he suggested that businesses adversely affected by a No Deal Brexit will be financially supported.

 

Now I know he’s just the Culture Secretary. A complete nobody only in post because he’s a Yes man who’d say absolutely anything he’s told to.

 

But we cannot seriously be suggesting that taxpayer money will be used to bail out business adversely affected by the government’s failings? Against a backdrop of crippling national debt and inevitable austerity?

 

The example he was asked about was Welsh lamb. Over 40% of their business goes to the EU, on WTO terms you’re looking at somewhere between 35-90% tariffs on sending to the EU, alongside potential customs issues. The business is no longer viable as it was, it’s finished. Kaput. This isn’t good businesses shut for a few months by Covid so support them, there is no chance the industry can survive at anything approaching its current size. It’s gone.

 

Surely to f**k this isn’t where we’re headed? Government throwing tens or hundreds of billions at businesses ruined by their failure to get some sort of trade agreement?

[ICTJohnboy]

Julia Hartley-Brewer on QT last night :

"I voted for Brexit because I want Britain to become a proud independent nation".

Please UK people, can Scotland also become a proud, independent nation?

 

 

Edited December 11, 2020 by ICTJohnboy

[bendan]

42 minutes ago, Paco said:

 

But we cannot seriously be suggesting that taxpayer money will be used to bail out business adversely affected by the government’s failings? Against a backdrop of crippling national debt and inevitable austerity?

 

Wouldn't they just use the tariffs on imports from the EU (like Irish beef) to subsidise/bail out stuff like Welsh lamb?

I'm not suggesting this is some kind of good idea, but I can't see how it's going to cost 'tens or hundreds of billions'.

[John Lambies Doos]

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-55260468

Absolutely get it right roon ye.

Don't panic, Australia has some decent wine

[Paco]

Wouldn't they just use the tariffs on imports from the EU (like Irish beef) to subsidise/bail out stuff like Welsh lamb?
I'm not suggesting this is some kind of good idea, but I can't see how it's going to cost 'tens or hundreds of billions'.

I suppose they could, yes. In fairness I hadn’t thought of that. It would undoubtedly help.

There’s still going to be a significant miss though. The numbers wouldn’t be close to equal. The tens/hundreds of billions really refers to this being some sort of semi-permanent solution rather than an isolated crisis like emergency Covid payments. Industries won’t ‘get back on their feet’ within a year or so, because the market will be gone.

[coprolite]

1 hour ago, Paco said:

I just caught an interview with Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary, where he suggested that businesses adversely affected by a No Deal Brexit will be financially supported.

 

Now I know he’s just the Culture Secretary. A complete nobody only in post because he’s a Yes man who’d say absolutely anything he’s told to.

 

But we cannot seriously be suggesting that taxpayer money will be used to bail out business adversely affected by the government’s failings? Against a backdrop of crippling national debt and inevitable austerity?

 

The example he was asked about was Welsh lamb. Over 40% of their business goes to the EU, on WTO terms you’re looking at somewhere between 35-90% tariffs on sending to the EU, alongside potential customs issues. The business is no longer viable as it was, it’s finished. Kaput. This isn’t good businesses shut for a few months by Covid so support them, there is no chance the industry can survive at anything approaching its current size. It’s gone.

 

Surely to f**k this isn’t where we’re headed? Government throwing tens or hundreds of billions at businesses ruined by their failure to get some sort of trade agreement?

I suspect that "financial support" will be token and inadequate. 

Most of the talk has been about us losing export markets in the EU. 

Very little has been said about the effects of potentially removing the protectionist EU tarrifs. 

The government has floated the idea of the UK going tarrif free. First year economics says this increases trade and net welfare. But there would be winners and losers. 

For the aforementioned lamb, removing 12.8%+£2.50/kg from the cost of NZ lamb would make UK production uncompetitive at home. 

We could protect the Uk production by putting higher tarrifs on all imports than we currently have, so that domestic consumers support domestic producers. But that would be incompatible with trade deals with the exporting countries. 

There is a very delicate balancing act that requires a neutral assessment of the costs and benefits of every decision. What we'll get in knee jerk protection for totemic industries. Anything high profile and nationalistic will be looked after. Economically significant but unglamorous industries (intermediate chemicals, car parts) will be fucked

 

[dirty dingus]

 

This is doing the rounds on social media might be true, might be false but the way Bozo acts it sounds right on the money.

[Granny Danger]

15 minutes ago, dirty dingus said:

 

This is doing the rounds on social media might be true, might be false but the way Bozo acts it sounds right on the money.

To believe that you would have to accept that the Prime Minister of the U.K. is a crass, entitled cretin.  So it’s probably an accurate account.

 

[O'Kelly Isley III]

 
This is doing the rounds on social media might be true, might be false but the way Bozo acts it sounds right on the money.

I'm never one to advocate folk losing their jobs but it would be delicious to see redundancies now rip thro the the greedy, grubbing, English middle classes like wildfire. Only then will the stooge Johnson and his puppet masters begin to be held to account. The City of London would be an excellent place to start.

[AlbionMan]

18 hours ago, coprolite said:

I'm not "some people" though. I think that the concept of "Nation" and therefore the Nation-State should have no place in the future of the world*. 

Sovereignty for Scotland is equally as nebulous and shite as sovereignty for the UK. 

I think that Scottish independence would on balance benefit Scotland at this exact moment and probably for the near future. Mainly because the EU is a better Union to be in. But I don't support Scottish Independence mainly through self interest because I live in Wales and it would condemn rUK to Tories more often. 

 

*except when it comes to sport where tribalism is required to make it fun. 

As you rightly pointed out, the 'independence' sought by SNP  would not be independence but merely secession from the UK. It would be a transfer of dependency with even less influence in the new group than the old.

 

[AlbionMan]

1 hour ago, dirty dingus said:

 

This is doing the rounds on social media might be true, might be false but the way Bozo acts it sounds right on the money.

An anonymous somebody with an unnamed friend in Brussels has put out a story in an unnamed publication, and expects to have it believed by other than the gullible.

[dirty dingus]

2 minutes ago, AlbionMan said:

An anonymous somebody with an unnamed friend in Brussels has put out a story in an unnamed publication, and expects to have it believed by other than the gullible.

A bit like every story the right wing press and Kuenssberg get from un-named sources that gets taken at face value then?

[San Starko Rover]

Julia Hartley-Brewer on QT last night :
"I voted for Brexit because I want Britain to become a proud independent nation".
Please UK people, can Scotland also become a proud, independent nation?
 
 

No! Now stop being silly and eat your deep fried Mars Bar while we take all the powers away from your Parliament as you can’t be trusted to vote for the correct devolved parties like a good House Jock.

[welshbairn]

21 minutes ago, AlbionMan said:

An anonymous somebody with an unnamed friend in Brussels has put out a story in an unnamed publication, and expects to have it believed by other than the gullible.

What don't you find believable? It's exactly how I'd expect Johnson to behave from watching the documentary about his stint as Foreign Minister.

[Michael W]

9 hours ago, Theroadlesstravelled said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-55260468

Absolutely get it right roon ye.

Oh no! 21p on a bottle of wine! 

 

[Caledonian1]

Sunday appears the deadline for a deal. 

You (and Ursula) would imagine Boris to be holed up with the negotiators and Cabinet 20 hours a day......nope.  Just got an email at work saying Boris visited our facility in Blyth this morning...