Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[celedhring]

I once lost my passport in NYC, and the NYPD told me there's actually very little a fellon could do with a stolen passport or the data in it, given how many security measures they carry. Dunno if that's true.

Back when my wife had a Chinese passport she applied for a US visa. That involved leaving her passport at the embassy and having them mail it back to her. As if by sheer coincidence our building had someone break in and steal all the mail in our building when it came back. Security measures or not, I imagine a Chinese passport with a valid US visa has some value.

Not unless they can alter it well enough to pass American border controls with it. Which, admittedly, might be easier than we are told it is.

[Jacob]

Not unless they can alter it well enough to pass American border controls with it. Which, admittedly, might be easier than we are told it is.

Alternately, if they have access to someone who can edit the database used by American border controls it could be useful.

[Josquius]

A second referendum, on the actual terms of Brexit, would be hillarious.

Remainers would vote no because they want to remain. Most Leavers would vote no too because it didn't fit their personal idea on the terms.

Then the government could not sign the agreement and the UK would just fall out of the UK on default terms due to the expiry of the two years. Would really be the icing on the cake.

That's why it would be perfect.
And why the government wouldn't dare do it

I once lost my passport in NYC, and the NYPD told me there's actually very little a fellon could do with a stolen passport or the data in it, given how many security measures they carry. Dunno if that's true.

Seems valid for using it to get through passport control.
Though as a form of ID they're usually considered pretty infallible and I'm sure most people don't know how to check for tampering or know that a passport is stolen.

[The Larch]

Apparently the UK's inmigration minister has proposed a one thousand pound levy on qualified EU workers post-Brexit. Number 10 has already distanced itself from it.

No 10 distances itself from minister over levy on skilled EU workers
Immigration minister told peers a post-Brexit annual levy of £1,000 for each EU recruit would be 'helpful to British workers'

Downing Street has moved to distance itself from a proposal by the immigration minister for a £1,000-a-year levy on every EU skilled worker recruited by British employers after Brexit.

Robert Goodwill told peers that the "immigration skills levy" could be introduced for EU migrants and would "be helpful to British workers who feel they are overlooked" in favour of migrants.

But the suggestion provoked an immediate business backlash which led Downing Street to try to play down the proposal. The prime minister's spokesman said it was not on the government's agenda and suggested Goodwill's remarks had been "misinterpreted" and he had simply highlighted the skills levy for non-EU migrants coming into force in April.

[The Brain]

Corbyn's maximum wage will bring in the talent.

[garbon]

Corbyn's maximum wage will bring in the talent.

He changed after floating that to say he wants a maximum pay ratio - so exec salaries can be as high as a company wants but then low position salaries need to be within a certain ratio.

[The Brain]

Corbyn's maximum wage will bring in the talent.

He changed after floating that to say he wants a maximum pay ratio - so exec salaries can be as high as a company wants but then low position salaries need to be within a certain ratio.

No backsies.

[Barrister]

Corbyn's maximum wage will bring in the talent.

He changed after floating that to say he wants a maximum pay ratio - so exec salaries can be as high as a company wants but then low position salaries need to be within a certain ratio.

He also specifically talked about footballer salaries, who clearly aren't CEOs.

[garbon]

Corbyn's maximum wage will bring in the talent.

He changed after floating that to say he wants a maximum pay ratio - so exec salaries can be as high as a company wants but then low position salaries need to be within a certain ratio.

He also specifically talked about footballer salaries, who clearly aren't CEOs.

He also mentioned companies with workers so pretty obvious he was also talking executives.

[Josquius]

Apparently there is already a wage cap in Holland?

Seems a odd policy to me.  Surely setting super high taxes on obscene wages is a better approach.

[Richard Hakluyt]

I expect it is known as the Dutch Cap.

