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Volkonski
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#776

Post by Volkonski »

They're trying to do the impossible.

They will fail.
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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Post by Volkonski »

‘Brits are suffering but for us it’s boom time’: how Brexit boosted French and Irish ports

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... g-rosslare
Rain or shine, Colm Lambert likes to sit on a bench overlooking Rosslare port on the south-eastern tip of Ireland and watch the new freight ships and passenger ferries sailing in from the Irish Sea.

“They’re coming in from France, Spain, Belgium, Holland – it’s great to see,” he said. “Brexit has made an awful difference to here. Boris Johnson did Rosslare a favour.”

Lambert, 81, a retired Irish customs officer, may draw the line at erecting a statue to Britain’s former prime minister, but he appreciates Brexit’s transformative impact on the once-stagnant port where he used to work. “It’s created jobs.”

A little over 340 nautical miles away in Cherbourg, Normandy, Yannick Millet, the port’s managing director, is equally enthusiastic. “The Brits may be suffering from Brexit,” he said. “But for us, it’s boom time. Traffic with Ireland is through the roof.”
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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Post by Sam the Centipede »

I wonder if that's also good environmentally, in terms of carbon emissions?

The trade that has gone onto the ships direct to Ireland would presumably be commodities that before went from by truck from France or the Low Countries to England on short ferry crossings or perhaps through the Channel Tunnel, then trucks would have taken the load across England and Wales to one of the ports on the sticky-outy-bits of west Wales, then by ferry across the Irish Sea.

Presumably now either trucks or containers are going direct to Rosslare, with less road mileage.

Even if Brexit is reversed, my guess would be that now Rosslare and its ferries are running smoothly, that trade won't go back to the England-Wales route.
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#779

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Sunak facing tough sell to Tories and DUP as Von der Leyen flies in
European Commission chief heading to Britain for ‘final talks’ over Northern Ireland protocol

Peter Walker Political correspondent
Sun 26 Feb 2023 22.30 GMT

Rishi Sunak is to hold a Brexit summit with the president of the European Commission on Monday to sign off a revised deal on the Northern Ireland protocol.

In what could be the most perilous week of his political life, the prime minister will meet Ursula von der Leyen in the early afternoon for what No 10 billed as “final talks”.

He will then face the daunting task of selling the deal to hardline Conservative Brexiters and Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist party (DUP), who issued renewed warnings over the weekend that they would not be bounced into accepting something that did not meet their red lines.

While Downing Street sources said there are still matters that need consideration by Sunak and Von der Leyen, the widespread assumption is that the meeting will rubberstamp a revision to Boris Johnson’s protocol for post-Brexit arrangements in Northern Ireland.

The deal is not expected to radically change the way Northern Ireland trades with the EU via the Irish border, or with the rest of the UK, but will implement systems to ease checks across the Irish Sea – a feature of Johnson’s plan that has enraged the DUP and many Tories.

Sunak is due to host a cabinet meeting on Monday afternoon before a likely joint press conference with Von der Leyen. He will then update the Commons, where he will begin what is likely to be an extremely tough political sell.




https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... ishi-sunak
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Post by Volkonski »

It will be a miracle if they can pull this off. However I hope they succeed.
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AFP News Agency
@AFP@mediastodon.com
#UPDATE The president of the European Commission will meet King Charles on Monday during a visit to Britain to discuss an overhaul of the post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland.
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EU, UK hail 'new chapter' in ties with Northern Ireland deal

https://www.dw.com/en/eu-uk-hail-new-ch ... l-1573-rdf
The United Kingdom and the European Union have struck a new deal on post-Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland after more than a year of wrangling and political acrimony. Standing alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hailed a "decisive breakthrough" which "will start making a positive difference to people's lives in Northern Ireland almost immediately."

The new plans, dubbed the "Windsor Framework," will scrap some checks on goods crossing from the rest of the United Kingdom into Northern Ireland, and give Northern Irish lawmakers greater say over future EU rules.

Both sides insist the agreement marks a "new chapter" in EU-UK relations — but in Belfast, the jury's still out.

