Brexit

[C8RKH]

3 hours ago, 910Esprit said:

TBH if I was the French, I'd probably do exactly the same.   The government need to come up with unilateral steps to reduce the attraction of the UK as a final destination for bogus refugees. 

 

Quote from French this morning was around the UK need to change their employment laws to make the UK a less attractive destination.

 

It beggars belief...

[PaulCP]

I think the most interesting and probably the most truthful sentence that came out of a French MPs mouth on b’fast TV this morning was when he said “the Brits just need to give us more money”

Then, when it was pointed out that 99% of these migrants are not genuine asylum seekers but “economic migrants“ we had some potty female ranting on about how much this is not true and saying that we should welcome them all with open arms since all they want is a better life for themselves and their families!

Europe as whole need to sort out this mess since most of it is a result of EU countries ignoring the EU directive which states that, if I’m not mistaken, “asylum seekers must seek asylum in the first EU country which they arrive in” Instead they just provide them with a safe passage to the U.K……. EU countries ignoring EU rules that they don’t like, who would have thought it 😂………..particularly French politicians who are masters of it

 

[C8RKH]

16 hours ago, basalte said:

Oh dear I seem to have inadvertently touched a raw nerve by mentioning organisations controlled by small unaccountable groups running key parts of UK infrastructure. I had hoped that people who desire “ sovereignty “ could relate to that unsatisfactory undemocratic situation.  
As an aside there is still plenty of caricaturisation and assumptions over what people actually think and mean in this thread and it reeks of the screaming - headlines propaganda stance taken by particular newspapers and broadcasters who ( behind their moral high horses ) have their own reasons for avoiding scrutiny of their financial affairs ( by the EU amongst others ). Apparently my remarks about the way the EU oppressed Greece count for nothing in this thread ; I have to be a True Believer one way or the other ! 

Talking of “ country miles “  you have definitely missed my point by said measure  .Trying to make my post a moan about Brexit when I was making a much wider point about lack of national control over economic destiny .

 I deliberately chose and included examples of foreign companies operating here long before Brexit - do you honestly think I am unaware of that timeline ? Bizarre . 

The point which you have all missed by a country mile is that this country started to fail to be be in control of its economic infrastructure in the 1980s , “EU or no EU “.
I’ll repeat that , since you ignored it the first time in my above post that I took the trouble to put in black and white . 
“EU or no EU “. 
Like I wrote in my post above . In black and white .

Bit miffed you chose to ignore that bit in favour of lazily stereotyping me as a moaner . 

Yes Honda and Nissan invested here from Japan and the EU let them .
So what’s your problem with the EU there ?

Apparently the “Soviet / Nazi EU “ didn’t mind the world investing in the UK . Not a very consistent position to take unless you accept the reality that the EU is not and never was an Enemy of the free market .

- and so we arrive at the crux of your hostility . 

Do you honestly think I fail to recognise that most of you love the “free market “ ( despite that actually meaning “large corporations “ these days ) ? People who do well out of the free market love it and think it’s the best invention since money itself - that’s how our social system predominantly works .

So ok , I am going to clarify ; maybe I just wasn’t clear enough about the nature of my scepticism over “ Sovereignty “ and “ Taking back control “ .

You think foreigners owning our key infrastructure isn’t a problem.

I happen to think it is . Most tax they pay goes to their home country ; most damagingly, decisions affecting the livliehood of thousands are made outside those communities, outside those countries , outside accountability ,

EU or no EU ! Yes ? 

I’m sure workers at the sharp end of those decisions would love a bit of “ taking back control “ .

Or will they fling their caps in the air and shout “ Hooray for the wonderful Free Market and the dole office !!” 

(By the way you mean I should “figuratively “ fook off not “literally “. Maybe I would literally but your precious Brexit ended freedom of movement). 

Oh dear. you have confused so many things here and have several "facts" wrong. I'm travelling for work, so will respond over the weekend when I have time.

And yes, I apologise for my crass "english" at the end, I used the wrong terms and you are correct. Although hopefully you did get the main thrust, which was that I wasn't actually telling you to "fook off". Also please don't suggest I am being hostile. I'm not. I'm enjoying and participating in a robust debate, there is no need for hostility.

[basalte]

Hi CK nothing personal of course , that would be plain silly ! Look forward to your ripostes / justifications. 🙂

[C8RKH]

26 minutes ago, basalte said:

Hi CK nothing personal of course , that would be plain silly ! Look forward to your ripostes / justifications. 🙂

All good. Robust discussions usually mean you get to the end in a better position. Let's leave the dancing the around the handbags to the girls. Though these days that statement could possibly get me into a lotta trouble with some PC folk.....

