No but some would have us believe that The EU is the greatest thing for the UK. I'm merely opposing that presumption.
I would have said that a growing majority of people merely think that we were better in than out. Something that has surely been proved beyond doubt.
Ohh wait a minute, there's more. Really. I dont think that I will ever agree with Farage on anything. We in the UK are really taking the pi55, if we are offering any advice to anyone on immigration. We have recently broken all records on this. You are grasping at straws.
You can knock European countries as much as you want, but you seem to ignore the ridiculous nonsense that we are responsible for. Sky News did a report into asylum seekers yesterday. The report went back to 2010. Since then we have asked those with failed applications if they would like to be deported. Those that have been refused, are still here. They seem to be able to appeal against a refusal, and complete as many new applications as they wish. I believe they said we spent £360million last years on Legal Aid in respect of their representation going through this process. They interviewed a woman from Zimbabwe last night. She has been in the country for 18 years since her first failed application. She was unsure of whether she is now on her 5th or 6th asylum application. They said there was no record of at least 55,000 failed asylum seekers leaving the country since 2010. This was in addition to allowing a sex offender to stay, based on the reaction at home, if he was refused, and returned. Then you have the Bulgarians that falsely claimed £50million in benefits. Lots of people seemed to be attracted to our country because they know they can take the pi55. There seems to be no limit to our incompetence.
To illustrate how stupid we are, you could ask yourself two questions.
Q What happens to successful asylum seekers? A They stay here. Q What happens to failed asylum seekers? A They stay here.
The only difference appears to be that we spend hundreds of millions of pounds on legal representation for those that failed.
Heathrow urges government to scrap £10 fee for transit passengers London hub says charge for overseas travellers using UK airports puts country at competitive disadvantage
New Brexit checks will cause food shortages in UK, importers warn
Ministers’ decision to impose Brexit import checks on 30 April will lead to shortages of some foods, flowers and herbs, industry leaders have warned.
In the week after the government was accused of blindsiding the British food industry by giving 27 days’ notice that every consignment of items such as camembert, steak, tulips and chives would be subject to fees of up to £145, small retailers such as delis and farm shops have been scrambling to make sure they still have products to sell.
But they say some EU exporters have already decided that they have had enough of British red tape and are either pausing supply operations or have given up completely.
Food wholesalers and trade associations have told the Observer of suppliers in EU countries who are already looking at other markets instead of the UK. Since 2020, importers have had to deal with mounting levels of Brexit bureaucracy, including phytosanitary certificates, plant passports, import licences and export health certificates. Next month, they will have another form to fill out for animal products, plants and herbs and must pay a “common user charge” (CUC) of up to £145 per consignment.
Ministers say this is only intended to cover the costs of new facilities, including a £154m inland border control site at Sevington in Kent, and not generate a profit. However, the Cold Chain Federation (CCF), a trade body for suppliers, estimates the government will reap a Brexit dividend of £60m, and the process will add £1bn to the cost of importing chilled food and plants. The insurer Allianz Trade said last week that overall food import costs would rise by 10% in the first year of the new regime.
In a letter to Steve Barclay, the environment secretary, the CCF’s chief executive, Phil Pluck, said that after UK exporters became subject to new rules in 2021, “many smaller cold-chain UK warehouses and distributors found the administration too onerous and ceased to operate”.
The new border rules mean “the effect on both European partners and UK firms may be similar”, Pluck said, calling for a delay to border checks.
Nigel Jenney, chief executive of the Fresh Produce Consortium, said the government had failed to recognise that importing food was a rapid, overnight process, and that some importers would pay more in fees than the amount they make from shipping food. He said ministers could have reduced costs for some importers by allowing them to use some of the UK’s 41 “control points” – privately operated border checks. But government inspectors will not be available overnight, when most fresh food is delivered, forcing importers to use Sevington, he said.
“We need those control points to be serviced by government officials to inspect the hours of trade our industry works. We need that done within days. Because we have had several major exporters simply saying: ‘On this basis, the UK is too complicated to trade with. I won’t do it’.”
The new controls do not apply to fresh fruit and vegetables, but rules for these are likely to come into force in October – an obligation under the terms of Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal – and there are already signs that suppliers of lower value crops such as blueberries and cucumbers are sending their produce elsewhere.
British farmers warned last week of an exceptionally poor harvest this year, after heavy rainfall and flooding, making the UK even more reliant on imported food.
The new import controls will also make it more expensive for farmers to import seed potatoes and other crops.
Mike Parr, director of logistics firm PML Seafrigo, said: “I think with all specialised deli items, the Italians, French and Greeks have said it’s not worth their while with these charges. Poland is a big blueberry supplier to the UK and they are starting to mention it’s not worth their while any more. It’s starting to happen already, where they can get the same amount of money importing blueberries around Europe so it’s not worth it to send it to the UK. This will only get worse.”