Under the proposed framework, products bound only for Northern Ireland will pass through a new minimal-check "green lane." Products considered "at risk" of crossing the island into Ireland and therefore entering the EU's single market will go through a "red lane" with EU compliance checks.

"This means if food is available on supermarket shelves in Great Britain, it will be available on supermarket shelves in Northern Ireland," Sunak told reporters. The new deal will also guarantee the future supply of UK-approved medicines to Northern Ireland.

Von der Leyen said to make this work, both sides had "agreed on strong safeguards like IT access, labels and enforcement procedures that will protect the integrity of the EU's single market."

:snippity:

Brussels' red line remains intact: Von der Leyen said the EU's top court would have the "final say" on EU laws applying in Northern Ireland.

Observers believe that this will prove unpopular with some in Belfast who want an end to EU jurisdiction. Lawmakers there will, however, get beefed up powers with an "emergency brake" mechanism to intervene on EU goods laws "that would have significant and lasting effects on everyday lives" in Northern Ireland, Sunak said.
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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The Davis Downside Dossier
UPDATED. David Davis famously said there would be no downsides to Brexit only considerable upsides. Here we keep a tally.


https://yorkshirebylines.co.uk/regular- ... e-dossier/
In October 2016, David Davis, the then Brexit secretary, told the House of Commons that “there will be no downside to Brexit at all, and considerable upsides”.

Six years on there are plenty of downsides emerging, though the upsides are, to put it mildly, more elusive.

:snippity:

THE DOWNSIDES

950. Food shortages. The current shortages of salad vegetables has been blamed on Brexit by the founder of the organic farming cooperative Riverford. Guy Singh-Watson said, “The reason people don’t want to talk to or export to the UK is that we’re a customer of last resort because we’re such a pain in the arse to deal with because the paperwork associated with Brexit is expensive, time-consuming and it involves the loss of flexibility that most businesses if they can, will avoid.”

949. Trade. A survey of members by the trade body Make UK, says frayed relations with the EU are costing the British economy, as suppliers in the bloc grow more cautious about doing business with post-Brexit Britain. Almost a fifth of manufacturers said they had reduced the number of suppliers from the EU in the last 12 months. However, the report showed damage to the UK’s image and trading relationship was not limited to partners in the EU, with 35% of firms agreeing that suppliers from the rest of the world were also cautious about Britain.

948. Banking. The US bank Citigroup said on Monday that it planned to double the number of staff in Paris by building a new trading floor in the French capital, part of a gradual shift by global lenders away from London. Fabio Lisanti, the head of the bank’s European trading business said, “We’ve been able to hire talent in Paris that we would never have been able to attract in London.”

947. Building. A 66 year-old building company in Jersey, Camerons Ltd, has ceased trading with its board of directors saying a “period of financial difficulty” had been caused by many factors, including Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic. A statement provided by parent company the Garenne Group, said rising interest rates, supply chain issues, materials and labour shortages had also caused it to cease trading.

946. Adult learning. A Bristol based social enterprise, Step and Stones, which teaches adults with learning disabilities to bake artisanal bread and has relied on a £20,000 grant from the European Social Fund (ESF), says some adults could miss out on vital job training when grant ends. Step and Stone co-founder Jane Chong, who has a 27-year-old son with Down’s syndrome said there was no clear mechanism to obtain replacement funding.

945. Turnips. A farmer in the constituency of environment secretary Therese Coffey has blamed Brexit for the collapse of his company. Richard Parry, dubbed Britain’s ‘Turnip King’ says a combination of rising energy prices and labour shortages, partly caused by Brexit, made his turnip business financially unviable. Mr Parry said the number of turnips produced on his 120-hectare farm had dropped by two-thirds in the past 15 years.

944. Fishing. Mike Park, chief executive of the Scottish White Fish Producers’ Association, which initially supported Brexit now say the move has delivered little for Scotland’s fishing fleet. “Increases in catch quotas that we were promised have never materialised,” he said, “and the extra costs of sending products overseas have crippled many smaller businesses.” Scotland’s fishing and seafood industries is said to be still snarled in costly red tape, worker shortages and disappointing catch quotas.

