Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Josquius]

Plus it's the British government. They can't do IT.
Though I guess it means some juicy contracts from the brexiteers friends, and isn't that the whole point of this malarkey afterall?

[The Brain]

I'm not worried. Steiner's policy will save you.

Steiner didn't have enough men. The policy didn't take place.

That's it. Now the glasses are off.

[Valmy]

I'm not worried. Steiner's policy will save you.

Steiner didn't have enough men. The policy didn't take place.

That's it. Now the glasses are off.

That was an order! Steiner's policy was an order! How dare you ignore my orders?! They are all cowards, traitors and failures! The Brexiteers are the scum of the German people! *throws something* NO SENSE OF HONOUR!

[mongers]

Rubbish.

It's all going swimmingly* .




* Not for this to colloquialism to work, you have to assume the UK is a migrant leaving a troubling place.

[Zanza]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/aug/16/uk-to-seek-irish-border-waivers-on-customs-and-food-safety-after-brexit

Britain will ask for an exemption for all small traders and farmers from a host of customs, agricultural and food safety checks. In return, it aims to seek "regulatory equivalence" with the EU to try to avoid the need for inspections of live animals and billions of pounds worth of other goods.

[...]

Concerns have also been raised about the implications of allowing people to continue to travel without any checks, and whether this outsources UK immigration policy to the Irish Republic.

The UK government says that maintaining the common travel area should be possible because security and immigration checks are often carried out far away from the border already. It concedes, however, that the plan relies on Ireland staying outside the Schengen travel zone.

So "take back control" means that they are now asking for a waiver on border checks in Northern Ireland and seek "regulatory equivalence" with the EU, meaning they would have to be a rule-taker as the EU will surely set the rules and expect Britain to follow. This gets ever more silly.

Officials refuse to speculate what consequences this may have for limiting the scope of trade agreements with non-compliant countries such as the US. Without matching regulations, the EU could block imports however, fearing that the open border was a backdoor into its consumer market.

Ooops. No chlorinated chicken after all...?

Officials concede the plan relies on unprecedented trust and cooperation with the EU

Unprecedented levels of trust and cooperation with the organization you are just leaving? 

[Zanza]

The UK now published a few more position papers. All of them have one thing in common: they want to preserve "the closest possible" cooperation or regulatory equivalence or mutual recognition of standards and compliance rules. And of course all without any oversight through commission or court and full freedom to deviate from those closest possible rulesets where the UK likes and the full freedom to conduct trade agreements with third countries and not having to pay into the EU budget. They are moving from have their cake and eat it towards unicorns and rainbows. It's just not substantial at all. The Brexit press is already writing that now the ball would be the EU's half and they would now have to respond to those British ideas. I still think the talks will break down when Britain finds out that its wishes are not compatible with EU law.

[Tamas]

The UK now published a few more position papers. All of them have one thing in common: they want to preserve "the closest possible" cooperation or regulatory equivalence or mutual recognition of standards and compliance rules. And of course all without any oversight through commission or court and full freedom to deviate from those closest possible rulesets where the UK likes and the full freedom to conduct trade agreements with third countries and not having to pay into the EU budget. They are moving from have their cake and eat it towards unicorns and rainbows. It's just not substantial at all. The Brexit press is already writing that now the ball would be the EU's half and they would now have to respond to those British ideas. I still think the talks will break down when Britain finds out that its wishes are not compatible with EU law.

Well, it is now, indeed, the EU's job to deliver the best possible deal for Britain, and I don't see them working on it hard enough! Come on, come on, get on with it!

[Zanza]

It's old news from March... but this is the government that wants to negotiate some kind of customs association based on unprecedented trust to replace the current customs union with its enforcement institutions. 

UK faces €2bn fine over Chinese imports scam, say EU investigators
Customs officials are accused of negligence for failing to crack down on criminal gangs flooding Europe with illegal goods

The British government faces a €2bn (£1.7bn) fine for negligence that allowed criminal gangs to flood European black markets with illegal Chinese goods, EU anti-fraud investigators have said.

The European anti-fraud office (known as Olaf from its French name, Office de Lutte Anti-Fraude) has recommended the UK pay €1.98bn into the EU budget to compensate for lost customs duties, as a result of a failure by British customs officials to crack down on criminal gangs using fake invoices and making false claims about the value of clothes and shoes imported from China.

Olaf said the fraud was ongoing and pointed out the cost to national exchequers was even greater. France, Germany, Spain and Italy are estimated to have lost a combined €3.2bn from 2013 to 2016 in VAT revenues, as a result of British failures in handling imports at its ports.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/08/uk-faces-2bn-fine-over-chinese-imports-scam-say-eu-anti-fraud-investigators

[Zanza]

Next round of negotiations starts tomorrow.  Little progress expected as EU wants to talk about financial settlement but not the future relationship, whereas the UK wants to talk about the future relationship but not the financial settlement.

[Maladict]

 

[Josquius]

Labour announce a rational plan.
...
But they aren't in government so whatever

[Tamas]

Labour announce a rational plan.
...
But they aren't in government so whatever

I fully expect Corbyn to contradict that by Tuesday morning the latest.

[alfred russel]

Labour announce a rational plan.
...
But they aren't in government so whatever

They have the luxury of acting rationally because they aren't in government.

[garbon]

Labour announce a rational plan.
...
But they aren't in government so whatever

I fully expect Corbyn to contradict that by Tuesday morning the latest.

It doesn't really sound like a plan he'd be in favour of.

[garbon]

Actually, Labour appears to be all conflicted and MPs are complaining it will lose Labour votes.