howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Brian Dixon wrote:that's the least of our problems, poor old germany will have to fork out an extra £3.2 billion quid when we leave. aprantley the germans are not happy about it.
That should give more ammunition to the AFD and shadowy groups that include the EU in their hate lists.
Captain Haddock
- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 7,982
Now the President of the Calais Region weighs in:-
'Nous devons tout faire pour garantir la fluidité.'
We must do everything to ensure fluidity.
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Did anyone seriously think they would close the port and tunnel?
Mind you when a politician says "they have no plans to" it normally means "yes but you cannot prove it".
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 7,982
......... and does anyone seriously think the French will require us to have visas, that planes will not be able to fly from UK to Europe, that we will run out of medicines, that we will not continue to live in, work in and retire to each others countries, that there will be no solution to the Northern Ireland Border, that there will be no co-operation on security matters between the UK and the EU?
Probably not but it's never stopped some journalist writing 1000 ill-researched words on the subject or some Pound Shop politician having part of his 15 minutes of fame on TV warning of the sky falling in.
It's almost Halloween. It's a fact that we love telling each other scary stories and if the Zombie Apocalypse doesn't get you the fumes from the queue of lorries post-Brexit 'from here to Maidstone' surely will!
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
well we have to wait and see,march is 5 moths away. it either be chaos or be normal run through.. but on saying that the French can be bloody minded when they want to.
Bob Whysman
- Registered: 23 Aug 2013
- Posts: 1,934
Brian Dixon wrote:well we have to wait and see,march is 5 moths away. it either be chaos or be normal run through.. but on saying that the French can be bloody minded when they want to.
Not long now Brian.....I just hope they survive the forecasted hard Winter.
X 5
Do nothing and nothing happens.
Button
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 3,033
As a bit of light relief, there may be a limited connection between Halloween and Brexit; it goes like this. For many computers, time marches resolutely forwards from a fixed point in the past, Bill Gates' birth date for example. But for those who like clocks, time goes backwards when the clocks fall back; CHIEF is one of them. To prevent customs (but not Transit) declarations going backwards, CHIEF is switched off for an hour and sleeps until time moves on again. So if computerised import and export (but not Transit) processes are introduced into the Channel ports' traffic flows, they will be unavailable during that hour.
Not a big deal, because it's in the wee small hours and the boxports already cope with it, but a bit of spooky fun none the less.
(Not my real name.)
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 7,982
Project Fear - is the the best yet?
Brexit could KILL 5,600 people a year by making fruit and veg unaffordable meaning their diets are no longer healthy enough, warns Oxford University researcher.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-6316565/Brexit-kill-5-600-people-year-fresh-fruit-veg-prices-shoot-up.html"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 7,982
Now Vince Cable weighs in:- "As British society falls apart it could pose a risk to Strictly"
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7586538/vince-cable-brexit-strictly-come-dancing/Bob Whysman likes this
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,821
Oh dear, I assume that means all our fruit and veg farms are suddenly going to close.
How will we cope without our homegrown in Kent strawberries for example, that I have been buying all summer. On the upside I assume South Africa will continue to supply their lovely grapes.
If absolute tosh is all that those Remainers can come up with they must be getting desperate.
Edit, I for one will not miss S C D with its so called celebrities.
Bob Whysman likes this
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
At the moment we import more than half of our foodstuff and most of the ingredients for animal feed.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Courtesy of the Times.
Up to three million EU citizens who are expected to acquire settled status in the UK after Brexit will be allowed to vote in British elections, leaked government plans suggest. Daniel Hannan, a Conservative Brexiteer MEP, said that he had seen an extract of the UK’s draft withdrawal agreement that he said gave voting rights to EU citizens after Brexit. In a WhatsApp message to other MEPs, that was leaked to The Guardian, Mr Hannan said that the agreement would give voting rights to all EU citizens in England and Northern Ireland. He went on to say that voting rights were devolved in Scotland and Wales. He questioned why the government had struck the deal saying it should have negotiated separate agreements with each EU country.
The disclosure of the message will raise questions as to why Mr Hannan seems to have been given sight of sensitive internal government documents. However, it will raise the hopes of millions of EU citizens living in the UK who were unsure whether they would be able to vote in future elections.
“I just saw an extract of the draft withdrawal agreement. Britain has decided to enfranchise all EU nationals (at least in England and NI — it’s devolved in Scotland and Wales.) What an odd decision: why offer a blanket deal instead of country by country bilaterals? For what it’s worth, it will significantly bolster the non-Tory electorate,” he wrote. Speaking in the Commons, Dominic Raab, the Brexit secretary, declined to spell out what rights EU citizens would have in the case of both a negotiated agreement and no deal. “The issue of citizens’ rights is on a scale and a level of importance and sensitivity which means it will not be done in technical notices but in a different format,” he said.
Labour said that the Brexit department’s refusal to issue a technical notice was a broken promise, pointing to a Department of Transport notice that said “a technical notice on EU citizens in the UK will be published soon”. Though EU citizens currently in the UK received a guarantee that they would receive settled status after Brexit, negotiations about some future rights are continuing, including their right to return to live in Britain even if they leave the country for some years. The House of Commons’ Brexit select committee noted in July that voting rights were a sticking point in negotiations and that the EU had “declined to consider a reciprocal agreement for the continuation of voting rights as part of the withdrawal agreement negotiations”.