943. Food and drink. Almost half of food and drink manufacturers in the UK claim their competitiveness with the EU has fallen in the past year. A survey by the Food and Drink Federation claims continued challenges with post-Brexit border checks and bureaucracy, as well as the saga over the Northern Ireland protocol, are among the key issues holding back trade. When specifically asked about competitiveness with EU markets in the past year, 47% of respondents said it had declined, compared to just 5% who said it had improved.

942. The land bridge. Brexit has seen a fivefold increase in freight traffic between Rosslare Europort in Ireland and EU ports at Cherbourg, Le Havre, Bilbao, Dunkirk and Zeebrugge, creating hundreds of new jobs. This more than offsets the slump in freight using the land bridge from Holyhead to Dover and Folkestone. In Cherbourg, Yannick Millet, the port’s managing director said, “That’s absolutely a Brexit effect, the land bridge via Britain is broken, and we’re the beneficiaries.” Freight to and from mainland Europe soared from just 36,000 units in 2019 to 137,000 in 2022.

941. Farming. The National Farmers Union have told ministers that Britain’s farmers are being battered by a storm of rising costs, labour shortages, bird flu and post-Brexit changes to support payments. “Volatility, uncertainty and instability” are endangering UK farm businesses, according to the NFU, which is urging the government to support British food producers so they can keep supplying squeezed UK households and a growing global population.

940. Semiconductors. Paragraf, a spin-off company from the Materials Science Department at Cambridge University, says it may have to move abroad, according to The Telegraph. Paragraf is the world’s only manufacturer of 2D graphene chips for sensors but took six months to obtain a work visa for a German specialist, and nine months for an Indian. CEO Simon Thomas said, “These are highly skilled people. There are never enough visas, and it is expensive for us, and expensive for them. The Government is throttling how quickly we can grow.”

939. Fishing. Appearing before the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee last week, Fisheries minister Mark Spencer refused to give the industry any assurance that the UK will have an exclusive 12 mile limit when the Brexit fisheries deal is renegotiated in 2026. including access for foreign vessels within the UK 6-12 mile limit.

938. Farming. An associate professor of horticulture at University College Dublin, Owen Doyle, has said that UK farmers are finding it hard to stay in the industry: “There are growers in England who have not planted at all this year. They have made the decision to not grow a crop because they cannot make the figures add up,” he said. The horticulture sector is facing the “Brexit bonuses” of low labour supply and high energy costs.

937. Salads. Shortages of salad crops, particularly tomatoes, have been reported with some supermarkets rationing supplies. The general secretary of the Murcia branch of ASAJA, Spain’s biggest farming association, said he was puzzled by the media talk of weather-induced shortages. “Things are normal so far this season so I don’t know if it’s more a problem of UK logistics since the Brexit regulations came into effect.” He acknowledged that frosts had affected some artichoke and lettuce crops but said they were not serious or widespread enough to have significantly reduced market supplies.

936. Football: After Brexit, British soccer clubs found themselves unable to sign the best teenage players from abroad until they turn 18. FIFA’s Article 19 rule had established a general ban on minors transferring internationally, but made an exemption for players over the age of 16 moving within the EU. This allows EU clubs to sign young talented Irish players before they become eligible to move to the UK.

935. Entrepreneurs: The UK has fallen in a ranking of the world’s best countries for entrepreneurship after scoring poorly for infrastructure, ease of entry for foreign workers and red tape linked to Brexit. The country is now ranked at 25 out of 51 countries, down from 18 last year, according to the annual Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) research, led by Aston Business School. It is the second year of decline after the UK’s highest ranking at 14 in 2020.

