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Brexit

Westministers : Saving the Union

954 replies

RedToothBrush · 16/02/2021 23:26

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

Nice little earner for anyone involved.

OP posts:
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DGRossetti · 28/02/2021 20:47

I wonder if Obama had any reason for Kenya to look very carefully at dealings with UK ? I seem to recall Boris was rather insulting about the connection a while back.

Clavinova · 28/02/2021 20:53

I don't know many of the details in the Alex Salmond case - but just to point out;

29 March 2020
Alex Salmond’s QC has said he does not believe the former Scottish first minister is a “sex pest” after he was recorded making disparaging remarks about his client on a train.

Gordon Jackson has referred himself to the legal profession watchdog after his conversation, filmed on a journey between Glasgow and Edinburgh during Mr Salmond’s trial, was made public.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/salmond-s-not-a-sex-pest-says-his-lawyer-gordon-jackson-tsfb7j0gv

This article is the subject of a legal complaint from Alex Salmond.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/alex-salmond-was-a-bully-and-a-sex-pest-his-own-qc-says-on-train-jfgbkr857

prettybird · 28/02/2021 20:55

I do find it somewhat amusing that the Kenyan parliamentarians actually bothered to read the trade deal and picked up on the pesky sneaky amended annexes, so voted No as it wasn't in their long term interests.

How very dare they Wink

Clavinova · 28/02/2021 21:24

Brexit: Why Irish freight trade is avoiding Britain

Although I noticed today -

Ferryport in South Wales sees Irish Ferries Sign 10-Year Deal with Pembroke Dock...fears that the South Wales port could become a casualty of Brexit have proved unfounded;

afloat.ie/port-news/ferry-news/item/49498-10-year-deal-signed-to-keep-pembroke-dock-s-ferry-port

15 Jan 2021 Stena Line, the biggest operator on Ireland-Britain routes, on Thursday night launched its brand-new Stena Embla on its maiden commercial voyage from Rosslare to Cherbourg in northwest France. The 41,700-ton vessel, which arrived this month from China, was supposed to serve the Belfast-Liverpool route.

And Stena Embla is now back on the Belfast-Liverpool route;

28 Jan 2021- Stena Embla will join her sister ship Stena Edda on the popular Belfast–Liverpool route with the capacity to carry 1,000 passengers, 120 cars and with 3,100 freight lane meters. She will increase the Belfast–Liverpool service freight capacity by 20%.

www.stenalinefreight.com/news/stena-embla-makes-first-belfast-liverpool-crossing/

Clavinova · 28/02/2021 21:35

The BBC did an item on both of its main news programmes with Paul Costelloe and other designers, talking about the problems that they were having as a result of Brexit.

And he blames Covid for delays in the Republic of Ireland;

Paul Costelloe’s clothing line for Dunnes Stores has been badly hit by the pandemic, the designer has conceded.

“We didn’t anticipate the lockdown being so long and the whole spring collection is sitting in warehouses, in China or in Europe..."

www.irishtimes.com/business/manufacturing/paul-costelloe-takes-a-covid-hammering-at-dunnes-stores-1.4489792

TatianaBis · 28/02/2021 21:46

@Clavinova

Alex Salmond’s QC has said he does not believe the former Scottish first minister is a “sex pest” after he was recorded making disparaging remarks about his client on a train.

Well he would wouldn't he?

After he called Salmond a sex pest on the train, he then said he did not believe his client was a sex pest. Otherwise they would both be COMPLETELY FUCKED.

From the Times link:

Mr Jackson, who is dean of the Faculty of Advocates, could be heard saying “a sex pest but he’s not charged with that” in an apparent reference to Mr Salmond.

Mr Jackson described his client as “quite an objectionable bully to work with,” adding: “I think he was a nasty person to work for … a nightmare to work for.”

During the conversation, he said: “Okay, it’s no’ right but it’s no’ war crimes … this is hardly sexual … Sex offenders register? Not for you."

“Inappropriate, a**ehole, stupid … but sexual? Unfortunately, [names one of the female accusers] and [names another female accuser] say it’s sexual.”

