For the Brits: When will BREXIT referendum happen ?

[peejaye]

Definitely maybe!

Hurts me to say it but the smart money is on this lot in Westminster placing no orders and derailing it (no pun intended)
Then a certain individual on this forum, who will remain nameless, will blame me personally for it because of Br-exit!

[Stavros]

Hurts me to say it but the smart money is on this lot in Westminster placing no orders and derailing it (no pun intended)
Then a certain individual on this forum, who will remain nameless, will blame me personally for it because of Br-exit!

You might want to look more closely at the Siemens offer. Yes, it is good news for the skilled workers in Goole, but Siemens has not been the most innocent of companies given the confrontation with Bombardier over the ThamesLink contract in 2011.

Crucially, this:

Jürgen Maier, UK chief executive of Siemens, told the BBC’s Today programme on Friday that the group was counting on “frictionless trade”. “It is going to very difficult to not have friction without some sort of a customs union.” Speaking ahead of Theresa May’s key speech on future trade with the bloc, Mr Maier said he hoped the prime minister was “moving us towards a very good free trade deal, no tariffs and therefore easy movement of parts between the European continent and the UK.”
https://www.ft.com/content/272446b4-...a-4574d7dabfb6

So we are back at stage one: how to solve the customs union conundrum. As the advocate of leaving the Single Market and the Customs Union, I invite you to explain how the Siemens contract in Yorkshire will work if the UK is not inside the Customs Union, or 'a' customs union, given that Liam Fox regards any customs union membership as a 'betrayal' of the Referendum vote.

[Erika1487]

Brexit maybe the most nationalistic idea to hit The British Isles since the formation of The British National Party (BNP)!

[peejaye]

So we are back at stage one: how to solve the customs union conundrum. As the advocate of leaving the Single Market and the Customs Union, I invite you to explain how the Siemens contract in Yorkshire will work if the UK is not inside the Customs Union, or 'a' customs union, given that Liam Fox regards any customs union membership as a 'betrayal' of the Referendum vote.

I'm afraid you'll have to speak to my agent about that;

[Stavros]

I'm afraid you'll have to speak to my agent about that;

a) when not trying to break up California he is too busy augmenting his €95,000 a year salary as an MP with LBS shock-jockery and whatever short change he gets from the Russians for appearing on RT; and
B) I really would prefer your views on the Customs Union given its importance to a wide range of issues with regard to production contracts and the management of the international border between the UK and the EU.

Enlighten us, Peejaye.

[Stavros]

Today the EU and the UK have produced a draft Transition Agreement that confirms the transition will end on the 30th of December 2020.

Note that these are provisional agreements pending a final agreement which, if it is not reached, will render null and void all pre-existing ones, as Michel Barnier has said 'nothing is agreed until everything is agreed'.

Note that there is no final agreement on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and that the Transition Agreement does not state if the European Court of Justice will adjudicate on legal disputes during the transition period.

Note also that while the UK will be free to negotiate trade agreements in the transition phase, they cannot be implemented until after the transition has ended. And this assumes that there is no extension of the transition date which is possible.

From the Guardian-

The UK has compromised on some of the EU’s key demands for the transition. It will end on 31 December 2020 (the EU’s preferred date), not around March 2021 (the UK’s preferred date). And EU nationals arriving in the UK during the transition will get the same rights as EU nationals here before. Theresa May originally said she would resist this.

• The UK has accepted that EU fishermen will still get the same access to UK waters during the transition as they do now. The UK’s share of fishing quotas will remain the same. But it will only have the right to be consulted about any changes to the total catch; it will not have a veto.

• The UK will have the right to negotiate its own trade deals during the transition, the EU has confirmed. But it will not be able to implement those deals until after the transition is over.

• The UK and the EU have published a new version of the draft withdrawal treaty (pdf). It is colour-coded, showing where the two sides have reached agreement (in green), where they are halfway towards an agreement (in yellow) and where matters are unresolved (in white).

• The EU has retained the provisions in the draft treaty proposing regulatory alignment between Northern Ireland and Ireland as a “backstop” solution to the border issue, even though Theresa May described this wording as unacceptable. Both sides are committed to a solution, but today’s document shows that they are not closer to deciding what this could be.

• The EU has retained a version of the proposed “punishment clause” that could be used to penalise the UK during the transition if it were seen to break single market rules. (See 12.10pm.) The UK has not accepted this. When an earlier version of the proposal was first floated, Davis accused the EU of acting in bad faith.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics...-politics-live



Here are the main points:

[Stavros]

Correction: that should of course be the 31st December 2020.

[Stavros]

With less than a year left before the UK leaves the EU or rather, begins its transition out of the EU, two interesting articles offer a perspective on a) fishing policy; and b) potential trade with the USA.

The article on fishing offers a different and more balanced perspective than the hysterical drivel one associates with the former leader of UKIP, Nigel Farage, and the 'low level people' he says he left behind when he abandoned the party to earn some money as a Radio talk show host in addition to his fabulous salary as a Member of the European Parliament, where he sat on the Fisheries Committee for two and half years, attending at least two or maybe three meetings. Presumably to claim his expenses, as he appears to have no real interest in fishing policy. Also interesting in explaining who fishes for what species, who owns the companies that dominate the market, and why ports like Hull went into decline after the 'Cod War's with Iceland.
https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...russels-brexit

The second is the annual report from the US Trade Representative which offers a guide to any future trade deal which the US says will only be possible with the EU if it gets rid of most of its health and safety regulations on food and other commodities which the USA claims are not based on scientific fact, and present a financial burden to competing firms in terms of administration costs. It seems almost laughable that the USA -one of the pioneers of science for over two hundred years- now has an administration that ridicules science at almost every level and yet wants the EU to lower its standards to meet its own low grade food products and who knows what else? I can't see the UK agreeing to trade with the US on such terms, it would be a return to the 1950s or worse, the 1940s when -grateful as the British were- Spam in cans made its way from the US to the UK to compensate for the lack of fresh meat. Enough to make an entire country go vegan.

You can read about the USA's war on standards here-
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/b...-a8292006.html

[Stavros]

I forgot to add that in the last two weeks it has been claimed that the Vote Leave campaign in the EU Referendum in 2016 broke the law, which raises the question: should the result be declared null and void? In this case, it is not the basket case twits in UKIP that are in the frame but the 'respectable' Tory liars like Boris Johnson and Michael Gove and their salamander Dominic Cummings who are in the frame. Unfortunately some of the people involved are now too close to Mrs May so we may not see any real action on this, but it does confirm just how dirty this referendum was, and how our democratic system has been hi-jacked by hypocritical careerists who will do anything and say anything to get what they want. It would be enough to make one vote Labour, if that rancid party was not so keen on the same result as the venal Tories.

https://www.ft.com/content/13ec834c-...f-23cb17fd1498

[Jericho]

I believe it was about one thing, and one thing only.
Cunts!
https://medium.com/the-jist/was-eu-t...m-980ba88a8077