934. TV Drama: The Telegraph, says TV dramas are being unexpectedly dropped thanks to soaring costs, skills shortages and an oversaturated market. Ed Waller, editorial director of trade journal C21 Media says: “Talent costs are going through the roof – there’s a skills shortage behind the camera and European crews are reluctant to come to the UK post-Brexit. That means we just don’t have enough people to film good drama.”
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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Post by Volkonski »

One more-
913. Golf: Donald Trump’s Scottish golf resort Turnberry has claimed that Brexit is hitting its ability to find workers. SLC Turnberry, whose directors are two of Trump’s sons, said the staffing pool had shrunk, “with lack of access to European staff for businesses in general resulting in greater demand for the individuals previously available to the resort”. It said Brexit had also affected its supply chains, meaning there were fewer drivers available, “reducing deliveries and the availability of certain product lines”. SLC Turnberry lost over £4mn in its latest accounts.
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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#785

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UK will miss out on EU’s ‘massive’ increase in arms spending for Ukraine
Only EU and Norwegian firms will be able to take advantage of joint procurement agreement, says leaked paper

Daniel Boffey Chief reporter
Tue 7 Mar 2023 18.02 GMT

Britain’s defence industry is to be blocked from profiting from the EU’s vast increase in spending on arms for Ukraine, under a leaked plan seen by the Guardian.

A “massive order” of ammunition, ranging from small arms to 155mm artillery rounds, is being prepared in Brussels but only EU and Norwegian manufacturers will be able to take advantage.

France, Germany and Italy, the home of Europe’s biggest arms manufacturers, are likely to be the biggest beneficiaries to the detriment of the UK, which is the world’s seventh largest arms exporter.

“Essentially, this is a zero-sum game and the proposal will bolster European defence industry at the costs of those outside the union,” a diplomatic source in Brussels said.

The EU is close to agreeing on its landmark move to jointly procure ammunition to help Ukraine in its war with Russia and replenish members’ stockpiles. The plan involves immediately transferring ammunition reserves and “rapidly” sending new joint orders to meet EU and Ukrainian needs as part of “a massive and strong signal to EU industry”.




https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... or-ukraine
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Brexit trade treaty ‘could be terminated’ if UK quits ECHR over small boat crossings
Legal experts say Brussels has right to take retaliatory action, making cross-border law enforcement harder

Lisa O'Carroll Brexit correspondent
Wed 8 Mar 2023 17.44 GMT

The UK’s trade agreement with the EU could be immediately terminated if the British government quits the European convention on human rights (EHCR) over the issue of stopping small boat crossings across the Channel, legal experts have said.

Under the 2020 trade and cooperation agreement (TCA), the EU has the right to take retaliatory action including the ending of the hard-fought agreements on extradition and access to the database of biometric data including fingerprints and DNA, said Steve Peers, a professor of EU and human rights law.

“If the UK left the ECHR or denounces all or part of it, it is fairly clear that the EU would suspend the police and security agreement,” he said pointing out that the TCA locks Britain into a number of provisions relating to the human rights convention as a standard on policing.

It would make cross-border law enforcement harder and mean suspects facing extradition to Britain would have a legal defence open to them, with arguments that their human rights were at risk in a UK court.

Catherine Barnard, a professor of EU law at the University of Cambridge, said: “It is clear that the EU absolutely had it in mind that the UK might try and leave the convention and respect for it runs through the TCA like writing through a stick of rock.”

Article 524 of the TCA states the agreement, which was struck by the UK’s then chief Brexit negotiator, Lord Frost, and the EU, is based on both parties “longstanding respect for democracy, the rule of law and the protection of fundamental rights” including those in the convention.




https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... quits-echr
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Post by Sam the Centipede »

Volkonski wrote: Wed Mar 08, 2023 3:44 am The Davis Downside Dossier
UPDATED. David Davis famously said there would be no downsides to Brexit only considerable upsides. Here we keep a tally.
David Davis was the clown who went into negotiations with the EU's Michel Barnier without any briefing notes, arrogantly thinking his pea-sized brain could out-fox a highly competent and intelligent eurocrat.

Davis also said that as soon as the Brexit deal was done, he would be going to Berlin, Paris, etc. to negotiate brilliant trade deals with individual countries. He is so f****** stupid he didn't even understand that a central, absolutely fundamental, point of the common market is that all member countries delegate their trade negotiations to the EU. Even if an individual EU country wanted to make a special one-off deal with the UK, it couldn't.

