The big Brexit thread - news, updates and discussion

[brogdale]

It’s hugely telling of the incompetence shown since the result, the lack of preparedness for both possible outcomes, that the solution to piss poor planning is just to wave everything through.

tbh, we're reaping the incompetence and arrogance that preceded the result.

 

[The39thStep]

Tangible benefits of independence

 

[sleaterkinney]

It’s hugely telling of the incompetence shown since the result, the lack of preparedness for both possible outcomes, that the solution to piss poor planning is just to wave everything through.

They couldn’t prepare because that would bring out the lie that there were no barriers. Now they have to wave stuff through or the shelves will go bare.

 

[TopCat]

tbh, we're reaping the incompetence and arrogance that preceded the result.

For sure. I was really shocked when Cameron admitted he had insisted no planning and contingency arrangements were considered or actioned before the ballot. Real open mouth stuff it was.

 

[brogdale]

For sure. I was really shocked when Cameron admitted he had insisted no planning and contingency arrangements were considered or actioned before the ballot. Real open mouth stuff it was.

Manifest arrogance.

 

[editor]

Tangible benefits of independence

View attachment 257667

When the Welsh Liberal Democrat leader speaks the whole world listens. Fucking idiots.

 

[Pickman's model]

They couldn’t prepare because that would bring out the lie that there were no barriers. Now they have to wave stuff through or the shelves will go bare.

Like they already are in the six counties

 

[Spymaster]

Tangible benefits of independence

View attachment 257667

The quickest path to Welsh independance would be to let the English vote on it.

 

[editor]

The catastrophe continues now with bonus govt cover up

The Cabinet Office run by Michael Gove has been officially reprimanded by the UK Statistics Authority for using unpublished and unverifiable data in an attempt to deny that Brexit had caused a massive fall in volumes of trade through British ports.

The criticism follows a story in the Observer on 7 February that cited a survey by the Road Haulage Association (RHA) of its international members showing export volumes had dropped by a staggering 68% in January through British ports and the Channel Tunnel.



The RHA wrote to Gove at the time saying: “Intelligence that we are collecting on an ongoing basis from international hauliers suggests that loads to the EU have reduced by as much as 68%, which can also be evidenced by the increased number of empty trailers which are not currently considered in the statistics.”

The RHA also accused Gove of failing to heed its warnings that trade would be damaged unless there was a dramatic increase in the number of customs officials.

UK Statistics Authority rebukes Gove over Brexit figures

Cabinet Office used ‘unverifiable data’ to rebut a Road Haulage Association survey showing export volumes dropped by 68%

www.theguardian.com

 

[editor]

 

[The39thStep]

There are EU rights and the rights of the EU

 

[teuchter]

There are EU rights and the rights of the EU

Can you explain what's actually happened here and why you think it's wrong, or are you just reposting a dramatic sounding tweet?

 

[gosub]

Can you explain what's actually happened here and why you think it's wrong, or are you just reposting a dramatic sounding tweet?

58% of MEPs vote to lift immunity of Puigdemont, Comín and Ponsatí

A divided European Parliament has voted to lift the parliamentary immunity of the 3 Catalan MEPs in exile.

www.elnacional.cat

 

[teuchter]

I don't really see why the tweet says their "civil rights" have been "removed". It seems to me that MEPs have made a democratic vote that decides that immunity, which protects against them from being persecuted for holding opinions, doesn't apply in this case.

 

[Raheem]

I don't really see why the tweet says their "civil rights" have been "removed". It seems to me that MEPs have made a democratic vote that decides that immunity, which protects against them from being persecuted for holding opinions, doesn't apply in this case.

The way MEP immunity is designed is that member states need to get permission to prosecute and MEP which, in practice, is never declined. It isn't a magic shield in the same way as parliamentary immunity in the UK.

 

[Maggot]

Another Brexit win.

UK exports to European Union drop 40% in January

Official figures show a sharp drop in trade in goods with the EU as the Brexit transition period ended.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Poi E]

Yeah but

1. Temporary. Exporters will learn how to fill in forms.
2. Liz Truss is amazing, isn't she?
3. It was never about the money.
4. When the fuck does Wetherspoons open?

 

[brogdale]

Off to court, then...

