Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Ed Anger]

Sink the Spanish fishing fleet.

[Josquius]

I am always surprised at the outsized influence the primary sector has on politics.

In areas where they're strong they're the cornerstone of the economy.  Knock them out and the whole thing crashes down.

[Zanza]

Theresa May joined the deliberations on the Brexit Act in the House of Lords in her role as privy counsel to the Queen. This is apparently highly unusual and was interpreted as a threat towards the House of Lords that the government could try to abolish or at least further limit the powers of the House of Lords if it stops the Brexit Act.
The constant appeals to follow the vote of the people is really picking away at the bedrock of the British constitution, namely parliamentarian sovereignity. If that is replaced with the people as the sovereign, that would be a pretty epochal shift.

[The Larch]

Farmers deliver stark warning over access to EU seasonal workers
NFU president says food will 'rot in the fields' unless government guarantees access to workforce

Farmers have warned that food will "rot in the fields" and Britain will be unable to produce what it eats if the government cannot guarantee that growers will continue to have access to tens of thousands of EU workers after Brexit.

Meurig Raymond, president of the National Farmers' Union, told the body's annual conference in Birmingham that farmers and food processors, particularly in horticulture and poultry, were already having difficulty recruiting.

The value of the pound, which reduces the value of pay seasonal workers send home to EU countries, and uncertainty over longer-term UK residency rights are discouraging workers from eastern Europe. High levels of employment in countries such as Romania and Bulgaria are also squeezing the supply of workers.

The NFU said it needed government to help encourage workers from elsewhere to come to the UK to help with jobs like strawberry-picking and processing chicken.

Raymond said the industry would require 90,000 seasonal workers a year by 2021, on top of more than 250,000 permanent workers – more than three-quarters of whom now come from the EU.

He said that if just one in five permanent workers decided to go home an additional 50,000 staff would be needed, on top of the 85,000 seasonal workers currently required.

"Quite simply, without a workforce – permanent and seasonal – it wouldn't matter what a new trade deal [with the EU] looks like. Food will rot in the fields and Britain will lose the ability to produce and process its own food."

However, Andrea Leadsom, secretary of state for the environment, food and rural affairs, told farmers at the conference they should invest in machinery to boost productivity and there was a need to find "the right balance" for both new and current EU workers.

"We must not forget that a key motivating factor behind the vote to leave the EU was to control immigration," she said.

Leadsom said investment in improving productivity with technology would be part of the answer: "As I've travelled the UK, I've seen a whole raft of new technologies that complement the workforce." She added there were "large number of farmers that are yet to seize these opportunities".

Raymond told the Guardian that it was possible that robotics and other technology could help farmers reduce their reliance on labour. In its Feeding the Future report (pdf) published on Tuesday, the NFU put investment in labour-saving technology at the top of its agenda and said farmers were increasingly interested in the likes of mechanical harvesting of field vegetables, driverless tractors and robotics.

But Raymond said improving productivity with technology required heavy up-front costs and government needed to support that investment with grants, tax allowances or cheap loans. He said retailers and food processors must also offer longer-term contracts and guaranteed prices so that farmers could invest for the future.

He added: "A lot of the work, whether in horticulture, poultry or livestock processing is very manual. Yes there is automation and new technology but it is a people-based business."

[Ed Anger]

Turn the refugees into Helots. Problem solved.

[Josquius]

Yet the bloody farmers all voted for brexit.  What did they expect?

And may acts ever more a dictator.  This whole brexit thing is how v for vendetta starts right?

[Gups]

Theresa May joined the deliberations on the Brexit Act in the House of Lords in her role as privy counsel to the Queen. This is apparently highly unusual and was interpreted as a threat towards the House of Lords that the government could try to abolish or at least further limit the powers of the House of Lords if it stops the Brexit Act.
The constant appeals to follow the vote of the people is really picking away at the bedrock of the British constitution, namely parliamentarian sovereignity. If that is replaced with the people as the sovereign, that would be a pretty epochal shift.

Meh, the House of Lords is meant to be a consultative body. It shouldn't block a Commons vote which has been very clearly expressed. If it does it needs to be reformed as it was when it tried to stop a rudimentary welfare state being set up (not that it doesn't need reform/abolition any way)

[garbon]

And may acts ever more a dictator.  This whole brexit thing is how v for vendetta starts right?

She's a pretty weak dictator if that's what she is being.

[Josquius]

And may acts ever more a dictator.  This whole brexit thing is how v for vendetta starts right?

She's a pretty weak dictator if that's what she is being.

Slow and steady wins the race.

[garbon]

And may acts ever more a dictator.  This whole brexit thing is how v for vendetta starts right?

She's a pretty weak dictator if that's what she is being.

Slow and steady wins the race.

Oh, so your only reply is a cliche. Okay then.

[Josquius]

Oh, so your only reply is a cliche. Okay then.

It's a perfectly valid reply.
Early days yet, but things are worryingly creeping in that direction.

[Valmy]

The threat of plebiscite politics strikes me as a greater danger to the British constitution than an over-powerful parliament.

[Richard Hakluyt]

The leader of the majority party in the Commons is in the process of implementing the results of a referendum. Her attempts to fast track and cut corners have been defeated by the judiciary.

Hardly terrifying.

[Josquius]

The leader of the majority party in the Commons is in the process of implementing the results of a referendum. Her attempts to fast track and cut corners have been defeated by the judiciary.

Hardly terrifying.

A dodgy referendum which wouldn't have passed if setup right (a simple majority of votes cast? Seriously? And the campaign...jesus....) which proposes to remove a large number of rights from British people (and even more from resident foreigners).

Don't get me wrong. I'm not screaming May-Hitler here. As I said, she's acting ever more dictatorial, not she is a dictator.
But certainly there are some very dark developments going on in the UK and to just kick back and let it happen... well that's how true dictatorships do come into being.

[Gups]

Oh, so your only reply is a cliche. Okay then.

It's a perfectly valid reply.
Early days yet, but things are worryingly creeping in that direction.

No it's not. It makes you look like an idiot who doesn't know what a dictator is.