A government spokesperson said: “This is not within the scope of the Withdrawal Agreement. We have always been clear that the voting rights of both UK nationals living in the EU and UK nationals living in the EU should be considered together and that we’re committed to doing bilateral deals to achieve this.”
Bob Whysman- Registered: 23 Aug 2013
- Posts: 1,934
Quote from Howards posting :A government spokesperson said: “This is not within the scope of the Withdrawal Agreement. We have always been clear that the voting rights of both UK nationals living in the EU and UK nationals living in the EU should be considered together and that we’re committed to doing bilateral deals to achieve this.” Unquote.
Is it me or are there two types of UK nationals?!
Do nothing and nothing happens.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
I didn't spot that but would have thought a proof reader for the Times would have, I think everybody would know that it meant EU nationals in the UK having the same rights as UK nationals in the EU.
Bob Whysman- Registered: 23 Aug 2013
- Posts: 1,934
I think Theresa May was too hard an act to follow with her robotic dance moves.
Look on the bright side, one less programme to turn off!
howard mcsweeney1 wrote:At the moment we import more than half of our foodstuff and most of the ingredients for animal feed.
Not all from the E.U. though Howard. Perhaps without, or with lower, farming subsidies for not cutting hedges at certain times of the year and making the countryside into fallow fields for butterflies we could encourage farmers to up their game.
I have noticed though that there are more British produced fruit and veg in the shops recently ; long may it continue.
More use could also be made of the odd shaped and uneven sized fruit and veg most of which is just discarded to suit the supermarket buying teams.
Do nothing and nothing happens.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
The point I was making Bob was how much we are relying on imports when we could produce more ourselves but the supermarkets say that most people have no interest in the origin of fruit and veg, just the price and how it looks. Much of our farm land has been sold off for housing and I don't how the hydroponic method would produce enough fare to replace the imports. I believe some of the big chains are now knocking out the odd shaped stuff.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
I think most people were aware that we would leave the single market but I doubt that many gave much thought to the customs union or knew how it worked.
https://fullfact.org/europe/what-was-promised-about-customs-union-referendum/Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
morrisons are selling wonky fruit and veg, about 25/30% cheaper than non wonky fruit and veg.
Jan Higgins likes this
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,821
Brian Dixon wrote:morrisons are selling wonky fruit and veg, about 25/30% cheaper than non wonky fruit and veg.
I always buy it very good value and often virtually looks the same as the 'normal' produce.
Brian Dixon likes this
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Courtesy of the Telgraph
Pro-Brexit MPs are expressing "strong interest" in a "plan B" for Brexit that would see the UK scrap the planned transition period and adopt a Norway-style relationship with the EU while negotiating a new trade deal. Nick Boles, the former minister advocating a plan for the UK to attempt to temporarily continue membership of the the European Economic Area while it strikes an agreement with Brussels, said Brexiteers were seeking meetings with him to discuss the proposals, amid growing concern about Theresa May's negotiations with Brussels.
Among those who have expressed interest in the proposal is believed to be David Davis, the former Brexit Secretary, whose former chief of staff, Stewart Jackson drew criticism from pro-Brexit colleagues last week when he said the plan had "many" benefits. Mr Boles, an ally of Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, said the proposal, which he has called a "Better Brexit", is generating "strong interest" from cabinet ministers and senior MPs, including Brexiteers, seeking a fallback plan that could command support from a majority of Tories. It comes as the Government is attempting to negotiate an exit mechanism from a proposed insurance plan, or "backstop", under which the UK would remain part of the EU's customs union if no other deal is reached, in order to avoid a hard border in Ireland.
Under Mr Boles's plan, a planned two-year transition period would be scrapped, with the UK instead remaining in the EEA, like Norway, without full EU membership, for a three year period, alongside a temporary customs union. This period would allow time to negotiate a free trade agreement like the one between the EU and Canada, which is advocated by Brexiteers such as Mr Davis and Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary, Mr Boles says.
Lord Hague, the former Tory leader, spoke warmly of the plan earlier this month. On Friday Amber Rudd, the pro-Remain former home secretary, described an article by Mr Boles setting out the proposals as "brilliant". Mr Boles had said: "MPs can support Norway for Now while differing about the long-term destination for Britain outside the EU, because only the first stage of our exit will be set out in the legally-binding withdrawal agreement on which they will have to vote." Mr Davis is understood to have discussed the proposals with Mr Boles at length, but raised several concerns, including about whether the UK would be able to negotiate such an arrangement, if the country could seek a satisfactory exit mechanism to leave the EEA after three years, and whether, in practice, the Government would be able to secure full control of British waters during the interim period.
Other Eurosceptics dismiss the plans entirely and were scathing about Mr Jackson's support. Some even claim that Mr Boles is "outriding" for Mr Gove, who they say could back the plan if Mrs May's proposals fail. An ally of Mr Gove, who has suggested that a Canada-style deal had "merit", said: "Michael has a huge amount of respect for Nick but on this particular issue he disagrees with him." Members of the European Research Group of Eurosceptic MPs have been sharing circulating comments by Jean-Claude Piris, a former head of the European Council's legal service, casting doubt on the feasibility of the plan. One said: "The Boles plan is a non starter, along with the idea of extended transition period, because that is effectively what is being proposed.
