Brexit

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

RE: Brexit

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

The chemicals industry used to be regulated by EU Reach - so that if you imported or manufactured chemicals, the substance had to registered, and approved. This approval was accepted throughout the EU. It cost our companies about £0.5 billion to get in compliance.

But as part of 'getting Brexit done', Johnson failed to ensure reciprocity for the data base (which would have been very easy and was requested numerous times by the UK chemical industry)

So then the Ministry realised that the UK authorities had no access to any data and had no idea what company was doing what with any chemicals in the UK

So they set up UK Reach - basically a giant replica.

Which (a) was always going to cost the chemical companies £1bn, (b) has now been conceded by the Government will cost them at least £2bn, and (c) has (naturally) been hugely delayed - with the deadline already pushed back two years and will probably be at least five, so basically our authorities have no real idea who is importing or manufacturing what chemicals .....

Shhh · Challenger level

There is no smoke without fire.....

twitter.com/julianHjessop/status/1558708491103215617/photo/1

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

This is not the 'fault' of Brexit but it is a problem that has come as a consequence of Brexit, and the Ukraine invasion

With seasonal workers from the EU dropping off a cliff (not literally! :smile), and a desperate shortage, farmers have obviously had to look elsewhere.

Ukrainian and Russians would have been one obvious solution but the war has put pay to that

So there have been huge recruitment drives in Indonesia etc, BUT the agents on the ground there are basically taking advantage of people's naivety, poverty and lack of knowledge (unlike the traditional EU workers who knew the ropes) and have left hundreds in debt bondage, working in the UK to pay off debts back home they were forced into for the right to work here

www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/revealed-indonesian-workers-on-uk-farm-at-risk-of-debt-bondage/ar-AA10EtVk

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Shhh wrote:
There is no smoke without fire.....

twitter.com/julianHjessop/status/1558708491103215617/photo/1

Finally the first of the elusive Brexit benefits becomes apparent biggrin biggrin

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/kent-brewery-hailed-as-brexit-export-champion-has-one-eu-customer-left/ar-AA11rL6s?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=3acb467a5fb345d89149d84e38a887a1

A Kent brewery chosen to help champion export opportunities for the government after Brexit has revealed that burdensome customs checks and paperwork have left it with just one remaining customer in the EU.

The Old Dairy Brewery in Kent a Department for International Trade export champion for the south-east appeared in a government video last year promoting the potential to boost Brexit export sales.

However its exports of bottled and keg Kent ale to countries including Italy, Germany and Sweden have slumped since the UK left the EU because of the onerous paperwork.

The brewery now has one European customer, a Berlin pub operator who travels to England by van to pick up the beer. The value of the Kent brewerys annual beer exports have fallen from £600,000 to £2,000.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

So Liz Truss now says that the UK - US trade deal is dead and 'not on the agenda'

www.ft.com/content/1b0e6267-d46e-4eb8-9071-d12532a9abb9

Even though this trade deal was vaunted as an example of one the most important post-Brexit benefits ....

And the Chancellor has refused to publish economic forecast figures

www.bbc.com/news/business-62970803

And the only good news is that many major investments are being made in our big infrastrcuture companies - because they prices are so low, the pound is so weak - which means that all the buyers are foreign - in fact, the big ones this week have all been French

"French buyers snapped up a slew of British assets on Wednesday, from a slice of the UKs biggest telecoms group to a buyout of one of the countrys oldest technology companies, underlining how overseas acquirers are taking advantage of depressed valuations.

Entrepreneur Xavier Niel bought a 2.5 per cent stake in Vodafone; Schneider Electric agreed to buy Aveva for £9.5bn; and Suez moved to buy back its British waste-treatment business for around $2.3bn.

The UK is experiencing relatively high inflation, low investment confidence and a weaker currency, making it an attractive moment for European suitors to pounce on struggling British assets.

