Cable Forum - Britain outside the EU

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Re: Britain outside the EU

What EU-China trade deal?

Quote:

EU parliament ‘freezes’ China trade deal over sanctions

The European parliament has voted overwhelmingly to “freeze” any consideration of a massive investment deal with China, following recent tit-for-tat sanctions over Beijing’s treatment of its Uyghur population in Xinjiang province.

According to the resolution, the parliament, which must ratify the deal, “demands that China lift the sanctions before parliament can deal with the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI)”. Some MEPs warned that the lifting of the sanctions would not in itself ensure the deal’s ratification.

The vote on the motion was passed by a landslide, with 599 votes for, 30 votes against and with 58 abstentions.

Re: Britain outside the EU

Quote:

Originally Posted by nffc (Post 36096743)

None of them are made here or at least a very small amount is.

But, also, none of them or very few of them are made in the EU either.

Most of the world imports these items from China, which fundamentally makes anything related to them not a Brexit issue - other than that we would then now have to make our own trade deal with China for them if we'd been previously using the EU's (though our items would presumably be different anyway, due to plugs, and would either need UK plugs moulded on or screwed over the Euro ones).

And given that the UK must still be a high importer of these items with or without Brexit, then there in principle shouldn't be issues with them.

But then, all of this ignores things like the Ever Green and Covid related shutdowns...

My point was that, as you stated, we don't make them . . or most of them.

We're a consumer country, using the low wages and 'dirty' energy of other countries to supply our goods.

If we started making many of those ourselves, we'd be paying 4 times the price . . and still possibly having to import half the materials required.

We could probably make them to a much better quality to price them better, but then if items lasted 3 times longer we'd need to make less of them, which actually reduces production doesn't it.

It's a game isn't it, and one we seem to be losing ;)

Re: Britain outside the EU

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carth (Post 36096749)

Most of what you say would also apply to the EU, US, Aus, NZ, none of them make the stuff, because as you rightly say, the low wage/don't care about fuel source economy in china where the people are treated like shit in sweathouse factories can make it much cheaper even factoring in the cost of shipping it half way round the world (and the environmental impact of doing that).

But absolutely none of it is specifically related to whether or not we are in the EU as these countries face the same issues.

Re: Britain outside the EU

It’s not specifically related to it, but after decades of a failed economic model (Boris own words) we’ve taken back control. The solutions (if any) have to be driven in a post-EU context.

Re: Britain outside the EU

Quote:

Originally Posted by nffc (Post 36096750)

Well, the title of the thread certainly admits discussion along Carth’s lines.

Re: Britain outside the EU

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sephiroth (Post 36096753)

Well, the title of the thread certainly admits discussion along Carth’s lines.

Thanks comrade :D

Re: Britain outside the EU

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carth (Post 36096754)

Thanks comrade :D

Don't you Comrade me, my friend.

Re: Britain outside the EU

Soz me old mucker, won't happen again chief :p:

Re: Britain outside the EU

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carth (Post 36096757)

Soz me old mucker, won't happen again chief :p:

Not to worry, Squire. Main thing is that we are out of the EU, waving two fingers of both hands at the Commission.

Meanwhile, the latest French dream: Torygraph paywall with selected quote:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-ne...-languages-eu/

Quote:

French plot to oust English and German as official working languages of the EU after Brexit

French should be instated as the sole working language of the European Union instead of English because of Brexit, according to a plot prepared by almost 40 French MPs.

French was once the dominant language in the corridors of power in Brussels but English is now effectively the lingua franca.

That shift was accelerated by the accession of Eastern European countries to the bloc in 2004 and entrenched by the fact that many people speak English as a second language.

There are three working languages of the EU, which are English, French and German. English or French tend to be preferred in meetings or press conferences.

Julien Aubert, who is seen to be on the fringes of the centre-Right Republicains, has tabled a resolution for the French committee on European affairs.

He must convince the committee to take up the resolution. Even if he is successful, Emmanuel Macron would have to decide to pursue the quixotic task and convince the 26 other EU leaders to support the bid for French linguistic supremacy.

