Westminstenders: Move Your Business To The EU

[RedToothBrush]

The government is advising people to move their businesses to the EU to avoid UK taxation and red tape.

Why would you do this?

For the interests of the uk?

Or is it about power WITHIN the uk?

I've always thought federal UK was an obvious choice - but that was only really feasible with a Labour/LibDem/Green government.

For Tories - it gives far too much power, independence & respect to Scotland and NI as individual entities. We have seen from Boris the true contempt with which many Tories hold both countries. They are seen as vassal states. Looked at down a long colonist nose.

With independence on the cards, why would a reunited Ireland or newly independent Scotland bother with a federation that means they have to work with WM? (Unionists aside).

DGR truly a Brexiteer-worthy piece of political contortionism. The Leavers will lap it up.

@pointythings

DGR truly a Brexiteer-worthy piece of political contortionism. The Leavers will lap it up.

Not sure that was such a bright idea, really.

It's becoming increasingly easy to push a narrative that the EU is delighted with how Brexit is unfolding. (Given the eye watering amount of time they invested in it, it's a true European success story). Such stories only serve to begin to underpin that idea ....

So much so, that they will start to move goalposts, and suggest it was their idea all along. Which I hope they do - commemorative coins, and the like.

The biggest result of Brexit is the almost total extinction of serious anti-EU sentiment in the EU now. Not only have countries noted the complete and utter clusterfuck the UK has made of it (and we are a rich nation compared to the countries that were wavering before). They have also seen how quietly and competently the EU has taken it all in their stride and castrated the UK without too much effort.

Any form of "-exit" is now going to be a tough sell. If the UK couldn't manage it, what hope Hungary, or Greece ?

Evans-Pritchard is a total lunatic who wrote a conspiracy 'takedown' of Bill Clinton. Described by Gene Lyons thus:

"When necessary, Evans-Pritchard resorts to even more questionable methods. The temptation, in addressing so manifestly absurd and error-filled a piece of work, is to raillery. In form, Evans-Pritchard's book is a feverish concatenation of what his countryman, Guardian Washington correspondent Martin Walker, calls "the Clinton legends" into one vast, delusional epic."

The Secret Life of Bill Clinton

If Brexit was "all Merkel's fault", surely that implies that it's somehow not a good thing. Which is surely against the Torygraph's narrative that Brexit is great and wonderful.

Wonderful cognitive dissonance going on there...

Fair point.

@HannibalHayes

If Brexit was "all Merkel's fault", surely that implies that it's somehow not a good thing. Which is surely against the Torygraph's narrative that Brexit is great and wonderful.

Wonderful cognitive dissonance going on there...

As I said, none too bright.

Hopefully the pendulum has reached one limit, and is now slowly - but gaining pace - heading back. And as the predicted benefits of Brexit recede into the distance the plate spinning will eventually fail.

I did catch a comment that it's been mooted the problems with Brexit aren't fuelling a push to rejoin, but they are fuelling a serious desire to get rid of Boris. Which suggests that the Baker "rebellion" was shut down to enable Boris to take on the sins of Brexit before being unceremoniously dumped a la Thatcher.

@Peregrina your earlier post about how Harold Wilson dealt with the EU referendum is spot on. He was streets ahead of Cameron in this. Didn’t he also keep us out of the Vietnam war? I wish we had a PM or opposition leader of his calibre today.

If the UK is going to break up, I want independence for Wessex !!

But joking apart I've just come from a business meeting where the exasperation at overly centralised inner London decision making
on issues that do not occur in London
was palpable

the Tories are so anti Subsidiarity
it will bite back

@HannibalHayes

If Brexit was "all Merkel's fault", surely that implies that it's somehow not a good thing. Which is surely against the Torygraph's narrative that Brexit is great and wonderful.

Wonderful cognitive dissonance going on there...

Exactly. If Angela Merkel is responsible for Brexit, and Brexit is going to enable the UK to be free and buccaneering and prosper mightily, should we not be putting up statues to the German Chancellor as a mark of gratitude?

