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Brexit

Westminstenders: The Tunnel or Bridge

999 replies

RedToothBrush · 06/10/2020 15:18

Apparently negotiations are in the black hole of the EU tunnel or should that be on the back of the fantasy of the Boris Bridge?

Another week closer to complete meltdown.

I'm guessing that our world beating customs solution will be based on blackboard and chalk.

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HateIsNotGood · 13/10/2020 21:21

Thx RTB for your CV19 UK update and I'm pleased that Misti also agrees that a Brexit Deal is reached.

No matter the perspective it is good that agreement is reached is it not? We'll have to wait a coupe of days and see.

What appears to be 'sticking points' are easily resolved; its only really Macron kicking up a stink about Fishing, the rest of the EU don't care so much. And neither does the UK care as much as it might first appear

Quite frankly Portugal should have a far greater share of EU Fishing quota than it currrently does but it's not rich enough to buy it.

Hopefully the EU can deal with this and the many other inequalities contained within its borders.

FrankieStein402 · 13/10/2020 21:55

We'll have to wait a coupe of days and see.

Only if the UK capitulates again - which is likely but not this week
If not, I suppose they could go for a bridge in November, (pfeffel prefers bridges to tunnels), then stop the clock in early December as long as pfeffel passes enabling legislation to allow that on the UK side.

Otherwise its a gathering storm through Jan/Feb with a march begging bowl to IMF or whatever it is these days as the UK economy stalls.

SabrinaThwaite · 13/10/2020 22:06

What appears to be 'sticking points' are easily resolved;

State aid and level playing field easily resolved?

Hope you have a hot line to Frost and Barnier so you can bestow your wisdom dreckly.

ListeningQuietly · 13/10/2020 22:51

DD has just come home from a week in Central London

  • Friday night in the pub ..... T&T app on every table, groups of 6 enforced, one way systems, social distancing
10 pm you have to leave, all move towards the exit NOW
  • Saturday night in the restaurant ..... T&T on every booking, perspex screens, masked staff, wiped surfaces
10pm all leave and wait for your Ubers, huddled together

You could not invent a better method to spread a disease in cities

ListeningQuietly · 13/10/2020 22:53

Hullo Hate
Still not getting it are you ?
What appears to be 'sticking points' are easily resolved
The only way to resolve them is for the EU to break its own rules - NOT gonna happen
Or the UK to capitulate

DrBlackbird · 13/10/2020 22:58

Much of it reflected voluntary social distancing by people reluctant to do things that expose them to increased risk of infection

Well that describes me. Having it experienced it once and knowing I have no antibodies leaves me highly reluctant to go out spending my money on shopping, restaurants etc. That also describes many friend's behaviour without having experienced Covid. So regardless of govt imposed restrictions, I'm minimising my exposure as much as possible.

DrBlackbird · 13/10/2020 23:18

And of course we want a deal Hate. I'm not sure why you'd think we wouldn't and seems a bit disingenuous to suggest so here. Painting us as somehow to be the unreasonable ones.

Wanting a deal now doesn't mean that we aren't fully aware that it would have been better for the UK on so many fronts, not the least economically, to have remained in the EU or, at least, remained in the CU/single market.

HoneysuckIejasmine · 13/10/2020 23:28

@DrBlackbird

Much of it reflected voluntary social distancing by people reluctant to do things that expose them to increased risk of infection

Well that describes me. Having it experienced it once and knowing I have no antibodies leaves me highly reluctant to go out spending my money on shopping, restaurants etc. That also describes many friend's behaviour without having experienced Covid. So regardless of govt imposed restrictions, I'm minimising my exposure as much as possible.

Yep. I've not had it and I'm certainly not risking it for the sake of a dinner out or a movie. Though I have young kids so haven't done that sort of thing for years anyway Grin
Peregrina · 13/10/2020 23:42

What appears to be 'sticking points' are easily resolved

Then why haven't they been? Or is it because the Tories genuinely believed that we held all the cards and would have the easiest deals in history? If so, why didn't they happen four years ago? Or failing that, as soon as Johnson took over? Don't say it's because of Covid-19, because Johnson has done SFA as far as that is concerned.

BigChocFrenzy · 13/10/2020 23:42

"Hopefully the EU can deal with this and the many other inequalities contained within its borders."

🤣🤣
Hopefully the UK can deal with the great inequalities within its borders

Peregrina · 13/10/2020 23:46

It probably would be better if Portugal could buy our fishing quota, because after all, they are more likely to want to eat what is caught in UK waters.

