I appreciate that you find it difficult to follow my reasoning. The reason is quite simple. Try removing the enormous set of blinkers you have on, which keep making you adopt the frankly ridiculous position that absolutely everything about the EU is wonderful, and everything about Brexit is terrible. That is as unsustainable as saying there are no problems at all.
I think you are going completely over the top on this. I would like to think of myself as being on the side of fairness, although I appreciate you may not share that view. You seem to have a view that the UK is always right, and the EU is always in the wrong. This is despite all the evidence, and the facts. I really dont think that everything about the EU is wonderful, but I do believe they have behaved far more reasonably than the UK Government over Brexit. I dont think that you can deny that Brexit has caused many problems. Although there has been one gain. I watched "All Out Politics" yesterday. They covered an article in The Sun, which celebrated the 5 year anniversary of the referendum. I havent seen the article, but according to those that had, The Sun came up with 2 Brexit gains. The first was the tampon tax, which I wont dispute. The second was the vaccine roll out, which I will dispute. This one is a lie, as we both know. As we were EU members, we still had the choice of going it alone, which we did. The first lot of vaccines were ordered while we were still members. So that leaves the tampon tax as the only Brexit benefit according to The Sun. This is far outweighed by the havoc, and mayhem elsewhere.
You start by saying
"The best people to decide whats best for Ireland, are the Irish Electorate."
Correct.
Yet you have no problem whatsoever ignoring the UK electorate in relation to what is best for the UK. It is trite to try and blame Brexit just on the Conservatives. It happened like this:-
I am not. How can anyone not accept the result? We have left?
1. In 2014 an essentially single-issue Party, UKIP won the UK European elections 2. The Conservative Party, worried that they were about to be overtaken on the Rabid Right, promised a free vote on the EU 3. The UK electorate voted to Leave 4. In subsequent elections, the Tories promised a Hard Brexit, and got a massive Majority. You know, from the UK electorate
I will pretty much accept this. Except that David Camron promised the referendum in January 2013, so the 2014 European elections couldnt have had a bearing on this. I rarely recall Boris being clear on anything, least of all anything to do with Brexit. Although the exception proving the rule, would be him saying that an Irish Sea border would happen over his dead body.
I don't like that any more than you do. But Democracy doesn't involve everyone agreeing with me.
I agree.
Ireland's economy is being massively changed by Brexit. The Irish people deserve a free vote as to whether economically (and only economically) they would be better off being part of the British Isles. As opposed to being part of a European "Union" that wants to prevent them trading with their neighbour.
I think that all the prominent Irish politicians have sided with the EU, throughout the Brexit negotiations.
There has been a deal agreed between the UK and the EU about the island of Ireland. It is a bad deal. 2 parties agreed to it. And 2 parties, not 1, are at fault for that.
I cant go along with this. The facts were known by all sides before we left. Theresa May had the backstop, and no border. No backstop meant the creation of a customs border. The only place possible was the Irish sea. The EU had agreed the backstop and the outline of the trade deal with Theresa May. Boris didnt like either. The EU asked Boris to come up with an alternative. Boris came up with the protocol. He owns it. The EU agreed to the protocol very quickly. This was despite spending years negotiating with Theresa May. The result is a shambles.
I think it is ridiculous to blame the EU for this. The EU would clearly have been much happier with a closer relationship. Our side thought up the protocol. The EU just agreed to what we wanted. We signed up to it. Did we know what we were doing? Within five minutes it went pear shaped. Although I do think that many of the issues surrounding border checks may be sorted out easily. Instead of persisting with sausage wars, we could source chilled meats locally. Recruiting a reasonable number of vets to carry out the checks, would speed things up. Or do we blame the EU for that as well.
I appreciate that you don't agree with that. You keep banging on about the faults of one side. While totally ignoring the other. It's like being in the playground "He started it, Miss!"
What can we blame the EU for Miss?
Guess which 2 nations had little or no say in it. Northern Ireland. And Ireland.
I think that the DUP have been ridiculed for the part they played.