But we all know this as we have already read it.

Clavinova · 28/02/2021 22:17

No doubt a knock-on effect for deliveries into the UK:

24 Feb - Déjà vu as the EU struggles with backlogs at borders.

A year after Europe's first confirmed coronavirus cases led countries to shut their borders, truck drivers are again bearing the brunt of travel restrictions.

Italian authorities have rushed to set up rapid testing facilities near the Austrian border. But trucks still face hours-long holdups, sometimes in freezing temperatures.

23 Feb - The Commission sent letters to Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary and Sweden to ask them to lift restrictions on their borders in line with a recommendation on travel that EU countries agreed to earlier this month. The six countries have 10 days to respond.

“We trust we will find solutions with member states concerned without having to revert to legal steps, which can be lengthy,” a Commission spokesperson said...

www.politico.eu/article/deja-vu-eu-struggles-with-backlogs-at-borders-coronavirus-trucking/

www.politico.eu/article/eu-border-restrictions-coronavirus-brussels-versus-capitals/amp/

And who knew that the port of Rotterdam was inaccessible to freight trains for 6 days earlier this month?

15 Feb - Normal timetable resumes in the Netherlands following winter disruption.

The Port of Rotterdam, Europe’s largest seaport, was not accessible by trains for six days. Docks, quays and sidings were unable to handle any trains...

www.railjournal.com/regions/europe/dutch-rail-transport-collapses-following-winter-invasion/

Clavinova · 28/02/2021 22:30

TatianaBis

You are quoting from an article that is:
the subject of a legal complaint from Alex Salmond.

I assume the video recording came to light after Alex Salmond was acquitted?

Peregrina · 28/02/2021 22:30

Thoughtless of the EU to order some bad weather, wasn't it?

TatianaBis · 28/02/2021 22:55

the subject of a legal complaint from Alex Salmond.

of course it fucking is!

TatianaBis · 28/02/2021 22:58

The distasteful footage where he talks of the complainant: “putting a smell on her” in the court case shows exactly how sex offence defence barristers operate.

mathanxiety · 01/03/2021 03:49

Brexit: Why Irish freight trade is avoiding Britain

Although I noticed today -

Ferryport in South Wales sees Irish Ferries Sign 10-Year Deal with Pembroke Dock...fears that the South Wales port could become a casualty of Brexit have proved unfounded;
....
And Stena Embla is now back on the Belfast-Liverpool route;

28 Jan 2021- Stena Embla will join her sister ship Stena Edda on the popular Belfast–Liverpool route with the capacity to carry 1,000 passengers, 120 cars and with 3,100 freight lane meters. She will increase the Belfast–Liverpool service freight capacity by 20%.

You do realise that Belfast and Liverpool are both in the UK, @Clavinova?

And does this mean the tunnel projects have now gone tits up?

From the article referring to Pembroke Port/Milford Haven - it is very likely that either Fishguard or Pembroke will close, leaving one or the other plus Holyhead as the only ports serving Wales.

(Also, South Wales most likely will be a major casualty of Brexit, regardless of ferry contracts.)

mathanxiety · 01/03/2021 04:13

Also, this, detailing Irish haulage and shipping changes so far and reminding us all that things are about to get even more complicated:
In the week to 22 February, freight volumes on Stena Line ferries from the Republic of Ireland to GB were down 49% compared to the same week last year, while volumes going directly to France were up 102%.

The direct sea routes to France are slightly slower and more expensive than crossing the Irish Sea and then driving south through Wales and England to cross the Channel between Dover and Calais.

But going direct avoids the new post-Brexit checks and paperwork associated with the Dover-Calais route, and the Stena Line figures are reflected across the industry. It means lorries never leave the single market, and they avoid new customs formalities.

Stena has started a new route from Dublin to Cherbourg to go alongside its existing route from Rosslare to Cherbourg. It now has 14 weekly crossings between Ireland and the continent compared to six last year.

Another new route is run by DFDS Seaways from Rosslare to Dunkirk, close to Calais. It provides easy access into the heart of Europe.