 

[ska invita]

ive got a feeling the current legal case being brought by the EU was deliberately walked into by the UK
previously there were many signs that grace periods would be extended by mutual agreement
this Lord Frost character took over and seemingly deliberately announced it unilaterally, knowing what reaction that would have, when the option to do so diplomatically was on the table
if so, the question is why. the only answer i can think of is that maintaining tensions with the EU is seen as strategically beneficial by the Tories. that also begs the further question what that strategy is.

 

[Supine]

Excellent takedown of Frost here. I think leavers and remainders can agree he is not playing this well.

Fisking Frost

<a rel="me" href="https://mastodon.online/@ChrisGrey">Mastodon</a>

chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com

 

[ska invita]

I think leavers and remainders can agree he is not playing this well.

Completely down to what goals they are now after. I agree with the piece you posted that its not just anti-EU stoking for the base audience. There's looming fights on a range of issues, and of course bigger deregulation plans on the horizon, so somehow they must be thinking better to keep it agro right from the off, keeps the mood hardball and deliberately unreliable. Smacks of arrogance borne of people used to getting their own way no matter what to me.

 

[Raheem]

Imo, the thing is that the government wants to avoid implementing the NI protocol. If they had gone to the EU to ask for an extension to the grace periods, they would have probably got that, but the EU would have wanted steps taken in return so that there would be no alternative to implementation once the extension ended. That would have been a disaster for the government, so the default alternative is this unilateral refusal. They may or may not have a plan beyond that, but I don't see a reason to assume they know what they are doing.

 

[brogdale]

Mostly Covid related, but Streeck's latest NLR 'Sidecar' piece is certainly 'something for the weekend' for Leavey types.

Not sure you're meant to laugh out loud reading NLR stuff, but this piece literally had me chortling...

Spring is in the air, and Brussels should be buzzing with activity. Remember von der Leyen’s Next Generation EU (NGEU for short), the €750 billion ‘Corona recovery fund’ borrowed from the owners of capital and divided according to an incomprehensible formula between the member states, all 27 of them? This was agreed in July last year, and one might have thought that the EU would now be busy selling debt to its favourite banks. These would then sell the debt on to the European Central Bank, with a healthy profit, making their shareholders happy while fuelling quantitative easing, thereby keeping asset prices up and further adding to their shareholders’ happiness (‘stabilizing financial markets’ is the politically correct term). Well, we’re not bankers, so we don’t really need to know, and, anyway, isn’t such sensitive business better conducted behind closed doors?

 

[Pickman's model]

Mostly Covid related, but Streeck's latest NLR 'Sidecar' piece is certainly 'something for the weekend' for Leavey types.

Not sure you're meant to laugh out loud reading NLR stuff, but this piece literally had me chortling...

You will often find yourself chortling at nlr stuff, not always where the author intended merriment

 

[TopCat]

Mostly Covid related, but Streeck's latest NLR 'Sidecar' piece is certainly 'something for the weekend' for Leavey types.

Not sure you're meant to laugh out loud reading NLR stuff, but this piece literally had me chortling...

It’s a bit all over the place and has more doubtful assertions than me at closing time.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Regarding Ursula von der Leyen’s threat to block the export of the Pfizer vaccine to the U.K., Pfizer have told her to wind her neck in as the key ingredient in their vaccine is made in the U.K.

She really is fucking shit.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Imo, the thing is that the government wants to avoid implementing the NI protocol. If they had gone to the EU to ask for an extension to the grace periods, they would have probably got that, but the EU would have wanted steps taken in return so that there would be no alternative to implementation once the extension ended. That would have been a disaster for the government, so the default alternative is this unilateral refusal. They may or may not have a plan beyond that, but I don't see a reason to assume they know what they are doing.

Yep totally this last bit. There is no plan beyond improvising a route through the present. In fact I see every reason to assume that they don't know what they're doing. It's week by week crisis management, nothing more.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Yep totally this last bit. There is no plan beyond improvising a route through the present. In fact I see every reason to assume that they don't know what they're doing. It's week by week crisis management, nothing more.

dunno

i can't help wondering if there is a plan to have an argument with the EU every time there's an election coming or a 'dead cat' needed...

 

[littlebabyjesus]

dunno

i can't help wondering if there is a plan to have an argument with the EU every time there's an election coming or a 'dead cat' needed...

Could be. I'd call that a general guiding principle perhaps though more than a plan. 'Always have something/body else to blame.'

 

[2hats]

Pfizer have told her to wind her neck in as the key ingredient in their vaccine is made in the U.K.

Really sorry to burst your ionisable cationic lipid bubble but that's incorrect.