Political relations between UK-EU

[BobKowalski]

Loads of broccoli etc in Aldi this morning; fuck knows what I’m going to do with all these palettes of tinned food. Hopefully, eBay do the £1 final value fees deal soon.

“Latest on Brexit Britain from Brian, what can you tell us as we head into Lockdown, Brian?”

”Well, Ron, there were food shortages in NI yesterday, Dover traffic is down 85% and Exchanges saw €6bn in trades shifting to Euro markets, a worrying sign for the City.”

”Is there a sign we are rallying, Brian?”

”Absolutely, Ron. I can report that Aldi has lots of broccoli, there is no shortage of broccoli, they had crates of the stuff.”

”Great news, Brian, Global Britain leading the way in broccoli. In other news we are pleased to say there are reports of limits on duty free booze from abroad, PM Johnson was quick to point out the health benefits of less booze for Brexit loving Britons...”

 

[west didsblue]

No, but we’ve been spammed with broccoli updates...

---which are in a queue behind the spam updates.

 

[BobKowalski]

---which are in a queue behind the spam updates.

They‘re in the broccoli aisle...

 

[Vic]

I'm staying out of the broccoli shortage sub-thread - until they're rotting in the ground with no-one here to pick them.

 

[Saddleworth2]

On a vegetable theme, I got an email from my veggie box supplier yesterday. It contained this little paragraph:

Imported produce: As some of our produce comes from mainland Europe it has been effected by the new regulations. We try and grow and supply as much produce as we can as local as possible, but over the winter especially, with certain vegetable and fruits, we have to rely on produce from our friends in areas such as the South of Spain, if we are to operate year round. Unfortunately the Brexit deal is still a bad deal for the majority of the population. We now have customs import and export tariffs which will add roughly 5-10% on to the cost of products. Due to customs checks and inspections, produce may also spend more time on the road which is not ideal especially for organic produce. There is also a mass of paperwork, deferred duty payments, plant health checks and payments. So where we once had free movement of produce and people, we now have costs and restrictions and I am sure this is not what people knowingly voted for! We aim to grow a lot more this year, but it can be risky with the Scottish weather.

just another of life’s papercuts. I look forward to my Scottish grown free range avocados and san Marzano tomatoes.

 

[Ban-jani]

Bit of a random post but there’s a YouTube channel that travels across Europe asking people which country they like and dislike.

They walk through town centres, mostly capital cities and try to engage with locals.

Bored last night I watched 5-6, they’re only 2 mins.

I was pleasantly surprised to very rarely hear “England” mentioned, worth bearing in mind that’s how most refer to the UK in their native languages.

In fact, the only country where England was mentioned more than once as a country people hated, was in England and in Scotland lol.

The French didn’t like the Germans generally and the Germans liked everyone.

England also came up quite a few times for countries people liked.

Most of the videos are 2-6 months old so at a relevant time regarding Brexit.

The country that came up most for dislike was America and when pressed, people said “politics”. The French came up more than us for being “snobbish”.

 

[Vic]

Obsessing over pedantic definitions is an helpful distraction from inconvenient truths

In other news - a distinct disadvantage of Brexit to me personally is that UK citizens are now restricted to old-fashioned duty-free allowances:

GB-EU travellers to benefit from duty-free allowances after Brexit deal (dfnionline.com)

For years I have been like a 'mule' for both people in the UK and Cyprus taking suitcases full of goodies - it might affect how much people look forward to seeing me

You have people who look forward to seeing you?

 

[mcfc1632]

You have people who look forward to seeing you?

Oh yes - or at least that has been the case for years

I will find out - when travel is allowed again - whether it was because of my engaging personality or my 2 x 32k luggage allowance

I am actually a bit nervous about it - could my popularity be a casualty of Brexit?

 

[GH64]

I have no idea what point you're trying to make. The tariff appears to be 9.5p a kilo but it's a tax on a developing country's exports that may cut demand for that country's produce, and means we pay more for bananas.

£2bn is £40k for each new Brexit customs officer (wages, NI, training, other oncosts).

With everything people have to worry about these days, I don't want them to think that not being able to afford a banana is one of them.

Most bananas imported into the UK come from South & Central America and already had a tariff into the EU - the 9.5p tariff looks like the 2020 EU non qualified rate, so we've chosen to continue that. Why? God knows. So no change in price for most bananas. We can sign a zero tariff agreement with Ghana for Bananas if we want to to return it to pre Brexit status. Sounds like a good idea. We could do the same for Colombia, and get cheaper bananas which would be good for UK consumers and bad for Ghana. Pre Brexit we couldn't.

50,000 new jobs isn't border patrol type customs agents paid for by the treasury, it is mainly people in companies, paid for by the companies, to do the paperwork. So the tariffs don't pay for it. And I'd be surprised if it was more than £30K / head. But my point was that it was nothing to do with Ghanaian bananas.

 

[Ban-jani]

Oh yes - or at least that has been the case for years

I will find out - when travel is allowed again - whether it was because of my engaging personality or my 2 x 32k luggage allowance

I am actually a bit nervous about it - could my popularity be a casualty of Brexit?

It will be if it goes completely tits up ;-)