Britain outside the EU

[Ms NTL]

Originally Posted by Paul

I'm confused, you trust Chinese banks more than UK [or USA] banks ?

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.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

I expect the UK's GDP to grow and recover because that is how capitalism works in an enterprising country.

Not if you increase the red tape on British business it won't!

British businesses that export to the EU are facing mounting costs three years after Brexit as a result of emerging regulatory challenges including new carbon taxes, VAT changes and additional border controls, the British Chambers of Commerce has warned.

The worst-hit sectors are agrifood, chemicals and advanced manufacturing, which, having already adapted to post-Brexit customs changes, are now facing reporting requirements on their supply chains, carbon emissions and plastic packaging usage.

The EU decision to start phasing in a carbon border tax regime from October 2023 was already hitting businesses, which were required to provide data on carbon usage to EU importers, with taxes being imposed from January 2026, the report said.

UK companies were having to adopt “processes for weekly, and in some cases daily, monitoring of gas usage”, to provide the information related to the reporting requirements, it added.

The BCC, which represents 50,000 mostly smaller British businesses, urged the government to seek simplifications to the reporting process and then to legally merge the EU and UK carbon pricing schemes in order to avoid such border bureaucracy.

It cited a July 2023 membership survey that found that almost two-thirds of UK exporters said trading with the EU was more difficult than a year ago — compared with only one-fifth of exporters to the rest of the world.

In the agrifood sector, the UK continues to have worse access to the EU than countries such as New Zealand, with the BCC backing a plan by the opposition Labour party for Brussels and the UK to agree a veterinary agreement to remove barriers to trade.

The report said UK agrifood businesses had “paid the price through delays, wastage of food and higher costs as a result” with some companies entirely abandoning trade with EU customers.

https://www.ft.com/content/203f0d33-...e-b578ad3dec52

https://wapo.st/487K7hS

E.U. strikes major migration deal, signaling hardening attitudes

BRUSSELS — The European Union struck a landmark deal Wednesday to overhaul migration policy, a political agreement that signals a broader, rightward shift across Europe.


Full details of the deal, struck after years of debate and days of marathon talks, have not yet been released, and the plan must still be formally ratified. But it is expected to change many aspects of how the E.U. handles migration, from border surveillance to exactly how long people can be detained.
“Migration is a common European challenge — today’s decision will allow us to manage it together,” tweeted Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission.

[1andrew1]

I'm sure the French cheese manufacturers are chuckling at the UK's expense!

Hard cheese: Canada rejects British attempt to secure tariff-free exports

Many UK cheese makers could face 245% duty from 1 January, making exporting unaffordable

A previous side arrangement, known as the “cheese letters”, maintaining healthy tariff-free export quotas on cheese will come to an end on 31 December without anything tasty to replace it, the government has conceded.

British cheese exports will from 1 January default to the non-EU tariff-free quota, of which about 95% is already spoken for by Norwegian and Swiss producers, among others.

Imports into Canada falling outside that quota will end up being slapped with a 245% duty, making them unaffordable for even the most dedicated fan of artisanal cheese. After months of reassuring words from the trade secretary, Kemi Badenoch, about working on a deal, the government is now advising cheese exporters on how to prepare for the worst.

Darren Larvin, the managing director of Coombe Castle International, based in Wiltshire, said exports to Canada accounted for a third of his turnover.

“We have been trading for 40 years with our trading partner in Canada but it is all at risk”, he said. “The negotiation team’s estimation is that we have reached the end of the road on the cheese extension letters. The door remains open, but it is the team’s estimation that Canada doesn’t want a deal on cheese now.”

Coombe Castle, which received the King’s award for enterprise in international trade in April 2023, has already had to set up a Dutch company in order to sell into the EU and is paying taxes in the Netherlands. “Brexit has not brought any opportunities – no good has come of it,” Larvin said.

Other well-known cheese makers affected by the government’s failure to strike a deal include Neal’s Yard Dairy and the Snowdonia Cheese Company. A 245% duty on cheese imports would add roughly an extra £50 cost to every kilogram of cheese.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics...f-free-exports

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

I'm sure the French cheese manufacturers are chuckling at the UK's expense!

https://www.theguardian.com/politics...f-free-exports

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.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Chris

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.

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.

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

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.

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.

[OLD BOY]

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.

[jfman]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

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.

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.

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

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.

Originally Posted by jfman

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.

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"…

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Hugh

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"…

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

"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.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by jfman

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.

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.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

Many Conservative ministers are frustrated by the deliberate stalling and pushback on policy issues by civil servants who are opposed to them.

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

[jfman]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

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 have any evidence of this?

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 of ' ficers 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.

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.