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What terrors, eh, what terrors!

Barnier said no deal would aggravate losses for both sides, above all the British. He invoked the scenario of 19% tariffs on British beer, wine and spirits entering the continent and 12% on British lamb and fish, most of which is exported to the EU.

So more of it stays here and we get to eat and drink it.

Hmm, the loss to us here is what M. Barnier?

40 thoughts on “What terrors, eh, what terrors!”

  1. M Barnier needs briefing. 19% retaliatory tariffs on Belgian beer, French German and Italian wines and spirits, French cheese and Spanish greengrocery leaving the continent will cause much anguish to producers. Also. its our fish they’re eating in Paris and Berlin. Pickled Herring could become a thing of the past as most of it comes from UK territorial waters. That way, madness lies. M. Barnier is either being misreported, on manoeuvres or is terminally stupid, and I doubt the last.

  2. The clearest sign that the EU will happily make its own people worse off, for the sake of the ‘project’.

    Nothing bad will happen to any of them, so why not?

  3. Yeah brilliant why not give up trade entirely and live on the produce of our fucking allotments , we can always barter for leather goods from the nearby village ( so long as they stay in their own hovels )
    So lets see , on the one side we have the FT the CBI , 100 % of the people who actually do business in Europe Universities the young the majority oft he working population and the better educated
    On the other we have kebab sucking tramp-stamped cretins and their cheesy wotsit colored fat ugly wives and blithering blimps in Surrey Golf Clubs whose reason for continuing to live is increasingly obscure

    Don`t fancy yours much

  4. Why are these reports always angled from the EU point of view, however silly and childish?

  5. There will only be tariffs if they decide to impose tariffs. So Barnier is threatening us. Do we really want to be in league with such people?

  6. The Meissen Bison

    Remainder seems obsessed with cheesy wotsit colored fat ugly wives a sign, surely of delayed and severe potty training.

    There is no cure for this so show a little kindness please.

  7. @ Newmania. You do realise that the FT and CBI, the Universities etc are being paid by the EU to promote their insanity, don’t you? And because we are net contributors to the EU coffers, its our money they are being bribed with? And you do realise that trade with the EU is actually less than 10% of GNP and declining? And that economic growth for the next 20 years or so is in markets the EU wants to control access to? The trouble is we blithering blimps can see all that going on and want no part of it, and neither does the working class who have seen their living standards drop drastically through the influx of cheap migrant labour. And we BB’s have a peculiar notion that in extremis it is better to be a hungry free man in an accountable Democracy than a well-fed slave under an unaccountable bureaucracy, a notion which is quite possibly beyond your comprehension.

  8. Michel is playing upon the physchological instinct that links benefits with costs and responsibilities. The problem at the heart of it is though, that there’s no link between the benefits and the payments asked for.

    The EU needs the money its asking for to continue with its political projects and subsidy programmes, and it’s using the benefits of the single market and customs union to chisel some tribute money out of the UK. If it was truly for the administration costs and enforcement of the level playing field then a deal would be agreed in a few months.

  9. Trouble is we’ll be hearing rubbish like this from the EU and it’s paid supporters for the best part of two years.
    Negotiations will only start when the EU realises its running out of time.

  10. Newmania,

    You do realise that a majority of the young will equal a majority of the better educated, because relatively more young people have degrees than old people (40-odd per cent as opposed to 5% comparing my generation with my parents). So that is a bit misleading.

    Also if we are talking education here, we could argue that the majority of experienced people voted to leave the EU – and experience is as important as education remember.

  11. Kevin Lohse

    + 1 Nail on head time.

    I’m glad our mutual friend has so much confidence in the CBI. surprised but glad 🙂 The FT sold out way back.

    The real problem for the EU is that without our net contribution the EU grinds to a halt. The only thing not affected is the Brussels gravy train. Barnier is doing a grand job posturing from a position that I would not like to have to defend. Really. He is posturing. BMW execs (or Siemens or..) will string him up by his goolies if it comes to retaliatory tariffs.

    The devil is in the detail as the non-tariff barriers will be more important, but all that is required is what we are not seeing yet; goodwill and a desire not to shoot one’s self in the foot, arm and chest.

  12. Watchman, the relative proportions of those with real degrees are probably similar, on a slight downward trend.

  13. Sigh. If EU governments believe it is in the best interests of their EU residents to kick them in the knackers for the audacity of buying foreign (non-EU) goods, then it is entirely in their power to do so. Similarly, once out of the customs union it will be entirely in the power of the UK government to *chose* whether or not to kick UK residents in the knackers for buying foreign (non-UK) goods.

