Brexit

[Uninformed]

Oh, I think it isn't finished yet, descending into 3rd worldliness.

The snowball has only just started to think about rolling…

[zekeb]

Oh, I think it isn't finished yet, descending into 3rd worldliness.

Sad to say. We can overcome our huge mistake in electing Trump. The UK has no real way to escape the madness of Brexit.

Overcoming Trump is like repairing collision damage on an exotic car. The damage is done and it takes years to undo.

[RTH10260]

NB. same requirements as for airports, except that airports ae already set up to handle this type of checks on the pre-registration of entry

Why travelling on Eurostar from the UK is about to become much trickier
New requirements for face scans and fingerprints from 6 October threaten delays at the border

Gwyn Topham transport correspondent
Sun 26 May 2024 13.00 CEST

In a land just 20 miles from Britain, people can catch an international train just by buying a ticket and turning up. For Eurostar travellers from London it has never been that simple. But from 6 October, when the EU’s new border regime kicks in, a fresh headache of requirements will apply.

There may be some comfort in Eurostar’s promise that it “won’t be a shitshow”. It has spent a year discussing the precise requirements of the EU entry-exit system (EES), and invested €10m in revamping St Pancras International.

Here Benugo, an upmarket toastie purveyor, is being ejected from its prime spot to make way for rows of biometric kiosks. Passengers will have to upload their fingerprints and scan their faces, then walk – or queue – past the piano donated by Elton John to the ticket gates. Once they’re through those, the baggage screening and UK passport control, French border police will take their fingerprints all over again.

Eurostar says its modelling shows passengers will be able to complete the process within the recommended 60 to 90 minutes before travel, though some reports last week claimed it would take two hours.

Eurostar’s chief stations and security officer, Simon Lejeune, said: “We’re confident 6 October won’t be a shitshow because of the work that’s going in … we have the right set-up.”

The bar for what is regarded as a “shitshow” in Britain has been raised substantially since the 2016 referendum, but these increasing hurdles will make some travellers wonder if just staying home to watch Emily in Paris or Ratatouille might be easier.

For Eurostar, the key is capacity – or how quickly passengers can pass the frontier, and it is installing 49 kiosks in three areas: the other two are for business or premier passengers and an upstairs overflow set-up for when things get hairy at peak times. The double fingerprint check is necessary because biometric data collection must be supervised by a European border officer on first entry. After registration, people will be able to use e-gates for three years. France has agreed to double the police aux frontières booths from nine to 18.

Brexit had already cut capacity on trains to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam: the stamping of paper passports was taking so long that trains were not able to fill up and depart on time. Now, Eurostar hopes to cut the last part of the border process from 59 to 37 seconds.

The Port of Dover has raised the alarm over how, in a constrained space, arriving car passengers can have all their biometric details taken by EU officials. The CPT, the trade body for coach operators, this week called on ministers for action, warning that EES would “inevitably add to processing time” at the port. Getlink, the Channel tunnel and Shuttle operator, has announced spending of about €70m on measures to avoid a launch-day meltdown.

The scheme has been delayed by concerns over back-end computing capabilities and staffing, and the French lobbied hard to put EES back until after the Paris Olympics.



https://www.theguardian.com/business/ar ... h-trickier

[RTH10260]

Post-Brexit ‘mess’ as Italian driver’s lorry held for 55 hours at UK border post
Antonio Soprano says he was told to walk to a McDonald’s for food as there was none at Sevington

Jack Simpson and Angela Giuffrida
Mon 10 Jun 2024 13.45 CEST

An Italian lorry driver has described the UK’s new post-Brexit controls as a “mess” after his lorry was held at a government-run border post for more than two days.

Antonio Soprano, 62, who was stopped while bringing plants into the country from central Italy, said he was offered nothing to eat during his 55-hour ordeal and instead was told by border officials that he should walk to a McDonald’s more than a mile away to get a meal.

After eventually being released from the Sevington facility in Ashford, Kent, in the early hours of the morning, he was then clamped and had to pay a £185 fine after difficulties finding a place to park in the middle of the night.