PS-love these irrelevant "minute" islands outside or inside the EU when it suits. Like the Canaries-that have a population way higher than Northern Ireland. Or that tiny little Greenland. Or French Guiana-that are free to import US processed meat
There were many invalid comparisons put forward during the negotiations. Like the Canada deal that had no level playing field conditions. Yet Canada arent a competitor that is on their doorstep.
I think the most serious aspects of the Brexit deal, will affect The Union. The border checks are likely to be reduced. A more intelligent PM would do this by negotiation rather than by taking unilateral decisions which breach International Law. The biggest problem is that of identity. How can the people of NI feel British when they are separated by a border, and have to follow some of EU laws.
A different result was possible, but we didnt want it.
An Ariane 5 rocket being processed at the Guiana Space Centre; the launch site is estimated to account for as much as 16% of French Guiana's GDP As a part of France, French Guiana is part of the European Union and the Eurozone; its currency is the euro. The country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for French Guiana is .gf, but .fr is generally used instead.[34]
In 2019, the GDP of French Guiana at market exchange rates was US$4.87 billion (€4.35 billion),[3] ranking as the 2nd largest economy in the Guianas after Guyana (which discovered large oil fields in 2015 and 2018), and the 12th largest in South America.[35]
French Guiana is heavily dependent on mainland France for subsidies, trade, and goods.[citation needed] The main traditional industries are fishing (accounting for 5% of exports in 2012), gold mining (accounting for 32% of exports in 2012) and timber (accounting for 1% of exports in 2012).[36] In addition, the Guiana Space Centre has played a significant role in the local economy since it was established in Kourou in 1964: it accounted directly and indirectly for 16% of French Guiana's GDP in 2002 (down from 26% in 1994, as the French Guianese economy is becoming increasingly diversified).[37] The Guiana Space Centre employed 1,659 people in 2012.[38]
There is very little manufacturing. Agriculture is largely undeveloped and is mainly confined to the area near the coast and along the Maroni River. Sugar and bananas were traditionally two of the main cash crops grown for export but have almost completely disappeared. Today they have been replaced by livestock raising (essentially beef cattle and pigs) in the coastal savannas between Cayenne and the second-largest town, Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, and market gardening (fruits and vegetables) developed by the Hmong communities settled in French Guiana in the 1970s, both destined to the local market. A thriving rice production, developed on polders near Mana from the early 1980s to the late 2000s, has almost completely disappeared since 2011 due to marine erosion and new EU plant health rules which forbid the use of many pesticides and fertilizers. Tourism, especially eco-tourism, is growing. Unemployment has been persistently high in the last few decades: 20% to 25% (22.3% in 2012).[39]
In 2019, the GDP per capita of French Guiana at market exchange rates, not at PPP, was US$17,099 (€15,272),[3][40] only 41.7% of metropolitan France's average GDP per capita that year, and 49.0% of the metropolitan French regions outside the Paris Region.[3]
Social unrest in 2017 paralyzed the economy for several weeks and led to an economic recession (−3.5% in real terms), which sunk the GDP per capita that year.[41] The economy rebounded in 2018 (+2.8%) and in 2019 (+4.1%).[41]
Ireland has 2 vitally important (and biggest) markets for exports and imports. They are the USA and the UK. The EU's mantra on European "Union" seeks to prevent Ireland trading with it's biggest partners.
You may think Kate Hoey is mad, but I believe it is not in Ireland's best economic interests to be in a trading bloc that seeks to penalise Ireland's biggest customers. The deal as it stands is just as bad for Ireland as it is the UK.
The UK is eager to have/continue the special trading relationship that it has had with Ireland since before the EEC (never mind the EU) was formed. In particular, the North West of Ireland and the West of Northern Ireland are much more dependant on one another than on London, Belfast or Dublin.
If there has to be trading posts set up, that will be at the EU's insistence, and (presumably) at Ireland's cost. Because it is not our Single Market. Compare and contrast this with the dispensations given to the Canaries, French dependencies, even the UK bases on Cyprus.
When we were in the EU, and the Channel Islands, Isle of Man etc were not, the EU did not adopt the same position as in Northern Ireland now.