Also the fuckwit didn't understand that Most Favored Nation status in most EU trade deals means that third countries cannot offer the UK a better trade deal without offering the EU the same or more. Davis is a moron.
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China’s BYD blames Brexit as it rules out UK for first electric car plant in Europe
World’s largest EV and hybrid manufacturer is not the first to cite EU exit for such a decision

Mark Sweney
Sun 12 Mar 2023 16.39 GMT

The world’s largest seller of electric and hybrid cars will not consider building its first European car factory in the UK because of the impact of Brexit.

China’s BYD, which has been backed by the US investment billionaire Warren Buffett since 2008, intends to take on household names such as Tesla and become one of the three most popular electric vehicle brands in Europe by the end of the decade.

China’s top-selling electric car maker, which is targeting sales of about 800,000 cars annually in Europe by 2030, has shortlisted locations in Germany, France, Spain, Poland and Hungary.

“As an investor we want a country to be stable,” said Michael Shu, BYD’s European president, speaking to the Financial Times. “To open a factory is a decision for decades. Without Brexit, maybe. But after Brexit, we don’t understand what happened.”




https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... -car-plant
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Post by Volkonski »

'Downton Abbey' castle halts weddings due to Brexit, says owner

https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/downto ... 023-03-14/
Highclere Castle in southern England, where the early 20th century period drama about the lives of aristocrats and their servants was filmed, is facing a serious staffing crunch.

The reason is the dearth of workers from the European Union, which has forced owner Fiona Carnarvon to mothball the castle's main business of hosting larger weddings on the site of the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning show.

"We have stopped being able to offer any weddings of any substantial size because of Brexit," Carnarvon, a countess who owns Highclere with her husband, the eighth Earl of Carnarvon, said.

"There are no staff," she said, speaking from the morning room at the Victorian castle that sits on a 5,000-acre estate.

It used to host around 25 weddings with more than 100 guests a season. Weddings with around 20 guests are still possible, but are a much smaller part of a business that the owners say can cost several thousands of pounds a day to run.

:snippity:

Highclere's gift shop has also stopped shipping to EU countries -- about a third of the shop's overall business -- because of increased courier costs and paperwork in the aftermath of the EU departure, Carnarvon said.

Other trade from the Highclere estate, such as the export of horse feeds, has also fallen due to high paperwork and legal fees, she added.

"We are wrapped in red tape now in every piece of our business," she said.
Perhaps they could run it as an upscale B&B? ;)
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Post by Volkonski »

Brexit reality is about to catch up with Rishi Sunak

https://yorkshirebylines.co.uk/news/bre ... shi-sunak/
Rishi Sunak has enjoyed a relatively easy ride since becoming prime minister at the end of October last year. He and the chancellor Jeremy Hunt have steadied the economic ship after the stormy 44 days of Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng, and we can now look forward over the next two years to what the Office for Budgetary Responsibility calls the “largest fall in real disposable income since records began in 1956”.

Away from the good news, Sunak is facing the biggest tests of his premiership over the next few weeks and, like his immediate predecessors going back to the referendum, Brexit is at the bottom of it.

:snippity:

MEPs in the European Parliament voted last week to approve the Windsor framework by 537 to 43, calling on the UK Government to end the unilateral ‘grace periods’. The rapporteur responsible said the Windsor framework was, “an important step in the right direction, and we now expect its full implementation”.

The EU Council of leaders intends to rubber stamp the new agreement on Tuesday while MPs in Westminster have been promised a vote on Wednesday, one the government is likely to win comfortably, with Labour support if necessary despite some Tory MPs complaining Downing Street is playing fast and loose.

Joe Biden and Bill Clinton have announced they intend to visit Northern Ireland next month to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday agreement on 10 April.

The framework is supported overwhelmingly (97%) by the nationalist community and by two-thirds of all voters in Northern Ireland. It seems everyone is on board; all that is except the DUP and the ERG, the very groups that the new arrangements are designed to placate.

The prime minister is guilty of overselling the benefits of the Windsor framework and is in danger of looking every bit as much a snake oil salesman as Boris Johnson.