It comes just over a month after the government brought in new post-Brexit rules on 30 April, which require some lorries transporting plant and animal goods from the continent to be checked at designated border control posts along the British coast.

The checks, which have been put in place to stop diseases coming into the UK, are supposed to take place within four working hours but some lorries can be held for longer if inspectors identify a potential risk.

Soprano, who drives for the Italian haulage company Marini, was taking a lorry full of plants from Italian suppliers to companies across Britain when he was ordered to drive the 22 miles from Dover to the Sevington border post for inspection.

A Marini truck is loaded with plants at the Innocenti and Mangoni nursery in Pistoia, Italy. Photograph: Michele Borzoni/The Guardian
He says that when he arrived at the facility he was immediately ushered to a waiting area and ordered to wait, with border officials taking his keys.

Soprano, who speaks no English, said no efforts were made to explain to him what was happening, claiming he was just repeatedly told by officials to wait. The waiting facilities for drivers consist of a small room with a few tables, with only water provided and no food.

He said: “They told me to go and eat at a McDonald’s, which was 2km away, so by foot. In the end I found a supermarket but we had no services apart from a toilet.”

The lorry was held because of concerns about 10 Prunus lusitanica plants in the load, which border officials thought could be carrying harmful pests.

The concerns were raised hours after the lorry arrived at 6.30pm on 26 May, and officials said the delays occurred because the plants could not be unloaded because of health and safety concerns.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the initial inspection of the lorry was delayed due to the driver having to take an 11-hour rest break, known as a tacho break, while at Sevington. It said the absence of a load plan, and problems with the way the lorry was loaded, meant extra measures were needed to safely check the plants.

Officials eventually signed off the plants and allowed the vehicle to be released just after 1am on 29 May, about 55 hours after it arrived.



https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ar ... -sevington

[RTH10260]

remember, you now can export world wide ...

UK clothing sales to EU plummet as Brexit red tape deters exporters
Small and medium-sized firms badly hit as huge drop in apparel sales helps fuel 18% slide in all-non food exports

Phillip Inman
Wed 5 Jun 2024 01.01 CEST

UK exports of clothing and footwear to the EU have dived since Brexit, according to a new study that shows the extent to which complex regulations and red tape at the border have deterred firms from sending goods across the Channel.

Exports of clothing and footwear sold to EU countries have fallen from £7.4bn in 2019 to £2.7bn in 2023, helping fuel an 18% slump in sales of all non-food goods exports to countries covered by the EU single market, according to the consultancy Retail Economics and online marketplace Tradebyte.

The report said the decline meant British brands and retailers have seen sales to the EU plummet since Brexit, despite a flourishing European e-commerce market.

The only sectors to increase export sales over the same period were health and beauty, and DIY and gardening, offsetting some of the fall from clothing and footwear.

Many of the worst affected were small and medium-sized businesses, which faced a larger relative burden from red tape than multinational firms.

One of the report’s authors, Richard Lim, head of Retail Economics, said some of the fall was simply down to a change in trade routes. UK firms that previously repackaged imports of goods made in Asia for sale in the EU have now reorganised their supply chains, by setting up offices inside the single market to bypass border regulations.

However, red tape has forced many producers making apparel in the UK to move manufacturing to an EU country, at a cost to UK skills and jobs.

In one instance a sock-maker based in Leicester, which declined to be named, has shifted production to Italy, ending more than 100 years of manufacturing in the east Midlands, Lim said.

The UK has also failed to benefit from a boom in online goods sales in the EU since 2019, the authors suggest.



https://www.theguardian.com/business/ar ... -exporters

[RTH10260]

Dutch lorry drivers could stop bringing goods to UK if post-Brexit delays not cut
Dutch hauliers say facilities at border posts where some trucks are held for up to 20 hours are inadequate

Jack Simpson
Thu 13 Jun 2024 13.01 CEST

Lorry drivers could start rejecting jobs transporting goods from continental Europe to the UK unless delays are reduced and driver conditions improved at post-Brexit border posts, the biggest trade body for Dutch hauliers has warned.

