Westministenders: Brexit Britain = Gridlock Britain ?

[BigChocFrenzy]

We keep getting told the Uk can get a deal like Canada, Turkey or other non-EU countries have, without FOM.
Those deals do not provide the same privileges as EU members:
They have quotas, restrictions and must obey EU regulations

e.g. After CETA, Ron Davidson, head of international trade for the Canadian Meat Council stated:
"We do not have what we would call commercially viable access to the European market".

The deal with Turkey abolished tariffs, but did not give free acess. This is what that means:

www.ft.com/content/b4458652-f42d-11e6-8758-6876151821a6

"On a recent Saturday at the Kapikule border crossing, about 30 minutes drive from the Turkish city of Edirne, a line of trucks 4km long stretched along the highway, inching along glacially towards the Bulgarian checkpoints.
"Today is a good day", said Ibrahim Kurtukcu, a 42-year trucker who had been waiting 14 hours.
"Last week the line was 7km long".
The record is 17km. It can take up to 30 hours to get through to the other side."

Of course, UK ports (and French ports) do not have the capacity, facilities, storage space or trained staff to handle customs processing of the vast amount of British exports & imports.

Building this additional capacity - where ? - would take several years and there are no signs that even the planning stage has started.

[LurkingHusband]

.

[Badders123]

.

[RedAndYellowPeppers]

Joining in too

[Mistigri]

Good opener bigchoc

There would be a certain element of karma if it turned out the brexit voting inhabitants of Kent had voted to have their motorways and towns turned into permanent lorry parking lots.

[SemiPermanent]

.

[HashiAsLarry]

Thanks bigchoc

[Badders123]

I would raise a weak smile....

[woman12345]

Thanks too!

[PoundlandUK]

Thanks BigChoc

[CatsBatsEars]

[LurkingHusband]

There would be a certain element of karma if it turned out the brexit voting inhabitants of Kent had voted to have their motorways and towns turned into permanent lorry parking lot

I'm vaguely reminded of the scene in "The Trial of Tony Blair" where Cherie realised that Connaught Square (the Blairs retirement pad) was pretty much in the heart of Londons Middle East quarter (7 types of Lebanese cuisine on one street ....)

[Peregrina]

Here again. What time do the trolls start? Maybe they won't find this thread straight away.

[SapphireStrange]

Thanks BigChoc!

[NinonDeLanclos]

I do love Lebanese food.

[prettybird]

I love Lebanese

shameless placemark

[Badders123]

What are they? 6 hours behind? 🙄😀

[woman12345]

^May and Hammond face serious Tory revolt over tax on self-employed
18 Conservative MPs express opposition to budget measure, which threatens government’s Commons majority of 17^

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/mar/09/theresa-may-philip-hammond-face-serious-tory-revolt-over-tax-on-self-employed

[AllTheLight]

Place marking

[Mistigri]

The problem with the self-employed Misti, is that there are genuinely self-employed like your DH, who bid for work and turn it down. And the pseudo self-employed of the 'gig' economy. Where they can be fined for e.g. not delivering a parcel. I don't imagine for one moment that anyone fines your DH Misti. The latter category aren't self-employed at all, and strenuous efforts should be made to crack down on firms which cut costs by using them.

Sorry to carry over from the previous thread but we were rudely cut off by the post limit, attained if I am not mistaken in record time (vive la résistance).

peregrina I completely agree with you about cracking down on false self-employment. I'd just reiterate that it seems that (a) the impact of this measure is broadly progressive and (b) poor people are not helped by maintaining perverse incentives to self-employment.

[LurkingHusband]

18 Conservative MPs express opposition to budget measure,

How dare they interfere with the Will Of The People. We need a Daily Mail headline naming and shaming these people for the quislings they are. Ideally with a lot of extraneous salacious detail.

[Badders123]

But are they OPENLY GAY!!!! Lurking?
🙄
This is interesting...
www.indy100.com/article/britain-empire-historical-amnesia-indian-mp-colonial-past-shashi-tharoor-7620801

[BigChocFrenzy]

When I was self-employed, nearly 25 years ago, my rule of thumb was that to be worthwhile

I needed to receive annually 60% more than if I were full-time employed for comparable work.

I took this advice from old hands in the same line.

That 60% enabled me to pay into a pension, have holidays, sick days, pay for a tax accountant (when in Germany), extra transport, allow for dry periods between contracts plus a "risk factor" they might dry up completely
(e.g. if main firms decided to keep R&D inhouse, which they all did eventually)

Basically to give comparable quality of life and security to being an employee, I needed that extra 60%

In my case, I didn't have additional costs for insurance or equipment - my clients were large firms who wanted me to use their supercomputers and associated software

In the gig economy, lower skilled workers often don't get paid more than degular employees, let alone 60% more.

[LurkingHusband]

I think the problem is "self employment" is an irregular noun.

I am self employed, you are a gig worker, he is playing the system.

The bottom line is HMRC hates the self employed and has taken successive steps to try to ensure less and less people truly qualify.

Their latest crackdown has just started to cause an exodus of IT talent.

www.theregister.co.uk/2017/02/27/contractors_begin_mass_exodus_ahead_of_ir35/

and we need to bear in mind that UK government IT was hardly the best to start with.

[LurkingHusband]

But are they OPENLY GAY!!!!

Who cares ?

MAGNUSSEN: Proof? What would I need proof for? I’m in news, you moron. I don’t have to prove it – I just have to print it.

[Badders123]

Ok

I'm going to call it

This is the matrix isn't it!?

😳😖🤔☠️