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Cont: Brexit: Now What? The Perfect 10.

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Post Script: My package arrived and there were no charge either end. I also received that fancy light I sent off for from a 'French' firm who claimed delivery was delayed two months because of Brexit problems. The package came direct from...CHINA.
 
Interesting article here about Brits and expat Finns migrating/returning to Finland due to Brexit:

Along with Finns returning home, some Brits are also looking to secure EU residency before the door closes at the end of the transition period.

In total, there are about 5,000 British citizens currently living in Finland and they have been urged to apply for a right of residence under the withdrawal agreement, which secures their residence, employment and social security in Finland for life.

The Finnish Immigration Service stated EU-registrations by British citizens had doubled in 2019 compared to the previous year, and the figure is expected to be even higher this year.

Finnish citizenship has been granted to more British people since the Brexit vote than in the previous 20 years combined.

Matthew Campbell arrived in Finland from the UK at the end of October with his Finnish wife. However, as an Irish citizen, his right to live and work in Finland is secure.
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YLE
 
Vixen said:
Post Script: My package arrived and there were no charge either end. I also received that fancy light I sent off for from a 'French' firm who claimed delivery was delayed two months because of Brexit problems. The package came direct from...CHINA.
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Weirdly something like that just happened to me. I ordered a book from a UK company with a subsidiary in Australia. It didn’t turn up so I asked what was going on - “customs delays due to Brexit”. It came a few days later... posted from Oz.
 
Wudang said:
I think someone said they "were doing their job". I seem to recall that phrase from somewhere but I can't recall its significance.
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The way the phrase is used in pro wrestling kind of fits. ;)

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Jobber

In any competition, there are winners and losers. In Professional Wrestling, the overwhelming majority of them have been pre-determined since at least 1920. Fans and insiders alike refer to being on the losing end of the equation as "doing the job," or "jobbing" in short.
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Aber said:
And the EU has invoked Article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol

https://twitter.com/faisalislam/status/1355192363522658309
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I did not see that coming. I never thought the EU would be the first to introduce barriers at the NI / Ireland border. I wonder what the Irish government's response will be? Politically I think this is an ill advised move, NI should have been left with an open border with Ireland as the EU insisted on. I hope the UK government doesn't do something stupid in response, they should just (unbelievably) occupy the moral high ground on this.
 
Planigale said:
I did not see that coming. I never thought the EU would be the first to introduce barriers at the NI / Ireland border. I wonder what the Irish government's response will be? Politically I think this is an ill advised move, NI should have been left with an open border with Ireland as the EU insisted on. I hope the UK government doesn't do something stupid in response, they should just (unbelievably) occupy the moral high ground on this.
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AFAICT they are trying to make sure the UK can't use NI to buy up the limited EU vaccine supplies for use in the UK. This is more or less in line with what the EU has been doing all along. They don't want NI to be used as a way to bypass their import export controls.
 
lomiller said:
AFAICT they are trying to make sure the UK can't use NI to buy up the limited EU vaccine supplies for use in the UK. This is more or less in line with what the EU has been doing all along. They don't want NI to be used as a way to bypass their import export controls.
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The thing is this is a phantasm. The drug companies are ONLY selling to governments at present. Unless there is black market diversion this is never going to be an issue. This is purely to make a point. The only group that could divert supplies would be the Irish government.
 
lomiller said:
AFAICT they are trying to make sure the UK can't use NI to buy up the limited EU vaccine supplies for use in the UK. This is more or less in line with what the EU has been doing all along. They don't want NI to be used as a way to bypass their import export controls.
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Yes. I think they don’t want the Phizer vaccine going to the UK and/or maybe to prevent Belgian-produced AZ one going there after AZ said it won’t send UK-produced ones to make up the shortfall in what they can produce in Belgium. EU have definitely decided to play hardball. This is getting ugly.
 
lomiller said:
AFAICT they are trying to make sure the UK can't use NI to buy up the limited EU vaccine supplies for use in the UK. This is more or less in line with what the EU has been doing all along. They don't want NI to be used as a way to bypass their import export controls.
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But I thought the complaint was that AZ wouldn't ship vaccines from the UK to the EU to meet demand there? Aren't they just inviting the UK government to take the same measure, which would disadvantage the EU far more than the UK?
 
Garrison said:
But I thought the complaint was that AZ wouldn't ship vaccines from the UK to the EU to meet demand there? Aren't they just inviting the UK government to take the same measure, which would disadvantage the EU far more than the UK?
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Another complaint is that AZ might be shipping from its Belgian plant to the UK. Police have raided the office, have they not? I don’t know what the evidence is that they have done that or even why AZ would do that.