Transport en Logistiek Nederland (TLN), which represents 5,000 Dutch transport companies, said its members were facing average waits of more than four hours in Britain because of the new checks brought in after the UK’s exit from the EU, with some being held at border posts for up to 20 hours.

It described the facilities that drivers were forced to wait in as “leaving a lot to be desired” and said most border facilities only offered water, with nowhere for drivers to get food or drink.

In a four-page report outlining drivers’ experiences and shared with the Guardian, the association said: “We are increasingly receiving reports from hauliers that their drivers no longer want to drive to the UK unless conditions improve.”

The report listed a series of problems Dutch lorry companies and drivers had experienced since the government brought in border checks for plant and animal products on 30 April.

The checks, which have been put in place to stop diseases coming into the UK, take place at designated border control posts near ports such as Killingholme, Harwich and Felixstowe. The biggest is an inland, government-run facility at Sevington, Ashford, which serves the Port of Dover despite being 22 miles away.

TLN has raised concerns about the delays and poor conditions greeting drivers at these posts and called for the UK government and port authorities to provide “good and decent facilities for drivers”.



https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ar ... h-hauliers

[RTH10260]

Happy brexiting ...

‘It was a nightmare. It still is’: the cost of doing business, eight years after Brexit
The vote to leave the EU was sold as a way to cut red tape, but for many it ended up doing the opposite. The Observer asked six businesses about the fallout for them

Jack Simpson
Sun 23 Jun 2024 15.00 CEST

Exactly eight years ago, the UK went to the polls and voted to leave the EU.

Ending a union that had begun in 1973, the decision was bound to have a profound impact on businesses both in the UK and on the continent.

The exit from the single market – which ensured the free movement of goods, services and people between the UK and EU – in 2021 has hit all aspects of industry, from trade to hiring workers.

A report just last week by the Centre for Economic Performance concluded that Brexit had had a negative effect on UK trade, with exports and imports lower than they were in 2016 in real terms, having shrunk by 1% and 2% respectively.

According to the report, trade with the EU has declined less than many economists expected overall, and some sectors of the UK economy, such as services, have continued to be successful. However, many other business sectors have not fared as well. Whether it is UK clothing exports dropping by a fifth since 2019, or the 56% fall in poultry exports, many sectors are still adjusting to a life outside the EU.

The tail of Brexit continues to wag, as new border checks since April have led to fears of more disruption, with estimates putting the cost to businesses bringing in food and plant products at £2bn. And the reverberations are still being felt by businesses large and small.

To mark the eighth anniversary of the referendum, the Observer spoke to six companies in the UK and the EU to see how Brexit has affected their business.



https://www.theguardian.com/business/ar ... ter-brexit

[RTH10260]

UK must stop ‘walking on eggshells’ over post-Brexit deal, says BCC chief
British Chambers of Commerce director general calls on politicians to improve ties with EU and strike better deal

Jack Simpson
Wed 26 Jun 2024 23.30 CEST

The UK’s current trade deal with the EU is not working and the country must stop “walking on eggshells” around the issue of building closer ties with its biggest trading partner, the director general of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) is expected to say.

At the annual BCC global conference in London on Thursday, Shevaun Haviland will say that the UK must forge closer ties with the EU and the next government should focus on improving trading relations to grow the economy.

“We must stop walking on eggshells and start saying it how it is,” Haviland will say.

“The current plan isn’t working for our members. But better trade terms are possible if the UK government and the EU reach agreement in areas of mutual benefit for business on both sides. A better deal is best for everyone.”



https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ar ... eal-bcc-eu

[RTH10260]

Boris Johnson mentioned something about world leading ...

Top scientists turning down UK jobs over ‘tax on talent’, says Wellcome boss
Next government urged to lower upfront visa costs that are 17 times higher than international average

Ian Sample Science editor
Sat 29 Jun 2024 06.00 CEST

Top international researchers cannot afford to take jobs in the UK because of a “tax on talent” that makes it impossible for them to afford the upfront costs, the head of the Wellcome Trust has warned.

