Brexit mega thread 7 : global Britain is looking rather insignificant.....

[ChiswickFlo]

New thread

Johnson has proposed a "European Commonwealth" of the UK, Ukraine, Poland, Baltic States & later Turkey that would be an "alternative to the EU [for] countries united by distrust of Brussels and Germany's response to Russian aggression",

He's clearly forgotten about NATO.

And also forgotten that Brussels and Germany are pretty much synonymous.

and the eea...

He's clearly forgotten about NATO.

Which Brexiters constantly assured us that it was this and not the EU which has kept the peace in Europe.

You can just imagine that the Ed Secretary will mandate that exam questions are set in Imperial measures. Now I am quite sure that an astute exam board could get round it, by making sure that questions which require computations have a science basis.

I would hope actually that it quietly dies a death - those shops and market traders who still deal in lbs and oz will continue to do so. The rest of us won't bother - e.g. knitting wools and needles have been metric for 50 years now, so who wants to go back? The vast majority of imports will be metric anyway.

Johnson needs to own his turd.

Well put.

"The vast majority of imports will be metric anyway."

Unless - unless - no, perish the nightmare possibility... They wouldn't, would they? 😫 <tries to unthink the unthinkable. Fails > Aaaaarggh.

Obviously all business needs right now is the additional expense of converting packaging to metric sizing and pricing with zero tangible benefits to anyone.

Presumably Leavers will feel the benefit in being able to measure their units of orgasmic pleasure in fluid ounces...

I can't read beyond the paywall but

"The measures, in the Brexit Freedoms bill, will introduce a five-year expiry date for 1,500 pieces of legislation."

t.co/FUsanUinYU
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/jacob-rees-mogg-calls-for-bonfire-of-eu-rules-to-power-brexit-innovations-6hpc8v3wj

I wonder if Rees-Mogg will want to scrap the EU laws which the UK proposed?
I read elsewhere that the laws likely to be scrapped were likely to be employment protections and environmental ones. Now weren't Brexiters telling us how things would be improved after Brexit?

What improvements have we seen?

They cannot really be serious about reintroducing imperial measures though…can they? With bloody everything else going on, fgs why pick on something that will cost businesses money for no discernible benefit, confuse a generation of metric users, and force the reprinting of thousands of educational texts.

ohhh, just realised, some Tory MP must have an educational publishing company aching for a reason to force all schools to buy an entire new set of math and science textbooks. Now I understand.

It’ll be fine…
www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/how-youre-getting-fked-over-in-imperial-weights-and-measures-20220530221627

What improvements have we seen?

Sewage in rivers, bee killing pesticides?

I am quite sure that there are many out of date laws on the statute books, and that a review of them would be helpful. But with Rees-Mogg and Co it's just Europe which is the bogeyman. It won't bring the Empire back. I suppose it might eventually help us become the 51st US state, which seems to be a country they worship.

I have also seen them trumpetting a new visa plan. Of itself it won't attract people. Didn't they have some fast track system for medical consultants which had zero applicants? This new plan is likely to go the same way.

Is that visas for Ivy League graduates?

David Allen Green in a posting on the Imperial measurements issue quotes the following

Hello, weights and measures inspector here. They were not taken away by 'foreign bureaucrats'. It was long standing UK policy to move to SI units. The legislation to remove imperial was a UK instrument amending a UK act of Parliament. It had nothing to do with the EU.
— Pippa Musgrave (@PippaMusgrave1) May 28, 2022

Whoops.

Is that visas for Ivy League graduates?

Predominantly yes.

It's just to distract again away from partygate to suggest going back to Imperial measurements. Everyone will be talking about it and not on the parlimentary committee now maybe calling both Carrie and Boris about the latest revelations.

I find that going back to Imperial measurements is just a consultation. Let's hope it gets abandoned, since no one under 50 is familiar with it. I would go further and scrap miles and pints.

But the French still apparently ask for a livre of meat and the Germans for a Pfund of apples and manage to get served with the quantity they want. Britain first proposed metricating in the mid-19th Century, which I suppose is a bit too late for Rees-Mogg.

but the german pfund is metric, it's 500g
suspect it's the same in france.

I like to weigh myself in stones though. much smaller number

I weigh in stones although it's currently too high a number but 21 year old ds weighs in kg. I suspect most young people are the same.

but the german pfund is metric, it's 500g
suspect it's the same in france.

I am pretty sure it is too. I have heard it said that some Swedes also ask for a pound of -- and it's the same - the metric equivalent. But I heard that from a Dane, and there is friendly rivalry between the two nations, so I didn't know whether it was true or not.

It hasn't detracted from Partygate, but it's annoying that time can be wasted on this issue instead of tackling the genuine problems the country has.

I too weigh in Stones, much better than the American system of lbs.
(Still too big a number on the scales though!)

The Telegraph isn't impressed

The Telegraph discrediting both "dead cats" deployed to save flailing Johnson feels like quite a significant moment. Especially since they seem custom-made for its readership.

twitter.com/BestForBritain/status/1531567821389549569?t=qe2EXvJGO_7iDPoMSD4sng&s=19