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.

It's probably easy and quick to deal with an lorry returning empty to the EU

@mrslaughan

Re - the Isle of Man..... well I guess that's the bit about being a "protectorate" , when the relationship becomes harmful , you have to ditch it!! Good on the Isle of Man!

However it now raises the question of Gibraltar ...

Good point Fatcat.
But this article is talking about delays of days.

The situation was only slightly better for exports, with 44% experiencing delays of at least two to three days getting goods into the EU.
It reported that drivers were being forced to sleep in their trucks for days at the UK-Irish border and lorry loads were being turned back from their journey to the EU because paperwork and mixed loads “seem to flummox port officials”.
And in an indication that Brexit is not a teething problem, it sad initial optimism about tariffs “has largely disappeared”.

And it won’t get any better on April 1st when SPS checks tighten.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/feb/24/brexit-trade-delays-getting-worse-uk-border-survey-finds

@FatCatThinCat

It bugs me that people will have seen/ believed Eustice on C4 news, saying the border was smooth. Here’s the truth of the situation.

What he said was contradictory. He said that it was all ticketyboo because half of lorries were dealt with within an hour and the majority within 3 hours. So saying it was fine at the same time as saying all of them were delayed because pre brexit they would almost all have been dealt with in under a minute.

It's quick to wave through an empty lorry.

Germany's largest circulation newspapers headline this morning ...

"We envy you Britain"

That's nice 🙂

From 'Bild'

I'm really not looking forward to April 1st. I'm generally wondering how much more things-going-to-shit Britons will accept before they start getting angry, especially as anger is usually turned against outsiders rather than leadership.

@TartrazineCustard

I'm really not looking forward to April 1st. I'm generally wondering how much more things-going-to-shit Britons will accept before they start getting angry, especially as anger is usually turned against outsiders rather than leadership.

There is a vein of thought (and I use that word quite loosely) that it's the outsiders we have to blame for our leadership.

Never underestimate the ability of someone to blame someone else for their own predicament.

Any anger will be at the EU as it's all their fault. Look at the Bank of England bloke bleating about the EU 'stealing' business from the The City. The UK wanted to set itself up as competion against the EU and is now blaming the EU for competing against them. It's madness.

@FatCatThinCat

Any anger will be at the EU as it's all their fault. Look at the Bank of England bloke bleating about the EU 'stealing' business from the The City. The UK wanted to set itself up as competion against the EU and is now blaming the EU for competing against them. It's madness.

The trick is to add to the quiver of mantras (along with "you voted for this") We hold all the cards

Rinse and repeat.

By all means let them try to blame the EU. But that just invites questions as to how they are letting the moribund, sclerotic, and dying superbloc get one over on nifty nippy Britain ?

It really won't take long until someone unwitting says something like "but they're 27 against 1". At which point this surreal game of Mornington Crescent ends. A brexiteer has unwittingly (and unwillingly) "got it".

If Brexiteers can spend 4 years typing "We won, get over it" I am happy to invest a few weeks repaying in kind.

Yup - Andrew Bailey seems much more overtly political than Mark Carney

Funny how the Brexiters don't complain about his aggressive statements against the EU whereas they were forever complaining about Mark Carney making measured statements about possible consequences from Brexit (despite him also saying that it was his job to mitigate against negative effects)

Andrew Bailey seems much more overtly political than Mark Carney

Which was part of the criteria. Mickey mouse countries where every citizen professes to have taken part in every military engagement in history, and where contracts are dished out to mates without oversight, while cabinet minsters ignore parliament and where breaking the law has become a mission statement for the government really need a poodle priest of the pound to set off the banana republic image.

Of course we're lucky that having someone chosen for politics rather than probity can in no way harm foreign investors views of the UK.

Its quick to wave through an empty lorry
Quicker but not quick.
Drivers still need papers checks and COVID checks.
Customs have to check that the vehicle is empty
and that the driver is not smuggling contraband in their cab English sausages

Even when COVID rules ease, it will NEVER be frictionless

I see that, while businesses are being destroyed by Brexit, the test and trace contract has enabled SERCO to pay its first dividend for 7 years.
Trebles all round!

the test and trace contract has enabled SERCO to pay its first dividend for 7 years.

I hope the shareholders are satisfied that their failed system has caused unnecessary deaths. I wonder if they have a conscience? I suspect not.

Prediction: no one that gets to interview these arseholes will mention that they actually voted for it.

www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/this-was-the-deal-they-demanded-dismay-as-tory-eurosceptics-demand-protocol-is-ditched-222239/

Tory Brexiteers have called on Boris Johnson to scrap the arrangements for Northern Ireland which he agreed with Brussels.

The European Research Group (ERG) has published a report which concluded the Northern Ireland Protocol had a “profound and negative effect”.

(contd)

@Peregrina

the test and trace contract has enabled SERCO to pay its first dividend for 7 years.

I hope the shareholders are satisfied that their failed system has caused unnecessary deaths. I wonder if they have a conscience? I suspect not.

Since a lot of shareholders will be big pension firms, fewer oldies must stack up to more money for bonuses.

You could easily work that into a conspiracy theory.

Can't be repeated enough.

@prettybird

Yup - Andrew Bailey seems much more overtly political than Mark Carney

Funny how the Brexiters don't complain about his aggressive statements against the EU whereas they were forever complaining about Mark Carney making measured statements about possible consequences from Brexit (despite him also saying that it was his job to mitigate against negative effects)

Agreed - I am sure he must be angling for a peerage, a la Frost

Oops

amp.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/irish-sea-munitions-dump-10-times-bigger-than-mod-originally-thought-40129073.html?__twitter_impression=true

[quote Eve]Oops

amp.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/irish-sea-munitions-dump-10-times-bigger-than-mod-originally-thought-40129073.html?__twitter_impression=true[/quote]
Not really a surprise at all, record keeping will have been haphazard at best, and wouldn't have taken into account anything dumped in a convenient corner (so to speak).

Reminds me of the time I unearthed several tonnes of devices buried at shallow depth where they really shouldn't have been. That was an interesting day.

Reminds me of the time I unearthed several tonnes of devices buried at shallow depth where they really shouldn't have been.

Gosh. I hope it wasn't, say, in your back garden...

No, but it was going to be someone's back garden in a few months time.

Not really a surprise at all, record keeping will have been haphazard at best, and wouldn't have taken into account anything dumped in a convenient corner (so to speak).

That vaguely surprises me, as from various sources over the years I have been amazed at the details that were kept. Down to individual bomb falls during the blitzes that were tallied up for investigation and defusing where needed. Or so the recent series of programmes on the story of one bomb in London, Bristol and Glasgow showed.

And aircraft wreckage can be identified from serial numbers of fited equipment.

But then I've just realised that the operation wasn't entrusted to Dido "silent L" Harding and her coven.

Cosmic justice ?

www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/farage-supporters-least-likely-to-get-covid-vaccine-among-voters-222265/

Brits who support Nigel Farage’s new anti-lockdown party are the least likely to take up the offer of a coronavirus vaccine, new research found.

(contd)