Freddie Heathcote, managing director of Green and Bloom, a flower and plant wholesaler, said he could either pay for multiple consignments or save money by grouping deliveries. But that creates a risk of losing a whole shipment, worth up to £15,000, if a pest is spotted in one plant. “If that happens to me three times, it’s borderline curtains,” he said.
Stefano Vallebona, who supplies high-end restaurants through his company, Vallebona, said: “There are a lot of people who don’t want to go through this. They just say ‘we don’t want the extra charge so we’re not going to supply’. So there are going to be less interesting products from the smaller guys.
“The beauty of this country was that trade was so incredibly easy and well organised. But this is a major problem and it’s going to kill businesses.”
A government spokesperson said: “We want to support businesses of all sizes to adapt to the new border checks, and the common user charge follows extensive consultation with industry – with a cap set specifically to help smaller businesses.
“Our world-class border facilities will provide essential biosecurity checks to protect our food supply, farmers and environment against costly disease outbreaks entering the UK through the short straits.”
Even Europe’s far-right firebrands seem to sense Brexit is a disaster
Exports are performing badly, pace the fantasy world of the Daily Express; supply lines for imports once regarded as routine are disrupted or discontinued altogether; staff shortages owing to new restrictions on travel and employment of our fellow Europeans are hurting the hospitality trade in what we used to boast about as our “service economy”. The UK’s economy is “5% worse off than it would be in the EU” according to a recent well-researched report by Goldman Sachs. Welcome to Brexit Britain!
In the early days of the Brexit disaster, I met Michel Barnier, the EU’s impressive negotiator, at a high-powered conference on Lake Como organised by the Ambrosetti Institute. We agreed what a disaster was in store if the UK did not come to its senses. I also met the rightwing Dutch “firebrand” Geert Wilders, who at the time, and for some time after, was a campaigner for “Nexit” – the Netherlands leaving the EU.
Wilders was very interested in British politics, and I did my best to inform him, not least on the horrors of Brexit. I know I didn’t change his mind about Nexit – this was in 2017 – but the evidence of the damage wreaked by Brexit is now manifest to all. Wilders has apparently dropped his campaign to leave the union and prefers to alter it “from within”. If there is one positive thing Brexit has achieved, it has been to have a salutary effect on rightwing continental politicians’ opposition to the EU.
Neil Kinnock, the former Labour leader, has memorably described the subject of Brexit as “the mammoth in the broom cupboard”. The present Labour leadership knows it is a disaster, but, in advance of the election, is terrified of offending “red wall” voters who were conned by the propaganda of Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and co. And the Tories also know what a disaster it is, but they prefer to confess this among consenting adults in private. One exception is Jacob Rees-Mogg, who has a great sense of humour and claims with a straight face: “There is no doubt that leaving the EU was the best decision we could have made for our economy.”
Which brings me to the fact that another former Labour leader, Harold Wilson, is back in the news. Wilson won four elections and was a consummate politician. It is revelations about his love life that have brought him back in the news, but for me what really matters is the revival of memories about how he held the warring factions of the Labour party together, and contrived to ensure that it backed the “remain” case when there was a referendum in 1975 about whether we should stay in what was then the European Economic Community. (We had entered in 1973 under the Conservative premiership of Edward Heath.)
Apart from the commercial opportunities of a resumption of membership of the EU, strategic considerations may come to the fore
Our membership of what was also known as the common market galvanised the British economy and undoubtedly boosted output and growth – adding some 8% to gross domestic product, according to the economic historian Nicholas Crafts.
Now, last week there was a report in the Financial Times about a paper from a political consultancy claiming that if Labour won the next election handsomely it would immediately seek to move closer to the EU via “a de facto customs union by another name”.
This was so sensitive that it prompted an immediate denial, with Labour’s shadow cabinet office minister and spokesperson on Europe, Nick Thomas-Symonds, claiming the party was committed “to making Brexit work” and that there would be “no return to the single market, the customs union or return to freedom of movement”.
In my opinion, such protestations must be a holding operation until, one hopes, this miserable gang of Tories are thrown out and sensible relations with the rest of Europe can be resumed.
There are those who worry that we may well be on the verge of a third world war. As Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JP Morgan Chase, has recently said: “Recent events may very well be creating risks that could eclipse anything since world war two. We should not take them lightly.”
Who knows? But the geopolitical situation is looking bleak. Defence spending may have to rise dramatically. Quite apart from the commercial and investment opportunities of a resumption of membership of the EU, strategic considerations may well come to the fore.
It was Heath’s predecessor but one, Harold Macmillan, who is supposed to have declared that what he feared most was “events, dear boy, events”. I fear I have an uneasy feeling that the Labour government the polls are telling us to expect is going to be confronted with “events” in spades.