DFDS says the service, which runs six times a week and takes just under 24 hours, is almost always oversubscribed. An announcement of additional sailings is expected shortly.

"The new routes are booming," says Glenn Carr, the general manager of Rosslare Europort, "for both accompanied (by a driver) and unaccompanied units."

"At one stage in January freight trade to the UK was down 70%. It's picked up since then, but now the week-on-week increase is only incremental."

Overall, there are currently 36 sailings per week from Ireland to Northern France, up from 12 a year ago. And Rosslare's freight traffic with mainland Europe rose by a remarkable 446% in January, compared to 2020.

"Businesses have just made strategic decisions to move their trade," Mr Carr says.

Irish haulage companies have noticed the change.

"We're exporting about 150 to 200 loads to France every week," says Chris Smyth, the commercial director of Perennial Freight in Wexford, just up the coast from Rosslare...

...For hauliers who want to continue using the land bridge, things are about to get more complicated.

At the moment, they only have to face new export bureaucracy when they leave Britain and arrive in France.

Soon (in April and then more widely in July) they will be facing similar import measures when they arrive in Britain from Ireland, making the post-Brexit border procedures on the land bridge even more cumbersome.

The Irish government has, says Minister of State for Transport Hildegarde Naughton, been "urging business using the GB land bridge to switch to direct routes to avoid the new control regimes."

She says there has been "an unprecedented response from the shipping industry" to increase capacity.

www.bbc.com/news/56201463

mathanxiety · 01/03/2021 04:41

Wrt the concerted Unionist and Tory effort to destroy the GFA beginning with the Protocol:

But surely they are caught with the same cleft stick that Labour are in that they voted for it

@DGRossetti

The average British voter neither understands anything related to NI nor remembers anything related to NI for longer than a goldfish would, nobody knows anything about the Protocol, or understands it; for all the average British voter knows or cares it was a piece of revenge imposed by the Big Bad EU with the nasty Irish sitting on their shoulder whispering instructions, and for all they know or care, any future collapse of NI into sectarian strife/return of troops to the streets and byways will be the fault of 'the Irish'.

mathanxiety · 01/03/2021 04:45

It's unbelievable that there aren't UK citizens all tied up in the ERG club who are actively working against the elected president of the United States.

DGR

I believe Boris Johnson's 'kerfuffle' comments were a clear signal of contempt for the Biden administration and for Nancy Pelosi who brought the impeachment motion, and a clear endorsement of Donald Trump and everything he stands for, including the direct challenge to the democratic process his friends and fellow fascists organised.

Chersfrozenface · 01/03/2021 07:10

All Irish Ferries have done is taken an option on a berth at Pembroke Dock. The port authority has agreed to provide the berth. Irish Ferries aren't obliged to use it. If the route proves commercially unviable, it will be axed. If the route to Fishguard goes instead, it may survive.

DGRossetti · 01/03/2021 09:52

www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/the-express-gets-a-dose-of-brexit-reality-as-biden-puts-brakes-on-trade-deal-222773/

The Express gets a dose of Brexit reality as Biden puts brakes on trade deal

The Express was forced to face up to an unwelcome dose of Brexit reality after US president Joe Biden reportedly ‘put the brakes’ on a trade deal with the United Kingdom.

The right wing rag, which campaigned ferociously for Britain to leave the EU in 2016 and celebrated with a ‘We’re Out’ front page shortly after, said Brits had been ‘conned’ after talks of a huge trade deal with the US were pooh-poohed by Katherine Tai, Biden’s top trade nominee.

She said there was a need to “review the discussions and the negotiations so far, in the light of (recent) developments” in a shift that was predicted by this paper last July.

The comments have sparked fury among Brexiteers who were promised a lucrative free trade deal with the US once the UK had been unshackled from the EU.

One furious Express.co.uk reader said: “Tell them to stick their trade deal where the sun doesn’t shine!

“It’s not a trade deal! It’s a CON! We always end up giving more and receiving less and receiving inferior substandard goods. Plus being ripped off!”

Another said: “It’s high time to review our relationship with the US, no more lap dog attitude.

