Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Sheilbh]

Yes, but its easy to protect from US agricultural competition simply by using quality standards.

This and other food standards issues is why there'll never be a UK-US Free Trade Agreement. No government is strong enough to survive the combined might of the Guardian, the Daily Mail and Countryfile

[crazy canuck]

I wonder what the issue is? Are Canada's cheese producers inefficient? That seems unlikely.

The Canadian milk industry cannot compete with the United States and is thus protected.

Yes, but its easy to protect from US agricultural competition simply by using quality standards.

Yep, the US might take the Walmart market but not much else. 

Well apparently it doesn't include good cheddar

Yes, the sordid truth emerges.... the Canadian Cheddar Illuminati have an iron grip on an oppressed people 

  Too true

[Richard Hakluyt]

Yes, but its easy to protect from US agricultural competition simply by using quality standards.

This and other food standards issues is why there'll never be a UK-US Free Trade Agreement. No government is strong enough to survive the combined might of the Guardian, the Daily Mail and Countryfile

I can imagine food standards going even higher post-brexit.....it is an area of consensus in our national life.

[Grey Fox]

These are fighting words BB!

@HVC, it's the Ontario auto industry of Quebec.

[The Brain]

Yes, but its easy to protect from US agricultural competition simply by using quality standards.

This and other food standards issues is why there'll never be a UK-US Free Trade Agreement. No government is strong enough to survive the combined might of the Guardian, the Daily Mail and Countryfile

I can imagine food standards going even higher post-brexit.....it is an area of consensus in our national life.

Only the finest food will reach NI. And sometimes not even that.

[Grey Fox]

I wonder what the issue is? Are Canada's cheese producers inefficient? That seems unlikely.

The Canadian milk industry cannot compete with the United States and is thus protected.

Yes, but its easy to protect from US agricultural competition simply by using quality standards.

They already lie left & right to get their milk in. Letting them destroy our farming industry is not an improvement.

[crazy canuck]

I wonder what the issue is? Are Canada's cheese producers inefficient? That seems unlikely.

The Canadian milk industry cannot compete with the United States and is thus protected.

Yes, but its easy to protect from US agricultural competition simply by using quality standards.

They already lie left & right to get their milk in. Letting them destroy our farming industry is not an improvement.

That is a separate issue though.  Both Canadian and American government are shy about properly labelling for some reason.

[garbon]

Yes, but its easy to protect from US agricultural competition simply by using quality standards.

This and other food standards issues is why there'll never be a UK-US Free Trade Agreement. No government is strong enough to survive the combined might of the Guardian, the Daily Mail and Countryfile

I can imagine food standards going even higher post-brexit.....it is an area of consensus in our national life.

Says the country that birthed Iceland.

[Tamas]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/nov/24/trial-of-brexit-border-checks-causes-five-mile-lorry-queues-in-kent

The French ran a 6 hour test of post-Brexit border checks, and that's just the end-tyrannical-free-movement bit of checking passports and lorry paperwork, not even real customs checks, so this is the bit that will happen even if there's a trade deal. Ended up causing a five miles queue of lorries on the English end.

This will all go swimmingly.

[The Brain]

The Cluster-Fuck wedding is gonna be awesome.

[crazy canuck]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/nov/24/trial-of-brexit-border-checks-causes-five-mile-lorry-queues-in-kent

The French ran a 6 hour test of post-Brexit border checks, and that's just the end-tyrannical-free-movement bit of checking passports and lorry paperwork, not even real customs checks, so this is the bit that will happen even if there's a trade deal. Ended up causing a five miles queue of lorries on the English end.

This will all go swimmingly.

Makes mental note not to enter Europe via England ever again.

[Zanza]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/nov/24/trial-of-brexit-border-checks-causes-five-mile-lorry-queues-in-kent

The French ran a 6 hour test of post-Brexit border checks, and that's just the end-tyrannical-free-movement bit of checking passports and lorry paperwork, not even real customs checks, so this is the bit that will happen even if there's a trade deal. Ended up causing a five miles queue of lorries on the English end.

This will all go swimmingly.

Even with a trade deal, customs and sanitary/regulatory checks will happen. Customs because of rules of origin, sanitary/regulatory checks because the UK is no longer adhering European product standards. The idea that a trade deal will remove friction is wrong, it just removes the additional payment of tariffs and administration of quotas.
And this test was just the tunnel, which has less capacity than the ferries.

[mongers]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/nov/24/trial-of-brexit-border-checks-causes-five-mile-lorry-queues-in-kent

The French ran a 6 hour test of post-Brexit border checks, and that's just the end-tyrannical-free-movement bit of checking passports and lorry paperwork, not even real customs checks, so this is the bit that will happen even if there's a trade deal. Ended up causing a five miles queue of lorries on the English end.

This will all go swimmingly.

Yeah, no need to worry.

I've been telling you guys this for years:

It's all going swimmingly. 

No need to worry, Boris has our back. 

[Sheilbh]

Damning and not a surprise at all:

'Stain on British history': Home Office broke equality law over Windrush scandal, report finds
To make sure the events are never repeated, the government department has committed to an agreement with the EHRC to take action.
Wednesday 25 November 2020 02:51, UK


The Empire Windrush brought settlers from the Caribbean over to the UK after the Second World War

The Home Office broke equality law when it imposed its "hostile environment" immigration policies which contributed to the Windrush scandal, a report has found.

Problems caused by the policies were "repeatedly ignored, dismissed or their severity disregarded" as they were being developed, according to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) assessment.