“In recent years, thanks to globalisation dominated by Anglo-Saxon culture, English has tended to take precedence over the other two working languages, which are nevertheless those of two founding countries of the European Union,” the resolution said.

"The United Kingdom's exit from the European Union is a unique opportunity to reverse this trend,” it reads, “Once the United Kingdom has left the European Union, there is no longer any reason why the institutions of the Union should be so imbued with Anglo-Saxon culture.”

Mr Aubert said that after Brexit English was the maternal language of just 1 percent of the EU population.

“English is now the mother tongue of just one percent of the population of the EU, while French is the second language of many members and is the most-practised foreign language, after English,” he said.

The resolution admits that there are more German native speakers in the EU than French but adds that French has a greater international profile.

Most EU documents are translated into each of the 24 official languages of the bloc. The French have a reputation for suffering from crippling status anxiety about their language, even though it is the main one spoken in the European Court of Justice.

Ireland and Malta are the two remaining EU countries which have English as an official language.

“Brussels-English” is used around the EU institutions in the Belgian capital more often than French.

Despite often sounding clunky or weird to native speakers, it has proved ideally suited for coining the bureaucratic jargon that greases the EU’s legislative machine.

While Mr Macron is unlikely to take up the initiative, he does intend to ensure that French is used more widely in Brussels during France's term holding the six month presidency of the EU from January.

This will mean, for example, that meeting documents will be produced and circulated among diplomats in French rather than English, which is more usual.

Mr Aubert has a reputation for radical and outlandish proposals. In 2018, he said that anyone wishing to take French nationality should be forced to take a French first name from the Christian saints or the country’s historical heroes.

Only then would applicants, including British people wanting French nationality after Brexit, be given a passport.

What do the Remainers think?

---------- Post added at 17:24 ---------- Previous post was at 17:18 ----------

More French absurdity - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-ne...t-brexit-says/

Quote:

Britain is ‘obsessed’ with France and is using fishing row to distract from Brexit, says Macron ally

Brexit Britain is “obsessed” with France and is using the row over fishing licences to distract from the “mess” created by leaving the EU, a close ally of Emmanuel Macron said on Friday.

Clément Beaune blamed food and fuel supply shortages in the UK for the decision to withhold licences to fish in British waters.

He warned that Paris had “pressure points” that it could use to force the UK to grant more than the 12 out of 47 French applications for new licences.

"Stop telling us you do not need us any more, stop being obsessed with us, stop believing that we will solve your problems," he said.

"They made a mess of Brexit. It's their choice and their failure, not ours. It was a bad choice, we see that today,” he said.

"It is not by creating problems for our fishermen that you will solve the problems of shortages of Christmas turkey."

Quote:

The Telegraph understands that British officials are working hard to resolve the row, holding “vessel-by-vessel” negotiations with their European Commission counterparts.

Defra has purchased third party data to assist French boat owners in proving they have the right to operate in the UK’s coastal waters under the Brexit trade agreement.

There are 35 French applications still pending, after insufficient evidence was submitted to establish their historical fishing patterns.

A government spokesman said: “The Government has granted 98 percent of licence applications from EU vessels to fish in our waters. Our approach has been reasonable and fully in line with our commitments in the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA).”

Meanwhile, Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, said on Friday that Australia’s decision to quit its contract to purchase 12 French-built submarines in favour of US nuclear submarines was “rational”.

Re: Britain outside the EU

Frenchmen think French should be the Lingua Franca of the EU?

Not going to happen, as English is the World’s common business language (in or out of the EU).

Re: Britain outside the EU

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sephiroth (Post 36096758)

[COLOR="Blue"]Not to worry, Squire. Main thing is that we are out of the EU, waving two fingers of both hands at the Commission.

Meanwhile, the latest French dream: Torygraph paywall with selected quote:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-ne...-languages-eu/

What do the Remainers think?

I’m inclined to think it’s a matter for the EU, of which we are no longer a member.

If England are throwing around a French squirrel I’ll anticipate more bad news for the UK this week.