Five years on, we finally know what Brexit means: utter calamity
…
Five years ago today, in the early hours, Britain discovered what it had done – and what had been done to it by the liars, charlatans and rogues who mis-sold Brexit as “taking back control”. The wound is as fresh as ever. Breaking apart political parties and reversing erstwhile red or blue wall seats is a minor matter, but Brexit’s explosive division of the country by social class, geography and a deep sense of personal identity is a lasting injury.
Few have changed their mind: though polls put remain (or return) ahead by a nose, no one wants to be put through that **** again. Brexit is done for the foreseeable future, though a government thriving on national disunity strives to keep it alive with infantile culture wars and “anti-woke” phoney patriotism. Polls give the Conservatives a 14-point lead, as they head into next week’s Batley and Spen byelection. No surprise, for what party in power could dream of a better boast than this: the vaccines are genuinely bestowing the gift of staying alive on every single citizen. And Britain is out ahead of other European countries: pollsters tell me voters sincerely (though unjustly) believe that had we remained in the EU, we couldn’t have had our own programme. Despite EU vaccinators catching up, and the UK having more dead and more debt than they do, Covid is still a convenient cover.
Yet barely a day goes by without further proofs of Brexit’s damage, some of it now forcing its way into the Tory press. This week, pigeon fanciers are barred from having their birds participate in cross-Channel races by new rules. Less niche is the alarming 17% rise in food prices: Ian Wright, of the Food and Drink Federation, tells me Brexit costs and obstructions have sent commodity prices soaring, and those are now working their way on to the shelves. The unexpected £2bn fall in UK food and drink exports to the EU in just the first quarter of this year is, Wright tells me, “no teething problem, but very real and sustained. Smaller firms have stopped exporting”, overwhelmed by the new obstacles. The government may turn a permanent blind eye on import checks starting next week: “But that soon gets dangerous. When no one checks, who knows if imported food is what it says on the tin, and not, say, horse meat?”
Financial services are migrating to the EU: by March, Brexit had already driven away an estimated £1.3 trillion of assets and jobs. By April, more than 440 finance firms had fled, taking 10% of the UK’s financial sector assets, worth a staggering £900bn, while foreign investment subsides.
Boris Johnson’s hastily botched EU trade deal left out finance, responsible for 80% of our exports by value. It nearly stalled over fishing, a sector with just 12,000 jobs, yet even that industry is wrecked – and the Express says so: “‘They’ve sold us down the f*****g river!’ British fishermen hit out on Brexit anniversary.” Wherever you look, expect the same story. The assault on the arts, music and broadcasting is lethal for a sector where Britain excels. This week, the music industry has been begging for an end to the deadlock over EU touring, vital for its viability. Another thunderbolt struck this week with a report showing the EU is likely to enforce its rules limiting non-EU content in its broadcasting: nothing new here, the EU is always strict on cultural protection against the US. That strips millions from financing for drama and other programmes, on top of BBC cuts and the possible privatisation of Channel 4.
Look at almost any industry and you find too much damage done to fit in this space: vanishing EU workers, no EU arrest warrant or crime data sharing, the loss of Erasmus, EU visitors handcuffed at our airports, and EU citizens here in peril of being failed by the Home Office, in a manner redolent of the Windrush scandal – a poisonous message that will deter EU tourism.
As the Brexiters’ reckless unreadiness unfolds, the government emerges devoid of basic policy. Is it for protecting our farmers, manufacturers, steel or wind turbine makers, or is it for wild free trade, with the cheapest food and products imported, regardless of home industries? The Australia deal sold out farmers, with 60 times more beef imported next year for a puny 0.02% GDP increase over 15 years.
Yesterday the sausages were kicked down the road, but this will only delay the Northern Ireland protocol crisis beyond the tense marching season. There’s an easy answer to food export dilemmas if a pig-headed prime minister hadn’t appointed the mulish Lord Frost to block it: only ideology stops them agreeing to EU food standards, as we have agreed to EU employment and environment norms. That should alarm most voters who may not relish an inalienable right to lower food quality.