:snippity:

But it is the Windsor framework that has thrown the problems of Brexit into sharp relief. If there cannot be a land border in Ireland or a sea border between GB and Northern Ireland, what is the alternative?
Indeed, it is impossible to have both of those borders open without the UK losing control of its border with the EU. This has been apparent for years.
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Post by Sam the Centipede »

Volkonski wrote: Mon Mar 20, 2023 3:34 am https://yorkshirebylines.co.uk/news/bre ... shi-sunak/
If there cannot be a land border in Ireland or a sea border between GB and Northern Ireland, what is the alternative?
Indeed, it is impossible to have both of those borders open without the UK losing control of its border with the EU. This has been apparent for years.
My recollection is that the issue of NI/GB/EU borders wa hardly 0 mentioned in British press in the referendum campaign – presumably to unsexy for GB voters. I imagine NI voters were more tuned in – and they voted Remain. When it finally dawned on the thickies that there was a huuuge problem, Boris Johnson and his troupe of clowns and nutters simply blustered about the issue, lying that it wouldn't be a problem (it would), lying that they had a solution (they didn't), lying that there were technological solutions (there weren't), lying that they could unilaterally impose structures without EU consent (they couldn't). They didn't care so they lied.

Sunak now has to deal with the massive turd dropped by himself and his fellow Brexit nutters. Sunak doesn't seem very intelligent and his moral compass was thrown overboard years ago, but he's not quite as dementied a clown as Johnson.

The one bright light is that there seems to be a genuine desire amongst everybody (except some of the nuttiest nutters) to avoid actions that might lead to a resumption of sectarian violence.

It amuses me that the self-labeled Democratic Unionist Party (which is preventing the devolved parliament in Belfast from meeting) chunters about what measures might satisfy its demands, threatening to try to block decisions it dislikes. So the "democratic" segment of its name doesn't include respecting democracy and the wishes of the people of Northern Ireland.
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#792

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#793

Post by Reality Check »

RTH10260 wrote: Sat Mar 25, 2023 4:20 am :snippity:
That video is really on point RTH. Notice how reluctant the cabinet minister was to blame Brexit? I have pointed out several articles about the terrible state of the British economy that don't even mention Brexit even though it is at the root of most of the issues.
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Post by RTH10260 »

This will hurt - the UK is now a third nation country - :shit: happens when they do not control their own borders
All UK honey tested in EU fraud investigation fails authenticity test
Ten samples from Britain were suspected of containing cheap sugar syrup

Jon Ungoed-Thomas
Sun 26 Mar 2023 09.00 BST

Adulteration of honey with cheap sugar syrup has been exposed in a new investigation by the European Commission, which found 46% of sampled products were suspected to be fraudulent. Ten honey samples from the UK all failed the tests. They may have been blended or packaged in Britain, but the honey probably originated overseas.

This is not the first time tests have suggested that UK shoppers may be being cheated on their honey, though supermarkets say they regularly test honey and audit supply lines.

The government said this weekend that it was investigating the results, but there was no risk to food safety. Officials say no single test can establish honey’s authenticity and research is continuing.

The EU’s anti-fraud office (Olaf) said: “Such practices defraud consumers and put honest producers in jeopardy as they face unfair competition from operators who can slash prices thanks to illicit, cheap ingredients.”

The action was led by the European Commission’s directorate general for health and food safety, collaborating with the 18 countries that are part of the EU food fraud network (which no longer includes the UK since Brexit). It was also supported by the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the commission’s science and knowledge service, and Olaf.

Investigators tested 320 samples and found 147 (46%) were suspicious, where “at least one marker of extraneous sugar sources was detected”.

The report last Thursday by the JRC said honey imported from the UK had a suspicion rate of 100% and “this could be the result of honey produced in other countries and further processed in the UK before its re-export to the EU”.

In 2022, the UK imported more than 38,000 tonnes of honey from its biggest supplier, China, where there is a known risk of adulteration with sugar syrup. Country of origin labelling is not required for a blended product from more than one country, so many shoppers don’t know a cheap pot of honey probably originated in China.



https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/m ... icity-test
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Post by Volkonski »

Had no idea that China exported honey. Every possible manufactured product yes, but not honey. :o
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Chilidog
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#796

Post by Chilidog »

Volkonski wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2023 6:19 am Had no idea that China exported honey. Every possible manufactured product yes, but not honey. :o
Well actually.....