 

[pete]

[thebartman]

[march]

[C8RKH]

I found this piece quite interesting. I have always believed that one of the strengths of the UK, is, and has been for some time, our ability to pivot quickly where required, to ensure that we can seize opportunities and prosper.  Within the EU, it was becoming harder and harder for us, or anyone else, to do that, as everyone was, just like in Star Trek, expected to be assimilated into the "collective" for the greater good. The only difference being that unlike in Star Trek where all the Borg where as one, and equal, the EU Collective still had at its helm a form of EU Royalty who were placed above everyone else.

BREXIT BRITAIN'S financial and banking services exports to the United States have outstripped those to the European Union in the first time since the UK left the trading bloc. Around 34 percent of exports by banks and finance companies went to America in 2020, according to research by the banking lobby group TheCityUK, compared to 30 percent to the EU. The US was in pole position for the first time since it started collecting data in 2016. Experts said the shift is evidence of growing American interest in Britain as companies eye new opportunities. 

Trystan Tether, a lawyer at Bird & Bird, said he had also noticed a great deal of inward investment from the US into the UK, particularly in the financial technology industry where he said that "the UK continues to represent an attractive market".

Britain's overall trade surplus in financial and related professional services increased by 8.4 percent to £79.3bn in 2020 as a drop in exports to the EU was offset by a rise in those to the US.

The shift away from the bloc is likely to continue in 2021 as Brexit weighs on exports to the EU, and British trade negotiators make stripping down barriers to services a key focus of their efforts to strike fresh deals with other countries.

Politically, the UK is seeking to secure a trade deal with the United States.
However, US President Joe Biden has warned Prime Minister Boris Johnson that until the ongoing situation surrounding the Northern Ireland Protocol is settled, the UK will remain at the “back of the queue.”

Britain’s tech industry is booming, with Cambridge becoming the EU capital for so-called Unicorn enterprises, namely, a company valued at over £850bn ($1bn).

Yet it is in banking and financial services that Britain is once again started to excel, particularly in relation to the US.

Total financial sector exports to the US - which include financial services, pensions and insurance - were just shy of £15bn in the first six months of the year, versus less than £11bn exported to the EU, according to calculations based on data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The reversal is likely to be seized on by Brexit supporters as a vindication of their claims that the City could prosper outside the bloc

Opponents argued that London's status as a financial hub would be at risk if Britain voted Leave, claiming as many as 200,000 jobs could be lost because banks and other companies would be shut out of the European market.

Although some financial institutions and staffers left London, the data emerging shows that London still remains an important global financial hub, as shown by the ongoing growth demonstrated with the US.

In fact, analysis by ‘TheCityUK’ shows that the capital remains much busier than any financial centre on the Continent.

The British banking industry had assets of £10.8 trillion at the end of June this year, ahead of France and Germany, while the UK's legal services market is the second-largest in the world after the US.

[exeterjeep]

The French  are our friend.....

UK and EU settle fishing row but French fishers vow to go ahead with blockade

Paris, London and Brussels have dropped talk of a trade war and appeared to settle a dispute over post-Brexit fishing licences, but angry French fishers threatened to go ahead with a pre-Christmas blockade of British goods entering Calais.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/12/france-drops-threat-of-trade-war-over-post-brexit-fishing-rights?fbclid=IwAR3HdwGnw3NtP_pz7yOdHW6oWBdE-5r3h0d1XPL0DZcFVXAC4AL2RI26cqw

[Barrykearley]

About time we paid our fishermen to stop fishing and simply blockade the channel and stop the tidal wave of migrants

[exeterjeep]

2 minutes ago, Barrykearley said:

About time we paid our fishermen to stop fishing and simply blockade the channel and stop the tidal wave of migrants

Perhaps the angry French fishers   will stop inflatables leaving Calais.

[Barrykearley]

More likely they will simply drag them out 

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

Looks like more red tape / potential delays  from 01.01.22 when importing from the EU. Up to now the Dover ferries have been waving trucks through so that the customs documentation can be processed after arriving in the UK. From January that is due to change and each truck will be checked upon arrival. EU hauliers won’t load trucks  to the UK until all the export/import/customs documentation has been issued at source, to ensure no additional delays at the UK port.

[thebartman]

Excellent. About time the paperwork got sorted out properly, and on time. There's no excuse. Oh, and it works both ways 

[C8RKH]

The French will have blocked the ports again anyway, so who cares.

The sooner we flood the channel tunnel and return to being an unconnected island the better. I'm off to find my bucket of sand for me head.

[Bibs]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59690080

[ChrisJ]

A year on from the Brexit trade deal, the doom-mongers got it so wrong (telegraph.co.uk)

This might be paywalled - but there is an easy bypass of the paywall if you search for one.

[Bibs]

Just saw this from a manufacturing contact on LinkedIn. Lotus even get a mention! 