A top-25 shareholder in Aveva described the Schneider bid as yet another example of a world-leading UK-listed company whose share price has been smashed to pieces being taken over. Avevas shares have fallen 23 per cent in the past 12 months.....

.... Wednesdays flurry of inbound French interest comes two months after Frances state-backed satellite group Eutelsat announced it was buying OneWeb, the space-based British internet company rescued from bankruptcy by Boris Johnsons government. OneWeb had struggled to raise capital to come to market with its satellite constellation and become a viable standalone business.

In a parallel to Niels investment, French telecoms billionaire Patrick Drahi last year built an 18 per cent stake in former British telecoms monopoly BT, sparking speculation that the veteran dealmaker would ultimately try to wrest full control of the company."

www.ft.com/content/8df0f111-51c8-407e-bea0-0a4f826605b6

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

This 'What UK Thinks' poll now has

Rejoin: 47%
Stay Out: 33%

So if you ignore the don't knows and recalculate

Rejoin: 58.75%
Stay Out: 41.25%

That's a 17.5% margin in favour of rejoin. Not sure I have seen that level of margin before.

twitter.com/whatukthinks/status/1578394554906165249

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Sorry for the doom-and-gloom but:

The Office for Budget Responsibility, the official independent British forecaster, has reaffirmed its prediction from that Brexit will reduce productivity and UK GDP by 4% compared with what it would have been if we'd remained in the EU.

That means about £100bn p.a in lost output and that the Treasury loses revenues of approx £40bn a year.

According to Reuter's citing of reports, British manufacturing output fell for a third month in a row in September and orders declined for a fourth consecutive month, hurt by falling foreign demand.

"September saw new export business contract at the quickest pace since May 2020, with reports of lower demand from the U.S., the EU and China," S&P Global said.

Trade is about 25% down

The Centre for Economic Policy Research says the currency sharp drop did not bring a corresponding increase in exports and left only imports being dearer, and so pushed up inflation

Red tape has caused international buyer-seller relations to drop by 33% overall

Foreign investment is about 10% lower than back in 2016 (some due to covid but a long way behind other European countries which are now in positive territory)

Several high-level scientists I know have moved to the EU, as worries about their funding (and lack of it) fail to be addressed.

.......

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

I note that, in his interview, the ex-Governor of the Bank of England refuses to give an opinion about the benefits, or not, of Brexit.

But says that, as a neutral factual statement:

"In 2016, Britains economy was 90 per cent the size of Germanys. Now it is less than 70 per cent."

Shhh · Challenger level

Coup Droit wrote:
I note that, in his interview, the ex-Governor of the Bank of England refuses to give an opinion about the benefits, or not, of Brexit.

But says that, as a neutral factual statement:

"In 2016, Britains economy was 90 per cent the size of Germanys. Now it is less than 70 per cent."

Just a copy and paste below but the point I am making is that both sides continue to quote facts, and offer proof as to why they are true, and yet their "facts" differ. One issue I would take Coup, if you were referring to Mark Carney, staunch remainer, how do you claim this factual statement to be "neutral"?

On this Mark Carney quote - has anyone found a data point which allows it to be remotely true, even if only from a certain point of view?

UK 2016 - $2.72tn UK 2021 - $3.19tn DE 2016 - $3.47tn DE 2021 - $4.22tn UK/DE 2016 - 78.4% UK/DE 2021 - 75.6% World Bank says it isn't.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

That's why it's posted

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

The FTs take on Brexit

www.ft.com/video/91b8a350-5817-4b40-a5ea-c62ec832aa9c

30 min video.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Maybe the government will actually address the lack of staff nightmare when their favourite restaurants start closing:

www.standard.co.uk/news/london/celebrity-chef-jason-atherton-closing-restaurants-unfilled-jobs-pollen-street-social-b1036408.html

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Brexit in a nutshell - or a tea bag in this case biggrin biggrin biggrin

https://twitter.com/BestForBritain/status/1589638864066727940