Rumour has it, some remainers are a little glum.....

[Carolinesbeanies]

So in the spirit of sharing our deluded brexiteer cheerfulness, heres a round up of some of this weeks good news.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-5040279/UK-exports-booming-outside-Europe.html

http://www.londonlovesbusiness.com/business-news/london-news/big-boost-world-bank-ranks-uk-seventh-in-its-doing-business-report/18554.article

https://global.handelsblatt.com/politics/world-trade-makes-a-comeback-845798/amp

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-volkswagen/vw-explores-uk-banking-licence-ahead-of-brexit-idUKKBN1D22KR

The government have 'found' £60billion to put is a slush fund for brexit.

https://amp.ft.com/content/f3271ac7-7439-319f-ba90-9252f59aafee

And in the week that saw the interest rate rise, the Bank of England said gloomily "as migration tightens, we will see wage growth". Note the 'we will'.

Excellent. All this whilst the media obsess over impotent politicians as Britain works.

Thanks Agnes, I knew that pressure to re-open the Oxford to Cambridge line had been ongoing for very many years but didn't know the exact detail. I live near Oxford and know exactly how difficult the Oxford - Cambridge journey is either by road or rail. By train it's roughly an hour Oxford - London. Allow 1 hour Paddington - Liverpool Street on the Underground and then about 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes to Cambridge.

By road 2 1/2 to 3 hours or worse depending on the route and the traffic.

So although it's not entirely Brexit related this is why I responded to this rather silly posting by howabout who is now trying to pretend that it's a bonus of Brexit. Very entertaining debate on how long it takes to get from Cambridge to Oxford in terms of the triangle - 10 hours sounds about right to me. The Tories could even have put plans in place last time they were in Government in 1995, but couldn't be bothered to do so.

Having the same sort of issues with the Labour Party atm myself. Watched Owen Jones debating with the Progress spokesman on DP yesterday. Incredibly depressing how quickly the debate descended to identity politics and personal slurs.

I think EEA/EFTA would only work with a bit more latitude for the UK than the current members have. I also don't think the EU would ever agree to the UK joining it atm as it would create a competing trading block on its doorstep and would be a bigger draw for EU waverers than even a Good Deal FTA for the UK.

Thank you kindly for the teacake - I promise to still eat my dinner which is half an hour behind schedule due to debating on the internet to distract myself from teenager piano angst.

Russian squirrels turn out to be extremely cute.

www.boredpanda.com/squirrel-photography-russia-vadim-trunov/

Peregrina I don’t know if the outlet village contributed financially - the new station is on the location of the former Bicester Town station and from what I can see funding came from Chiltern Railways, the East-West consortium and Network Rail. The Bicester Village name was to stop people getting confused with Bicester North.

I think EEA/EFTA would only work with a bit more latitude for the UK than the current members have. I also don't think the EU would ever agree to the UK joining it atm

Eh? Barnier has dropped heavy hints that the EEA/ EFTA option is open to the UK.

www.express.co.uk/news/politics/831040/Brexit-news-Barnier-Efta-Britain-respect-ECJ-case-law

Howabout oddly enough Byline's recent accusation of Russian troll hilariously led to the Scooby Doo-style unmasking of a Scottish security guard from Glasgow. So there could possibly be some truth in Olivia's accusation...

An hour from Paddington to Liverpool street

Are you crawling there, backwards?

EEA does not cover agriculture or fisheries or services (eg banking). Also it is outside the CU.

For the rest, EEA members have SM access.

So not great.

I gather that Bicester residents weren't really happy with the name change. But I digress, it's not to do with Brexit. Or only indirectly, because on the train at Bicester Village, announcements are made in Chinese and Arabic. These are the people who have the money.

An hour from Paddington to Liverpool street

It can be. Fastest route is shown as 23 minutes by TfL, with a change. I have done the journey, more than once and was surprised how long it took, but factor in just missing one train, waiting for the next, allowing an hour is not unreasonable.

Or 25 mins no stops ànd a tube every 2 mins.

I have certainly not managed a tube every two minutes. Factor in the walk down from the mainline platform, and then up again at the other side and I would always allow 40 minutes. Perhaps I have been unlucky.

Either way, 1 hour train to London, same again out to Cambridge and even allowing 25 minutes on the Underground, that still adds up to about 2 1/2 for an 80 mile journey, which if the Govt was really concerned could be doable in about half that time. So I find their boasts about it after a more than 20 year campaign a little hollow.

Don't get me started on the electrification of the GWR line which has been aborted part way, or about the Trans-Pennine link, which is sorely needed. Or I could start about HS2. I am surprised that they haven't cancelled this, because it will blight a lot of properties in the Chilterns, nice comfortable Tory areas, without giving them a whisker of benefit.

But take it back to Brexit - if the Govt were to announce money for the Trans-Pennine link to help bring much needed work to areas suffering from austerity then I would welcome that as a bonus.

Indeed those are some of my issues with EEA Olivia. Agriculture and Fisheries outside would be positive but services outside and goods inside gives an asymmetry even more disadvantageous to UK than staying in EU or completely outside.