[quote PawFives]@Peregrina your earlier post about how Harold Wilson dealt with the EU referendum is spot on. He was streets ahead of Cameron in this. Didn’t he also keep us out of the Vietnam war? I wish we had a PM or opposition leader of his calibre today.[/quote]
I once read - possibly in a serialised memoir - a quote from Harold Wilson which I really liked. However I've never been able to find a cite.

It was about Vietnam, and Wilson had been talking with LBJ who was really keep for UK backing (and I wonder what price the UK paid for not providing it ...). Wilson had assured him of the UKs "fullest support" (or similar).

When an aide asked for clarification for the record, Wilson said something like "Give him everything except actual support ..."

It's been discussed here, and Wilson would have torn the Labour party in two if he had supported Vietnam. However I am pleased the UK had no part in that terrible time. Pretty much wiped out by Blair and Iraw, of course

Anyone else had to adjust their Google settings to return fewer "Brexit turning to shit" stories ?

hempindustrydaily.com/brexit-creates-cbd-regulatory-mess-for-uk-market/

If the CBD market is any indication of how other sectors will be affected by the United Kingdom’s divorce from the European Union, buckle your seatbelts.

Supply-chain slowdowns and lockdowns due to the Covid-19 pandemic have already made doing business in the UK a challenge.

Under the latest Brexit trade deal, though, shipping, customs, tariffs and novel food regulations are a lot more complicated – not just for UK CBD makers, but also suppliers in the United States and mainland Europe and anyone hoping to sell to UK customers.

When the UK was part of the European Union, it enjoyed the free movement of goods with other EU member states. This helped foster a growing CBD market in Britain despite domestic legislation that bans hemp growers from using the plant’s flowering tops.

At least 700 CBD companies are currently active on the UK market, but pinning down the market’s value is more of a challenge. A recent survey by the UK CBD marketplace Alphagreen suggested that 15% of Brits had used CBD in the first four months of 2020, and that CBD consumer spending during that period exceeded £150 million ($205 million).

(contd)

now personally I'm a bit snake-oil over CBD ... seems a bit faddy. But that is a lot of companies being fucked at once. I wonder if that market is worth more than fishing ?

Yes DGR if only Blair had been as wise over Iraq.

“led to the migration of several hundred thousand economic refugees from southern Europe, and displaced flows from eastern Europe into the UK”.

Indeed and pandered to the racist, xenophobes in this country and gave UKIP more traction, which scared Cameron shitless. Although we are assured by Leavers on these boards that they are not racist xenophobes.

This violated the Brussels convention that no major state is ever overruled on this key post.

But this major state had already been whinging about wanting out, and Cameron took the Tory MEPs out of the mainstream conservative EU groups and allied them with the far right groups.

Besides which, why is he whining? Isn't he a Leaver who has now got his Brexit?

@PawFives

Yes DGR if only Blair had been as wise over Iraq.

Blair is not a stupid man but he is a vain one. There was fuck all benefit to the UK for the risks involved in Iraq (as we are now paying the price for). And by cozying up to the US most venal and destructive desire for medieval revenge, he didn't help them either.

So we ended up invading the wrong country, for the wrong reasons, and destabilised the region for generations to come. Generations there that will continue to forment hatred against us and encourage our own citizens to attack us in our own streets.

eminetra.co.uk/how-the-brexit-deal-was-done-and-what-happens-next/239122/

How the Brexit deal was done — and what happens next -

Eminetra.co.uk

The Brexit denouement had finally arrived. As the year drew to a close, Boris Johnson stood triumphant in the House of Commons and proclaimed the rebirth of Britain as “an independent nation” on the brink of a free-trading future.

“We are going to open a new chapter in our national story,” he declared on December 30, as MPs approved his EU trade deal, secured on ­Christmas Eve after months of painful negotiations with Brussels.

But as his bright new dawn for Britain broke in 2021, the impact of Johnson’s deal was already being felt in the real world. David Howson, president of Cboe Europe, one of London’s biggest exchanges, sat at his computer and watched stunned as €6bn of EU share dealing shifted away from the City to facilities in European capitals. “Having been in this industry for over 20 years, I’ve never seen a ‘Big Bang’ liquidity transition of this type before in share trading and I hope it’s not something I have to experience again,” he says.

