Westministenders: This is not the Brexit we voted for

[ListeningQuietly]

UK Shellfish industry destroyed because our inshore waters are not clean enough
Welsh Ports on their knees because the Land Bridge has found another route
Horticulture seed producers lost all of their mainland EU customers

Antique dealers lost access to their suppliers
Small businesses being told (by UK Govt) to relocate to the EU to avoid red tape
Brits in the EU discovering that stopping Free Movement applies to them too
Northern Ireland in Unionist flames because there is a border between them and Great Britain, but not the Republic
And the UK has still not taken control of its borders

Brexit is shaping up as predicted, but none of those who voted for it seem to have what they wanted

Cuddling cats to PMK

Apart from sighing, "This was all entirely predictable" although we now have the added complication of Covid which is being used to deflect blame , I'm not sure what else to say

....and talking of cats, one of those little bastards darlings has just cost us £450 for an infected paw It always makes me appreciate how much our NHS doesn't cost us as individuals

Don't come on here pretending to have the slightest interest in what happens in N Ireland Clavinova - you are a Brexiter ERG/Johnson groupie through and through - whatever lies they tell you lap up and they haven't the slightest interest in NI either.

The DUP may also have, like Johnson, been hoping for a Trump win.

Pmk

@RedToothBrush

Thank LQ.

Its thoroughly depressing.

I think we will start to see the 'big reveal' in the next 6 weeks as things reopen. It will, of course, be blamed on covid but the empty shelves are going to be more of a permenant feature that people realise.

The news from Belfast is dire. But sadly not unexpected. It does make me fear for the province's future. It always did.

This ⬆️ Throughly depressed PMK

Peregrina
^Don't come on here pretending to have the slightest interest in what
happens in N Ireland^

Clearly more interested than you - the BBC covered the Bobby Storey funeral controversy several times in their broadcasts before Easter - you were not paying attention.

Clavinova - you are a Brexiter ERG/Johnson groupie through and through

I could have voted either way in the referendum and I haven't championed 'no-deal'. A Johnson groupie perhaps, but I am rather fickle - Rishi Sunak as PM would suit me fine.

I'd taken a break from these threads. Appreciate you guys keeping them going so that I can catch up on what's happening in the real world. Depressing though it is!

Thanks LQ , RTB and everyone else. I'm more a listener than a talker here. So grateful for this island of sanity and reason.

Thank you all.

The Bobby Storey funeral was the end of June last year. But at the time, Cummings breaking the Covid rules was the more important issue in England at least - with Tory MPs busting a gut to defend him.

And I for one could not have gone either way on my Referendum vote. For me the maintenance of the GFA was the clincher - for which Major and Blair both deserve credit. This is something I have consistently said.

Anyone heard what's going on with that idiot eel bloke? What a fool. You have to be a really special kind of stupid to vote to erect barriers between yourself and your customers. No doubt Clavinova will find a link saying his business is booming because of Brexit.

But at the time, Cummings breaking the Covid rules was the more important issue in England at least - with Tory MPs busting a gut to defend him.

Was Clavinova busting a gut to defend him as well? And defend Johnson and co standing up for a innocent man and good father, who would never break any rules and just had dodgy vision. I mean, who wouldn't drive 80 miles if the feared they couldn't see properly.

IMO the idiocy comes in trusting Johnson - a man who lies to his employers, appears to cheat on every woman that he has a relationship with, so who on earth thought when he said he was going to get a Great Deal that he would consider their interests?

A better negotiator might have got a better deal - but it would have involved some pragmatism - give way on letting musicians in for example in return for something else. Now because he and his cronies have made it 100% clear that their word is not their bond, and that international treaties can be ripped up when they find they don't like them, other parties are not minded to give him the benefit of the doubt.

The Bobby Storey funeral was the end of June last year.

BBC timeline here - published 30 Match 2021:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-56565832
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-56566468

Peregrina
for which Major and Blair both deserve credit

John Major had a four-year clandestine affair of course - but that is ok with you because he supported remain.

I don't think I have ever expressed an opinion on John Major's private life! I do remember Spitting Image having a bit of a thing about him and Gillian Shepherd - it seems that they were near the mark, but not quite near enough.

Antique dealers lost access to their suppliers

The antiques couple featured in the Guardian gave an earlier interview to the Hastings Independent;

What do you think will be the long-term effect for your business?

We would obviously have preferred for Brexit to never have happened for many reasons, the simplicity of import/export in the single market being one of them, free movement another. But we hope not to see a significant impact long-term for business, other than no longer having the ease of turning up at the border with a van full of goods, mostly without receipts and passing through with no questions. This is certainly a thing of the past!

www.hastingsindependentpress.co.uk/community/sun-still-shines-on-french-imports/

If they drove their van to France now it would probably cost them £800 plus for 2 sets of Covid tests (4/5 tests each for a return trip).

It's the top story on RTÉ (after not being for a while). I suppose that's where I need to look to find any coverage of it.

It's front page on CNN International too.

.

Thanks for the new thread. I've been lurking, but have avoided much of MN for the same reasons that led Mistigri to leave.

I am seeing decades of reciprocal cooperation and goodwill between universities in the UK and here in France shredded, as visas, healthcare fees, obligatory costly language tests and other barriers are severely complicating mobility to the UK. Meanwhile, in the other direction, where such barriers don't (yet) exist, we are being asked to accept double the students next year, because so many couldn't travel this year, and also being asked why we don't teach our courses in law, marketing, psychology, etc. in English, since UK students don't have the language skills to follow classes in French.
Meanwhile, admin staff in UK universities tell us they can't answer our emails because they are so busy applying for Turing, which is a unilateral, not reciprocal, mobility system. Symptomatically enough...
It's deeply depressing.

And before anyone piles in with arguments about how Erasmus is for a tiny middle-class elite...
(1) That is only true if, as in the UK, you reserve university access to middle class kids, by charging huge fees.
(2) Even if it does only allow some students, apprentices and HE professionals to experience life in another country, mobility like this opens minds and increases tolerance towards others; its disappearance will weaken the UK's soft power and adversely affect its already complicated relations with its nearest neighbours.

Tweet here sums it up well:
It's strange that this isn't the Brexit Leavers voted for.
This is exactly the Brexit Remainers voted against.
twitter.com/cat_abroad/status/1380080646798909443?s=20

Hi there @AuldAlliance
I admit I've not kept up with who has reverted to lurking and who has left MN.
I am sorry that Mistigri left. Leclerc has left but lurks. BigChoc has left.

Nearing the end of the last thread I wondered if it was worth pushing the threads on through
(and I did email Red before starting this one)
But I took the view that these threads will, in the long run, come under the same category as
chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/
There every day, watching, reading, contrasting, sharing

due to work issues I've started actively monitoring Twitter
and still think that these threads are a key resource.

PS
I'm trying to work out Cat_abroads MN user name

As far as Erasmus and Turing go, it's Turing as I see becoming the scheme for the rich kids to get a subsidy to go to US universities. I don't see it becoming much else.

Chris Gery's blogspot is as ever, perceptive and depressing.

Johnson and the ERG, have achieved the aim of severing ties with the EU and with the destruction of many businesses are making certain of it. At the moment though, they haven't got any replacement. Bragging about global Britain won't make it so.

However, I think that Chris Grey's blogspot from last week hasn't aged at all well. He talks about the NI Protocol - but this was before the violence flared up this week.

In answer to Clavinova - John Major may well have become a Remainer because he was one of the architects of the GFA and knew exactly what was at stake.