Collapse in support for leaving EU in member states since Brexit, new data shows Survey confirms trend in politics that has seen eurosceptic political forces moderate positions
Continental surveys such as Eurobarometer can generate Panglossian results, but they all point to big majorities supporting EU membership in almost every country. In both France and the Netherlands 69% would vote to stay, while only 31% would back leaving, according to eupinions, a pollster. Why leave the EU, when you can shape it instead? - The Economist www.economist.com/europe/2021/03/11/why-leave-the-eu-when-you-can-shape-it-instead www.economist.com/europe/2021/03/11/why-leave-the-eu-when-you-can-shape …
excessively optimistic Panglossian • \pan-GLAH-see-un\ • adjective. : marked by the view that all is for the best in this best of possible worlds : excessively optimistic. Examples: Even the most Panglossian temperament would have had trouble finding the good in this situation.
Collapse in support for leaving EU in member states since Brexit, new data shows Survey confirms trend in politics that has seen eurosceptic political forces moderate positions
Continental surveys such as Eurobarometer can generate Panglossian results, but they all point to big majorities supporting EU membership in almost every country. In both France and the Netherlands 69% would vote to stay, while only 31% would back leaving, according to eupinions, a pollster. Why leave the EU, when you can shape it instead? - The Economist www.economist.com/europe/2021/03/11/why-leave-the-eu-when-you-can-shape-it-instead www.economist.com/europe/2021/03/11/why-leave-the-eu-when-you-can-shape …
Support for leaving EU has fallen significantly across bloc since Brexit
People less likely to vote leave in every EU member state for which data was available than in 2016-17, survey finds
Support for leaving the European Union (EU) has decreased significantly across the bloc since the UK’s Brexit referendum. Data from the European Social Survey (ESS), conducted in 30 European nations every two years since 2001, reveals that respondents in every EU member state are now less likely to vote leave.
Here are some notable findings:
Finland: The largest decline in leave support was observed in Finland, where 28.6% of respondents favored leaving in 2016-2017, but only 15.4% expressed the same sentiment in 2020-20221. Netherlands: Support for leaving dropped from 23% to 13.5% between 2016 and 20221. Portugal: Leave support decreased from 15.7% to 6.6% during the same period1. Austria: The percentage of those favoring leave fell from 26% to 16.1%1. France: A similar trend was observed, with support declining from 24.3% to 16%1. Even in countries where leave support remains relatively high, such as the Czech Republic (29.2%), Italy (20.1%), and Sweden (19.3%), there has been a decline since 2016-20171. Spain currently has the lowest leave support at 4.7%1.
Several factors contribute to this shift:
Brexit: Britain’s negotiations to leave the EU and subsequent political turmoil have been widely reported across Europe. Covid pandemic: The pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have prompted many EU citizens to view membership more favorably. Anti-EU parties: Some parties have abandoned Frexit or Italexit policies in favor of reforming the EU from within1. While some countries have expressed interest in leaving, such as Hungary and Poland, the overall trend indicates decreasing support for EU exit2. Italy, in particular, could be the most likely of the “Big Four” member states to consider exiting if Brexit proves beneficial to Britain3.
In summary, the desire to leave the EU has waned significantly across member states, reflecting changing attitudes and geopolitical events in recent years1.
excessively optimistic Panglossian • \pan-GLAH-see-un\ • adjective. : marked by the view that all is for the best in this best of possible worlds : excessively optimistic. Examples: Even the most Panglossian temperament would have had trouble finding the good in this situation.
It could very easily be used to describe Marks (@TheEdge949) view of the EU.
Public support in Europe for leaving EU collapses since Brexit, new survey shows
There has been a significant decline in support for leaving the European Union within its member states following the United Kingdom’s Brexit vote, according to a new survey by the European Social Survey.
The period covered by the survey coincides with the tortuous negotiations between the UK and Brussels over Brexit as well as a period of political and economic turmoil in the UK which has been partly blamed on Britain's hard divorce from the EU. It also coincided with the Covid pandemic which saw EU countries working together over the vaccine roll out and travel regulations.
Eurosceptic parties such as Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally in France, as well as parties in Italy and the Netherlands have in recent years dropped calls for their countries to leave the EU or the single currency but instead advocated for the union to reform.
Public support in Europe for leaving EU collapses since Brexit, new survey shows
There has been a significant decline in support for leaving the European Union within its member states following the United Kingdom’s Brexit vote, according to a new survey by the European Social Survey.
The period covered by the survey coincides with the tortuous negotiations between the UK and Brussels over Brexit as well as a period of political and economic turmoil in the UK which has been partly blamed on Britain's hard divorce from the EU. It also coincided with the Covid pandemic which saw EU countries working together over the vaccine roll out and travel regulations.
Eurosceptic parties such as Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally in France, as well as parties in Italy and the Netherlands have in recent years dropped calls for their countries to leave the EU or the single currency but instead advocated for the union to reform.
And yet it would appear that both Poland and Sweden have growing political movements calling for the leaving of the EU Polexit and Swexit.
Surely all the calls for reformation by those who are in the EU proves that the model is broken, flawed and therefore no longer fit for purpose.
