Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Josquius]

Yeah. This thing is heavily affecting my life decisions due to that need. I am looking at just that. For sure I want to make sure I'm living in the EU at the time of the official brexit.
Which is sad as I'd like to live in the UK or move back to Asia.

[Tamas]

Garbon, one more example that we must be very careful to do all paperwork right, and well in time:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/may/16/footage-emerges-of-distressing-home-visit-by-immigration-officers

[Tamas]

Reading the live text-reporting on May's press conference in Sofia, trying to make any sense of it.

Brexit is 10 months away and still it is entirely impossible to get one actual, concrete statement out of her regarding it. Not. A. Single. One.

[Zanza]

She is trying to square the circle and that will of course not happen. The only thing she might achieve is that she finds some fudge to kick the can down the road that is acceptable to EU/Ireland and the ERG in her party.

[The Brain]

I guess basically we're 10 months from a hard Brexit?

[Zanza]

I guess basically we're 10 months from a hard Brexit?

The currently stated red lines of both sides do not allow an agreement. One or both sides have to give up on one or more of their red lines for an agreement.

[garbon]

Garbon, one more example that we must be very careful to do all paperwork right, and well in time:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/may/16/footage-emerges-of-distressing-home-visit-by-immigration-officers

Well there is always California.

[Josquius]

She is trying to square the circle and that will of course not happen. The only thing she might achieve is that she finds some fudge to kick the can down the road that is acceptable to EU/Ireland and the ERG in her party.

Kicking the can down the road is somewhat certain de facto. The trouble is de jure she wants to burn the bridges asap no matter what.

[The Larch]

Apparently not just Caribben inmigrants are being screwed by the Home Office these days...

Ex-mayor of Ipswich denied citizenship after almost 40 years in UK
Home Office tells Inga Lockington, who moved from Denmark in 1979, it 'cannot be satisfied' she is permanently resident

A former mayor of Ipswich, who has lived in the UK since 1979, has been denied UK citizenship.

Inga Lockington, who has been a Liberal Democrat councillor for 19 years and served as mayor in 2007, moved to the UK from Denmark in 1979, when she married her British husband, Tim.

She was given indefinite leave to remain, which was stamped in her passport at the time.

Following the EU referendum, Lockington decided to apply for UK citizenship, a decision that was also influenced by changes to Danish law that meant she wouldn't lose her Danish citizenship if she became a naturalised Briton.

The Home Office rejected her application, which cost her £1,282, at the end of January on the basis it "cannot be satisfied" that she was permanently a resident in the UK.

Lockington said her first reaction to the decision was shock and she had to reread the letter several times to be sure it said what she thought. She has chosen to speak out now in solidarity with the Windrush victims, and to try to highlight the breakdown of the immigration system.

"When I got the letter I felt so rejected and upset," she said. "My husband was absolutely furious. I had planned to put an appeal in, which they said there was no time limit for, but then of course the Windrush scandal came out and it really just brought it home what a difficult situation some people will be in. It really was painful to read about all the people.

"I just felt I've got to tell my story because it's so sad how the Home Office seems to try to refuse people if they can. I think most people applying are doing it for the right reasons but the Home Office assumes we're all bad. It's the hostile environment Theresa May has created."

She said her rejection was on the basis of her not having a permanent residency card, which has been obligatory since November 2016.

Lockington said she had never been told she needed it and is angry that the Home Office, who had all her contact details, did not phone her to ask any questions or tell her she did need the card.

She said: "That would have been a friendlier thing to do rather than just send a letter refusing me. You pay all that money and then they don't do a proper job."

She said she took for granted that she would be granted citizenship but doesn't want special treatment because of her public service. "I just want to be treated fairly because I want everybody to be treated the same way," she said.

Sal Brinton, a Liberal Democrat peer and president of the party, expressed her outrage on social media, saying. "I have known Inga for close to 20 years, she's had indefinite leave to remain in her passport since 1979. Hostile environment for lawful EU citizens already here."

"She is an EU citizen married to a UK resident and does not need any document certifying permanent residence. However, she does already have indefinite leave to remain in her passport from 1979, which they've ignored. Hostile environment at work. Disgraceful."

She added in a later tweet: "First Windrush, now EU citizens."

The Home Office said they would be contacting Lockington on Wednesday to discuss the issue, suggesting there was a problem with her application.

But Richard Thompson, of Ipswich Liberal Democrats, said: "It's just ridiculous. If someone who has been a councillor for 19 years can't get the paperwork right, it suggests there is something wrong with the paperwork."

