Cont: Brexit: Now What? 9 Below Zero

[Belgian thought]

I genuinely am feeling very sad this week, I feel I am losing a hell of a lot with nothing in compensation. From Saturday I'll simply have less opportunities and less rights. Bummer.

I lived most of my childhood, including schooling and university, and worked over 25 years in the UK. I am now in Spain and at my age, cannot realistically go back to live or retire in the UK. I feel very cut off.

My biggest worry for Friday is the timing. 11 PM, pub closing time (or near enough), on the first monthly payday after Christmas.

There were reports of increased racial tension and attacks after the referendum results. As of the 31st it becomes a fact and I fear for some very nasty behaviour.

 

[catsmate]

Give it time.

Now we are out of the EU we can get rid of those pesky EU regulations banning narwhals from UK waters.

Yes, BoJo's take on climate change will certainly help; once the Gulf Stream decreases significantly UK waters will be far more suited to narwhals.
There may be other consequences however.

 

[GlennB]

I lived most of my childhood, including schooling and university, and worked over 25 years in the UK. I am now in Spain and at my age, cannot realistically go back to live or retire in the UK. I feel very cut off.

I can only wish you the best of luck. What a mess.

My biggest worry for Friday is the timing. 11 PM, pub closing time (or near enough), on the first monthly payday after Christmas.

There were reports of increased racial tension and attacks after the referendum results. As of the 31st it becomes a fact and I fear for some very nasty behaviour.

Good point. Might be a night for a lot of people to stay at home. Possibly several nights

In other news, I see that post-Brexit talks are due to start on March 3rd, so there's 1/11th of the time available straight down the toilet.

 

[The Don]

In other news, I see that post-Brexit talks are due to start on March 3rd, so there's 1/11th of the time available straight down the toilet.

Only if the intent is to have a negotiated trade deal.

IMO the intent is to half-heartedly try to engage the EU but only on an "all the benefits of and none of the responsibilities of EU membership" basis. If the EU were to suddenly cave and accept all of the UK's demands then so much the better. If, as is far more likely, the talks fail then the UK crashes out of the EU with no deal, as the architects of Brexit want.

Losing 1/11 of the available negotiation time is ideal if the objective is no-deal.

 

[ponderingturtle]

Only if the intent is to have a negotiated trade deal.

IMO the intent is to half-heartedly try to engage the EU but only on an "all the benefits of and none of the responsibilities of EU membership" basis. If the EU were to suddenly cave and accept all of the UK's demands then so much the better. If, as is far more likely, the talks fail then the UK crashes out of the EU with no deal, as the architects of Brexit want.

Losing 1/11 of the available negotiation time is ideal if the objective is no-deal.

If the people wanted a deal, Boris Johnson wouldn't be prime minister. They have elections and everything and chose Johnson and no deal.

 

[P.J. Denyer]

I genuinely am feeling very sad this week, I feel I am losing a hell of a lot with nothing in compensation. From Saturday I'll simply have less opportunities and less rights. Bummer.

Yeah I agree. Some of my best customers are European citizens, one of them (who's Polish) interviewed for an Italian company today, Brexit has cost my wife's job and a large part of my income from my second job, I'm worried now that I'm going to lose these customers from my own little business and I honestly can't see we're getting anything worthwhile in return...

 

[abaddon]

Yeah I agree. Some of my best customers are European citizens, one of them (who's Polish) interviewed for an Italian company today, Brexit has cost my wife's job and a large part of my income from my second job, I'm worried now that I'm going to lose these customers from my own little business and I honestly can't see we're getting anything worthwhile in return...

You are getting "sovereignty". And you can chuck that pole out of the country. Isn't that nice?

 

[jimbob]

Last autumn's government "Get Ready for Brexit" Campaign has come in for criticism:

A multi-million pound publicity blitz to prepare the public for leaving the EU appears to have had little impact, a spending watchdog has said.

The National Audit Office said £46m was spent on the "Get ready for Brexit" campaign ahead of the UK's expected departure at the end of last October.

Of course it's really difficult to prepare for something when we have no idea what it's going to be like.

It sounds to me like the government is gearing up to blame individuals and companies for failing to prepare effectively for Brexit when they run into problems.

From Scrutable.science (former badscience)
https://scrutable.science/viewtopic.php?p=16830#p16830

£46m "Get Ready for Brexit" campaign had "little effect" says NAO.

“Not undertaking the campaign would have risked significant and unnecessary disruption to businesses and to people’s lives,” a spokesperson for the cabinet office said.

I leave the punchline as an exercise for the reader ...

 

[Vixen]

I'll be drinking some sovrin tea on Friday and thinking of you all in the UK. So glad I got away. Funny thing is, I rarely bothered with a full English breakfast before but now I eat it every day, ever since discovering 'Englanti/Engelsk' bacon in the supermarkets with a union jack background on the packet.