“It’s time for the UK to make its own decisions, special relationship has always been one way.”

But in a repeat of the ‘religious’ aspects that underpinned the Brexit campaign one person took the biscuit by saying: “We all know that the world needs the UK much more than the UK needs the world.”

ListeningQuietly · 01/03/2021 12:22

One month to go till the UK starts to obey the WTO rules so loved by the Brexiters .....

The new head of the WTO is in post.
We are being watched.

Peregrina · 01/03/2021 12:37

Has this little gem been posted about how Farage is to blame for the fishing betrayal?

The law was brought in in 2008 and was supported by Britain for 12 years because it “protected the British shellfish industry against cheap, inferior imports and secured their markets within the European Union”, Packham (writer of Yorkshire post article) notes.

“When Britain left the EU we lost that protection, became a third country and had to follow EU rules for non-members. This is what Leavers said they wanted, this is what Brexit means,” he adds.

Peregrina · 01/03/2021 12:56

Daniel Kawcynski's latest bright idea is to have Japanese taught in schools.

Now just where are all those unemployed Japanese teachers hiding?

No matter that French and Spanish are still world languages. Undoubtedly because of European colonialism, but that is fact. On a train journey from Italy once we were sharing a compartment with two Vietnamese people. They didn't speak English, so we managed to communicate with French.

DGRossetti · 01/03/2021 13:17

@Peregrina

Daniel Kawcynski's latest bright idea is to have Japanese taught in schools.

Now just where are all those unemployed Japanese teachers hiding?

No matter that French and Spanish are still world languages. Undoubtedly because of European colonialism, but that is fact. On a train journey from Italy once we were sharing a compartment with two Vietnamese people. They didn't speak English, so we managed to communicate with French.

Many years ago, Gore Vidal was being interviewed for UK TV (so probably the BBC). There was some discussion over the UKs place in the world (from memory Vidal noted that it wasn't anywhere near as high as the UK seemed to think it was - particularly in more remote areas.

The interviewer bristled slightly, and noted that there was British culture, sophistication, elan all things that the Japanese (apparently) could not get enough off. The typically waspish reply was:

I spoke with a Japanese friend recently. He said 'all we want from the British is their language. And we've already stolen that' ....

(It may have been the same interview where he said Thatcher would have to go, in which case pre-1990 ...)

HesterThrale · 01/03/2021 13:24

Not sure, in the long term, learning Japanese and Chinese will be the way to go. Astonishingly their populations are predicted to more than halve in the next 80 years.

Japan's population is projected to fall from a peak of 128 million in 2017 to less than 53 million by the end of the century.
China, currently the most populous nation in the world, is expected to peak at 1.4 billion in four years' time before nearly halving to 732 million by 2100.

Amazing, eh? Looks like we’d be better off learning a Nigerian language, as it’s predicted to increase there.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/health-53409521

(580 million people around the world currently speak Spanish, and there are 275 million French speakers internationally.)

KonTikki · 01/03/2021 13:58

I always thought it bizarre how little Spanish is taught in schools.
It should be our first foreign language followed by French.
Not sure why we bother with German. They speak English better than we do.

Clavinova · 01/03/2021 13:59

The new head of the WTO is in post.
We are being watched.

Boris Johnson's charm working overtime already. Grin

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala @ NOIweala Feb 24
Thank you PM @ BorisJohnson for an insightful conversation on @ WTO reform & for championing this during your G7 presidency. The drive to make the WTO work better for people, for inclusion, a more sustainable & greener recovery from COVID19 is imperative. WTO is ready to work with you.

DGRossetti · 01/03/2021 14:04

@Clavinova

The new head of the WTO is in post. We are being watched.

Boris Johnson's charm working overtime already. Grin

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala @ NOIweala Feb 24
Thank you PM @ BorisJohnson for an insightful conversation on @ WTO reform & for championing this during your G7 presidency. The drive to make the WTO work better for people, for inclusion, a more sustainable & greener recovery from COVID19 is imperative. WTO is ready to work with you.

A perfect grasp of English again Grin. Arguably better than most UK readers ?
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