Westministenders: Danger of "accidental" Brexit (whoops !) ?

[BigChocFrenzy]

i.e. Brexit without a deal - NOT intentionally so - due to UK govt incompetence and mutual UK/EU misunderstandings

The govt is proceeding from abysmal ignorance on a Brexit journey which may blunder into disaster.

Prominent Leave campaigner Richard North:

"The UK Government's narrative seems to rest on the belief that the EU will cave in under pressure, and is thus giving every sign that it is prepared to push negotiations to the wire.

If, on the other hand, the EU are determined not to budge, especially as, with their own White Paper on "The Future of Europe" triggering internal discussions unrelated to Brexit, they are not necessarily fully focused on the "British problem".

As a result, we could end up with an "accidental Brexit",
where the UK negotiators overplay their hand, ending up in the UK leaving without an agreement, forcing it to rely on WTO rules.

Most likely, it will take very little to convince the EU that Mrs May is bluffing – as the effect of the WTO option is likely to be disastrous for the UK economy.

We could thus have each side misreading each other, making the accidental Brexit all the more likely."

www.eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=86395

mother you beat me to it.

The cartoon IS funny (esp if you know the story, which I assume they all will in Brussels)

Place marking!

Brexit and beer sales

Tesco is to stop selling Heineken, Amstel, Sol and Tiger. Not being a drinker, I have never heard of Sol, but Tiger isn't European. Oh well, this is what you voted for Leavers, you were told and dismissed it as 'Project Fear'.

peregrina They're all under the Heineken brand, or at least distributed here under them so that's just one pretty fucking massive issue with price hikes.

Apologies. I am stuck on the m6 on a journey that is rapidly turning into on from hell.

Why is Rex Tillerson skipping a NATO meeting to go to Russia?

Tories fume as Brexit Act printed on paper not vellum: "In 1000yrs people will ask-what did they do in March 2017?"
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4331544/Brexit-Act-WON-T-printed-posterity-vellum.html

You HAVE to read this for the quotes. I'm loving the petty minded beaucrats.

www.ft.com/content/35dc3b9a-0d4f-11e7-b030-768954394623
Over-optimistic ministers manipulate the Brexit debate

This article is excellent.

Thanks BigChoc for the new thread.

I'm around but not much time ATM. I will return properly when DH goes back to work after the end of carefully planned holiday leave he spaced out for the whole year (in month) ends. I will need a rest!

Loads of Scottish craft brewers and I assume a fair few Somerset cider makers will be very pleased with this Peregrina - they don't even import significant raw materials.

Place mark - im only an occasional toe dipper, keeping up to speed with events. Loving all your work

Time to start brewing fuggle hops. ( I have been thinking of brewing my own wine and beer)

Great for craft brewing - yes in theory. Trouble is that most craft breweries can't meet demand for the likes of Tesco. So unless Tesco start changing their buying practices and buy local rather than bulk craft breweries won't benefit. They can't stay craft breweries and scale up either. It generally destroys quality. And it's difficult to maintain consistency which supermarkets demand.

Even the bigger 'craft brewers' (who are not really craft anymore and have made the jump) will struggle to meet with increased demand from Tesco.

And that harms their brand. The price of alcohol will just go up too.

It just means death of cheap shit lager. Which is no bad thing. Again no bad thing in theory. Except the chances are we'll get dodgy illegally imported alcohol or dodgy moonshine to fill the gap that appears in the market.

This will be known as Revenge of the Hipsters. Stella and Fosters will be no more and the country will be forced to sup on the divine liquor of the bearded ones in lumberjack shirts.

Oh how they were mocked for their support of British brewers.

I so wish this news had come in roughly when this thread had started.

Westminstenders: Brexit part XI - Revenge of the Hipsters

Would have been an epic title

RTB sometimes there is no arguing with your half empty glass. However last time I spoke to my local craft brewer they were weighing up the pros and cons of competition for their niche versus wider product appreciation growing the market. We both agreed on less cheap lager cluttering up the supermarket being a good thing.

Hmm, I wonder how many Scottish craft brewers and Somerset cider makers will be needed to slake the thirst of the British? We are a famously drunk thirsty nation. Like trade negotiators, I'm not sure we have enough (and I live in London which feels like artisan ale central) .

I should have refreshed the page before I posted.

Oh and we don't make enough hops in the UK to sustain the amount of beer we drink. The reason smaller brewers don't import hops is pretty much because the big ones do.

Lager is much harder to brew than ales too, so people will have change drinking habits and be more adventurous.