[Syt]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jan/15/theresa-may-uk-is-prepared-to-accept-hard-brexit

Theresa May: UK is prepared to accept hard Brexit

Forthcoming speech by prime minister believed to suggest that UK must be willing to leave single market to regain control of its borders

Theresa May is to announce that the government is prepared to accept a clean break with the EU in its negotiations for the UK's departure. In a speech to be delivered on Tuesday, the prime minister will make clear that she is willing to sacrifice the UK's membership of the single market and customs union in order to bring an end to freedom of movement.

An article in the Sunday Telegraph cites "sources familiar with the prime minister's thinking" as saying that May is seeking to appease the Eurosceptic wing of her party by contemplating a "hard", or "clean", Brexit.

In the speech to an audience of diplomats at London's Lancaster House May will hope to end months of speculation about her intentions by setting out her aims for Brexit. According to the Sunday Telegraph, she will say that the UK must:

- be prepared to leave the EU customs union;
- regain full control of its borders, even if that means losing access to the single market, and
- cease to be subject to rulings by the European court of justice.

She will also use the address to appeal for unity after six months of bitter recriminations between pro- and anti-EU factions. She will plead for an end to insults, the Press Association reports, as well as the divisive terminology of "leavers" and "remainers", and call on both sides to come together to make a successful future for Britain outside the EU.

May is expected to focus on building "common goals" – such as protecting and enhancing workers' rights – in an attempt to create a consensus after months of acrimonious exchanges.

"One of the reasons that Britain's democracy has been such a success for so many years is that the strength of our identity as one nation, the respect we show to one another as fellow citizens, and the importance we attach to our institutions means that when a vote has been held we all respect the result," she is expected to say.

"The victors have the responsibility to act magnanimously. The losers have the responsibility to respect the legitimacy of the result. And the country comes together.

"Now we need to put an end to the division and the language associated with it – leaver and remainer and all the accompanying insults – and unite to make a success of Brexit and build a truly global Britain."

Comments from David Davis offered further clues as to the government's Brexit strategy. Writing in the Sunday Times, the Brexit secretary hinted that the UK might seek a transitional deal with the other 27 EU nations.

"We don't want the EU to fail, we want it to prosper economically and politically, and we need to persuade our allies that a strong new partnership with the UK will help the EU to do that," he wrote. "If it proves necessary, we have said that we will consider time for implementation of new arrangements."

Pro-Remain Tory MP Nicky Morgan, sacked as education secretary by May in July, said the prime minister should put "maximum participation" in the single market at the heart of her negotiating strategy.

"The government will be doing a disservice to the country and to both leave and remain voters if it dogmatically pursues a hard, destructive Brexit where immigration control is the be all and end all, our economy is undermined, and people are left poorer," she said.

The details of May's speech have emerged the day after the EU's chief negotiator offered the first hint of a compromise from Brussels to ensure that member states continue to have easy access to the City. According to unpublished minutes seen by the Guardian, Michel Barnier indicated that he wants the remaining 27 countries to have a "special relationship" with the financial markets of the City of London.

The paper said he told a private meeting of MEPs that work was needed to avoid financial instability once Britain left the bloc, according to a summary of the talks by the European Parliament. "Some very specific work has to be done in this area," he said, according to the minutes. "There will be a special/specific relationship. There will need to be work outside of the negotiation box ... in order to avoid financial instability."

The disclosure will encourage pro-Brexit MPs who have long argued that the UK will have more leverage in the negotiations than some critics have allowed.

[Zanza]

Comments from David Davis offered further clues as to the government's Brexit strategy. Writing in the Sunday Times, the Brexit secretary hinted that the UK might seek a transitional deal with the other 27 EU nations.

"We don't want the EU to fail, we want it to prosper economically and politically, and we need to persuade our allies that a strong new partnership with the UK will help the EU to do that," he wrote. "If it proves necessary, we have said that we will consider time for implementation of new arrangements."

How generous of Britain to consider a transitional deal so that the EU does not fail over Brexit. 

[Josquius]

Yet still you get people raving about the high stock market as an obvious  sign that brexit was a brilliant idea.

[Syt]

I wonder what the plan is. Turn the UK into a tax haven?