Westministenders: Unilateral Ignoring of WHO rules

[RedToothBrush]

Where we are:

On 1st January the EU started to apply checks on all goods from the UK coming into the Union.

However the UK decided to take a slower route to this, and planned that on the 1st April the UK we would be carrying out Sanitary & Phytosanitary paperwork for animal and plant EU imports like meat and eggs.

Then on 1 July we'd implement a full customs check on all goods arriving into the UK from EU member states.

Obviously we've struggled with exports as we weren't ready for this and its fucked business. But ultimately the import side of things has yet to hit the shit fan still.

It sounds like there is likely to be issues with imports of food in particular, so there is talk of delaying our plan of checks until later in the day. There is concern that the reopening of pubs and restuarants which will up demands of imports occuring at the same time as checks are put in place is likely to be 'problematic'.

Remember we get 2/3 of fruit, veg and cheese from the EU. And half our wine. And to date these largely have only been affected by haulage issues NOT UK customs issues...

You might want to keep that in mind.

But now, we will become self sufficient
oh yes
definitely

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-56381046
Brexit: EU to begin legal action over alleged NI Protocol breach

The EU has begun legal action against the UK over its alleged breach of the NI Protocol.

It could lead to the UK having to defend its actions at the European Court of Justice.

The European Commission's vice president said he hopes the issue can be resolved without further legal action.

Maroš Šefčovič said the EU's preference is for "collaborative, pragmatic and constructive" political discussions.

The protocol is the part of the Brexit deal relating to Northern Ireland and has led to the creation of a new trade border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

Earlier this month the UK government changed how the protocol is being implemented without EU agreement.

It delayed the introduction of new sea border checks on food, parcels and pets.

It also moved unilaterally to ease the trade in horticultural products across from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

The European Commission has sent a letter of formal notice to the UK saying these actions breach the substantive provisions of the protocol as well as the good faith obligation under the Withdrawal Agreement.

It has asked the UK to respond within a month before it decides on further legal steps.

Well this is going to end well....

RTB
Its interesting how consistent my news sources are.
NOBODY is trying to spin this as the EU doing other than uphold the law.
Johnson better finish building his oven

Happy
We grow coffee plants in our conservatory (which is FULL of plants)

Well this is going to end well....

A gift for the Brexit hardliners - nasty EU taking us to court. But tomorrow is St Patrick's Day and there are other interested parties to the Good Friday Agreement....

Johnson himself would be happy to do a screaching U-turn, but Frost? Not likely, but we shall see.

.

A gift for the Brexit hardliners - nasty EU taking us to court. But tomorrow is St Patrick's Day and there are other interested parties to the Good Friday Agreement....

I see that President Biden will be having a call with Taoiseach Martin on Wednesday which is St. Patricks day. I suspect the timing is no mere accident of schedules but highly symbolic.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall when the UK envoy lays it on the line to the US administration and tells them how wrong they are. However, I suspect that behind closed doors, there is going to be a lot of backpedalling.

With a bipartisan congress involved, there isn't much the US couldn't do if it felt it needed to step in as guarantor to the Good Friday Agreement. When President and Congress align you'd probably want to be behind a small country the other side of the globe. Or if you're a Brexiteer the other end of the planet.

Getting my days mixed up there - I thought today was the 16th.

Its the Ides of March today

@Peregrina

Getting my days mixed up there - I thought today was the 16th.

Wishing your life away ? I know it's all a bit shit right now, but was ever thus, surely ?

Before lockdown the days had some sort of structure - now one day follows the next.... and is just the same as the day before, or so it seems.

@Peregrina

Before lockdown the days had some sort of structure - now one day follows the next.... and is just the same as the day before, or so it seems.

It's all gone a bit bleak hasn't it ? Surely we all need a laugh ... here's what gave me a very warm feeling recently, when reading about the Duchess of Sussex complaining to OfCom.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-56379830

Meanwhile, Daily Mail and Mail Online owner Associated Newspapers is reported to have written to ViacomCBS, the makers of the interview, to complain that there was "deliberate distortion and doctoring" in a "misleading" montage of British newspaper headlines that was used in the programme.