 

[ceptimus]

In other news, I see that post-Brexit talks are due to start on March 3rd, so there's 1/11th of the time available straight down the toilet.

It's the EU that are delaying the trade talks. The UK wants to begin them immediately - in fact the UK has wanted to begin them for the last three years or so, but the EU's self-imposed rules prevented that.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/pol...layed-until-march-brussels-says-a4339386.html

 

[jimbob]

It's the EU that are delaying the trade talks. The UK wants to begin them immediately - in fact the UK has wanted to begin them for the last three years or so, but the EU's self-imposed rules prevented that.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/pol...layed-until-march-brussels-says-a4339386.html

Who insisted that there would be no further extension, whilst giving far less time than it took Canada, say, to negotiate a simpler trade deal with the EU?

Anyway - I thought the UK England held all the cards, so can't Johnson simply demonstrate his undoubted superiority and insist on his preferred terms?

 

[Andy_Ross]

Yeah I agree. Some of my best customers are European citizens, one of them (who's Polish) interviewed for an Italian company today, Brexit has cost my wife's job and a large part of my income from my second job, I'm worried now that I'm going to lose these customers from my own little business and I honestly can't see we're getting anything worthwhile in return...

Blue Passports made in France!

 

[SezMe]

A thought just occurred to me: Chunnel. How will Brexit affect its operation, if at all?

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Now we are out of the EU we can get rid of those pesky EU regulations banning narwhals from UK waters.

So you've brexited now? I didn't see the fireworks and parties. Did they do it quietly in the night?


And the big question is, why couldn't this have been done sooner?

 

[Mojo]

Now we are out of the EU we can get rid of those pesky EU regulations banning narwhals from UK waters.

Yes, but they’ll most likely be caught by the migrant salary threshold. How many narwhals are going to be earning over £30,000 a year?

 

[Mojo]

Last autumn's government "Get Ready for Brexit" Campaign has come in for criticism:



Of course it's really difficult to prepare for something when we have no idea what it's going to be like.

It sounds to me like the government is gearing up to blame individuals and companies for failing to prepare effectively for Brexit when they run into problems.

This would be the government that ran a “get ready for Brexit” campaign while claiming that everything would be absolutely fine after Brexit...

 

[Lothian]

A thought just occurred to me: Chunnel. How will Brexit affect its operation, if at all?

Customs checks will be needed. Otherwise probably not much from a passenger point of view. Demand is likely to be lower as EU UK trade is likely to be lower.

 

[Pixel42]

MEP Seb Dance is collecting signatures for an open letter to the EU.

https://actionnetwork.org/forms/sign-the-see-eu-again-soon-open-letter?source=direct_link&

To Ursula Von Der Leyen (President of the European Commission), Charles Michel (President of the European Council), Guy Verhofstadt MEP (European Parliament's Brexit Coordinator), David Sassoli MEP (President of the European Parliament) and all our other friends across the EU,

I am writing to you on behalf of all those people in the UK for whom 31 January will be a day, not of celebration, but of anger and grief.

Hardline Brexiteers like Mark Francois and Nigel Farage have received a lot of coverage for their plans to celebrate the day we leave the EU - the most ludicrous suggestion being that Big Ben should ring to mark the occasion. Millions of us in the UK will not be celebrating Brexit, but will be thinking of everything we have lost by leaving, and counting down the days until we rejoin the EU.

Britain is taking a sabbatical. We now have the largest and most active pro-European movement on the continent, and that will not disappear on 31 January. There are still millions of us who know that the great challenges of our time can only be faced by working in partnership with our closest friends and neighbours. Please keep the door open for us to return.

 

[The Don]

This would be the government that ran a “get ready for Brexit” campaign while claiming that everything would be absolutely fine after Brexit...

Of course everything will be fine so long as people and companies are positioned to take advantage of the fabulous opportunities that Brexit presents.

Only those companies and individuals who failed to prepare properly for Brexit will have suffered. Those who have taken the necessary precautions, a handful of hedge fund managers and messers Bamford and Dyson, will have turned out to to have done very nicely indeed.

It's hardly the government's fault that not everyone in the UK is a multi-millionaire with a global company which stands to gain from the low-tax low regulation post-Brexit environment. The government can't be expected to mollycoddle every single person who isn't a billionaire (or who doesn't benefit from a billionaire's largesse like our current Prime Minister has for the last three decades). Honesty, if people cannot be bothered to take charge of their own financial affairs, it's their look-out.

Just get into the chlorinated chicken processing or hazardous waste disposal industries and you'll be coining it in.

 

[Mojo]

The government was also running the “Get ready for Brexit” campaign while also having a policy of “just getting Brexit done” and sorting out the details afterwards. If they weren’t taking any notice of their own publicity, why would they expect anyone else to?