Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
did they,oh my god, good heavans,there was me yhinking we done it all by our selves.
Weird Granny Slater
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 3,002
Captain Haddock wrote:We let the US be leader because they had saved Europe. Twice.
I would have said:
WW1: America saved Europe? That was certainly the American view at the time, as Wilson (Woodrow, that is) bragged: ‘We saved the world, and I do not intend to let those Europeans forget it.’ And they haven't ever since.
But ‘assisted’ would be closer to the truth. The USA was never formally an ally and, when it did eventually enter the war in 1917, its troops were held off major land fighting until summer 1918 when the German forces were pretty much spent anyway. Foch commanded the allied victory, not Pershing. The USA’s contribution was greater in terms of food shipments.
But, on second thoughts, as that would be a pointless discussion, I won't bother.
'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
Reginald Barrington
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 17 Dec 2014
- Posts: 3,229
Wether or not they saved Europe is maybe debatable, but without them we would have lost, starved and been bankrupt!
Arte et Marte
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Fascinating read as most people are concerned about how Dover, Calais and Dunkirk will fare after 2019 but Zeebrugge will suffer in a very different way with their varied routes into UK North Sea ports.
I was totally unaware of the port being a distribution hub and effectively operating a pick and pack system for French exporters, every single bottle of water from France enters the UK from Zeebrugge.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/oct/07/zeebrugge-brexit-braced-for-tariffs-trade-lossBrian Dixon likes this
John Buckley
- Registered: 6 Oct 2013
- Posts: 615
"every single bottle of water from France enters the UK from Zeebrugge"
Something else that we can manage perfectly well without. I can't imagine that our own spring water is any less palatable than the froggie over priced version?
Guest 1881 likes this
Button
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 3,028
Not a good article. Brexit, in any form, will have no impact on EU tariffs on Brazilian orange juice; if anything, it would help the EU/Belgium avoid them by treating them as temporary imports for processing before being re-exported to the UK. Hey, here's a thought - why don't we import them direct, process them and apply our own tariff?
So Zeebrugge thinks it can apply customs clearance (EU export clearance) miles from the port. Either the Observer has got this totally round its ear, or else Zeebrugge needs to read the Union Customs Code.
(Not my real name.)
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
button,unless you been to zeebruge and seen the port you wouldent understand its importance.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Not really news as it was always known that the Referendum was only advisory but with the lack of progress with talks due to incompetence on our side and intransigence from the EU negotiators I can see a situation where no deal is reached and Article 50 is withdrawn.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-theresa-may-latest-stopped-secret-legal-advice-a7990716.htmlBrian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
lack of progress my backside,more like non exsistant.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Button- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 3,028
Maybe. The BBC reports him as giving this as an example of a worst case scenario that he doesn't see as happening and hence should not, yet, have money thrown at it. I think there are lots of news outlets out there with their own agendas or house views, and all want to "sell papers". The proof of this particular pudding will be when his evidence to the Treasury Select Committee is published shortly.
(Not my real name.)
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
I am merely pointing out the hysterical and frankly laughable doom laden predictions that our betters come out with Buttplug. I keep hearing from politicians of all parties talking about us paying for access to the Single Market. Our annual trade deficit with our EU friends is approximately £100 billion nicker a year, surely they should be paying us for free access to the UK?
John Buckley likes this
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
we will find on or after march 29th 2019,
Guest 1535- Registered: 27 May 2015
- Posts: 399
Myself on this matter, what is a 'Brexit' were just getting our country back from overseas ruling and robbery with dictation trown in. We won the war for one reason and that was our freedom only to go down the road to give up and end up in the state we are now. I would rather live in poverty with happiness, than to be comfortable 'RUN' by someone who does not care one bit about us and takes takes and takes opening us to more debt. BRING ON OUR FREEDOM WHATEVER MAY COME WITH IT! Its time we british make a come back a bit late and a lot lost . We also need to own our own water because the french are ripping off us and someone needs to stop them, I have had enough of it myself.
John Buckley and Reginald Barrington like this
If only everyone could be kind and honest what a better world we would be in.
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
no such thing as freedom any more,we are all dictated to by what ever government that's in, weather its a uk or European one. then you got the wendy whoolies dictating to us what we can or cant say in case we offend a person.
Captain Haddock
- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 7,935
Free movement of goods my arse! News from Austria .......
Friends of mine here in Austria have recently made a couple of trips back to the UK by road, distributing stuff between their two homes. Both times they've been stopped at the border and inspected by the German Finance Police (like the Inland Revenue but in uniform, with pistols). Not looking for Jihadists, Sudanese migrants, Serbian surplus weapons but for cigarettes and tobacco.
Germany has announced that she will keep her borders closed. So will Denmark, France and Austria, not to mention Hungary and Slovenia. The pretence is terrorism; the reality, I think, almost certainly includes smuggled tobacco products.
Austria is a nation of heavy smokers, and the legal price of ciggies at about €4.50 a pack keeps it that way; bars are mostly smoking-friendly, with only a ban coming next year for food and fags in the same room. It does my heart good to walk into a thick comforting fug of eye-stinging tobacco smoke down the hill at my local gasthaus - keeping alive the memory of pre-2006 Britain. It's not that the Austrian government, under strong pressure from the EU, doesn't want to increase tax on fags; it can't. The proximity of the eastern EU border, with fags coming in from Ukraine at €1.50 a pack, means any tax increase on legal fags will actually lower revenue. Poland's the same, as is Hungary. Only the UK and Ireland, far from eastern Europe, can increase tobacco duty indefinitely.
So as the Shengen area border posts are reappearing and traffic queues that were recently just a distant memory are now returning on national borders, the nations of Europe are striving to stem the haemorrhage of tax eastwards and halt the tsunami of Chinese and eastern European fags flooding in.
The prospect makes me chuckle that it's Europe's smokers who may be the final straw that broke Shengen. Now that would be sweet revenge ...
Guest 1831, Reginald Barrington and howard mcsweeney1 like this
"Shall we go, you and I, while we can? Through the transitive nightfall of diamonds"
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Reading stuff from this chap Juncker today I do wonder how he reached such a high position in the EU, maybe because there is not much talent there. Previously he stated that English was not an important language anymore, clearly not heard of the United States.
Getting back to today he was lecturing students in Luxemburg about how difficult the British were in repeated fashion, not the British Government or negotiators but the British, in other words all of us.
One good thing came out though as the Euro has stopped any wars in Europe since its inception, most of us didn't know that!!
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
difficult and dead locked.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
The PM is being cornered by a cross party group of MPs who intend to block any "hard Brexit", the shadow chancellor makes a good point about it being internal Tory party squabbling rather than negotiating.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/oct/15/labour-says-it-will-join-conservatives-to-block-no-deal-brexit