Brexit has well and truly begun!

[G-Unit]

BBC's Rafio 4's Any Answers had a phone in on Brexit today. I'm not the only one who thinks our politicians have done more damage to our democracy than they realise. Other points were raised;

Delaying Brexit is just extending the uncertainty which is what businesses are complaining about.
Asking more questions isn't necessary because they have the answer already.
Northern Ireland shouldn't be dictating terms; they voted to remain, so why don't they leave the UK and join with the Republic.

[Venturi Swirl]

I see no reason to amswer yout question as it's speculative. The questions you suggest aren't those that would be asked, in my opinion.

There is nothing speculative about my question.  I asked “what is wrong” with asking the questions posed.  Is there anything wrong with asking them or not?

[Venturi Swirl]

BBC's Rafio 4's Any Answers had a phone in on Brexit today. I'm not the only one who thinks our politicians have done more damage to our democracy than they realise. Other points were raised;

Delaying Brexit is just extending the uncertainty which is what businesses are complaining about.
Asking more questions isn't necessary because they have the answer already.
Northern Ireland shouldn't be dictating terms; they voted to remain, so why don't they leave the UK and join with the Republic.

So do the people want May’s deal or No Deal?

[Carana]

BBC's Rafio 4's Any Answers had a phone in on Brexit today. I'm not the only one who thinks our politicians have done more damage to our democracy than they realise. Other points were raised;

Delaying Brexit is just extending the uncertainty which is what businesses are complaining about.
Asking more questions isn't necessary because they have the answer already.
Northern Ireland shouldn't be dictating terms; they voted to remain, so why don't they leave the UK and join with the Republic.

I agree with you that the politicians have damaged democracy, and are also busy damaging the country as a whole and its allies.

I'm not aware that NI has been "dictating terms". Yes, they voted Remain, as did Scotland and Gibraltar.

[Carana]

Wasn't sure, but it was indeed Hannan, who assured everyone:

"Absolutely no one is threatening our place in the Single Market" (12 May, 2015).
https://twitter.com/IrelandFacts1/status/1101913741669646336

[Carana]

Not sure if I've already posted this. With all the fuss about the ECJ, someone took the trouble to actually go  through all 89 rulings involving the UK over the past 30 years, summarising them in an entertaining way (IMO).

Thread:
Jim Grace #FBPE
‏ @mac_puck

I recently looked at "all them rules" that the EC imposed on the UK against our will. The Brexiters also like to bewail the tyranny of the ECJ, but usually cannot cite a single judgement. So here are all 89 judgements against HMG over the last 30 years (3 per year😱). Enjoy...
4:45 AM - 6 Feb 2019
https://twitter.com/mac_puck/status/1093158790394978304

A fair number of them are actually about pollution.

[Venturi Swirl]

“UK car exports have slumped by one-fifth and production has fallen for an eighth successive month, prompting industry figures to warn of a “clear and present danger” from a no-deal Brexit.

The number of cars leaving UK factories slumped 18.2 per cent to 120,600 in January compared to the same month a year ago, the industry’s trade body said.

The decline was driven by a 21.4 per cent decline in exports, which account for most of production. Output destined for the EU was down by one-fifth while car exports to China collapsed 72 per cent, the latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) showed. Manufacturing for the UK market fell by a more modest 4.8 per cent.”
From the Independent.

[Carana]

BBC's Rafio 4's Any Answers had a phone in on Brexit today. I'm not the only one who thinks our politicians have done more damage to our democracy than they realise. Other points were raised;

Delaying Brexit is just extending the uncertainty which is what businesses are complaining about.
Asking more questions isn't necessary because they have the answer already.
Northern Ireland shouldn't be dictating terms; they voted to remain, so why don't they leave the UK and join with the Republic.

Hannan:    A good Brexit in 2020 is better than a bad one now
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/03/02/no-self-respecting-country-would-accept-deal-mps-must-vote/

[Carana]

We now know the great prize of Brexit: becoming Trump’s prey
Jonathan Freedland

Extract:

... On Thursday Lighthizer released Washington’s “negotiating objectives”, starting with “comprehensive market access for US agricultural goods in the UK”. Translation: they want the right to fill our supermarkets with their chlorinated chicken.