The Windrush scandal broke in 2018 when it was discovered that hundreds of Commonwealth citizens had been wrongly detained, deported and denied legal rights.

Under the hostile environment legislation, announced in 2012, the government aimed to push out undocumented migrants.

But many of the Windrush generation, who arrived in the UK from Caribbean countries between 1948 and 1973, had arrived as children on their parents' passports and the Home Office had destroyed thousands of landing cards and other documents.

As a result, many legal migrants struggled to prove they had the right to live in the UK under the new legislation, with some losing access to housing, healthcare and bank accounts.

The EHRC agreed with an earlier report that the experiences of the Windrush generation were "foreseeable and avoidable", and its chair described their treatment as a "shameful stain on British history".

Even as the effects of the hostile environment policies began to emerge, the Home Office had "limited" engagement with those from the Windrush generation.

To make sure the events are never repeated, the government department has committed to an agreement with the EHRC to take action.

Among the EHRC's recommendations are for the Home Office to remain transparent, engage with affected people, consider historical context and improve its understanding and compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED).

Caroline Waters, interim chair of the EHRC, said: "The treatment of the Windrush generation as a result of hostile environment policies was a shameful stain on British history.

"It is unacceptable that equality legislation, designed to prevent an unfair or disproportionate impact on people from ethnic minorities and other groups, was effectively ignored in the creation and delivery of policies that had such profound implications for so many people's lives.

"Our review has identified where the Home Office fell short of its legal obligations."

A scheme was set up last year to compensate members of the Windrush generation who were affected.

Home Secretary Priti Patel and permanent secretary Matthew Rycroft said: "We are determined to right the wrongs suffered by the Windrush generation and make amends for the institutional failings they faced spanning successive governments over several decades.

"This report highlights a number of important areas for improvement by the Home Office, building on the work we are already doing in response to the Windrush Lessons Learned Review to apply a more rigorous approach to policy making, increase openness to scrutiny, and create a more inclusive workforce - including by launching comprehensive training for everyone working in the Home Office to ensure they understand and appreciate the history of migration and race in this country.

"We are working closely with the EHRC on an action plan designed to ensure that we never make similar mistakes in the future."

This whole scandal is just disgraceful and, obviously, avoidable and predictable. Given the institutional racism exposed in this report there should be consequences and people taking responsibility. But that won't happen, not least because it never does in the Home Office which feels like it's been the least competent, most scandal-ridden government department for as long as I can remember.

Instead, we are, alarmingly, creating the seeds of a new Windrush scandal with implementing Brexit and especially with the rights of the children of European citizens:
https://legalvoice.org.uk/british-one-thing-proving-another/

No doubt we'll do the same with Hong Kongers who come to the UK because it just feels like our entire citizenship law isn't really fit for purpose any more and instead of reforming that we have lots of rights of residence, "settled status", BNO rights of residence etc and trusting the least competent department in government to administer it

[Sheilbh]

So Johnson's appointed a former civil servant as his new Chief of Staff - which is quite the change in direction/approach.

It's going to be Dan Rosenfield who, apparently, was Principal Private Secretary (Bernard in Yes Minister) to Alastair Darling (during the financial crisis) and George Osborne. More recently he's been an investment adviser - but seems very respected from other people who worked in or with the Treasury. Interesting interview in the Jewish Telegraph: http://jewishtelegraph.com/prof_491.html.

Worth noting that since Cummings' genius idea of merging Number 10's operations with Number 11 that him and his team are gone. The new head of communications previously worked at the Treasury and the new Chief of Staff previously worked at the Treasury (and the politician whose star is rising is probably still the Chancellor).

Edit: A quick reaction by someone who knows a lot more about this:

Dan Rosenfield – Number 10 makes sensible appointment of financial crisis veteran
BY The Hound   /  26 November 2020

Dan Rosenfield, the new chief of staff in Number 10, is about as far removed from Dominic Cummings as it is possible to be. So experienced and sensible is Rosenfield that some baffled Downing Street watchers on hearing the news may wonder whether some sort of terrible mistake of communication has been made and Boris got the wrong Dan.

But no, the appointment is an indication that Johnson and cabinet secretary Simon Case want to move on from the counterproductive chaos of the Cummings and Lee Cain era.

Hiring Rosenfield, who starts next week, is an attempt to bring order to the Number 10 operation after a bizarre period when Johnson entrusted his future to someone who actively dislikes the Prime Minister's party and the fate of the country to a dynamic duo playing politics with about as much subtlety as a kamikaze pilot flying straight at a US carrier.

Rosenfield is a former civil servant, once a Treasury high-flyer and a veteran of the financial crisis. During the 2008 crisis he was private secretary to Chancellor Alistair Darling. He was with him on 7 October 2008, flying from Northolt to the ECOFIN meeting in Luxembourg, the day that RBS ran out of money. He was there when special advisor Geoffrey Spence got Darling out of the meeting to let him know shares in RBS had been suspended twice and they had crashed as much as 35%.

It was Rosenfield who put on his credit card the famous curry during bailout talks with the banks. The Treasury expenses department queried why he had spent £350 on curry.

During the transition from Labour to the Coalition, Rosenfield was there to smooth the switch from Darling to George Osborne. Both Darling and Osborne's teams rated him highly as someone politically savvy and good to work with. Could this now catch on?

Rosenfield left government for a post at Bank of America and then became a partner and global head of corporate clients at strategic advisory firm Hakluyt [ ]. There will some opposition focus on the nature of that latter job, and the identity of clients no doubt.

But this novel – in the context of the last 18 months – appointment does suggest a move back to a more traditional approach in Number 10.