Meanwhile, at Aston Chemicals in Aylesbury, the doors slammed shut on its final shipment to the EU. After more than 30 years of exporting to the European cosmetics industry, the bureaucracy introduced by the Brexit trade deal had rendered the trade uneconomic. “It was emotional but we had no choice,” says Aston’s managing director Dani Loughran, after packing off the last driver with a box of Tunnock’s tea cakes. The company will now serve its EU ­customers from Poland.

(contd)

Meanwhile, safely removed from reality, Redwood Deadwood strikes again.

That's certainly true though DGR - it's a new chapter in our national story, just not the one that the Brexiters promised.

Besides which, why is he whining? Isn't he a Leaver who has now got his Brexit?

If I didn't know better, I would think that someone in Brexit land has organised a competition to workshop excuses for the shitshow.

As noted in my other thread, moving the goalposts has begun. (And you try that in this snow). However there will be others. "Germany made us do it" has a sort of more traditional appeal.

I would dig up our whole lawn and turn it over to Cornetto growing if that was possible

Sad news about Jenners closing, that place is iconic

Cats hogging the sofa.

In Brexit news, wonder how the Brexit apologists will spin this as a "benefit" to those of us in the UK

Mastercard to push up fees for UK purchases from EU https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55796426

I haven’t read the Daily Telegraph article, but from the comments it sounds like a rehash of this Daily Mail article that was linked on these threads:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9047055/Officials-say-Angela-Merkels-distaste-libertine-Boris-Johnson-blocked-Brexit-deal.html

So perhaps this is the new tactic - AM made us Brexit even though we didn’t really want to

Tony Connelly @tconnellyRTE
NEW: the EU has challenged AstraZeneca to spell out where its has sent vaccines so far. Stella Kyriakides, EU health commissioner: "The new AstraZeneca vaccine schedule is not acceptable to the EU." Kyriakides says she wrote letter to AZ asking "important and serious" questions:

2/ Kyriakides: "The EU has prefinanced the development of the vaccine and its production and wants to see its return. The EU wants to know exactly which doses have been produced where by AstraZeneca so far, and if, or to whom, they have been delivered.

3/ "These questions were also discussed today in the Joint Steering Board of the Commission and the 27 member states with AstraZeneca. The answers of the company have not been satisfactory so far. That's why a second meeting is scheduled for tonight.

4/ "The EU wants the ordered and prefinanced vaccines delivered as soon as possible + we want our contract to be fully fulfilled. In addition the Commission has proposed to the 27 MS... that an export transparency mechanism will be put in place as soon as possible.

5/ "We want clarity on transactions and full transparency concerning the export of vaccines from the EU. In the future, all companies producing vaccines against Covid 19 in the EU will have to provide early notification whenever they want to export vaccines to third countries.

6/ "Humanitarian deliveries are not affected. The EU will take any action required to protect its citizens and rights."

This is an interesting thread.

The EU are asking why Astra Zeneca haven't delivered vaccines to sit unused in a warehouse whilst they wait to be approved for use, whilst also threatening export of vaccine to third countries at the same time.

You can almost feel the desire to scream at the UK without actually mentioning the UK.

As much as I think there should be better vaccine equality, the idea that the any company should be prioritising countries who are yet to approve the vaccine whilst others are busy jabbing it in arms, isn't about humanitarian issues, its about covering up a poor EU politics and slow decision making on this one.

However I fully expect there to be a developing tug of war over vaccine supplies and lots of UK / EU angst because of it.

Also see the US doing similar.

Interesting...

Naughty...

Which suggests that the Baker "rebellion" was shut down to enable Boris to take on the sins of Brexit before being unceremoniously dumped a la Thatcher.

I’ve said before that though the Conservative party is ruthless when it wants to get rid of a PM it has had enough of, I think it will be ruthless in keeping BJ on until all the sins of Brexit are heaped on his head and then kicking him out. Meanwhile I expect Gove will slither into some other high office there to wreak discontent and destruction in his own uniquely mucilaginous way (I admit to using a thesaurus there).