EU Trade Talks Thread

[TheCat]

This Victoria Prentis thing is ridiculous...its no wonder people lose faith/have already lost faith in both the media and in politics.

The way that some of the media and that chap from the SNP are carrying on (he's demanded her resignation) is absolutely ludicrous.

All she has said is that at the moment the deal was announced she was busy with something else (in this case an xmas event...funny that, being xmas eve and all).....not that she never read it at all....

Here's what actually happened according to journalist in the DT who took the small extra effort of seeking some further clarification from someone's press office before banging an outraged story out....

"However, it was pointed out that the legal text of the post-Brexit deal was not published until several days later at which juncture Ms Prentis, a former Government lawyer, read it at once. She had been party to draft proposals on fisheries in the run up to the UK-EU agreement being finalised.

On Christmas Eve the minister, who has organised the nativity play in her village church for the past 17 years, is understood to have been out of the house for only an hour and a half attending to the task.

During the rest of the day she read the briefing note on the Brexit deal prepared for her by officials, and held calls with colleagues. At 6pm she hosted a cross-party Zoom briefing, to which all MPs and peers were invited"

Ian Blackford/Philippa Whitford from the SNP would do better to focus on some of the genuine problems for scottish fisherman (whether caused by the deal or not), rather than riling everyone up with this cr@p.....

[Seabag]

She said it, her words. No wonder it got leapt upon.

[TheCat]

Her words.....

Asked if her jaw had dropped when she saw the deal with the EU on Christmas Eve, Ms Prentis said: ?No, the agreement came when we were all very busy on Christmas Eve, in my case organising the local nativity trail.

Specifically asked about her reaction the moment the deal dropped. No mention of 'never read it'.

The very definition of fake news.

[zerkalo]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EruKGRSW4AANDD_?format=jpg&name=large

I see the Brexit dividends will actually start paying off soon, won't they? As if deregulation was not the real agenda all along.

[Blah Blah]

But this is what Brexit was really about, tearing down employment protections, environmental protections and all the other things that impact on even more profit for business. They denied they would do any of that at the time of course, and those who warned they would were called project fear. People have always been free to opt out of the 48 week rule if they want to, so the only reason for taking this away, would be to remove the protection of employees who use it.

[JohnL]

TheCat Wrote:

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> Her words.....

>

> Asked if her jaw had dropped when she saw the deal

> with the EU on Christmas Eve, Ms Prentis said:

> ?No, the agreement came when we were all very busy

> on Christmas Eve, in my case organising the local

> nativity trail.

>

> Specifically asked about her reaction the moment

> the deal dropped. No mention of 'never read it'.

>

> The very definition of fake news.

It's the radical Brexiteers who are after her job for insulting fishermen - like the Express readers. She's a pro deal minister not a radical.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1383908/brexit-news-fishing-minister-nativity-boris-johnson-Ian-Blackford-Victoria-prentis

RULE_BRITTANNIA says in the first comment

"Remove Victoria Prentis now Boris, she chose her Christmas priority was her family, not the British people.

She needs to understand priorities or take a job at the fish market herself gutting fish."

How dare she put her family first LOL.

[JohnL]

I think the main issue is not the minister however - it's that no-one told the fishermen they were being screwed over :)

[diable rouge]

A competent Gov would've asked for an implementation period to allow business/industry to get to grips with the complexities of the deal after the deal had been agreed, instead we got a deal agreed at the eleventh hour of the implementation period, with Christmas and a pandemic throw in for good measure.

But this isn't a Gov that operates using common sense, instead it will do anything, including the nonsensical, to avoid any kind of scrutiny...

[wordsworth]

Britannia waives the rules...

[Sue]

wordsworth Wrote:

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> Britannia waives the rules...

🤣

[TheCat]

https://thearabweekly.com/british-moroccan-undersea-tunnel-would-connect-africa-europe

If completed, this would undoubtedly become the major entry point for African goods and produce into Europe, and it would be controlled by the UK....potential opportunity or not?....discuss....

[snowy]

We will have re-entered the EU before any of that gets built.

[TheCat]

Mark Twain was indeed correct....Denial ain't just a river in Egypt...

But I do agree even with all the political will in the world, it's not a short term project from a study, financing or construction perspective.

[JohnL]

snowy Wrote:

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> We will have re-entered the EU before any of that

> gets built.

This sounds so like Boris's plan for a Ireland UK Bridge.

"British officials foresee special relations between Morocco and the United Kingdom if the European Union ratifies the agreements between Spain and the United Kingdom regarding the future of Gibraltar within the Schengen area. "

So the tunnel is in the Schengen area perhaps - so the customs area is in Morocco ?.

Oh and look who has interests in Morocco - maybe they'll build it for a price :)

https://www.asiabyafrica.com/point-a-to-a/china-morocco-friends

[Sephiroth]

I am not liking the noises coming from the DUP. very very bad

Not surprising in any way. But extremely troubling

[keano77]

Agreed.