It’s high time Labour broke its silence on these calamities, and it should start right there with food standards. It would be an easy win. Had the Brexiters lost by a whisker five years ago, do you think they would have quietly capitulated, any more than the SNP did after it lost in 2014? The omerta of Labour remainers has done them no favours, letting these Brexit car crashes pile up unopposed. True, Brexit is electoral dynamite that Johnson plans to exploit for ever, but that’s why Labour needs to make a stand now. There’s no re-opening the referendum, it should just target the failed trade deal. Polls show the public knows how bad it is, Strathclyde university’s Prof John Curtice found that even among leave voters, only one in three thinks it a good deal.
Emily Thornberry, shadowing on trade, sees that wide-open goal. “Be grown-up and pragmatic,” she says. “We need a good deal. We can make the best of Brexit, while they’ve made the worst of it.” So far Covid shrouds the effects, driving the EU trade deal’s disasters from most front pages. But on everything from farming, manufacturing and finance to entertainment and food the government is vulnerable and culpable, if Labour would shake off its paralysing Brexit-phobia.
Now EE joins O2 in bringing back roaming charges: BT-owned mobile network announces customers will be charged £2 a day to use phone in the EU from next year
The move will affect new customers and those upgrading from July 7, who face a £2 daily fee from January 2022 to use their phones when roaming in the EU.
Comments
The paper describes them being "in a flap" because the new rules require cross-Channel pigeons to stay in the EU for 21 days before a race.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-57590098
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/johnson-loves-science-when-he-can-crow-about-britain-when-it-demands-facts-he-s-less-keen/ar-AALm5lx?ocid=msedgntp
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/roaming-charges-to-return-for-travellers-to-eu-in-brexit-blow-leading-operator-announces/ar-AALmkAm?ocid=msedgntp
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/newslondon/lord-hayward-brexit-impact-will-be-felt-for-years-as-it-broke-voter-habits-of-a-lifetime/ar-AALlsmX?ocid=msedgntp
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/newslondon/brexit-vote-five-years-on-the-sheer-disbelief/ar-AALl304?ocid=msedgntp
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/i-still-believe-brexit-will-be-reversed-entirely-in-this-generation/ar-AALlvP6?ocid=msedgntp
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/boris-johnson-has-no-intention-of-uniting-the-country-over-brexit-division-suits-him/ar-AALlJ0O?ocid=msedgntp
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/uk-confident-that-eu-will-fold-and-allow-changes-to-northern-ireland-brexit-deal/ar-AALlXGr?ocid=msedgntp
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/negotiating-sausages-while-the-world-burns-brussels-can-t-move-on-from-brexit-no-matter-how-hard-it-tries/ar-AALl9X8?ocid=msedgntp
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/the-real-brexit-dividend-minus-800m-a-week-and-counting/ar-AALkWoa?ocid=msedgntp
I appreciate that you find it difficult to follow my reasoning. The reason is quite simple. Try removing the enormous set of blinkers you have on, which keep making you adopt the frankly ridiculous position that absolutely everything about the EU is wonderful, and everything about Brexit is terrible. That is as unsustainable as saying there are no problems at all.
I think you are going completely over the top on this.
I would like to think of myself as being on the side of fairness, although I appreciate you may not share that view.
You seem to have a view that the UK is always right, and the EU is always in the wrong.
This is despite all the evidence, and the facts.
I really dont think that everything about the EU is wonderful, but I do believe they have behaved far more reasonably than the UK Government over Brexit.
I dont think that you can deny that Brexit has caused many problems.
Although there has been one gain.
I watched "All Out Politics" yesterday.
They covered an article in The Sun, which celebrated the 5 year anniversary of the referendum.
I havent seen the article, but according to those that had, The Sun came up with 2 Brexit gains.
The first was the tampon tax, which I wont dispute.
The second was the vaccine roll out, which I will dispute.
This one is a lie, as we both know.
As we were EU members, we still had the choice of going it alone, which we did.
The first lot of vaccines were ordered while we were still members.
So that leaves the tampon tax as the only Brexit benefit according to The Sun.