    My position is getting firmer every day that the UK should just say “up yours” to the EU and unilaterally abolish all and every import tariff from where-ever in the world, and leave the EU to similarly *chose* to do whatever the hell they want.

  14. To hark back to the great Life of Brian and the People’s Front of Judea etc, there is a difference between the Council of Europe and the European Council as well as the European Commission. Junker and Barnier are from the Commission and while they think they represent the countries of the European Council in fact they only represent themselves. Thus if the UK says, “OK, no restrictions on anything at all. Same as we are now chaps. Your move.” If then in response Barnier drags himself away from looking at the mirror for long enough to say “no you have to have 10% tariff on your auto exports to Europe” we merely reply, “OK, Michael, we will reciprocate, but before we do, perhaps Frau Merkel might like to have a word with BMW, VW and Mercedes? You know, perhaps your real boss might like to have a word with her (real) boss?” The Commission are negotiating for the self interest of the commission, nobody else, and the sooner they are called out on this the better.

  15. NewRemainia you lying sack of EU ordure.

    You bow once again to kiss the arse of your masters and their empty threats?

    While the EU boss class won’t suffer as they are parasites on everybody else they clearly don’t give a shit about the welfare of the proles–as this talk of tariff wars shows.

    In that they are one with middle-class London Bubble trash like you. Yourself and your fellow well-off pukes is the extent of your concern.

    You have however bigger problems. Corbyn is pro-Brexit and if he should–God forbid–get in he will be sticking his dirty fingernails deep into the well-off hide of pricks like you.

    Maybe you should think about pissing off to join your buddies on the continent. Then you could paint your face blue with stars like the ludicrous twat you are.

  16. “majority of the young will equal a majority of the better educated, because relatively more young people have degrees than old people ”

    Thats only if you consider a degree to confer any education. Personally I’d consider a time served apprentice better educated that a media studies graduate, but thats just my prejudices at work.

  17. If they want to take this attitude it could make Putin think that Europe is so divided that he could invade a bit of the east. Do they really want to punish the UK that much?
    If I lived near the Russian border I would start Russian lessons now.

  18. The Inimitable Steve

    Why are these reports always angled from the EU point of view, however silly and childish?

    Because the media is batting for the other side. Journalists were, and remain, incredibly butthurt about Brexit, not so much because they understand or care about sovereignty, trade or whatever, but because of identity politics.

    Take Newmania’s barking above:

    on the one side we have the FT the CBI , 100 % of the people who actually do business in Europe Universities the young the majority oft he working population and the better educated
    On the other we have kebab sucking tramp-stamped cretins and their cheesy wotsit colored fat ugly wives and blithering blimps in Surrey Golf Clubs

    This is indeed how progressives think. You, the dirty, Pot Noodle sucking, Britain’s Got Talent watching, Benidorm holidaying, monoglot prole, are an embarrassment and an enemy.

    They want to humiliate you, to “rub your noses in it”, whether “it” be Third World invasion or brainwashing your children into transvestism, or merely some pencil-necked clipboard-wielder hustling you into a prison cell for selling a pound of bananas.

    Because they’re kinder, gentler, more cultured people, and don’t you forget it.

    The EU is many things, most of them merde, but fundamentally it’s an identity play for the progressive left. A shibboleth, separating the enlightened goodthinkers from the lower caste scum.

    Remember that awful speech Tony Blair gave – which was much more hateful and intolerant than anything Enoch Powell ever said – about how the “forces of conservatism” were Nazis and Klansmen and shot Bambi’s mum?

    “Daily Mail!”, quips the BBC comedian. “DAILY MAIL! DAAAIILLLYYYY MAAAILLLLL!!!!”

  19. Jim +1

    It’s time we debunked the myth that possession of a degree* is somehow an indication of intelligence.

    *especially one awarded in the past 20 years.

  20. If we are going to be charging duty on various imports won’t that solve the problem of austerity? Government will have lots more income and can spend spend spend.

    What is the downside for government?

  21. “on the one side we have the FT the CBI , 100 % of the people who actually do business in Europe Universities the young the majority oft he working population and the better educated”

    Actually, no. The likes of the CBI are not lean, libertarian free market businesses. They’re the large corporates and teat suckers who want more privilege.

    Every small businessman I know wanted out.

  22. TIS +1

    BiS – Yes, sure this is anecdotal, but that was largely (not 100%) what I saw too (where it’s been mentioned).

    Those running smaller (or entrepreneurial) co’s – out; those employed by or “associated with much larger corps / pubic sector – in. Except for Europeans I know working here. They were generally in, but mostly didn’t get a vote…

    But then we know Mania was howling in any case.

