Vast sections of our NHS, service industries (ie most vets are EU nationals, and many agricultural certs and export/import processes need vets) and the like will have staff who are now trapped here, visits to family etc will leave them at risk of not getting back. To get the actual paperwork done is months long, kafkaesque, insanely expensive process with an arbitary yes/no answer at the end.
antlers
5599
It seems like a lot of the plan for Hard Brexit is to just hope people will keep doing on 11/1 what they did on 10/31, even though now a lot of it is illegal, and work out the details later.
I don’t think that’s the intention. But given the buaruacracy incoming, I can see many leaving the country for good.
That might work between individuals and SMEs being waved through a border, but its not going to work with contractual issues. Was told about some kind of massive issue around GBP-HUF contracts due to the Hungarian regulator announcing they won’t be pretending its business as usual. Hundreds of billions worth of financial instruments are going to be novated, or unwound or something no one knows yet. Insurance issues are going to be a problem too. You can’t just pretend you are insured, you have to be actually covered in case of a claim and if parties are outside the EU they are going to use an absence of law as an excuse to break contract or not pay.
The wishful thinking from the Brexiters is the idea that cups of tea and blightly spirit are good arguments in a commercial court.
Plus, Northern Ireland’s economy is finally recovering, and they’ve got a thriving film/television industry now. Good luck with that if The Troubles come back.
This isn’t new, just grossly unreported in most UK news. As you say, let’s hope we don’t see a return to The Troubles.
It was mentioned on NPR this morning.
There were Leave signs all over the fields when I’m out in the Home Counties. The farmers union told them Brexit would be a disaster, but a significant number of them voted Leave. I hope its them who are repossessed first.
The scapegoating of the Irish by the Brexiters, have of course, dug up sentiments long thought dead.
Racists, xenophobes, and bigots, acutely prejudiced and biased about just about everything in the book, from skin colour to culture to religion to sexuality, every single fucking one of them.
Brexit: The Sign
I was quite surprised to see a headline yesterday saying that Merkel had suggested that the Irish border alternative solution could come in as little as 30 days. Then I read the actual story, and saw that it wasn’t really what she said. She was basically pointing out that the backstop was there in case there was no alternative solution, and no one really knew when there might be. Basically, it might be two years, it might be thirty days, who knows?
Then I read Macron today, who is making even less of it. He says she means that the UK has 30 days, more or less, to offer any alternative to the WA, and that said alternative can’t be substantially different than the current one, and that the backstop is non-negotiable.
Merkel said what she, Barnier and everyone else in the EU has been saying forever: We can shift some words around in the political declaration if that makes the UK happy, but the WA will not be renegotiated and the backstop will have to remain (and is a direct result of UK’s governments red lines).
It is flabbergasting that this hasn’t even sunk in with the UK press and how Merkel’s statements were misrepresented. A British journalist just asked Macron: “Merkel showed some flexibility yesterday, shouldn’t you?”
As expected, the Johnson government has absolutely nothing in terms of practical solutions to offer and is only wasting time trying to gather ammunition for the invevitable blame game, as evidenced by his letter to the EU that had zero substance and only conveyed the threat that Europe would be blamed for the UK’s woes after a no deal Brexit. That is going to happen regardless and Johnson’s maneuvering is so transparent it is downright laughable.
Yes, this is what surprised me about the whole thing. There was basically nothing new at all in the position she articulated — there can be nothing new! — but both Johnson and the media treated it like she was announcing a whole new game.
They drip dishonesty from every pore. Every time Johnson or a Brexiter opens their mouths its a lie. None of his lunatic racist scum voters give a shit, even if you tattooed the truth on their foreheads they would pretend to ignore it every time they looked in a mirror
KevinC
5613
It’s interesting to see the parallels in the US with Trump and his followers. Alternative facts, delusional thinking, denial, projection, and just pure fantasy. The world became really strange over the past few years.
The only difference between US and UK ethno-nationalism is the grammar and vocabulary. The culture of the Trumpalos and Quitlers is one and the same.
Oghier
5615
Yep, and it’s interesting how widespread and mainstream this garbage has become.
I don’t want to live forever, but I would absolutely love to read the history books published a few hundred years from now. A retrospective on what caused this (and how it turned out) would be fascinating.
JoshL
5616
I hope you can read cockroach.
Wow, the wrecked train that was piled up in pieces next to the tracks somehow managed to crash again
The independent MP for Sheffield Hallam was arrested at the same time as his chief of staff Gareth Arnold
The twatty prankster got nicked too so its not all a sad story.
