Westministers : Saving the Union

[RedToothBrush]

Apparently we need a tunnel. Just like we needed the £53 million failed Garden Bridge.

Nice little earner for anyone involved.

@ListeningQuietly

And maybe if Nigel Farage had bothered to attend the EU Fisheries meetings while taking the cash for being a member of the committee his supporters might better understand the rules he signed off news.sky.com/story/brexit-uk-fishermen-fear-losing-their-homes-as-export-ban-bites-12223329

From that article, I had a great idea for rebranding ... let's see if anyone here is on my wavelength ?

The Sailors Creek Shellfish company in Falmouth, Cornwall, has seen 99% of its business disappear.

The whole vaccine farrago gets more and more interesting. It's hard not to come to the conclusion that had the UK still been an EU member then it's possible the AZ contract with the EU would have looked very different. Proof that 1/28+27/28 28/28

Oh well.

Surely not all fishermen are as dim as the ones the press manage to drag up for these stories ? Pure statistics alone say not.

I might have found my next calling - selling bridges in Cornwall.

One would hope not
but if there are bight ones out there
why did they not start warning about the issue from the day Johnson was elected on a hard brexit ticket.
The rules have been in place for well over a decade.

@ListeningQuietly

One would hope not but if there are bight ones out there why did they not start warning about the issue from the day Johnson was elected on a hard brexit ticket. The rules have been in place for well over a decade.

It would be an effort worthy of the Clavster themselves to cite the wibble in that article. Quite aside from the unintentionally too-close-to "Shitcreek" in the opening paragraphs that could have cost me a new keyboard, there was this gem:

He's urging the government to put pressure on the EU to make UK Class B LBM exempt from the ban.

Putting aside the fact that no pressure would be needed if we hadn't left, the real question is what can any 3rd country do if it doesn't like EU rules ? (All together now ...) put your lips together and blow until a pleasant if shrill musical sound emerges.

The rules are very VERY clear
www.food.gov.uk/business-guidance/shellfish-classification
and the list of catch areas is also very clear
www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/media/document/shellfish-classifications-england-and-wales-2020-2021.pdf

UK fisheries have 2 choices
(a) Build their own cleaning facilities rather than relying on the ones in France which is what they always did
(b) ask the UK Government to fund cleaning up the UK's inshore waters

Its not like they did not know from 10 years ago that these were the rules

I also caught:

"And I'm not talking fairy tale markets 6,000 miles away on an aeroplane where the freight charges have gone up three-fold....

Which suggests that the speaker really wasn't paying attention to the entire Brexiteer clarion cry of replacing the EU with Australia.

It's hard to have any sympathy with people so wilfully ignorant.

The last page of the second link shows the permitted level of e.coli

Not sure I want to eat UK shellfish unless its been properly cleaned
and now we know that the UK does not have the cleaning facilities .....

I couldn't begin to comment on RTB's analysis of the comings and goings in number 10 save to say that this level of churn suggests Brexit is not in a happy place and they've got F all idea what to do about it.

I haven't a clue about the the Carrie/Boris relationship. I wouldn't read anything in to them not being married yet as it would almost certainly be portrayed as insensitive timing as Covid victims die in their thousands.

I do think that many of the problems that are coming down the line are currently being masked by the Covid crisis and we are now nearing the light at the end of that tunnel. Soon we will face the difficulties of EU travel, pet passports, fruit pickers, Au pairs, Concert tours, stock piles coming to an end and freight volumes consequently returning to normal. It even occurred to me earlier that one of the last events that took place before lockdown was the Cheltenham festival. That's going to be a bugger in the future given the difficulties with transporting Irish racehorses. All of these things are conveniently airbrushed away by Covid restrictions and there has to surely be a level of panic in number 10 as the emperor's clothes peel away.

Is there an actual question you're all Mulling over - besides various convos regarding babies, paternity, relationships and Farage - is there an actual Brexit-related point any here are pursuing?

Clav is getting her shoes re-heeled, with her feet up on a pouffe, meanwhile you get me.

Very pleased to notice that UK-shellfish is upping it's way up the Menu.

🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿

Scroll on by - carry on - nothing bad coming out of caves ever affected anything in the world after all. As you were Boardateers, standby.

U ok hun?

Ya - are you bees? Seeing as you can only post in Insect, seems you're 'condition' might be of more concern than mine.

😅😅😅😅😅😅😅
🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

Er - ok - you've nought to say, except meaningless symbols. i'll wing away on my batwings then - back some time in the future.

If I had a big wish it would be that I didn't have to make my own toast.

What's yours?

That I wasn't living in a soon to be failed state.

I'm not keen on toast. Its just warm bread after all.

Sadly, if something as big as London's financial services is being screwed over by Brexit with nary a peep from the Government, I doubt much will happen for the shelfish industry. I have some sympathy - it's fucking awful to see your livelihood drain away due to a treaty negotiated by your own Government - but I can't see the EU changing their stance on this. The fishermen would better off lobbying for a collective low-cost loan to build that purification plant on the basis it would supply employment in a depressed area.

Extra costs when you buy from EU countries after Brexit covered in some depth on Money Box today, including how hard it is to find relevant correct information:
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000sgwk

Labour shortages you say.....

@TheHateIsNotGood
Before tucking into that English seafood
I'd suggest looking at the e-coli limits in the links I posted.

Pre 2021 UK shellfish harvested from water with sewage in it
had to be cleaned before sale
but now it can be sold to us
still full of poo

I used to dredge for oysters and scallops in the 70s and even then the vast majority of the catch went to France and Spain. AFAIK we don’t have the purification capacity in this country because the market is too small.
In those days mackerel was worth nothing and we used it to bait lobster pots. Lobster and crab used to find a ready market in local restaurants, in London via train or lorry and on the quayside to Joe and Jean Public.
What you really wanted to catch if you had a smallish inshore boat was Dover sole, lemon sole and turbot. There was little money in anything else.

Sounds like an interesting life borntobequiet. How did you get into it?

Thought everyone here would be interested in this

www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/yale-professor-compares-tories-war-on-woke-to-key-elements-of-fascism/20/02/

A philosophy professor at Yale University has compared the Conservative’s ‘war on woke’ to key elements of fascism on social media – saying cries of supposed threat to free speech from the left are a typical far-right move.

Starmer MASSIVELY fucked up by voting for the Johnson deal
www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/feb/20/labour-mps-dismayed-at-orders-to-maintain-radio-silence-on-brexit
it leaves the UK with no opposition
which is bad for EVERYBODY

Starmer/labour attacking the government for the gathering storm that is Brexit will just give de pfeffel an easy bluster target to avoid scrutiny.

As we've seen, it doesn't actually matter what Starmer says/does, de pfeffel ignores him - there us no mechanism today to hold the government to account - all we can do is let them self destruct and then start picking up the pieces.