Re: Britain outside the EU
 

Haha, quite!

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

Just checking your terminology here … do you mean equivalence, or alignment? They’re not the same. Agreed equivalence is a fairly standard aspect of an international trade deal in which both sides agree to accept each other’s standards as equally high even if they differ on the details. Alignment is when one or both sides insist that products imported into their market must comply with their market’s rules.

The reason I’m asking is, Euphiles and remainiacs generally advocate for alignment, because they see it as a way of keeping the UK close to the EU (presumably with the long-term aim of rejoining). Brexiteers oppose alignment, because the whole point of Brexit was to give us freedom to set our own market rules. Alignment with the EU requires us to implement directives set in Brussels, without any longer having the ability to influence the way those rules are formulated. That clearly is a worse democratic position than before.

Mutual acceptance of standards as equivalent, however, is something that neither the UK nor the EU should have any problems with, if they are motivated by willingness to deal and pragmatism as to solutions. In fact I believe mutual acceptance is what the UK has advocated for, not just with regards to NI but broadly in our futures arrangement with the EU. I suspect that this has not been reciprocated and it is the EU that is exhibiting a lack of pragmatism in refusing to allow chilled, processed meats to enter the single market from the UK.

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

Today marks 245 years, American Independence Day, when the United States of America, left Britain without a deal. :D

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

And look what a hellhole it has become.

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

look at the idiot in charge.

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

Yep, especially in Democrat run States.

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

Better than the idiot before.

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

It’s debatable when Democrats run around officially boasting about saving Americans $0.16 (Yes, they actually did this http://www.nypost.com/2021/07/01/whi...4-cookout/amp/ ) buying barbecue stuff for the 4th July celebrations, compared to last years prices. But gas (Petrol) ⛽️ prices through roof over there and they’re rising steadily over here too. :rolleyes:

Meanwhile Nissan isn’t leaving the UK like the Remain maniacs, said they would. £1 Billion investment, kerching.

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

Don't give Scotland any ideas, Mick!

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

no they got 1 billion of tax payers money to stay

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

Or a "DUP bribe" as it's called in modern parlance.

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

British produce to rot in the fields, with demands filled by imports. How can this situation be turned around? Mechanisation? A campaign to get people to work in agriculture? Or should we focus on more value-added industries?
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/b...tead-dxsmbg2rw [subscription]

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

I highly doubt he was relying on Eastern European labour in 1983. The Cold War was a little fraught around then.

Regardless, one of the many dodgy consequences of free movement has been the ready availability of cheap, mobile, flexible labour from unaligned, less advanced economies that workers whose livelihoods are rooted in the UK simply cannot compete with. Some British businesses have become hooked on it, and frankly Mr Clarke’s complaints ought to be viewed in a similar way to those of a smackhead moaning that he can’t get his next fix. The solution for our economy is a combination of economic methodone or cold turkey, as befits each case. But he and others need to understand that the exploitable labour tap has been turned off.

Those who survive will be those who find ways to mechanise, or to create sustainable work patterns for primarily British workers, with seasonal migrants plugging gaps, not undercutting locals.