They barely squeezed the new immigration policy through and if that's any indication of the friction within, the edifice is starting to look a little iffy.
It must be difficult to focus wearing both rose tinted glasses and blinkers at the same time Tony, how do you manage.
Public support in Europe for leaving EU collapses since Brexit, new survey shows
There has been a significant decline in support for leaving the European Union within its member states following the United Kingdom’s Brexit vote, according to a new survey by the European Social Survey.
The period covered by the survey coincides with the tortuous negotiations between the UK and Brussels over Brexit as well as a period of political and economic turmoil in the UK which has been partly blamed on Britain's hard divorce from the EU. It also coincided with the Covid pandemic which saw EU countries working together over the vaccine roll out and travel regulations.
Eurosceptic parties such as Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally in France, as well as parties in Italy and the Netherlands have in recent years dropped calls for their countries to leave the EU or the single currency but instead advocated for the union to reform.
And yet it would appear that both Poland and Sweden have growing political movements calling for the leaving of the EU Polexit and Swexit.
Surely all the calls for reformation by those who are in the EU proves that the model is broken, flawed and therefore no longer fit for purpose.
They barely squeezed the new immigration policy through and if that's any indication of the friction within, the edifice is starting to look a little iffy.
It must be difficult to focus wearing both rose tinted glasses and blinkers at the same time Tony, how do you manage.
Even in countries where leave support remains relatively high, such as the Czech Republic (29.2%), Italy (20.1%), and Sweden (19.3%), there has been a decline since 2016-20171.
Germany saw support for leaving the EU fall by 3.8 percentage points, in Sweden the potential leave vote fell by 5.2
Despite most expressing a wish to remain in the EU, not every country saw a rise in support for voting to remain. In Germany, there was a drop of 5.1 percentage points for remain, 3.4 in Poland, 1.7 in Spain and 0.4 in Sweden. But in these countries respondents did not switch to backing leave but gave answers indicating they didn't know which side they would vote for or that they just wouldn't vote.
Similarly stark falls between 2016 and 2022 were recorded in the Netherlands (from 23% to 13.5%), Portugal (15.7% to 6.6%), Austria (26% to 16.1%) and France (24.3% to 16%), with smaller but still statistically significant falls in Hungary (16% to 10.2%), Spain (9.3% to 4.7%) Sweden (23.9% to 19.3%), and Germany (13.6% to 11%).
The ESS data also showed that support for staying in the EU – again excluding those who said they could not or would not vote, did not know which way they would vote, or would not cast a complete or valid ballot – increased in every member state for which comparable data was available, with remain support in 2020-2022 ranging from a low of 70.8% in the Czech Republic to a high of 95.3% in Spain.
The ESS survey is normally conducted through face-to-face interviews, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, respondents in six countries – including Austria, Germany, Poland, Sweden and Spain – were asked to complete questionnaires themselves in 2020-2022.
In those countries, the percentage of respondents who said they would not cast a vote was generally higher. Tim Hanson, a senior ESS research fellow, said this was most likely because the questionnaire presented them with that option, whereas interviewers asked people to choose between leave and remain.
The overall effect was to depress the “remain” vote in the “self-complete” countries rather than to increase the “leave” vote, Hanson said. Nonetheless, the difference in survey method meant excluding “no votes” provided a more reliable comparison between the two survey rounds.
I believe there is a world of difference in approach between "far right" and "right" on this issue.
First off, it is important to dispel one myth. The vast majority of politicians don't really care whether we are in or out of the EU. What they really care about is whether their own power grabs will be better served by being in or out. Not just the UK-across Europe.
Campaigning to leave if you are a Far Right Party that has never had power looks attractive. Look at the rise of UKIP a few elections ago. Look at the increased vote for the Reform Party. Look at the power that odious man Farage wields as he decides whether his own ambitions are best served by sticking with Reform or twisting back to the Tories. Look at Johnson rising to be PM while deciding whether it suited him to be in or out.
But if you are a Centre Right Party used to being in power, the picture is a lot less good. Because the reality is that the Conservative Party have failed to provide real benefits via Brexit. Not saying they couldn't-they didn't. And are facing the worst election result in their entire history, squabbling over the "purity" of Brexit. Ever weirder immigration policies while legal migration skyrockets. While the nation starves. And waits to vote them out.
Much, much easier for a Politician to moan about the EU than to actually take decisions themselves. Be honest about the undoubted economic cost of Brexit. And actually provide clear bespoke policies that suit the UK, as opposed to the off the peg EU ones. Rather than talking-doing.
Centre Right politicians, and voters, believe staying in the EU is better for their electoral ambitions. Nothing to do with whether the EU is good. Or bad. Or (in reality) a bit of both.
I believe there is a world of difference in approach between "far right" and "right" on this issue.
First off, it is important to dispel one myth. The vast majority of politicians don't really care whether we are in or out of the EU. What they really care about is whether their own power grabs will be better served by being in or out. Not just the UK-across Europe.