This is far outweighed by the havoc, and mayhem elsewhere.
You start by saying
"The best people to decide whats best for Ireland, are the Irish Electorate."
Correct.
Yet you have no problem whatsoever ignoring the UK electorate in relation to what is best for the UK. It is trite to try and blame Brexit just on the Conservatives. It happened like this:-
I am not.
How can anyone not accept the result?
We have left?
1. In 2014 an essentially single-issue Party, UKIP won the UK European elections
2. The Conservative Party, worried that they were about to be overtaken on the Rabid Right, promised a free vote on the EU
3. The UK electorate voted to Leave
4. In subsequent elections, the Tories promised a Hard Brexit, and got a massive Majority. You know, from the UK electorate
I will pretty much accept this.
Except that David Camron promised the referendum in January 2013, so the 2014 European elections couldnt have had a bearing on this.
I rarely recall Boris being clear on anything, least of all anything to do with Brexit.
Although the exception proving the rule, would be him saying that an Irish Sea border would happen over his dead body.
I don't like that any more than you do. But Democracy doesn't involve everyone agreeing with me.
I agree.
Ireland's economy is being massively changed by Brexit. The Irish people deserve a free vote as to whether economically (and only economically) they would be better off being part of the British Isles. As opposed to being part of a European "Union" that wants to prevent them trading with their neighbour.
I think that all the prominent Irish politicians have sided with the EU, throughout the Brexit negotiations.
There has been a deal agreed between the UK and the EU about the island of Ireland. It is a bad deal. 2 parties agreed to it. And 2 parties, not 1, are at fault for that.
I cant go along with this.
The facts were known by all sides before we left.
Theresa May had the backstop, and no border.
No backstop meant the creation of a customs border.
The only place possible was the Irish sea.
The EU had agreed the backstop and the outline of the trade deal with Theresa May.
Boris didnt like either.
The EU asked Boris to come up with an alternative.
Boris came up with the protocol.
He owns it.
The EU agreed to the protocol very quickly.
This was despite spending years negotiating with Theresa May.
The result is a shambles.
I think it is ridiculous to blame the EU for this.
The EU would clearly have been much happier with a closer relationship.
Our side thought up the protocol.
The EU just agreed to what we wanted.
We signed up to it.
Did we know what we were doing?
Within five minutes it went pear shaped.
Although I do think that many of the issues surrounding border checks may be sorted out easily.
Instead of persisting with sausage wars, we could source chilled meats locally.
Recruiting a reasonable number of vets to carry out the checks, would speed things up.
Or do we blame the EU for that as well.
I appreciate that you don't agree with that. You keep banging on about the faults of one side. While totally ignoring the other. It's like being in the playground "He started it, Miss!"
What can we blame the EU for Miss?
Guess which 2 nations had little or no say in it. Northern Ireland. And Ireland.
I think that the DUP have been ridiculed for the part they played.
PS-love these irrelevant "minute" islands outside or inside the EU when it suits. Like the Canaries-that have a population way higher than Northern Ireland. Or that tiny little Greenland. Or French Guiana-that are free to import US processed meat
There were many invalid comparisons put forward during the negotiations.
Like the Canada deal that had no level playing field conditions.
Yet Canada arent a competitor that is on their doorstep.
I think the most serious aspects of the Brexit deal, will affect The Union.
The border checks are likely to be reduced.
A more intelligent PM would do this by negotiation rather than by taking unilateral decisions which breach International Law.
The biggest problem is that of identity.
How can the people of NI feel British when they are separated by a border, and have to follow some of EU laws.
A different result was possible, but we didnt want it.