PMK.
thanks @RedToothBrush (and all regular contributors)

Meghan and Harry - convenient hey? It hides the news of the severe drop in exports. Much more important.

@Peregrina

Meghan and Harry - convenient hey? It hides the news of the severe drop in exports. Much more important.

Maybe.

However, (I think I suggested this before ?) it may be using Royal rifts as squirrel bait may backfire horribly, if it results in the palace having to get into a prolonged (and hopefully internecine) battle with ex-royals. In which case he who laughs last ....

I have no problem whatsoever with the Sussexes using the courts to protect their privacy from the UKs gutter press (apologies for the tautology). As they've shown, they can win. And big time. I bet the Mail is going to be tiptoeing around them in future.

In fact my lack of problem with the Sussexes is probably on a par with my lack of sympathy for any of the royal family.

Anyway, regardless of all that, the idea of the Daily Mail whinging about being being misrepresented in a US TV show has made my decade. Liberal snowflakes.

LQ I think the coffee plant might need to go and live in the bathroom with some more humidity. The orchid is happy there, the first time I've ever had a happy orchid as I normally manage to practically kill them.

Knives out for Boris

Ministers frustrated with PM's 'mistakes' ahead of Covid second wave

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56406393

Johnson is teflon coated though. I thought Cameron was sht, May was Sht, Johnson is sh*t, but imagine what a nasty PM a Priti Patel would make.

I actually think that Gove would be moderately better - I think he has had enough sense to realise that this belligerent approach isn't going to do the country any favours in the long run. This still doesn't mean that he wasn't sh*t in Education, but he made a decent enough job with his time at the MoJ (not hard after failing Grayling) and was reasonable in Environment.

Johnson is teflon coated though.

I agree. I think it's just because he's funny and a bit racist/sexist so the public love him. I don't think its anything more complicated than that.

Delayed UK digital border system was only stable enough to be used by 4% of intended users

Anyone with a systems delivery background can read between the lines on this story and undoubtedly spend an hour or two alternating between laughing and crying.

Frankie
I still do not understand why the UK is making such a dog's dinner of Customs clearance.
Calais and co ramped up their provision and system in mid 2018
so were able to go fully live on all customs checks
on 1st January 2021

THe UK- who voted for the change - seem to have made no preparations

A photo opportunity is incoming.

My over 50 friends have just booked in through the website for the jabs.

Guess which PM will be making the most of it all this week.

I still do not understand why the UK is making such a dog's dinner of Customs clearance
The existing systems wouldn't scale to anything like the expected traffic and like many government systems were old, virtually green screen, expertise in what they actually did was lost in outsourcing - so when they finally got around to tendering for replacements (in 2018) they didn't actually know what to ask for.

From that kind of position you can't build a system that will do the job and be usable/interfaceable by a raft of businesses - of vastly different IT capabilities - in 2 years - even choosing a 'SAP' doesn't help - it's the people and getting to something that is usable that takes the time.

(MoJ and DWP have the same problems but much worse - cue loads of consultants and Fujitsi coining it.)

Still no vaccine invitation for me - am hoping that it will arrive this week.

I remain absolutely in awe of the vaccine rollout. And I credit it's smooth running to the fact it's been done by the NHS, and not Capita/Servo/G4S.

As dh frequently pontificates: BJ and his cronies have been very clever probably Cummings before he left in calling "Test and Trace" NHS Test and Trace, and describing the Vaccine rollout as the Government's vaccine rollout , whereas in fact it is the other way round

It is the Government's Cronies' Test and Trace and the NHS vaccine rollout.

Remember too that the billions that have been wasted spent on Test and Trace is just for England (and Wales?). "Test and Protect", the Scottish system, is led by the Scottish public health teams.