Campaigning to leave if you are a Far Right Party that has never had power looks attractive. Look at the rise of UKIP a few elections ago. Look at the increased vote for the Reform Party. Look at the power that odious man Farage wields as he decides whether his own ambitions are best served by sticking with Reform or twisting back to the Tories. Look at Johnson rising to be PM while deciding whether it suited him to be in or out.
But if you are a Centre Right Party used to being in power, the picture is a lot less good. Because the reality is that the Conservative Party have failed to provide real benefits via Brexit. Not saying they couldn't-they didn't. And are facing the worst election result in their entire history, squabbling over the "purity" of Brexit. Ever weirder immigration policies while legal migration skyrockets. While the nation starves. And waits to vote them out.
Much, much easier for a Politician to moan about the EU than to actually take decisions themselves. Be honest about the undoubted economic cost of Brexit. And actually provide clear bespoke policies that suit the UK, as opposed to the off the peg EU ones. Rather than talking-doing.
Centre Right politicians, and voters, believe staying in the EU is better for their electoral ambitions. Nothing to do with whether the EU is good. Or bad. Or (in reality) a bit of both.
I wouldnt disagree with any of that.
I also believe that the referendum majority was fuelled by the many people that were unhappy with their lives, due to the austerity etc, that fell for the bs leave pitch. They felt that their lives wouldnt change if we stayed in, and assumed that they might change for the better if we left. Many of whom are now looking around and realising their lives havent changed, and wondering what happened. Some have reached the conclusion, that as their lives havent changed for the better, the EU membership was not worth a light. When an honest review might have concluded that the EU was not responsible for any of the sh1t that they were unhappy with.
Comments
Ohh wait a minute, there's more.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/i-warned-them-nigel-farage-gives-damning-verdict-on-new-eu-migration-pact/ar-BB1lplIW
Sky News did a report into asylum seekers yesterday.
The report went back to 2010.
Since then we have asked those with failed applications if they would like to be deported.
Those that have been refused, are still here.
They seem to be able to appeal against a refusal, and complete as many new applications as they wish.
I believe they said we spent £360million last years on Legal Aid in respect of their representation going through this process.
They interviewed a woman from Zimbabwe last night.
She has been in the country for 18 years since her first failed application.
She was unsure of whether she is now on her 5th or 6th asylum application.
They said there was no record of at least 55,000 failed asylum seekers leaving the country since 2010.
This was in addition to allowing a sex offender to stay, based on the reaction at home, if he was refused, and returned.
Then you have the Bulgarians that falsely claimed £50million in benefits.
Lots of people seemed to be attracted to our country because they know they can take the pi55.
There seems to be no limit to our incompetence.
To illustrate how stupid we are, you could ask yourself two questions.
Q What happens to successful asylum seekers?
A They stay here.
Q What happens to failed asylum seekers?
A They stay here.
The only difference appears to be that we spend hundreds of millions of pounds on legal representation for those that failed.
This article seems completely different to the one written by Farage.
EU approves major overhaul of migration rules
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68779387
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/uk-eu-and-spain-hail-significant-progress-in-gibraltar-talks/ar-BB1lwUUj?ocid=msedgntp&pc=NMTS&cvid=358edbd4773640ffb03581506baf7ea5&ei=80
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68761491
London hub says charge for overseas travellers using UK airports puts country at competitive disadvantage
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/apr/11/heathrow-airport-government-scrap-fee-transit-passengers
Ministers’ decision to impose Brexit import checks on 30 April will lead to shortages of some foods, flowers and herbs, industry leaders have warned.
In the week after the government was accused of blindsiding the British food industry by giving 27 days’ notice that every consignment of items such as camembert, steak, tulips and chives would be subject to fees of up to £145, small retailers such as delis and farm shops have been scrambling to make sure they still have products to sell.
But they say some EU exporters have already decided that they have had enough of British red tape and are either pausing supply operations or have given up completely.
Food wholesalers and trade associations have told the Observer of suppliers in EU countries who are already looking at other markets instead of the UK. Since 2020, importers have had to deal with mounting levels of Brexit bureaucracy, including phytosanitary certificates, plant passports, import licences and export health certificates. Next month, they will have another form to fill out for animal products, plants and herbs and must pay a “common user charge” (CUC) of up to £145 per consignment.
Ministers say this is only intended to cover the costs of new facilities, including a £154m inland border control site at Sevington in Kent, and not generate a profit. However, the Cold Chain Federation (CCF), a trade body for suppliers, estimates the government will reap a Brexit dividend of £60m, and the process will add £1bn to the cost of importing chilled food and plants. The insurer Allianz Trade said last week that overall food import costs would rise by 10% in the first year of the new regime.
In a letter to Steve Barclay, the environment secretary, the CCF’s chief executive, Phil Pluck, said that after UK exporters became subject to new rules in 2021, “many smaller cold-chain UK warehouses and distributors found the administration too onerous and ceased to operate”.