A great year for the British manufacturing sector:
▪️ Cadbury announced plans to transfer production of its Dairy Milk bars from Germany and other sites across Europe to the UK.
▪️ The future of Vauxhall's Ellesmere Port plant was secured with a £100m investment. The site will become Stellantis' first factory dedicated to electric vehicle production for the Vauxhall, Opel, Peugeot and Citroën brands.
▪️ British supercar manufacturer Gordon Murray Group announced plans to invest £300m expanding its manufacturing and design operations in the UK.
▪️ Airbus officially opened its new £40m Aerospace Integrated Research and Test Centre (AIRTeC) in Filton.
▪️ Nissan announced plans to build a new electric vehicle at its Sunderland plant and, in partnership with Envision AESC, open a £450m gigafactory as part of a £1bn investment programme. The expansion will create more than 6,000 British jobs.
▪️ Ford announced plans to invest £230m converting its Halewood transmission plant to build power units.
▪️ British Steel unveiled a £100m investment programme.
▪️ Under construction in Goole, Siemens' new £200m train factory is expected to create 700 direct jobs.
▪️ The Hitachi Rail/Alstom joint venture was awarded a £2bn contract to design, build and maintain HS2’s new fleet of trains. The order will create and sustain 2,500 British jobs.
▪️ Rolls-Royce officially opened its new £90m Testbed 80 in Derby - the largest facility of its type in the world.
▪️ Kraft Heinz announced plans to invest £140m at its Kitt Green plant and start making tomato ketchup and other sauces in the UK for the first time since 1999.
▪️ Babcock unveiled its new £31.5m assembly hall at Rosyth and announced plans to create 500 jobs to support its £1.25bn Royal Navy Type 31 frigate programme.
▪️ BAE Systems announced it intended to hire 1.250 apprentices and graduates in 2021 – the highest number it has ever recruited in a single year.
▪️ Rolls-Royce's small modular reactor (SMR) programme - expected to create 40,000 British jobs - secured almost £500m in funding.
▪️ Norton opened its new multi-million factory and global HQ in Solihull.
▪️ Aston Martin broke ground on its new £200m F1 factory in Northamptonshire.
▪️The £130m UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC) opened in Coventry.
▪️ Siemens Gamesa announced plans to invest £186m expanding its wind turbine blade plant in Hull. The investment will more than double the size of the site and create hundreds of new jobs.
▪️ Britishvolt secured planning permission for a new £2.6bn gigafactory in Northumberland.
▪️ Lotus invested £100m in its UK sites and created hundreds of new jobs.
▪️ JCB built a record number of machines, created over 1,350 new jobs, secured a host of major orders and invested £100m developing its award-winning hydrogen engine.

[C8RKH]

Somebody a while back posted a similar list, but of negatives, that I responded to. I'll respond to this in a similar vein for balance - would it have happened anyway without Brexit? Has Brexit accelerated the benefits at all? etc.

I think the balance comes when you create a list of both the positive and negative news to allow you to see the overall "benefit" and whether it is positive or negative.

Each one of those above is a good thing. But as I did with the "negative" list I am sure someone could counter and knock with another example easily.

Not trying to be smart, just trying to be balanced and say that not every "negative" is down to Brexit, but also, neither is every positive (this being a Brexit thread and all)

[gregs24]

Brexit: One year on, the economic impact is starting to show - BBC News

[LotusFella]

11 minutes ago, gregs24 said:

Brexit: One year on, the economic impact is starting to show - BBC News

It's a very complicated situation not least because of the covid factor.  Which I suspect is having a greater impact than brexit

[Barrykearley]

Yet more diatribe pishe from the euro funded BBC - well what a surprise.

[gregs24]

5 minutes ago, Barrykearley said:

Yet more diatribe pishe from the euro funded BBC - well what a surprise.

British Chamber of Commerce and real business owners actually. But if it hasn't affected you then lucky you.

23 minutes ago, LotusFella said:

It's a very complicated situation not least because of the covid factor.  Which I suspect is having a greater impact than brexit

Indeed but COVID doesn't stop people selling their product in Europe!

Plenty of information on the subject there as well as directly from Chamber of Commerce. Of course there have been some people who have benefited but on balance it seems more have lost out. For some companies it has been catastrophic sadly

Edited December 24, 2021 by gregs24

[LotusFella]

21 minutes ago, gregs24 said:

British Chamber of Commerce and real business owners actually. But if it hasn't affected you then lucky you.

Indeed but COVID doesn't stop people selling their product in Europe!

Plenty of information on the subject there as well as directly from Chamber of Commerce. Of course there have been some people who have benefited but on balance it seems more have lost out. For some companies it has been catastrophic sadly

Sadly in a divorce everyone looses