Outside the Customs Union also positive though from my pov.

@howabout

Agriculture and Fisheries outside would be positive

We import 40% of our food and export a lot of ag products to the EU. Food is ... perishable.

Would be subject to veterinary, sanitary and phytosanitary checks at the border.

This is good?

but services outside and goods inside gives an asymmetry even more disadvantageous to UK than staying in EU or completely outside.

Agreed.

Outside the Customs Union also positive though from my pov.

How? Give esp food import requirements. And the desire to export. All of which mean we are subject to EU regulations and have no input.

Envisage quite a lot of change in agri production and import / export patterns post Brexit. UK's current consumption patterns are incredibly wasteful and often we export and reimport in equal measure.

Also would like CAP redesigned to better reflect UK preferences and realities in terms of land use and ownership patterns.

Fisheries is self evident when you grew up in a harbour town as I did and now can hardly afford to eat fish.

Customs Union restrictions on external relations are an issue.

@howabout

Sorry. I'm confused by your answer.

How will it be advantageous to the UK to have to submit its food imports and exports to customs procedures? Note, BTW that the UK does import fish - Grimsby in particular would find the exclusion of fisheries in the overall agreement with the EU problematic.

How is it good for the UK to be outside the Customs Union?

When people talk about Fisheries, with an unstated nod to Iceland and Norway, they appear to forget that a) both are in the EEA and b) they both have vast areas of open Atlantic in which to fish. Compared with the UK where the coast of France gets in the way in the south and Ireland to the west, so we basically have parts of the North Sea basin available to us and parts of the Atlantic off the north coast of Scotland.

Grimsby has already asked for a special deal.

UK's current consumption patterns are incredibly wasteful
Agreed, but how does this relate to a nation which hasn't been self sufficient in food for getting on for two hundred years?

How would CAP be redesigned to our advantage if we are out of the EU? I believe in fact that our input has already helped to moderate its effects.

Olivia this is old territory. I refer you to my previous answers over the past 18 months since you are keen to research my origins.

Thanks Agnes, I knew that pressure to re-open the Oxford to Cambridge line had been ongoing for very many years but didn't know the exact detail. I live near Oxford and know exactly how difficult the Oxford - Cambridge journey is either by road or rail. By train it's roughly an hour Oxford - London. Allow 1 hour Paddington - Liverpool Street on the Underground and then about 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes to Cambridge.

This isn't right, there are fast Cambridge services from Kings Cross on the Peterborough line.

You're right that cross country services are a disaster, only sensible route from my employer's head office near Cambridge to our tech centre west of London is a complicated cross country car route.

UK infrastructure in dire need of investment - M25 is like a third world road in parts - but cross country rail services are problematic in a lot of countries, not just the UK.

This isn't right, there are fast Cambridge services from Kings Cross on the Peterborough line.

Yes, I found this out later after a bit more consulting the timetables - I was only looking at Liverpool Street. Indeed cross country rail services aren't good in other countries e.g. I believe the TGF in France has sucked money away from regional services. But the point I wanted to get across, (rather than get on one of my hobby horses about the dire state of the railways), was that people have been campaigning for improved rail services for years, in some cases since Beeching closed the line. If new money happens to coincide with Brexit, it's just a happy coincidence, and certainly not a consequence.

Olivia right back at you. You really haven't been paying much attention if you think the average Brexit supporter wants to keep the CAP, the Common Fisheries Policy and the Customs Union. I refer you to almost the entire Leave campaign.

I generally think in terms of North Sea fishing, being Scottish and all - also it comprises the vast majority of UK fishing. Even the SNP were highly critical of Common Fisheries prior to Indyref1 and used it as an argument to give Scotland a separate voice in Europe.

Anyway I was curious so did a bit of reading up on the Irish waters.

www.independent.ie/business/brexit/irish-fishermen-face-a-perfect-storm-if-uk-demands-given-priority-as-charts-redrawn-for-brexit-36364954.html

@howabout

You have not answered the questions which I restate below:

1. How will it be advantageous to the UK to have to submit its food imports and exports to customs procedures?

2. How is it good for the UK to be outside the Customs Union?

I don't think the average Brit has a clue what the CU is.

Nor what the CAP is.

3. So please tell us your objections to the CAP and what you would do about it under the assumption that the UK leaves the SM/CU and therefore is subject to border checks and tariffs (which are actually irrelevant to most trade because zero but very relevant to agriculture because they can be high).

So we shaft the Irish as far as fishing is concerned? However, what I had been thinking of was Gove's glib statement about how we would extend our fishing grounds to 200 nautical miles from our coast, to point out that this can't be done for large parts of England and Wales.

@howabout

Perhaps you could comment on this article in your response to 1) above. This industry body seems to think that British exports of meat would suffer greatly. Also seems the EU would suffer as imports to the UK would drop - ie we now have a problem feeding ourselves?

I presume you would agree that under EEA, with agriculture outside the scope of the agreement, EU and UK trade would fall under WTO rules - thus the use of the term 'hard Brexit.'

MEAT EXPORTS UNDER A HARD BREXIT