They don't.

They export honey flavored sugar syrup.


And don't get me started on Chinese garlic :sick:
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Tiredretiredlawyer
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#797

Post by Tiredretiredlawyer »

https://www.fischerhoney.com/


If you're talking about honey here is NLR's very own honey.
"Mickey Mouse and I grew up together." - Ruthie Tompson, Disney animation checker and scene planner and one of the first women to become a member of the International Photographers Union in 1952.
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Volkonski
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#798

Post by Volkonski »


Northern Ireland's Orange Order says new Brexit deal needs improvement

https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/northe ... 023-03-28/
Northern Ireland's influential Orange Order said it had voted unanimously to oppose any return of devolved government in the British province unless substantial improvements are made to a reworked post-Brexit deal with the European Union.

The move by the 30,000-member pro-British group - which holds large, at times divisive marches each year to celebrate centuries-old military victories - could raise pressure on the Democratic Unionist Party to wring some concessions from London.

The DUP has said it will not drop a year-long boycott of the devolved assembly without "further clarification, re-working and change" of the Windsor Framework, agreed by the British government with the EU to resolve disputes over trade rules in Northern Ireland following Britain's withdrawal from the EU.

:snippity:

"The Windsor Framework has delivered some limited, but welcome practical adjustments to the existing protocol. However, it does not resolve the fundamental concerns," the Orange Order said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Many aspects of the Windsor Framework have been oversold. The Windsor Framework continues to treat Northern Ireland as a place apart within the United Kingdom and equal citizenship has not been restored."
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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Sam the Centipede
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#799

Post by Sam the Centipede »

But why would the UK government give into the Orange Order and DUP? The OO/DUP threat to continue blocking restoration of devolved power-sharing government in Belfast (NI) seems hollow insofar as they would probably continue to block regardless of concessions in the Windsor Agreement. Why do unionists block it? Because the last election made (republican/nationalist) Sinn Féin the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly, giving them the right to nominate the First Minister, whereas all previous First Ministers have been unionists.

My guess, based on my admittedly massive ignorance on the subject, is that unionists will be like so many right-wingers in saying "if we can't have power, we'll wreck it for others".

So if the UK government shares that analysis, they'll say first "well, it's you who don't want to take part in democratic government, so why should we listen to you?" or "er, interesting views chaps, but … no thanks, we like it as it is".
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#800

Post by RTH10260 »

French and German tourists turn their back on Brexit Britain
Industry leaders fear new entry restrictions and the UK’s tarnished image among some Europeans have caused a decline in EU visitors

James Tapper
Sat 8 Apr 2023 13.00 BST

French and German tourists are beginning to avoid the UK, tourism leaders fear, because of post-Brexit restrictions on travelling with identity cards.

Since anti-Covid measures ended across Europe last year, tourism has started to recover, but there are growing signs that significant numbers of French and Germans – two of the largest markets for UK tourism – are staying away.

Since October 2021, EU citizens have needed a passport to enter the UK. Previously they could use ID cards, but less than half the population of France and Germany hold a valid passport. People who run tourist attractions and businesses in the UK say that although Americans have returned in large numbers, the French and Germans have not.

Jersey’s government is so concerned that last month it announced a pilot project allowing French citizens to show their ID cards on day trips to the island. This year, walking tours in Oxfordshire, a significant part of the tourist trail for foreign visitors, are seeing bookings from France and Germany at half their 2019 levels.


The number of passenger vehicles transported by Le Shuttle through the Channel tunnel in the first two months of 2023 dropped to 251,175, compared with 314,497 in 2019. Brittany Ferries said in December that it had 155,000 arrivals in 2022 compared with 338,000 in 2019.

The decline is not just down to the issue of passports – Brexit has also battered the perception of Britain as a welcoming nation for tourists. Data from Visit Britain and the Anholt Ipsos Nation Brand Index shows a decline in how French and German people view the UK’s standing compared with other countries.



https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... it-britain
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