  23. The only British spirit worth drinking is Scotch. I happily pay 20%+ more for it in Oz than I did back home because it’s much more than 20% better than the local stuff. Which, in turn, has to be twice as good as anything made in the continental EU.

    There will be less good stuff sold in Europe, but still plenty. And the Chinese will happily absorb the difference.

    Other things won’t fare so well, mind.

  24. Mr Womby,

    “It’s time we debunked the myth that possession of a degree* is somehow an indication of intelligence.”

    I’d say this is true of any degree that doesn’t get “tested”.

    What are the consequences if someone leaves Neasden University with a degree in women’s studies that is terrible? Let’s say the course tutor just gave everyone at least a 2:2 just to make their life easy. What’s going to happen? What’s the consequences for the world? Is someone going to die because they got taught a load of woke feminism? Is a company going to get poorer because of various bullshit about “rape culture”? No. So, you have no way of knowing if someone was smart.

    It’s not like chemistry where drug research companies are “testing” graduates. You won’t last long in one of those if you don’t know what you’re talking about.

    I think most people have no idea about the chasm between hard and soft degrees. To put film studies alongside things like maths, as if they measure at the same level is a total joke.

  25. The Meissen Bison

    TTG: The only British spirit worth drinking is Scotch.

    I’m more of a gin man myself but de gustibus non est disputandum as they used to say in Rome before the wretched Treaty of Rome.

    However, when the North Britons secede from the UK, Scotch will be an EU product and until then expect fabulous competition from Suntory under the brand spanking new EU-Japan FTA.

  26. “no you have to have 10% tariff on your auto exports to Europe”

    No, it’s “we (the EU) will have to have 10% on your exports into the EU”. Tariffs are paid by the importer, ie the customer, ie the people living in the EU how have the audacity to dare to want to buy UK goods.

  27. Ot for the first time (oh God help us) Mr Ecks says it best. Newmania is spouting a flatly dishonest position. Tariff are bad; agreed. Free trade is good; agreed. But it isn’t us threatening them. It is us reeling off the dangers of not reaching a free trade agreement and then in he next breath saying ” do what we say or we will bring all these bad things into being. And everyone will suffer. And you will be to blame for everything we do”.

    These EU overlords see me to have learned all of there moral logic from Gerry Adams blaming the IRA’s victims for bringing the bombs on themselves. “I’m trying to take the gun out of Ireland” he would say in the aftermath of another IRA multiple-murder.

    Barnier is an economic terrorist and Newmania and his friends are his lickspittle cheerleaders.

  28. Newmania definitely doesn’t have an English degree unless it’s from the University of Nether Wallop.

    TTG,

    I’ve always been a Scotch drinker and been wary of imitations, but I have to concede, there are some excellent Tasmanian whiskies.

  29. WHY do some of you accept Newmania’s lies and respond to them instead of pointing out that he is lying?
    Lots of those trading with the EU (which is less than half our export trade, remember) support Brexit.

  30. ‘the people living in the EU how have the audacity to dare to want to buy UK goods.’

    Led to secession here in 1860.

  31. Bloke in Swindon

    “The only British spirit worth drinking is Scotch.”

    But is location actually significant? It’s like Champagne. I feel like it’s going to into decline because everyone’s waking up to the fact that there’s nothing special about most of it. Cava, Saumur, New Zealand fizz is as good and cheaper. What’s to stop the Chinese from making peaty whiskies to rival Islay?

  32. “What’s to stop the Chinese from making peaty whiskies to rival Islay?”

    Water quality probably. Might be why Tassie one’s are OK, according to DocBud above.

  33. @ BiSwindon
    Because they don’t have the same peat.
    That’s why they don’t make peat whisky in Lanarkshire to rival Islay.
    Have you tried making peat whisky in Swindon?
    Maybe some of your friends make a living out of making and selling fake Wensleydale (******** Tesco sell fake wensleydale from Wiltshire) but anyone who buys malt whisky wants the real thing.
    Anecdata alert – some years ago I held a celebratory party for 20-odd friends and helpers (end-May in a good summer) and a couple of guys asked for whisky rather than wine, which was fine by me as I don’t drink whisky: finished off the bottle of Glenlivet single malt I’d bought a couple of years earlier and then opened a bottle (also single malt) I’d been given as a present – as soon as James found an opportunity to speak to me discreetly, he mentioned that it was a different whisky (so I explained).

  34. Bloke in North Dorset

    It’s not just whisky that tastes different depending on the peat/water. I can’t drink Guinness that’s brewed in England but enjoyed a glass when I was in Dublin.

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