The new border rules mean “the effect on both European partners and UK firms may be similar”, Pluck said, calling for a delay to border checks.
Nigel Jenney, chief executive of the Fresh Produce Consortium, said the government had failed to recognise that importing food was a rapid, overnight process, and that some importers would pay more in fees than the amount they make from shipping food. He said ministers could have reduced costs for some importers by allowing them to use some of the UK’s 41 “control points” – privately operated border checks. But government inspectors will not be available overnight, when most fresh food is delivered, forcing importers to use Sevington, he said.
“We need those control points to be serviced by government officials to inspect the hours of trade our industry works. We need that done within days. Because we have had several major exporters simply saying: ‘On this basis, the UK is too complicated to trade with. I won’t do it’.”
The new controls do not apply to fresh fruit and vegetables, but rules for these are likely to come into force in October – an obligation under the terms of Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal – and there are already signs that suppliers of lower value crops such as blueberries and cucumbers are sending their produce elsewhere.
British farmers warned last week of an exceptionally poor harvest this year, after heavy rainfall and flooding, making the UK even more reliant on imported food.
The new import controls will also make it more expensive for farmers to import seed potatoes and other crops.
Mike Parr, director of logistics firm PML Seafrigo, said: “I think with all specialised deli items, the Italians, French and Greeks have said it’s not worth their while with these charges. Poland is a big blueberry supplier to the UK and they are starting to mention it’s not worth their while any more. It’s starting to happen already, where they can get the same amount of money importing blueberries around Europe so it’s not worth it to send it to the UK. This will only get worse.”
Freddie Heathcote, managing director of Green and Bloom, a flower and plant wholesaler, said he could either pay for multiple consignments or save money by grouping deliveries. But that creates a risk of losing a whole shipment, worth up to £15,000, if a pest is spotted in one plant. “If that happens to me three times, it’s borderline curtains,” he said.
Stefano Vallebona, who supplies high-end restaurants through his company, Vallebona, said: “There are a lot of people who don’t want to go through this. They just say ‘we don’t want the extra charge so we’re not going to supply’. So there are going to be less interesting products from the smaller guys.
“The beauty of this country was that trade was so incredibly easy and well organised. But this is a major problem and it’s going to kill businesses.”
A government spokesperson said: “We want to support businesses of all sizes to adapt to the new border checks, and the common user charge follows extensive consultation with industry – with a cap set specifically to help smaller businesses.
“Our world-class border facilities will provide essential biosecurity checks to protect our food supply, farmers and environment against costly disease outbreaks entering the UK through the short straits.”
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/new-brexit-checks-will-cause-food-shortages-in-uk-importers-warn/ar-BB1lyZ3P?ocid=msedgntp&pc=NMTS&cvid=6960d4568bd14bc3a4d0a672aff69107&ei=18
Exports are performing badly, pace the fantasy world of the Daily Express; supply lines for imports once regarded as routine are disrupted or discontinued altogether; staff shortages owing to new restrictions on travel and employment of our fellow Europeans are hurting the hospitality trade in what we used to boast about as our “service economy”. The UK’s economy is “5% worse off than it would be in the EU” according to a recent well-researched report by Goldman Sachs. Welcome to Brexit Britain!
In the early days of the Brexit disaster, I met Michel Barnier, the EU’s impressive negotiator, at a high-powered conference on Lake Como organised by the Ambrosetti Institute. We agreed what a disaster was in store if the UK did not come to its senses.
I also met the rightwing Dutch “firebrand” Geert Wilders, who at the time, and for some time after, was a campaigner for “Nexit” – the Netherlands leaving the EU.
Wilders was very interested in British politics, and I did my best to inform him, not least on the horrors of Brexit. I know I didn’t change his mind about Nexit – this was in 2017 – but the evidence of the damage wreaked by Brexit is now manifest to all. Wilders has apparently dropped his campaign to leave the union and prefers to alter it “from within”. If there is one positive thing Brexit has achieved, it has been to have a salutary effect on rightwing continental politicians’ opposition to the EU.
Neil Kinnock, the former Labour leader, has memorably described the subject of Brexit as “the mammoth in the broom cupboard”. The present Labour leadership knows it is a disaster, but, in advance of the election, is terrified of offending “red wall” voters who were conned by the propaganda of Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and co. And the Tories also know what a disaster it is, but they prefer to confess this among consenting adults in private. One exception is Jacob Rees-Mogg, who has a great sense of humour and claims with a straight face: “There is no doubt that leaving the EU was the best decision we could have made for our economy.”
Which brings me to the fact that another former Labour leader, Harold Wilson, is back in the news. Wilson won four elections and was a consummate politician. It is revelations about his love life that have brought him back in the news, but for me what really matters is the revival of memories about how he held the warring factions of the Labour party together, and contrived to ensure that it backed the “remain” case when there was a referendum in 1975 about whether we should stay in what was then the European Economic Community. (We had entered in 1973 under the Conservative premiership of Edward Heath.)