Quote:

More French absurdity - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-ne...t-brexit-says/

Seems credible.

Re: Britain outside the EU

I think we're in a great position to be honest . . confused Americans to one side, paranoid French to the other.

If you add in Miss Cranky from up the top, we're almost surrounded by muppets :D

Re: Britain outside the EU

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carth (Post 36096793)

I think we're in a great position to be honest . . confused Americans to one side, paranoid French to the other.

If you add in Miss Cranky from up the top, we're almost surrounded by muppets :D

:Yes:

Re: Britain outside the EU

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hugh (Post 36096701)

Anyway, speaking of post-apocalyptic hellholes, interesting thread on Twitter this morning…

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1...812989442.html

I wonder if Poland's constitional position may change this? OK we don't actually have a constitution but it goes back to soveriegn nation does it not?

Quote:

For many years, the EU has posed as a kind of overbearing imperial leviathan, which insists its law has to prevail over that of the states that make it up. Now its bluff appears to have finally been called: the Polish constitutional court in Warsaw ruled yesterday that some EU laws are in conflict with the country’s constitution. Understandably, Brussels is not happy. But what can it do about it?

The background to all this is a spat between Brussels and Warsaw about whether Poland’s machinery for appointing judges to its own courts is EU-compliant. Brussels says it is not, because under it judicial impartiality cannot be guaranteed. This, it says, is contrary to EU law – and it has a judgment of the EU Court of Justice to back it up.

But Warsaw says this is none of the EU’s business, since the whole matter of judicial appointments is governed by the Polish constitution of 1997; sure enough, it has a contrary judgment from the Polish courts supporting its case.

To break the impasse – and make it clear who was boss in Poland – some weeks ago the Polish government asked its constitutional tribunal to rule on whether EU law as laid down by the EU Court of Justice could ever override the Polish constitution. The finding yesterday was, quite simply, that it couldn’t. It followed that whatever might happen in Brussels – and whatever the EU treaties might say – Polish judges had to follow the Polish constitution.
Who is right in law is unclear. The EU and the Euro-elite, raised from infancy on the idea of the EU as a sublime and unique legal-political order, regard the Polish position as an obvious heresy. On the other hand, there is much legal (and for that matter democratic) logic in the argument of the Polish court: the ability of a government to surrender powers to the EU by joining it derives from the constitution establishing it. This means it cannot be used to override or subvert it.

Link

Re: Britain outside the EU

Some people are pointing to the container ships waiting to get into British ports being due to Brexit. However, the problem is worldwide and clearly nothing to do with Brexit.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business...ins-shortages/

[EXTRACT]

Standing on the Pacific coast in California, a casual observer might find themselves thinking America had just severed close ties with its biggest trading partners.

Outside Los Angeles and Long Beach - the country's two biggest ports - a queue of container ships stretches to the horizon, waiting to dock and offload their wares.

But this clear evidence of a supply chain crisis has nothing to do with any Brexit-style rupture. Instead, it has been caused by global chaos as ports struggle to recover from Covid shutdowns and the world struggles with a massive shortage of lorry drivers.

The turmoil in America is linked directly to disruption in Britain which critics here are keen to blame on our departure from the European Union - despite clear evidence of the same issues not just in LA, but across the Continent as well.

“Britain is by no means alone in suffering these problems, there have been issues at Rotterdam, Hamburg and Antwerp, and we have not been so badly hit as some which have much bigger volumes going through them as containers hang around for longer,” says Richard Ballantyne, chief executive of the British Ports Association.

“This is not a Brexit issue - rather than the haulage problem - and it’s unfair to say that border controls resulting from leaving the EU are a cause of this.”

The Port of LA, known as ‘America’s Port’, is the biggest entry site in the US for overseas imports. Its (literal) next-door neighbour, the Port of Long Beach, is also struggling. Together, the pair operate 13 private container terminals and account for about a third of US sea imports.

The sites, both in Long Beach, LA, have been chockablock for months, with vessels waiting weeks just to make it to the docks.