Main article: Economy of French Guiana
An Ariane 5 rocket being processed at the Guiana Space Centre; the launch site is estimated to account for as much as 16% of French Guiana's GDP
As a part of France, French Guiana is part of the European Union and the Eurozone; its currency is the euro. The country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for French Guiana is .gf, but .fr is generally used instead.[34]
In 2019, the GDP of French Guiana at market exchange rates was US$4.87 billion (€4.35 billion),[3] ranking as the 2nd largest economy in the Guianas after Guyana (which discovered large oil fields in 2015 and 2018), and the 12th largest in South America.[35]
French Guiana is heavily dependent on mainland France for subsidies, trade, and goods.[citation needed] The main traditional industries are fishing (accounting for 5% of exports in 2012), gold mining (accounting for 32% of exports in 2012) and timber (accounting for 1% of exports in 2012).[36] In addition, the Guiana Space Centre has played a significant role in the local economy since it was established in Kourou in 1964: it accounted directly and indirectly for 16% of French Guiana's GDP in 2002 (down from 26% in 1994, as the French Guianese economy is becoming increasingly diversified).[37] The Guiana Space Centre employed 1,659 people in 2012.[38]
There is very little manufacturing. Agriculture is largely undeveloped and is mainly confined to the area near the coast and along the Maroni River. Sugar and bananas were traditionally two of the main cash crops grown for export but have almost completely disappeared. Today they have been replaced by livestock raising (essentially beef cattle and pigs) in the coastal savannas between Cayenne and the second-largest town, Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, and market gardening (fruits and vegetables) developed by the Hmong communities settled in French Guiana in the 1970s, both destined to the local market. A thriving rice production, developed on polders near Mana from the early 1980s to the late 2000s, has almost completely disappeared since 2011 due to marine erosion and new EU plant health rules which forbid the use of many pesticides and fertilizers. Tourism, especially eco-tourism, is growing. Unemployment has been persistently high in the last few decades: 20% to 25% (22.3% in 2012).[39]
In 2019, the GDP per capita of French Guiana at market exchange rates, not at PPP, was US$17,099 (€15,272),[3][40] only 41.7% of metropolitan France's average GDP per capita that year, and 49.0% of the metropolitan French regions outside the Paris Region.[3]
Social unrest in 2017 paralyzed the economy for several weeks and led to an economic recession (−3.5% in real terms), which sunk the GDP per capita that year.[41] The economy rebounded in 2018 (+2.8%) and in 2019 (+4.1%).[41]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Guiana
…
Five years ago today, in the early hours, Britain discovered what it had done – and what had been done to it by the liars, charlatans and rogues who mis-sold Brexit as “taking back control”. The wound is as fresh as ever. Breaking apart political parties and reversing erstwhile red or blue wall seats is a minor matter, but Brexit’s explosive division of the country by social class, geography and a deep sense of personal identity is a lasting injury.
Few have changed their mind: though polls put remain (or return) ahead by a nose, no one wants to be put through that **** again. Brexit is done for the foreseeable future, though a government thriving on national disunity strives to keep it alive with infantile culture wars and “anti-woke” phoney patriotism. Polls give the Conservatives a 14-point lead, as they head into next week’s Batley and Spen byelection. No surprise, for what party in power could dream of a better boast than this: the vaccines are genuinely bestowing the gift of staying alive on every single citizen. And Britain is out ahead of other European countries: pollsters tell me voters sincerely (though unjustly) believe that had we remained in the EU, we couldn’t have had our own programme. Despite EU vaccinators catching up, and the UK having more dead and more debt than they do, Covid is still a convenient cover.
Yet barely a day goes by without further proofs of Brexit’s damage, some of it now forcing its way into the Tory press. This week, pigeon fanciers are barred from having their birds participate in cross-Channel races by new rules. Less niche is the alarming 17% rise in food prices: Ian Wright, of the Food and Drink Federation, tells me Brexit costs and obstructions have sent commodity prices soaring, and those are now working their way on to the shelves. The unexpected £2bn fall in UK food and drink exports to the EU in just the first quarter of this year is, Wright tells me, “no teething problem, but very real and sustained. Smaller firms have stopped exporting”, overwhelmed by the new obstacles. The government may turn a permanent blind eye on import checks starting next week: “But that soon gets dangerous. When no one checks, who knows if imported food is what it says on the tin, and not, say, horse meat?”
Financial services are migrating to the EU: by March, Brexit had already driven away an estimated £1.3 trillion of assets and jobs. By April, more than 440 finance firms had fled, taking 10% of the UK’s financial sector assets, worth a staggering £900bn, while foreign investment subsides.