Apart from the commercial opportunities of a resumption of membership of the EU, strategic considerations may come to the fore
Our membership of what was also known as the common market galvanised the British economy and undoubtedly boosted output and growth – adding some 8% to gross domestic product, according to the economic historian Nicholas Crafts.
Now, last week there was a report in the Financial Times about a paper from a political consultancy claiming that if Labour won the next election handsomely it would immediately seek to move closer to the EU via “a de facto customs union by another name”.
This was so sensitive that it prompted an immediate denial, with Labour’s shadow cabinet office minister and spokesperson on Europe, Nick Thomas-Symonds, claiming the party was committed “to making Brexit work” and that there would be “no return to the single market, the customs union or return to freedom of movement”.
In my opinion, such protestations must be a holding operation until, one hopes, this miserable gang of Tories are thrown out and sensible relations with the rest of Europe can be resumed.
There are those who worry that we may well be on the verge of a third world war. As Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JP Morgan Chase, has recently said: “Recent events may very well be creating risks that could eclipse anything since world war two. We should not take them lightly.”
Who knows? But the geopolitical situation is looking bleak. Defence spending may have to rise dramatically. Quite apart from the commercial and investment opportunities of a resumption of membership of the EU, strategic considerations may well come to the fore.
It was Heath’s predecessor but one, Harold Macmillan, who is supposed to have declared that what he feared most was “events, dear boy, events”. I fear I have an uneasy feeling that the Labour government the polls are telling us to expect is going to be confronted with “events” in spades.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/even-europe-s-far-right-firebrands-seem-to-sense-brexit-is-a-disaster/ar-BB1lApJO?ocid=msedgntp&pc=NMTS&cvid=6bf4ee62f56e446bbdca3e6e5686d041&ei=13
Survey confirms trend in politics that has seen eurosceptic political forces moderate positions
https://www.irishtimes.com/world/europe/2023/01/10/collapse-in-support-for-leaving-eu-in-member-states-since-brexit/
Continental surveys such as Eurobarometer can generate Panglossian results, but they all point to big majorities supporting EU membership in almost every country. In both France and the Netherlands 69% would vote to stay, while only 31% would back leaving, according to eupinions, a pollster.
Why leave the EU, when you can shape it instead? - The Economist
www.economist.com/europe/2021/03/11/why-leave-the-eu-when-you-can-shape-it-instead
www.economist.com/europe/2021/03/11/why-leave-the-eu-when-you-can-shape …
Panglossian.
Now there's a word I'd never heard before;
excessively optimistic
Panglossian • \pan-GLAH-see-un\ • adjective. : marked by the view that all is for the best in this best of possible worlds : excessively optimistic. Examples: Even the most Panglossian temperament would have had trouble finding the good in this situation.
People less likely to vote leave in every EU member state for which data was available than in 2016-17, survey finds
Support for leaving the European Union (EU) has decreased significantly across the bloc since the UK’s Brexit referendum. Data from the European Social Survey (ESS), conducted in 30 European nations every two years since 2001, reveals that respondents in every EU member state are now less likely to vote leave.
Here are some notable findings:
Finland: The largest decline in leave support was observed in Finland, where 28.6% of respondents favored leaving in 2016-2017, but only 15.4% expressed the same sentiment in 2020-20221.
Netherlands: Support for leaving dropped from 23% to 13.5% between 2016 and 20221.
Portugal: Leave support decreased from 15.7% to 6.6% during the same period1.
Austria: The percentage of those favoring leave fell from 26% to 16.1%1.
France: A similar trend was observed, with support declining from 24.3% to 16%1.
Even in countries where leave support remains relatively high, such as the Czech Republic (29.2%), Italy (20.1%), and Sweden (19.3%), there has been a decline since 2016-20171. Spain currently has the lowest leave support at 4.7%1.
Several factors contribute to this shift:
Brexit: Britain’s negotiations to leave the EU and subsequent political turmoil have been widely reported across Europe.
Covid pandemic: The pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have prompted many EU citizens to view membership more favorably.
Anti-EU parties: Some parties have abandoned Frexit or Italexit policies in favor of reforming the EU from within1.
While some countries have expressed interest in leaving, such as Hungary and Poland, the overall trend indicates decreasing support for EU exit2. Italy, in particular, could be the most likely of the “Big Four” member states to consider exiting if Brexit proves beneficial to Britain3.
In summary, the desire to leave the EU has waned significantly across member states, reflecting changing attitudes and geopolitical events in recent years1.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/12/support-for-leaving-eu-has-fallen-significantly-across-bloc-since-brexit
There has been a significant decline in support for leaving the European Union within its member states following the United Kingdom’s Brexit vote, according to a new survey by the European Social Survey.