I also don’t see how closing the border is a proportional response if their argument is with AZ. It seems that punishing the UK and Ireland is overkill.
 
angrysoba said:
Yes. I think they don’t want the Phizer vaccine going to the UK and/or maybe to prevent Belgian-produced AZ one going there after AZ said it won’t send UK-produced ones to make up the shortfall in what they can produce in Belgium. EU have definitely decided to play hardball. This is getting ugly.
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Does anyone really think that Pfizer are going to covertly ship vaccine to the UK from Belgium via Ireland so it can be smuggled across the border to NI and onto GB? This is a symbolic act. Not one that has any practical role. This is the vaccine that needs to be kept at -80C, it can not just be shipped around in the back of a truck. The RAF had to be on stand by to fly it from Belgium. This is grandstanding.
 
Planigale said:
Does anyone really think that Pfizer are going to covertly ship vaccine to the UK from Belgium via Ireland so it can be smuggled across the border to NI and onto GB? This is a symbolic act. Not one that has any practical role. This is the vaccine that needs to be kept at -80C, it can not just be shipped around in the back of a truck. The RAF had to be on stand by to fly it from Belgium. This is grandstanding.
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Sorry, it is not Phizer they are worried about smuggling. It is Astra Zeneca. But I agree with you that it sounds loopy to me. Why would they be saying to themselves “let’s make them in Belgium and ship them to the UK” unless there is a claim that the UK is paying them extra....????!

Anyway, the EU investigated AZ. Does this mean they have some dirt on them? If so why not produce this first before taking this action?
 
angrysoba said:
Sorry, it is not Phizer they are worried about smuggling. It is Astra Zeneca. But I agree with you that it sounds loopy to me. Why would they be saying to themselves “let’s make them in Belgium and ship them to the UK” unless there is a claim that the UK is paying them extra....????!

Anyway, the EU investigated AZ. Does this mean they have some dirt on them? If so why not produce this first before taking this action?
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AZ is happy for the Belgium / French factories to deliver to the EU. No one thinks that currently AZ is shipping from the EU to the UK. The EU wants a proportion of the UK production of the AZ vaccine to go to the EU and wants to threaten to withhold Pfizer production in Belgium.

As a pro EU person I am really distressed by this. I cannot see anyway this is spun in the EU's favour. This was always going to be an issue. India has restricted the export of the Indian production of the AZ vaccine, some is being exported, but in a restricted manner.

Much more of an issue is that some of the UK vaccine is shipped into the EU and then repackaged into individual dose vials. The ability to do this is being developed in the UK. So the likely outcome is a threat that if the UK does not share vaccine with the EU voluntarily then the EU will just refuse to re-export vaccine intended for the UK being repackaged in the EU. The danger is that the UK may find an option not using the EU.
 
Planigale said:
I did not see that coming. I never thought the EU would be the first to introduce barriers at the NI / Ireland border. I wonder what the Irish government's response will be? Politically I think this is an ill advised move, NI should have been left with an open border with Ireland as the EU insisted on. I hope the UK government doesn't do something stupid in response, they should just (unbelievably) occupy the moral high ground on this.
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And the EU has backtracked within about 4 hours.

Invoking Article 16 without informing the Irish or British governments, let alone discussing it in advance should get someone sacked.
 
Aber said:
And the EU has backtracked within about 4 hours.

Invoking Article 16 without informing the Irish or British governments, let alone discussing it in advance should get someone sacked.
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There is much more to this than meets the eye. Journalists such as BBC's Laura Kuennsberg are claiming it was just an EU 'oversight' as a direct phone call from 'Boris' Johnson to Ursula Von Der Leyen resulted in the EU relenting and issuing a statement that they would not invoke Article 16 after all.

HOWEVER, it was not an 'oversight' or a 'mistake', the entire thing had been written up in full and confirmed on the EU Commission webpage.

As for a 'mistake', well, read the revised statement it still says they can instigate Art 16 any time should they feel the UK government is not playing fairly or transparently in the matter of vaccines.

IMV there is something off about Pascal Soriot, CEO of AstraZeneca. He doesn't come across as being straight, or why else would the EU disbelieve him and send in their own officials to demand to review the books and the production lines. They are checking up on his claim that AZ in Belgium had 'production issues' - which he blames on the co-sharer, Nova-Something - and it is clear the EU does not believe the explanations given for the shortfall of almost 70m of the doses promised per contract.

Arlene Foster said triggering Article 16 was 'an incredibly hostile act' and that is right it's almost casus belli and IMV the EU did not do that 'by accident'.
 
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