Dr John-Arne Røttingen, who has led the biomedical research charity since January, said some of the best researchers offered posts in the UK would have to turn them down because they faced having to pay “tens of thousands” in visa fees and surcharges.

It is more expensive for researchers to move to the UK than to other leading scientific nations such as the US, Japan, Australia and Germany, a situation Røttingen described as “deeply unhelpful” for the UK’s hopes of reinvigorating the economy, improving the NHS and managing the transition to clean energy.

“Rather than rolling out the red carpet for the most innovative scientists and researchers, the UK has put up barriers,” Røttingen told the Guardian. “For centuries the UK has had a huge strategic strength in science and innovation, but it is now sitting back and letting itself be outcompeted.”

He said the next government must “urgently lower the upfront costs” for talented researchers, and argued that the foregone visa fees would quickly be offset by the “huge benefits” in having the finest minds on hand to drive science and technology and grow the economy.

Recent analysis for the Royal Society found that the largest upfront cost for researchers taking a post in Britain is the immigration health surcharge, which increased 66% in February to £1,035 a year. A researcher coming to the UK for five years would need to pay for the full period upfront before a visa was issued.

The fees apply even for those coming on a global talent visa, which is designed to attract “leaders or potential leaders”, who will have a job offer and would pay taxes like anyone else working in the UK.

The fees multiply for researchers planning to bring their families to Britain. A researcher granted a five-year global talent visa and who has a partner and two children would be liable to pay £20,974 upfront, with no option to spread the payments. In total, upfront UK visa costs are 17 times higher than the international average and more than those for any other major scientific nation analysed.



https://www.theguardian.com/education/a ... lcome-boss

[Foggy]

Even without the money issue, who wants to move to the UK anymore? That's like moving to Texas or Florida, these are failed states that will take many years to recover from the effects of the stupid assholes.

[RTH10260]

When Boris Johnson recommended that business go global on trade

‘Disbelief’ as US-UK trade deals under threat after Britain axes negotiators
Business community decries ‘act of arson’ as one-seventh of trade posts within British consulates in the US are scrapped

James Tapper
Sat 29 Jun 2024 22.09 CEST

America was meant to be Britain’s route to the sunlit uplands of Brexit. Then, after hopes of a free trade deal evaporated, successive Conservative governments have set their sights lower, by trying to forge closer ties with individual US states.

Now the civil servants responsible for delivering those state-level deals have been let go, in what a furious British businessman described as “an act of arson”.

Nearly a seventh of trade posts within British consulates in the US have been axed, with 24 people losing their jobs, 18 from 139 posts in the trade department. The decision was taken barely two weeks before Rishi Sunak called the general election.

Many of the trade teams, based in the nine consulates across the US, had worked on trade pacts with Kemi Badenoch, the business and trade secretary, jetting around America to sign memorandums of understanding with governors of states including Florida, Indiana and Oklahoma.

But more importantly, according to British business leaders in the US, the regional trade directors and their staff had decades of experience and had built up contacts with American businesses from Google and Meta to the heads of Hollywood studios.

Jules Ehrhardt, a designer and investor, said there was “outrage and disbelief in the British business community” at the decision.

“They are tossing out collective centuries of relational and institutional knowledge core to the UK-US trading relationship,” he said. Ehrhardt moved to the US in 2012 to open the American arm of Ustwo, a digital design studio behind award-winning games such as Monument Valley, and worked with Google, Nike and Twitter, before founding a venture capital firm, FKTRY.

He said the consulate directors had “served as the connective tissue” between British and American business leaders, making introductions, giving advice and lending their expertise. “We shot ourselves in both feet by undermining Britain’s ‘gateway to Europe’ status for American companies following Brexit, and were told to go west, and now we’ve self-elected a lobotomy,” Ehrhardt said.



https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ar ... egotiators