The period covered by the survey coincides with the tortuous negotiations between the UK and Brussels over Brexit as well as a period of political and economic turmoil in the UK which has been partly blamed on Britain's hard divorce from the EU. It also coincided with the Covid pandemic which saw EU countries working together over the vaccine roll out and travel regulations.
Eurosceptic parties such as Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally in France, as well as parties in Italy and the Netherlands have in recent years dropped calls for their countries to leave the EU or the single currency but instead advocated for the union to reform.
https://www.thelocal.de/20230112/public-support-in-europe-for-leaving-eu-collapses-since-brexit-new-survey-shows
A word derived from Voltaire's Candide. Where a character (Dr Pangloss) is unrealistically optimistic.
Comes from the Greek Pan (all) and Glossa (tongues). And can be translated as "talking too much".
Seems somehow fitting on Page 53 of a thread devoted to how wonderful the EU is....
Surely all the calls for reformation by those who are in the EU proves that the model is broken, flawed and therefore no longer fit for purpose.
They barely squeezed the new immigration policy through and if that's any indication of the friction within, the edifice is starting to look a little iffy.
It must be difficult to focus wearing both rose tinted glasses and blinkers at the same time Tony, how do you manage.
Germany saw support for leaving the EU fall by 3.8 percentage points, in Sweden the potential leave vote fell by 5.2
Despite most expressing a wish to remain in the EU, not every country saw a rise in support for voting to remain. In Germany, there was a drop of 5.1 percentage points for remain, 3.4 in Poland, 1.7 in Spain and 0.4 in Sweden. But in these countries respondents did not switch to backing leave but gave answers indicating they didn't know which side they would vote for or that they just wouldn't vote.
Similarly stark falls between 2016 and 2022 were recorded in the Netherlands (from 23% to 13.5%), Portugal (15.7% to 6.6%), Austria (26% to 16.1%) and France (24.3% to 16%), with smaller but still statistically significant falls in Hungary (16% to 10.2%), Spain (9.3% to 4.7%) Sweden (23.9% to 19.3%), and Germany (13.6% to 11%).
The ESS data also showed that support for staying in the EU – again excluding those who said they could not or would not vote, did not know which way they would vote, or would not cast a complete or valid ballot – increased in every member state for which comparable data was available, with remain support in 2020-2022 ranging from a low of 70.8% in the Czech Republic to a high of 95.3% in Spain.
The ESS survey is normally conducted through face-to-face interviews, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, respondents in six countries – including Austria, Germany, Poland, Sweden and Spain – were asked to complete questionnaires themselves in 2020-2022.
In those countries, the percentage of respondents who said they would not cast a vote was generally higher. Tim Hanson, a senior ESS research fellow, said this was most likely because the questionnaire presented them with that option, whereas interviewers asked people to choose between leave and remain.
The overall effect was to depress the “remain” vote in the “self-complete” countries rather than to increase the “leave” vote, Hanson said. Nonetheless, the difference in survey method meant excluding “no votes” provided a more reliable comparison between the two survey rounds.
First off, it is important to dispel one myth. The vast majority of politicians don't really care whether we are in or out of the EU. What they really care about is whether their own power grabs will be better served by being in or out. Not just the UK-across Europe.
Campaigning to leave if you are a Far Right Party that has never had power looks attractive. Look at the rise of UKIP a few elections ago. Look at the increased vote for the Reform Party. Look at the power that odious man Farage wields as he decides whether his own ambitions are best served by sticking with Reform or twisting back to the Tories. Look at Johnson rising to be PM while deciding whether it suited him to be in or out.
But if you are a Centre Right Party used to being in power, the picture is a lot less good. Because the reality is that the Conservative Party have failed to provide real benefits via Brexit. Not saying they couldn't-they didn't. And are facing the worst election result in their entire history, squabbling over the "purity" of Brexit. Ever weirder immigration policies while legal migration skyrockets. While the nation starves. And waits to vote them out.
Much, much easier for a Politician to moan about the EU than to actually take decisions themselves. Be honest about the undoubted economic cost of Brexit. And actually provide clear bespoke policies that suit the UK, as opposed to the off the peg EU ones. Rather than talking-doing.
Centre Right politicians, and voters, believe staying in the EU is better for their electoral ambitions. Nothing to do with whether the EU is good. Or bad. Or (in reality) a bit of both.
I also believe that the referendum majority was fuelled by the many people that were unhappy with their lives, due to the austerity etc, that fell for the bs leave pitch.
They felt that their lives wouldnt change if we stayed in, and assumed that they might change for the better if we left.
Many of whom are now looking around and realising their lives havent changed, and wondering what happened.
Some have reached the conclusion, that as their lives havent changed for the better, the EU membership was not worth a light.
When an honest review might have concluded that the EU was not responsible for any of the sh1t that they were unhappy with.
@Essexphil
Thanks Phil.
I love learning new stuff like that.
My knowledge was limited to "Pan" being all, as in, say, pandemic, panorama, Pan American Airlines, & so on.