There’s language in there that takes aim at the NHS, specifically at the health service’s power as a bulk purchaser to set prices, paying less for drugs than big pharma would like. The US demand for “procedural fairness” may well be an attempt to break that power, forcing the NHS – and everyone else – to pay more for medicine.

Some of these are demands any US administration would make, but others are Trump innovations. Note the US insistence that, on services, Britain take down all existing barriers to American exporters, while the US be allowed to maintain barriers that keep out British exporters. As Sam Lowe, trade analyst at the Centre for European Reform, puts it: “It’s a laughably one-sided demand.”

More striking is the US attempt to restrict Britain’s ability to sign a deal with a non-market economy such as China. So much for taking back control. If the UK were to sign up to these demands, we’d simply be trading one set of restraints on our sovereignty – restraints agreed by us and 27 other nations in Brussels – for another, dictated by Donald Trump in Washington.

And what would it be for? The government’s own figures estimate that the best we could hope for from a US trade agreement would be a 0.3% boost to GDP – meagre compensation for the hit of between 4% and 8% we’ll take from leaving the EU. Right now, we are part of a bloc big enough to stand up to the demands of an America First Trump administration. After Brexit, we will be a single medium-sized economy standing alone, with much less ability to say no.

The truth is, the goal of a trade deal with the US never made economic sense. It was all about politics – the quest for a trophy that could be presented as a benefit of Brexit when, in fact, there are next to none. It didn’t stack up in June 2016, but it is even more absurd now – abandoning the largest ever free trade area, right where we live, for a dictator-coddling would-be autocrat thousands of miles away, who sees us not as a trusted ally but as prey.


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/01/brexit-trump-trade-hanoi?CMP=share_btn_tw

[Carana]

I was about to have dinner...

https://twitter.com/Nigel_Farage/status/1101525020881367041

[Carana]

Chlorinated chicken, anyone?

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/mar/02/us-ambassador-to-uk-woody-johnson-under-fire-over-defence-of-chlorinated-chicken-post-brexit-jay-rayner

[G-Unit]

Hannan:    A good Brexit in 2020 is better than a bad one now
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/03/02/no-self-respecting-country-would-accept-deal-mps-must-vote/

It sounds good, but 27 other countries have no intention of giving the UK anything to celebrate now or ever imo.

[Carana]

It sounds good, but 27 other countries have no intention of giving the UK anything to celebrate now or ever imo.

What's good? Having the uncertainty of a "good Brexit" possibly happening in 2020?

I've really no idea what a "good Brexit" could possibly be.

Businesses that export to the EU (goods or services) can't wait.

No one seems to be talking about the services industry, but some sectors need FoM (being able to hire or move the right people for the right job when they need to) ... but that's one of May's red lines. And until something, anything is agreed, there won't be any agreement on all kinds of things, including on the transfer of data.

[Carana]

It sounds good, but 27 other countries have no intention of giving the UK anything to celebrate now or ever imo.

Keeping the 27 together must have been quite a feat.

I'm curious as to how the UK will manage with the WTO 163 and the various other regional blocs within it.

Apparently, the UK will be able to trade on bog-standard WTO terms for goods even with objections from some WTO countries, but thrashing out FTAs could take the UK until somewhere between 2025-2030.

Hardly 1 minute after midnight stuff.

[G-Unit]

What's good? Having the uncertainty of a "good Brexit" possibly happening in 2020?

I've really no idea what a "good Brexit" could possibly be.

Businesses that export to the EU (goods or services) can't wait.

No one seems to be talking about the services industry, but some sectors need FoM (being able to hire or move the right people for the right job when they need to) ... but that's one of May's red lines. And until something, anything is agreed, there won't be any agreement on all kinds of things, including on the transfer of data.

How long do you imagine the process will be delayed while everyone answers more questions?