BigChocFrenzy · 13/10/2020 23:47

But but but .... Brexiter politicans promisd a deal would be so easy:

Redwood "they need us more than we need them"

IDS "German carmakers will rally to our cause"

Fox "easiest trade deal in human history"

DD telling us we'd start off by doing a deal with Berlin (impossible, a deal can only be with the whole EU)

Cash telling us the old Commonwealth was queueing up to restore the good old days

BigChocFrenzy · 13/10/2020 23:50

@Peregrina

It probably would be better if Portugal could buy our fishing quota, because after all, they are more likely to want to eat what is caught in UK waters.
... Well, all those EU fishing boat owners who bought UK quotas before will be pissed off that they are no longer valid and anyone else would wonder if the next quotas they buy would be declared invalid, especially as it apparently now OK for the UK to renege on a deal just months later
BigChocFrenzy · 13/10/2020 23:59

It would be easier to have No Deal this year, then start to negotiate a much better deal for both sides,
i.e. much more comprehensive
after BJ has gone - which should be well before Easter

This is because his replacement would have more flexibility and can blame him for being an idiot,
whereas BJ would struggle with yet another major U-turn

Peregrina · 14/10/2020 01:13

It's not just BJ who needs to be gone - it's a whole lot of them - Johnson, Raab, Patel, Braverman, Redwood, IDS, Gove (especially him), Rees-Mogg, Truss, Whately, and other brainless Brexiters to nameless to mention.

borntobequiet · 14/10/2020 05:40

Well at least Keir Starmer has now laid out a clear Labour alternative strategy for dealing with the virus, neatly painting BJ and crew into a corner. He hasn’t yet got the leeway to do the same sort of thing on Brexit and is probably running out of time though.

Sostenueto · 14/10/2020 07:05

Dgd enjoying London. She's been out and about with flatmates all together to cocktail bars in Soho Trafalgar square visited 221B Baker Street had a stroll up the embankment visited Camden blah blah. Other party flats are in isolation. Their flat keeps strict rules noone else allowed in their flat they don't visit other flats they keep in their bubble and enjoying themselves within their flat. So lucky all like-minded people. They have the most freedom along with similar flats and the poor party animals are all locked up with hefty fines lol!

Chersfrozenface · 14/10/2020 07:44

I don't think this has been linked to before - it's from September.

Bloomberg has a text-based game you can play, about exporting even if the UK gets a free trade agreement
www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2020-brexit-border-crossing/

It's educational. I think lots and lots of people, exporters and armchair commentators alike, should play it.

AuldAlliance · 14/10/2020 07:52

I have nothing to add, other than weariness.
Thanks to the stalwarts.
Just popping in with this pic of Kent's new IT team...

twitter.com/mikegove12/status/1315762296283594754?s=20

bellinisurge · 14/10/2020 09:23

I love that picture!

Alondra · 14/10/2020 09:34

I've posted before articles from El Cofidencial, a conservative online website news from Spain, regarding Brexit. There is another article
as we are getting close to the British deadline. As usual, the translation is by Google.

Agreement at the end of the month or chaotic Brexit: the EU already has its "deadline"

The three issues that remain pending in the negotiation are the governance of the agreement, the 'level-playing field' that guarantees a level playing field, and lastly fishing

Nobody takes the deadline of October 15 too seriously, initially set by Boris Johnson, British Prime Minister, coinciding with the European Council that is being held this week in Brussels. But there is not much more time to negotiate. Michel Barnier, chief negotiator of the European Commission, communicated this Tuesday to the ministers and secretaries of State for European Affairs meeting in Luxembourg that the negotiation could be extended, at most, until the end of October or the first days of November.

"There have been previous ultimatums , this is not the first, but it will be the last, " said Juan González Barba, Spanish Secretary of State for European Affairs. "What the chief negotiator has transferred to us is that this time there is a definitive deadline set by the calendar," he explained to the media after the end of the General Affairs Council in which other points on the agenda were also addressed. European Union, such as the rule of law situation or the approval of common color codes for travel restrictions due to the coronavirus.

The three issues that remain pending in the negotiation are the governance of the agreement, the 'level-playing field' that guarantees equal conditions, and finally fishing , with a group of Member States that want to retain the rights of access to waters British. Although some progress has been made in the various areas , understanding is still a long way off.

In addition, the European negotiator has already announced to the Council on Tuesday that "both parties will have to make concessions . " "It is not a flexibilization of the mandate, but it warns us that not everything that has been entrusted to it will be able to be achieved in these negotiations, " explained González Barba. The British and European teams hold negotiations this week, and Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission , and Boris Johnson, British prime minister, will have a telephone conversation this Wednesday.

The first days of November are the European deadline because only if an agreement is reached at that time will it be possible to complete the entire translation and ratification process, with the agreement having to go through the hands of the European Parliament , which must approve it.

RedToothBrush · 14/10/2020 09:35

@borntobequiet

Well at least Keir Starmer has now laid out a clear Labour alternative strategy for dealing with the virus, neatly painting BJ and crew into a corner. He hasn’t yet got the leeway to do the same sort of thing on Brexit and is probably running out of time though.
Starmer took an easy political win, because he knows Johnson has no where else to go between being blamed for the hospitals being overwhelmed and a circuit breaker that the scientists advised.

I already think that we are being prepped for a circuit breaker anyway.

Im not sure id call such opportunistic playing to public opinion and taking such an easy win as a well thought out and considered strategy.

But still. It wont harm Labour.

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Alondra · 14/10/2020 09:39

Apologies. I forgot to give the link to the previous article

www.elconfidencial.com/mundo/europa/2020-10-13/acuerdo-a-finales-de-mes-o-brexit-caotico-la-ue-ya-tiene-su-fecha-limite_2787536/

Peregrina · 14/10/2020 09:54

I am happy to see the Opposition get any legitimate wins they can, whether they were easy or not.

DGRossetti · 14/10/2020 09:55

Picked up on my travels ... seems apposite.

Westminstenders: The Tunnel or Bridge