Category Archives: European Union

A detail that could be rather important:

It is already offering so little in trade talks that the differential cost of the WTO option is trivial.

If the benefits of “a deal” are trivial then so had the costs better be or the correct answer is bugger you mateys, isn’t it?

The president of the European Commission has admitted that she made mistakes in allowing lucrative contracts to be improperly handed out to consultants during her time as Germany’s defence minister.

Glad to see that standards are being maintained. The entire continent is back in the hands of someone who can’t count – or if they can, makes sure that the numbers prefer her friends.

European politics, business as usual.

The Conservatives are under pressure to discipline the MP Daniel Kawczynski for speaking at a conference alongside some of Europe’s most notorious far-right politicians.

The Tory co-chair of the all-party group on antisemitism, Andrew Percy, and the Board of Deputies of British Jews have asked the party to investigate his appearance on Tuesday at the conference in Rome.

Other speakers included Hungary’s far-right prime minister, Viktor Orbán, Italian leaders closely associated with Benito Mussolini’s fascism, and a member of the Le Pen family.

Orban attends EU summits. Salvini has varied MEPs – another Italian party elected Il Duce’s granddaughter. Le Pen has a number of MEPs.

If you’re not allowed to speak at events where such gather then that’s all European summits and the entire workings of the European Parliament screwed.

Well, OK, if you insist, I guess.

Boris Johnson has become “privately infuriated” with what he sees as the EU’s attempts to frustrate a comprehensive free trade deal, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

The Prime Minister believes Brussels has unilaterally been “changing the terms” of the deal he agreed last year, when both sides set out to work towards an ambitious and deep trade agreement.

If we were still in then we’d be bound, still, by their change in the rules. As we were, when we were in.

Now we’re out we have a veto….

My heart attack is about Brexit. Or Brexit is like my heart attack.

Or, summat.

The UK economy will outpace the struggling eurozone in the first two years after Brexit, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted for the first time.

Britain also outpaced the monetary union in 2019, giving it three straight years of faster growth, according to the IMF’s latest forecasts.

Yes, yes, of course, the correct measure is how would the UK do without Brexit and how would it do with, not how is it doing relative to the foreigners.

But still, rather fun.

Boris Johnson insisted that Britain would not follow any EU rules after Brexit as he set up a showdown with Brussels over a trade deal.

The Prime Minister made clear that he would pursue a hard Brexit by saying there would be “no alignment” between the two sides, defying the EU’s claim that it was a “must” for any future relationship.

Alignment, when translated, means we must do whatever they decide to do. So if they decide that eggs must be packed in dozens then we must pack in dozens. Not following any of their rules would mena if they pack in dozens then we don’t – which is rather stronger than Boris is saying.

??

Hopes for a second referendum on Brexit are receding, as more and more Tories show their true colours and fall in line behind Boris Johnson and his controversial deal. They have passed through all the stages of grief to arrive at acceptance of a Brexit that they know will make Britain poorer and weaker. One of their leading lights, the former home secretary Amber Rudd, explicitly acknowledged that the deal would “hurt the economy” – but she said “it’s the right thing to do because we had a referendum”.

Pursuing an economically devastating Brexit is a choice, not a necessity. The referendum was a mandate to change the political basis of our relationship with Europe, not to terminate all our economic cooperation altogether, as envisaged in the new withdrawal agreement. The proposal would give Britain the same economic relationship with the EU as distant countries such as Mexico or Canada. That’s why the extremist interpretation of the 2016 referendum that was begun by Theresa May and accelerated by Johnson can and must be resisted. If that cannot be achieved by a second referendum – even the most ardent campaigners now accept they don’t have the numbers – then it is vital that politicians return to the arena of compromise.

The people don’t want it – that’s what not having the numbers means – therefore the people must have it by another means.

Where are the lampposts when you need them?

Mervyn King, the former Governor of the Bank of England, warned today that Brexit has dragged on “far too long” and was preventing Government from addressing underlying issues within the UK economy.

Speaking as City traders braced themselves for yet more volatility on the markets after MPs on Saturday delayed approval of Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal, Lord King said he thought most people now have the view “just do it”.

As Mark Carney has also been saying. It’s the uncertainty itself which is now doing more damage to the economy than whatever action might actually be taken. We’re at that piss or get off the pot moment. Past it actually.

Looking back, not only to the referendum but to the years before, it’s clear that the greatest weakness of the pro-EU cause has been an inability to find ways of fighting Europhobic faith with passionately argued reason.

Why?

That is the great question. Other than the EU being, well, you know, our sort of things among wet upper middle class types, why?

Give us an actual reason other than guff about playing nice with Johnny Foreigner.

Jolyon Maugham is at it again, this time he wants to stop Britain leaving with a deal. He has just tweeted “I intend to lodge an immediate petition for an injunction in the Court of Session preventing the Government from placing the Withdrawal Agreement before Parliament for approval. We expect that petition to be lodged tomorrow and to be heard on Friday.”

Why would we want to be in political union with these people?

This is an excellent description of why we should have nothing at all to do with the fuckwits:

In my day job I'm negotiating an agreement between the EU and another country. With my Brexit Twitter hat on, let me share some details on the steps involved in getting to that agreement, and why it's unwise (read mad) to expect it to be done quickly: 1/

— Chris Kraut Kendall 🇪🇺 (@ottocrat) 10 October 2019

“To counter the threat of serious cross-border crime, we are now strengthening the protection of the border against Sweden by introducing temporary border control and strengthening police efforts in border areas with Sweden,” Justice Minister Nick Haekkerup said at a news conference on Thursday.

The controls will begin on Nov. 12, he said, adding police would aim to avoid causing delays for the commuters.

Both countries are members of the European Union, which needs to approve the move.

Sovereign nations need permission to police their own borders. Very sovereign, eh?

Boris Johnson’s Brexit plan appeared to be all but dead on Tuesday night as the government admitted there was little prospect of a deal before 31 October, following a day of furious recriminations.

Carry on…..

It had finally dawned on the British government that it had committed itself to two incompatible things. One was that under no circumstances would there be a return to a hard border between the UK and the Republic of Ireland.

I have actually read the Good Friday Agreement. And I simply cannot find any reference in it at all to the border, let alone a pledge that there won’t be a hard one.

So, and this is a genuine question, not an attempt at a gotcha, can someone tell me where this pledge is?

Brexit-weary as we are, we must gird ourselves for the most significant few weeks for Britain since the Second World War. The crises of our economy, our constitution, our political parties, our identity and even public truthfulness are finally coming to a head. We must save our country from the duplicitous clutches of a zealous nationalist right – and for that the array of opposition parties and independent MPs, with Labour necessarily at its heart, must act.

Here he manages to be entirely correct for 56 words then fails, badly.

It’s not the nationalists nor the right doing the usurpation is it?

Alima Batchelor, head of policy at PDA said: “Whilst these shortages cannot be ascribed to Brexit, they do show the need for concerted action to ensure that leaving the EU will not exacerbate an already unacceptable level of drug shortages.”

What’s the problem?

Pharmacists have warned of shortages of every major type of medicine – including HRT, antidepressants and blood pressure pills.

Drugs for diabetes, epilepsy and skin problems are among the treatments in short supply, along with common contraceptives, a survey suggests.

So, being inside the EU system allows these problems to happen. But we must be careful about leaving because these problems?

Isn’t it actually an argument that we want to leave the current regulatory system?