A propos beer but not Brexit : dh and I are always dismayed when a "foreign" beer/lager becomes popular enough to be "brewed in Britain for British taste".

I still remember our horror when Castle (a very pleasant South African beer) reached that threshold and become the same as all the other insipid homogenous lager type beers

Howabout, i visited my favourite brewer just after ref vote. They are one who are in this weird middle area having just made a jump from niche craft brewery to start supplying the likes of Tesco. They talked about the difficulties of the reality of doing so.

They are probably one of the leaders in this area of the market and win shed tonnes of awards. They still said there were practical issues and couldn't put much more on shelves than they were doing despite having just invested in a million pound bottler from Germany.

They have had to switch from 500ml bottles to 330ml ones for two reasons. Firstly because this is what the EU market demands and secondly because they had to put price of beer up to offset the increased cost of the bottler as there had been a leap in the repayments due to drop in the pound.

We are still stuffed for this reason. The technology to support the industry beyond craft stage doesn't come from the UK. You can't just source supplies just like that. It had taken this brewery years to manage to do it and protect their source.

When even the market leaders who have earned a reputation on the quality of their beer are finding the jump difficult despite doing well in exports, i don't see how brewers who aren't so good or savvy will do it.

DH is a proper nerd on the subject and knows a couple of real craft brewers well who have got experience similar ones to the above mentioned brewer. They have recently set up on their own. It's not a walk in the park by any means. The above brewer is the exception rather than rule.

Ultimately these smaller brewers are not going to get the chance to make the jump unless the likes of Tesco support the smaller brewers locally rather than demanding a minimum quantity they can't possibly match.

If that's the case, we perhaps should all start saying we are all hipsters now rather than we are all Brexiteers as the irony is that it's a certain type of person who has supported this craft and cottage industry within the food through often poncy and pricy farmers markets.

I'm not sure how that helps the loyal fosters drinkers of this world.

Bottom line: Germany makes the brewery kettles, bottling machines etc that are needed beyond the niche craft end of the market. UK doesn't.

Potential Brexit opportunity here for British business. Needs good steel too. Opportunity is not in the beer itself...

Potential Brexit opportunity here for British business.

So where are these noisy businessmen who supported Brexit then? Tim Martin for a starter? James Dyson - surely he could branch out into brewery kettles? Let's see them putting some money where their mouths were.

Much as I support the removal of crap mass-produced lager made of chemicals, if that's the only redeeming upside of Brexit, I'll still forego it thanks...

And decent hops are notoriously difficult grow successfully. Although, if there are no more fruit and vegetable pickers, I suppose we could convert many more fields to hop production...

At last ! Global brands shun Google over haters

"Global brands including Volkswagen, Toyota and Tesco last night joined the more than 250 companies that have suspended advertising deals with Google as the internet giant apologised for failing to crack down on extremism."

"Volkswagen adverts were found playing on the official YouTube channel of Wagdi Ghoneim, an Islamist who has been banned from Britain for fomenting terrorism.
Ghoneim’s videos have attracted hundreds of thousands of views, suggesting that he makes substantial sums from advertisers.

Typically, YouTube users receive about £6 for every 1,000 clicks an advert attracts."

"ITV, whose adverts appeared on videos posted by David Duke, the former KKK leader, said it would urgently review all future advertising on YouTube and Google.

Toyota, which was promoted on YouTube videos posted by Stephen Anderson, a homophobic preacher banned in Britain, said it had suspended YouTube advertising. Volkswagen said it had paused “all activity” on YouTube."

ITV, Aviva and Heinz also pulled advertising from YouTube, Google’s video platform, after an investigation by The Times found the companies promoted on videos posted by hate preachers, rape apologists and homophobic extremists banned from entering Britain.

www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/global-brands-shun-google-p9zlr7bq7

Tesco may well have to start buying practices like Booths.

This will ultimately good thing in long run but in interrim will be crap. Kiss those out of season foods goodbye.

Lots of changes in how we eat are likely to be ahead. What was the thread last week? 90% of Brits eat pizza weekly. That percentage will go down.

Mother do you drink gin? If whiskey market expands there will be more capacity for gin making. Yes wine is off menu.

Anyway I'm off to eat Swedish meatballs in a blue and yellow building.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-39331300
An attempt to oust a Conservative council leader over an alleged "sweetheart" funding deal with the government has failed.
A motion of no confidence in Surrey County Council leader David Hodge was tabled by the Lib Dems in a row over council tax and central funding.
More dodgy deals. Still, local elections soon.......