Boris Johnson’s hastily botched EU trade deal left out finance, responsible for 80% of our exports by value. It nearly stalled over fishing, a sector with just 12,000 jobs, yet even that industry is wrecked – and the Express says so: “‘They’ve sold us down the f*****g river!’ British fishermen hit out on Brexit anniversary.” Wherever you look, expect the same story. The assault on the arts, music and broadcasting is lethal for a sector where Britain excels. This week, the music industry has been begging for an end to the deadlock over EU touring, vital for its viability. Another thunderbolt struck this week with a report showing the EU is likely to enforce its rules limiting non-EU content in its broadcasting: nothing new here, the EU is always strict on cultural protection against the US. That strips millions from financing for drama and other programmes, on top of BBC cuts and the possible privatisation of Channel 4.
Look at almost any industry and you find too much damage done to fit in this space: vanishing EU workers, no EU arrest warrant or crime data sharing, the loss of Erasmus, EU visitors handcuffed at our airports, and EU citizens here in peril of being failed by the Home Office, in a manner redolent of the Windrush scandal – a poisonous message that will deter EU tourism.
As the Brexiters’ reckless unreadiness unfolds, the government emerges devoid of basic policy. Is it for protecting our farmers, manufacturers, steel or wind turbine makers, or is it for wild free trade, with the cheapest food and products imported, regardless of home industries? The Australia deal sold out farmers, with 60 times more beef imported next year for a puny 0.02% GDP increase over 15 years.
Yesterday the sausages were kicked down the road, but this will only delay the Northern Ireland protocol crisis beyond the tense marching season. There’s an easy answer to food export dilemmas if a pig-headed prime minister hadn’t appointed the mulish Lord Frost to block it: only ideology stops them agreeing to EU food standards, as we have agreed to EU employment and environment norms. That should alarm most voters who may not relish an inalienable right to lower food quality.
It’s high time Labour broke its silence on these calamities, and it should start right there with food standards. It would be an easy win. Had the Brexiters lost by a whisker five years ago, do you think they would have quietly capitulated, any more than the SNP did after it lost in 2014? The omerta of Labour remainers has done them no favours, letting these Brexit car crashes pile up unopposed. True, Brexit is electoral dynamite that Johnson plans to exploit for ever, but that’s why Labour needs to make a stand now. There’s no re-opening the referendum, it should just target the failed trade deal. Polls show the public knows how bad it is, Strathclyde university’s Prof John Curtice found that even among leave voters, only one in three thinks it a good deal.
Emily Thornberry, shadowing on trade, sees that wide-open goal. “Be grown-up and pragmatic,” she says. “We need a good deal. We can make the best of Brexit, while they’ve made the worst of it.” So far Covid shrouds the effects, driving the EU trade deal’s disasters from most front pages. But on everything from farming, manufacturing and finance to entertainment and food the government is vulnerable and culpable, if Labour would shake off its paralysing Brexit-phobia.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/five-years-on-we-finally-know-what-brexit-means-utter-calamity/ar-AALoFVI?ocid=msedgntp
The move will affect new customers and those upgrading from July 7, who face a £2 daily fee from January 2022 to use their phones when roaming in the EU.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9722167/Now-EE-joins-O2-bringing-roaming-charges.html
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/foodanddrink/other/bars-and-pubs-are-struggling-to-get-drinks-from-europe-due-to-brexit-paperwork-and-rising-costs/ar-AALoZcO?ocid=msedgntp
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/uk-getting-positive-sausage-signals-from-eu-minister-says/ar-AALnL98?ocid=msedgntp
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/scottish-govt-brexit-is-damaging-business-migration-and-devolution-in-scotland/ar-AALoNY9?ocid=msedgntp
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/cars/news/britain-needs-foreign-drivers-to-fix-trucking-crisis/ar-AALomJD?ocid=msedgntp
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/what-the-remain-and-leave-campaigns-got-right-and-wrong/ar-AALoAKJ?ocid=msedgntp