It's been an utterly abominable 24 hours for Brexit news: - The UK gave up on negotiations to extend our trade deal with Canada, leaving us worse off than when we were an EU member bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi… - New incoming border checks will add £200 million a year to the cost of our food and drink. eastangliabylines.co.uk/brexit-fallout… - MPs were warned that the EU's upcoming ETIAS/EES border systems may lead to 14-hour queues to enter (the rest of) Europe from the autumn. itv.com/news/2024-01-2… - There were warnings of possible shortages of flowers for Valentines Day because of the new incoming border checks. news.sky.com/story/roses-ar… - A plan to extend visas for British expats in France from 90 to 180 days was blocked by France's Constitutional Council court (a decision which has no right of appeal). lbc.co.uk/news/french-co… - Rishi Sunak's pledge to ensure no future laws can create a border down the Irish Sea has gone down like a bucket of sick in TUV quarters. (And has sent the blood pressure of the usual suspect Brexiters sky-high.) belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/brexit/ji… - The EU's plans to increase bulk medicine procurement across the bloc risk creating shortages in Britain because they have very significantly greater buying power than the UK does. theguardian.com/science/2024/j… Phew! That's a truly catastrophic batch of headlines for just one day... https://x.com/edwinhayward/status/1750673173069140381
Parma hams and Spanish chorizos to disappear from UK shelves due to new Brexit checks, Rishi Sunak warned No chorizo? That's a nightmare. I don't know about Parma ham, but I have been lucky enough to sample Iberico (or as close as we can get in the States) ham, and that shit is fucking tasty. I'm not saying that one should grab Sunak and the other Tories, feed them only acorns, and then see how they taste as long pig ham, just that I could understand why someone might choose to do so.
They fuck with my chorizo supply and I'll gut them like fish. I'll give up my paella and jambalaya for no man (or Tory).
Who cares what the TUV think? I know it can be trouble keeping track, but it's the DUP who need to be convinced, and it appears that they're on the verge of caving. Partially because they're renaming the sea border as something more patriotic.
This is a very big moment for Northern Ireland. Within days we're going to have a Sinn Fein First Minister. They've had the deputy position before and it's a joint office - but symbolically this is still huge. 100 years after Ireland was partitioned, the part designed to be a unionist-dominated statelet will be headed by an Irish Republican. The Irish border trade stuff is highly technical and I'm barely even interested, although from what I have heard I am a tad surprised that Brussels are okay with it. They're at least making it sound like they've abolished much of the administration, but still somehow remaining within the bounds of the UK-EU agreement.
Brexit: UK music industry will ‘eventually die’ unless artists get access to EU, Mercury Prize winner says
Old news perhaps, but a few weeks ago one of the UK's leading conservative papers, The Telegraph, has done an about-face on Brexit. The Telegraph's willingness to admit that it's stance was wrong is a fascinating contrast with the U.S. right wing media which have taken their cue from Trump and will never admit error, while always blaming someone else. Nothing wrong with being wrong. But having the intellectual honesty to admit mistakes is much too rare these days. It doesn't speak well of our civilization that we should even notice that kind of honesty, but that's where we are. The Telegraph's stance on the UK's future relationship with Europe matches mine: there is no way in hell EU will take the UK back for at least a generation, but there will be a gradual matching of regulations and a gradual restoration of freer trade and immigration.
