Westministenders: Festive Edition

[RedToothBrush]

Good King BBBBaBoris looked out,
on the Port of Dover,
There the shit lay round about,
Deep around the stopover;
Brightly shone the moon that night,
Tho’ the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight,
Delivering stuff for Yule.

“Bugger SAGE and stand by me,
We've all stuff that needs selling,
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?”
“Sire, he lives a good league hence,
The other side the EU;
Though relations maybe tense,
He's trying to get goods through.”

“Oh god I need another wine,
I have many crisis to consider:
We must tell them its all fine,
I must not be seen to dither.”
SAGE and monarch, forth they went,
forth they went together;
Through the nation's sad lament
and really crappy weather.

“Sire, our plight is darker now,
And the covid transmission stronger;
Fails my heart, I know not how;
To keep Tier 2 much longer.”
“Soon we can drop their wage.
And treat them all more coldly
In Britain's new chrony age
A time to rob more boldly.”

In their master’s steps they trod,
On the quest to get minted;
Each and every last sod
Needs to be fingerprinted.
Therefore, Christian men, be sure,
DWP claimants are processing,
Ye who now will bless the poor,
God its all so depressing.

Can I stop worrying about food and medicines not getting through? I know some of the medicines I take were on a no-deal shortage list. Is this deal enough to stop all that?

@4cats2kids

Can I stop worrying about food and medicines not getting through? I know some of the medicines I take were on a no-deal shortage list. Is this deal enough to stop all that?

No. You can relax a bit

But because all goods going through the Channel ports will have to clear customs from 1st January
there will still be delays and extra costs
and stress
so its worth being very vigilant until late January at least

by which time the hauliers and agents and HMRC and businesses
will have got the hang of it.
probably

Yes, Hilary it could be. It could be like Norway and Switzerland - constant negotiations for individual deals.

Thank you @ListeningQuietly. I’ll hang onto the spam and baked beans a little longer. I was thinking of donating the tins in my brexit cupboard to a food bank.

I think so Peregrina. Gently edging closer and closer, with detail too fine for the hard of thinking.

@4cats2kids

Can I stop worrying about food and medicines not getting through? I know some of the medicines I take were on a no-deal shortage list. Is this deal enough to stop all that?

No idea.

Businesses were treating things as if we had no dealed so there may be a gap in some stuff coming here for that reason, plus we STILL have issues over the length of time lorries wil take to get through customs AND we have all these lorries in the wrong place with many who may be unwilling to travel to the UK in case they get stuck with covid.

So i think we can draw a sigh of relief and that things will continue to come here but there may yet be some supply chain shock whilst there is readjustment to the new system. So i dont think it will be 'business as usual' in the short term but certainly it won't be as bad as it could have been either.

I will wait and see how all this planning has gone in the first couple of weeks of January.

Plus i would caution that covid may be another reason to not breathe just yet. The sheer number of cases means that we might have more production delays in various areas too. Its less likely for drugs (pharmaceutical companies are testing staff very regularly as they are key workers and its crucial to keep production lines open) but i do think, especially with this new strain that they are still vulnerable, with food production a lot more vulnerable.

It should all work itself out in a few months. I don't intend to add to my cupboards now and shall gradually use it, put it that way.

Something I said on one of these threads three or so years ago, is that I studied A level history and one thing I noted is that an issue which tore one generation apart sometimes completely fizzled out when the next generation took over.

@Peregrina

Something I said on one of these threads three or so years ago, is that I studied A level history and one thing I noted is that an issue which tore one generation apart sometimes completely fizzled out when the next generation took over.

Old people die.

Well that's it then. Starmer called it a thin deal and more or less said better than no deal but we gonna take Government to task. We will see. I'm glad to put this year behind me and try to have a bit of optimism. Merry Xmas and happy New year to all on this thread including lurkers. Please send BCF the same wishes from me. May you all have good health and happiness xx

BBC News - EU to allow post-Brexit UK farm produce exports
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55433319

One part of the UK can no longer sell its products to another part of the UK, according to the trade deal with the EU.

Bye bye UK.

From a Scottish chum

1. Erasmus was left out of the deal as the UK can't afford to continue to be in the scheme. ( Students sold out. )
2. Driver sold out as we leave the EU wide regulations.
3. Workers protection left out.
4. Seed potatoes out of the deal, Scotland is a world leader in the growing of and development of seed potatoes. It's a multi-million pound industry here in Scotland.
5. No pass porting for our multi-trillion pound banking and insurance sector.
6. End to common recognition of your qualifications Doctors Engineers ,Drivers and their licences, Trades,nurses you name it.
7. Country of origin agreement not reached so the end of the car industry has arrived.

Plus French firefighters arrive at Dover to tackle lorry backlog.

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/24/french-firefighters-arrive-in-dover-with-10000-covid-tests-for-lorry-drivers

Laura Kuenssberg is gushing - as we would expect.

One part of the UK can no longer sell its products to another part of the UK, according to the trade deal with the EU.

