Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Zanza]

It is probably too late for a "mixed" deal ratification on the EU side as that necessitates all national and some regional parliaments to ratify. So they might go for a deal only covering pure EU competencies, which means it will be even thinner than before. That just needs council and parliament approval. 

[Sheilbh]

Almost have to admire the grift of this, from the most detestable man in British politics, George Galloway. He's trying to raise £100,000 for his campaign in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election where he'll be the candidate of the Alliance 4 Unity Party:
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/galloway4rutherglen

The main issues with this are there is no by-election in Rutherglen and Hamilton West. There is also no Alliance 4 Unity party because their application to register with the Electoral Commission was rejected because the application was incomplete and likely to mislead (normally because there's another party/brand etc with a similar name). He basically just wants people to give him £100k. And people are donating

[garbon]

Almost have to admire the grift of this, from the most detestable man in British politics, George Galloway. He's trying to raise £100,000 for his campaign in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election where he'll be the candidate of the Alliance 4 Unity Party:
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/galloway4rutherglen

The main issues with this are there is no by-election in Rutherglen and Hamilton West. There is also no Alliance 4 Unity party because their application to register with the Electoral Commission was rejected because the application was incomplete and likely to mislead (normally because there's another party/brand etc with a similar name). He basically just wants people to give him £100k. And people are donating

Well they do list, in a positive light, some of that in the details.

All donations will go to Alliance 4 Unity to help our campaign to elect George in any by-election in Rutherglen and Hamilton West. Any funds unspent will go towards the May 2021 Alliance 4 Unity campaign for Scottish Parliament.

We're required to run permissibility checks on donations over £500. These will be completed as pledges are made. For the same reason, we cannot accept anonymous donations over £500.

If you make multiple donations to us, they may be aggregated for our reporting purposes.

Your details will appear in our election returns if valued over £500, and if you donate over £7500 your identity will appear on the Electoral Commission website.

The Alliance 4 Unity is in the process of registering with the Electoral Commission, and as such all of the rules and regulations governing political parties around finance (PPERA) apply.

[The Minsky Moment]

Well they do list, in a positive light, some of that in the details.

At the very end.
Side effects may include cosying up to noxious dictators and serial anti-semitisim

[garbon]

Well they do list, in a positive light, some of that in the details.

At the very end.
Side effects may include cosying up to noxious dictators and serial anti-semitisim

The entire overview is about 500 words. If one can't be bothered to read that far, well a fool and their money...

[Sheilbh]

Well they do list, in a positive light, some of that in the details.

It's not a legal entity though, or a political party, to accept the money. So you'd have to take that on trust.

And Galloway has form - I think he raised over £1 million through the charity Viva Palestine which was raising money to send aid to Gaza. There is no evidence that they actually sent any aid. This is tough to track down because none of the trustees kept any financial records.

And in the 90s he raised £1.5 million for Mariam Appeal a charity for Iraqis under sanctions. Again no-one seemed to keep any accounting details (him and his wife were both trustees this time). When it was being investigated it turned out the chairman who was Jordanian apparently took the accounts for several years to Amman for some reason and lost them. There were allegations the charity was used to pay Galloway's travel expenses and there were allegations that it was receiving kickbacks from oil for food programme. In this case there was evidence of some charitable work at least.

[The Larch]

Brexit Creates Jobs for Customs Staff in Eastern Europe, India

U.K. customs brokers are turning to cheaper labor overseas
Britain has a shortage of trained agents to handle Brexit work


U.K. companies are turning to cheaper overseas labor to complete their post-Brexit customs paperwork, creating jobs in countries such as Romania and India due to a shortage of trained staff in Britain.

Anticipating a surge in demand for its services, Xpediator Plc, which handles freight flows for international companies, has been hiring workers in Romania. Dave Gladen, the firm's group marketing manager, says the country has a deep pool of expertise in the EU's customs rules because it only joined the bloc in 2007.

"It's allowed us to get some great expertise, and obviously there's a lower cost," Gladen said in a telephone interview. "Salaries for customs clearance representatives in the U.K. have just escalated crazily."

Britain's logistics industry is having to find creative ways to be ready for a wave of bureaucracy that will hit on Jan 1., when commerce between the U.K. and its largest trading partner will be subject to new paperwork even if the two sides reach a free-trade agreement. Hundreds of millions of extra customs declarations will be required on goods crossing the border annually, at an estimated cost of 13 billion pounds ($17 billion).

Metro Shipping Ltd., which moves goods for some of Britain's largest retailers and automotive companies, has taken on 17 extra staff in Chennai, India in recent weeks specifically to handle Brexit-related work. The Birmingham, England-based firm expects it will have to handle an extra 120,000 customs declarations annually.

"There's nowhere near enough skill-set here to cover it," said Grant Liddell, business development director at Metro, which stopped taking on new clients for Brexit in August because it was at capacity. "We have really geared up," he said, noting he could hire six or seven staff in India for the price of one employee in the U.K.

For the government, a shortage of customs agents is one of the biggest threats that could disrupt trade with the EU after the end of the Brexit transition period. If companies don't have the right paperwork, goods risk being held up at the border, potentially causing traffic chaos. Alternatively, businesses may decide not to trade with the EU at all if they cannot file the appropriate documents.

Officials are trying to mitigate the problem by offering grants to businesses to train customs staff, though success has been limited: of the 84 million pounds made available, less than a third had been paid out as of Oct. 16, according to the National Audit Office.

The Road Haulage Association, a lobby group, has estimated that the U.K. needs an extra 50,000 customs agents to cope with the added Brexit workload. The government has repeatedly declined to put a figure on how many have been trained.

[Tamas]

 

[Richard Hakluyt]

No problem, we can cut NHS spending by £260m a week to pay for it.

[garbon]

This is what taking back control looks like.

[The Brain]

You can't put a price on control. If you do no one will buy it.

[The Minsky Moment]

It's not about trivialities like jobs and economic growth people.  It's about the real issues that matter in people's lives, like who decides what colors are used on the customs forms.

[Zanza]

  The red tape sector (in India) is booming. #brexitbenefits

[Tamas]

Negotiations are stopped after one of Barnier's negotiators test positive for covid. They should have stayed off this British island of ours!

[Sheilbh]

Negotiations are stopped after one of Barnier's negotiators test positive for covid. They should have stayed off this British island of ours!

It does feel unfortunate that these negotiations need to be conducted between people based in the UK and Belgium

Not the first time - I think Barnier and Frost were both isolating in late March just before Hancock and Johnson started isolating due to their infections. So I suppose we'll at least get a test on the effectiveness of antibodies.