Re: Britain outside the EU
 

Barclays recommended it: it is an Amex, Visa and Mastercard all in one. It comes with BARCLAYS protection. No fee, no currency exchange fees as it comes with currencies I mentioned.

No reporting to EU or USA. I am an "accidental American" (please google it) like Bojo and I am fed up filling all those dual taxation forms.

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

Not if you increase the red tape on British business it won't!
https://www.ft.com/content/203f0d33-...e-b578ad3dec52

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

https://wapo.st/487K7hS

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

I'm sure the French cheese manufacturers are chuckling at the UK's expense!
https://www.theguardian.com/politics...f-free-exports

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

The thing that saddens me most about this is the evident glee taken by some of you at the prospect of British exporters losing business. It’s as if your need to feel a sense of validation of your beliefs is the only thing of any real importance to you in this post-Brexit world.

As to the specific case in hand, it has been pointed out innumerable times before that Brexit per se is not the problem here. Sovereign nations the world over do trade deals all the time. That is the normal state of affairs between sovereign nation states. Only those blinded by proximity to the EU and careless as to the cost in terms of sovereignty of surrendering to the EU in order to secure cheap cheese exports fail to see this.

The problem here is that we are saddled with a government whose incompetence knows no depths and which is transfixed by the likelihood of getting wiped out at the coming election. There is a paralysis at the top of the Tory party that is preventing it use what little skills it has to address the boundless opportunities presented by our freedom from the Acquis.

Nevertheless, one of the principal benefits of Brexit is that political accountability ends at Westminster and nowhere else. Parties vying for election in the coming months will have to address these issues in ways nobody has had to since the very early 1970s. That is a good thing.

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

I think sympathy should be reserved for the staff at British firms whose exports look to be curtailed by Brexit.

It's not Sunak who negotiates trade deals, it's civil servants. We've tried changing the Prime Minister three times without success. That's because we cannot alter the fundamentals that 27 countries have more negotiating power than one.

Try as I might, I'm struggling to find the positive in an incoming British government inheriting a trade deal which prevents some exports to Canada.

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

Civil servants are presented with policy objectives and work from there. They also take political guidance via the department’s permanent secretary and when a high profile negotiation reaches a critical phase they advise ministers who attend directly.

We don’t live in a technocracy, though that is more akin to the way the EU operates, as its inner workings owe much to the French model of government. The success or failure of trade deals for the UK will always be a matter of political will and skill. Sadly our present administration lacks both.

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

The civil service is left-leaning and anti-Brexit anyway. This change from the neutrality they once adopted will eventually bite them in the bum when new governments bring in their own administrations to help them develop and roll out their policies.

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

Evidence?

Even if we accept your flawed notion, what makes you think a future Government have more success than this one - or Boris’s Brexityest Government ever. If we just have to believe, surely they’d have nailed it.

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

When the Conservatives have shifted the Overton Window so far to the right, anyone who was previously classed as Centre or Centre-Right is now regarded as "left-leaning"…

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

Interesting as many would say the opposite, that being centrist would now see you labelled as “far right”

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

"many"?

I was an active member in the Conservative Party in the 80’s, 90’s, and early 00’s, at Local and National level, and it was a much broader church than it is now, with diversity of views in the Cabinet - the ERG/ex-UKIP have taken over, and no one could describe them as "centrist"…

People like John Major, Ken Baker, Michael Heseltine, William Hague, Ken Clarke, Douglas Hurd, & Malcolm Rifkind were Centrist.

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

Many Conservative ministers are frustrated by the deliberate stalling and pushback on policy issues by civil servants who are opposed to them. The government then has to take the brunt of these failures and it makes them look bad.

Do you really think future Conservative governments are going to put up with this behaviour when they take office in the future?

The whole existence of our system was predicated on the basis that officers would adopt a neutral position and faithfully advise and implement policies of whichever government was in power at the time. This balance is no longer in evidence, so unless the civil service can reform itself, politicians will have to make it happen.

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

Has this actually happened or have you dreampt it? Can you support this strong allegation with links to trustworthy sources?

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

Do you have any evidence of this?

I don’t believe the issue exists at all, and there’s scant evidence offered. I can’t answer to how a potential future Conservative Government addresses an issue that doesn’t exist.

There’s no reason for any Government to put up with such an issue should it exist. Civil servants have served under Conservative led Governments longer than Labour ones without issue. Occam’s razor suggests the problem is the inadequacies of Ministers, and not Civil Servants, that are holding our country back.