The "U" K has become the first country in time and space to require a customs border inside it's own territory.

You'd think if you're trumpeting firsts, that'd be a headline.

I can’t work out why Laura K is gushing and so pro Boris? What am I missing. It seems really odd.

@Elephant4

I can’t work out why Laura K is gushing and so pro Boris? What am I missing. It seems really odd.

He's done what he said he'd do. I'm not a fan of Laura K I have to admit but being positive about a deal vs no deal is hardly improper on her part IMO.

6. End to common recognition of your qualifications Doctors Engineers ,Drivers and their licences, Trades,nurses you name it.

Ah yes, but some Leavers have told us that they are middle class jobs and it doesn't affect them. I would be prepared to be that for every Leaver who welcomes more Ghanaian, Nigerian, Indian... health care staff there will be ten who won't.

BTW - the best Doctor I had was a Ugandan Asian driven out by Idi Amin.

@Elephant4

I can’t work out why Laura K is gushing and so pro Boris? What am I missing. It seems really odd.

She has wanted to have his next illegitimate child for ages. She is utterly under his spell. Which was fine when he was not PM but it utterly clouds her judgement now.

Katya Adler is still worth reading

@Elephant4

I can’t work out why Laura K is gushing and so pro Boris? What am I missing. It seems really odd.

Maybe he has a solid-gold cock and a prehensile tongue?

"I was certain BJ was after ND."
He was. They all were. Nigel Farage made that clear.

That was before the chaos at Dover.

Well played, France!

JRMs disaster capitalist chums are going to be after his head now...

Agree Tanith , they looked into the face of it and bottled it. Rotten for those drivers .

We need to see the detail, but it does largely look as though we are going to be rule takers. Some things are nice like not needing international driving licences but others, like our qualifications not being recognised are not good.

JRMs disaster capitalist chums are going to be after his head now...

I would not be too sorry to see Johnson as yet another Tory PM brought down by the Europe question.

Twitter thread from Charles Grant at CER:

.@CER_EU will be analysing the #Brexit deal in due course, when there is a text to study. In the meantime here are 10 reflections on the Brexit process - a thread. /1

1. Getting a free trade agreem't done in less than a year is unusually quick. Both teams of negotiators deserve praise. UK's refusal to extend transition may have helped, by concentrating minds. The cost: great uncertainty for firms, which haven't known what rules to expect. /2

2. Most Brits have no idea how hard Brexit will be. Travelers, manufacturers & farmers will suffer irksome friction at borders; service companies will lose access to EU markets; businesses that import EU workers will be hurt. So UK will be less attractive to foreign investors. /3

3. Leaving the EU is rather like accession in reverse: when joining EU, a country has to take EU's terms or it doesn't get in. Once UK had set its red lines, EU decided the broad outlines of the deal it would get. EU has ceded on details, but overall shape is what it wanted. /4

4. For past 4.5 years UK governments have seldom been honest about the trade-offs Brexit involves. There is a spectrum between max sovereignty/min economic benefit and min sov'y/max ec gain. Being honest would have required an admission that Brexit carries real economic costs./5

5. May's govt sought a mid-spot on spectrum, Johnson chose an extreme position of maximising sov'y. Future historians will ask why UK disregarded economics during negotiations - eg much attention paid to fish, yet financial services and car industry were ignored; eg 'F* Bus' /6

6. EU has been paranoid on level playing field. Its big trade surplus suggests field tilts v UK; Brexit will make UK even less competitive. No Tory govt would slash soc'l/envt'l rights or pump billions into industry. UK also silly to fight to keep right to cut rules it likes./7

7. When the Brits realise what a thin deal they've got, their politicians will debate how/whether to improve it. Labour is likely to seek closer economic & security ties. For one reason or another, UK & EU will be in permanent negotiation, for at least 50 years. Ask the Swiss./8

8. In those negot's UK will be hampered by lack of trust on EU side. Episodes like the attempts to prorogue Parliament and over-ride the Withdrawal Agreement have damaged UK soft power. EU will be pragmatic and realistic but it doesn't start out with lots of goodwill to UK. /9

9. The question of UK rejoining EU won't be on the political agenda for at least a generation. Many Remainers want to make the best of a bad job & move on. EU wdn't want an application from a country that lacked a national consensus in favour of rejoining - which is far away. /10

10. Brexit adds to uncertainty about UK unity (many Brexiteers care little about this). It's helping to boost support for SNP & Scottish independence. And nobody can be sure how new border in Irish Sea will affect politics in N IRE - which'll stay in single mkt & customs Un'n.END

@Peregrina

Something I said on one of these threads three or so years ago, is that I studied A level history and one thing I noted is that an issue which tore one generation apart sometimes completely fizzled out when the next generation took over.

Might take less than that with Brexit. Isn’t part of the issue that nobody was really bothered until the question was put to them. And the proportion of people that did care and continue to care was getting smaller in the run up to the referendum and has continued to decrease since.