The EU did a great job tying the Brexit talks down over the border but if they?re not careful it might blow up in their face.

[Sephiroth]

I don't know what that means keano

The UK went into this knowing full well what brexit meant to the border but have spent the whole time denying it to the public. This is not on EU - this was foretold and dismissed as project fear

[keano77]

There is a perception that petty officialdom is being practised out of spite.

Whether that is the case or not I don?t know. I?ve read of a consignment of carrots taking 8 days to clear customs and fish being turned away because the paperwork was completed on the wrong coloured form. Such stories might not be true or the full facts not disclosed.

Whatever the truth I suspect the EU will need to relax the rules. And given that the Irish Republic was kicked in the goolies by an EU jackboot last Friday Brussels needs to be very careful.

[Sephiroth]

The rules were partially written up and enforced by U.K. for years and years.

The eu has pointed out this problem for the last few years

This is all U.K. choice. They will need to join up to some of the rules and give up this puritanical version of sovereignty they have been maniacally chasing

[keano77]

My prediction - the EU will relax its rules

[Sephiroth]

English exceptionalism strikes again

"this is the problem. this is what it will lead to"

ignore/deny

repeat over and over

The problem happens

Accept responsibility? Nope - just assume the other side will bend to accommodate you

How about Westminster accepts it has fucked this one up and acts appropriately - instead of just saying "eu will bend"

[Seabag]

O Cheese

In the pantry the dear dense cheeses, Cheddars and harsh

Lancashires; Gorgonzola with its magnanimous manner;

the clipped speech of Roquefort; and a head of Stilton

that speaks in a sensuous riddling tongue like Druids.

O cheeses of gravity, cheeses of wistfulness, cheeses

that weep continually because they know they will die.

O cheeses of victory, cheeses wise in defeat, cheeses

fat as a cushion, lolling in bed until noon.

Liederkranz ebullient, jumping like a small dog, noisy;

Pont l?Ev?que intellectual, and quite well informed; Emmentaler

decent and loyal, a little deaf in the right ear;

and Brie the revealing experience, instantaneous and profound.

O cheeses that dance in the moonlight, cheeses

that mingle with sausages, cheeses of Stonehenge.

O cheeses that are shy, that linger in the doorway,

eyes looking down, cheeses spectacular as fireworks.

Reblochon openly sexual; Caerphilly like pine trees, small

at the timberline; Port du Salut in love; Caprice des Dieux

eloquent, tactful, like a thousand-year-old hostess;

and Dolcelatte, always generous to a fault.

O village of cheeses, I make you this poem of cheeses,

O family of cheeses, living together in pantries,

O cheeses that keep to your own nature, like a lucky couple,

this solitude, this energy, these bodies slowly dying.

? Donald Hall

[keano77]

Sephiroth Wrote:

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> English exceptionalism strikes again

>

> "this is the problem. this is what it will lead

> to"

>

> ignore/deny

>

> repeat over and over

>

> The problem happens

>

> Accept responsibility? Nope - just assume the

> other side will bend to accommodate you

>

> How about Westminster accepts it has @#$%& this

> one up and acts appropriately - instead of just

> saying "eu will bend"

You?re over-analysing things again Sephiroth.

It?s quite simple. All that needs to happen is von der Leyen, Barnier et al don yellow hi-vis vests and stand on the docks turning away lorry loads of carrots because they are the wrong shape.

After the mouthfuls of abuse they?ll get from our hard-working hauliers the rule books will be ripped up after a few hours and they?ll hightail it back to Brussels for a tax-payer funded five-course dinner.

[TheCat]

Sephiroth Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> The rules were partially written up and enforced

> by U.K. for years and years.

>

> The eu has pointed out this problem for the last

> few years

>

> This is all U.K. choice. They will need to join

> up to some of the rules and give up this

> puritanical version of sovereignty they have been

> maniacally chasing

As Keano says, some actions may or may not be petty...within that context ...to your mind....will anything that happens going forward, anything the EU decide to do in the future, no matter how unreasonable or spiteful...would this all just be the 'UK's choice'? Should the UK not have a reasonable expectation of good faith from a counterparty such as the EU?

While I'm not suggesting you will ever accept that brexit was a good idea.....im interested in what level of action you would consider crosses the line from 'expected/reasonable protection of EU interests' to 'spiteful/resentful/petty 'payback'?

[Hamletter]

keano77 Wrote:

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> My prediction - the EU will relax its rules

I agree, but it may only happen when they have cocked up again because of their visceral desire to punish the UK. It's not just Von Der Whatsit but most likely Macron (who has been already been bad-mouthing the AZ vaccine) who will overstep the mark and precipitate another fiasco border/trade.

He needs reminding that the UK has a big trade deficit with France so France has more to lose if he puts up artificial barriers. The UK is by far the biggest market for champagne and one of the largest for French cheese.