A spokesperson for the Home Office said they respected Lockington's public service and would be "happy to discuss the various routes to citizenship" available to her.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Depressing and disgusting 

[Tamas]

Bumped into this scene, somehow feels apt to this topic

https://youtu.be/whvDmNkJhUk?t=5

[Zanza]

Britain wants to continue participation in all kinds of EU bodies often as a voting member. Be it science, data protection, space, nuclear safety, Europol etc.
I wonder if the EU will actually relent on their "no cherry picking" red line and will admit the UK to some or all of these institutions.  All of which are under the jurisdiction of the ECJ of course, which violates a British red line...

[Tamas]

For a change, a very good opinion piece in the Guardian. Incidentally, it wasn't written by a leftist journalist:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/24/max-fac-brexit-customs-hmrc-peoples-vote

The latest is the revelation from the chief executive of HMRC that the Brexiters' preferred customs plan, the so-called "max-fac" solution based on technology, would cost British businesses between £17bn and 20bn a year. To put that into a context even Boris Johnson would understand, that's a cost of around £350m a week. I don't remember seeing that on the side of any big red buses.

The basic reality is that many small- and medium-sized companies won't be able to cope with these kinds of costs, and will simply go bankrupt. Jobs will be lost, supply chains will be disrupted, every sector of our economy will feel the impact. Inevitably, the extra costs will be passed on to consumers. A double hit: jobs down, prices up.

The government's other proposal, the "customs partnership", is equally nonsensical. It has no precedent anywhere in the world, it relies on a level of trust between the UK and the EU that is in pretty short supply thanks to our recent actions, and it would still involve a bombshell of new bureaucracy for British businesses, as companies would need to track all their products to their final destinations and then send invoices to HMRC to claim back the difference between UK and EU tariffs.

The irony of this endless debate over customs is that the EU has already rejected both of the government's proposals, which makes the whole thing utterly futile. And let's not forget, the single market and the customs union already exist to keep trade between the UK and the rest of Europe almost entirely frictionless, so we're wasting a lot of time and money trying to solve a problem that has already been fixed.

We've seen our economy go from the fastest growing in the G7 before the referendum to the slowest growing in the developed world today. The value of the pound has collapsed, well-known companies have disappeared, and the Bank of England has calculated that real household income is now £900 lower than predicted before the referendum. The Brexiters are driving our country towards a cliff edge and trying to pretend the brakes don't work, and that there's nothing any of us can do about it.

We're sick of C-league politicians stitching up deals behind closed doors to save face, when the consequences will have an impact on everyone

I quoted the last part because I like the C-league bit.

[The Brain]

Bumped into this scene, somehow feels apt to this topic

https://youtu.be/whvDmNkJhUk?t=5

The handling of Brexit reminds me of this (which is a bit unfair, because busting drug dealers is basically a good idea): https://youtu.be/NJhGfjW1-fA?t=28s

[The Brain]

For a change, a very good opinion piece in the Guardian. Incidentally, it wasn't written by a leftist journalist:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/24/max-fac-brexit-customs-hmrc-peoples-vote

The latest is the revelation from the chief executive of HMRC that the Brexiters' preferred customs plan, the so-called "max-fac" solution based on technology, would cost British businesses between £17bn and 20bn a year. To put that into a context even Boris Johnson would understand, that's a cost of around £350m a week. I don't remember seeing that on the side of any big red buses.

The basic reality is that many small- and medium-sized companies won't be able to cope with these kinds of costs, and will simply go bankrupt. Jobs will be lost, supply chains will be disrupted, every sector of our economy will feel the impact. Inevitably, the extra costs will be passed on to consumers. A double hit: jobs down, prices up.

The government's other proposal, the "customs partnership", is equally nonsensical. It has no precedent anywhere in the world, it relies on a level of trust between the UK and the EU that is in pretty short supply thanks to our recent actions, and it would still involve a bombshell of new bureaucracy for British businesses, as companies would need to track all their products to their final destinations and then send invoices to HMRC to claim back the difference between UK and EU tariffs.

The irony of this endless debate over customs is that the EU has already rejected both of the government's proposals, which makes the whole thing utterly futile. And let's not forget, the single market and the customs union already exist to keep trade between the UK and the rest of Europe almost entirely frictionless, so we're wasting a lot of time and money trying to solve a problem that has already been fixed.

We've seen our economy go from the fastest growing in the G7 before the referendum to the slowest growing in the developed world today. The value of the pound has collapsed, well-known companies have disappeared, and the Bank of England has calculated that real household income is now £900 lower than predicted before the referendum. The Brexiters are driving our country towards a cliff edge and trying to pretend the brakes don't work, and that there's nothing any of us can do about it.

We're sick of C-league politicians stitching up deals behind closed doors to save face, when the consequences will have an impact on everyone

I quoted the last part because I like the C-league bit.

The UK is a foreign country. They do things differently there.