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More Brexit lunacy

(1001 Posts)
MaizieD Fri 22-Dec-17 13:50:52

£490 million wasted spent on changing the colour of our passports. Which we could have done at any time in the last 30 years. Burgundy wasn't obligatory; not every EU country has a burgundy passport.

How many more £millions is this futile Brexit exercise going to cost the UK?


www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/british-passports-go-back-iconic-11736353

Somewhat ironic that the new blue is very similar to the colour of the EU flag...

Smileless2012 Wed 27-Dec-17 15:06:41

For me "whats blinding and painful" jura is the mantra of young remainers accusing their elders of at best taking away, and at worse destroying their future.

If more of those who could have voted in the referendum had done so, the vote may have gone the other way. If the young still feel the need to bemoan their lot because of Brexit, perhaps they should at least have equal criticism for their own generation who didn't bother to vote at all.

lemongrove Wed 27-Dec-17 15:14:20

Absoloutely Smileless although all these ‘tales’ of younger generations not wanting to see parents and grandparents because they voted another way from themselves are at best doubtful and at worst, true and pathetic.
We saw all our family very happily at Christmas and we all voted differently at the referendum and we vote in different ways come GE time, and I suspect most families do and yet still manage to get on together, ditto friends.

Jalima1108 Wed 27-Dec-17 17:55:40

I don't know anyone who stayed away from parents and other relatives at Christmas because of different views on the referendum.

The bonds of love cannot have been very strong in the first place I suspect.

MaizieD Thu 28-Dec-17 09:42:56

This is a goodie:

Britannia to win the Lottery! Fifty Tory MPs back new lotto game to let public pay for new royal yacht

Fifty Tory MPs have written to three of Theresa May's most senior Cabinet ministers urging them to help "right the wrong" of the Labour government's decision in 1997 to decommission Britannia.

Using funds from a new national lottery game to pay for a new Britannia would allow ordinary Britons "the pride of having a stake" in helping to fund the new yacht which would "showcase the best of British business and project our humanitarian role across the globe", the MPs said.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/12/27/britannia-win-lottery-fifty-tory-mps-back-new-lotto-game-let/
(paywalled, I'm afraid)

How did these idiots get to be MPs?

ninny Thu 28-Dec-17 09:51:22

Fake news.

tickertape Thu 28-Dec-17 09:51:31

The money we won't have to fork out to the EU in Brussels will cover the cost. Billions. Any spending now in the divorce will be recouped many times ove r. We will save billions every single year. Bring it on!

ninny Thu 28-Dec-17 09:52:26

Yes the sooner the better.

Greta Thu 28-Dec-17 10:52:33

Tickertape, The money we won't have to fork out to the EU in Brussels will cover the cost. Billions. Any spending now in the divorce will be recouped many times over. We will save billions every single year. Bring it on!
I wish I could share your optimism. How do you envisage those billions will be spent? Remember North Sea oil? That was a gift from the gods. Where did the oil money go? The Norwegian government established an oil fund to manage its oil revenue. In the UK, however, there was no political planning to handle the windfall. It was squandered. I can see history repeating itself.

Welshwife Thu 28-Dec-17 10:59:55

I wouldn't start deciding on what to do with any money saved until we actually see there will be some!

petra Thu 28-Dec-17 11:02:17

Greta
Thatcher used the North Sea Oil money to pay the unemployed. She wasn't lying when she said " One million isn't good enough"
Little did we know that she meant 5 million +. That Oil money came in very handy to crush the unions.
It's a different situation now. We have very good employment levels.

Jalima1108 Thu 28-Dec-17 11:14:37

I'm not so sure that it is a daft idea though MaizieD - a floating centre promoting British business around the world. After all, the Royal Yacht did bring in a great deal of business to the UK - apparently £500m on one day alone.

Getting rid of it was an act of spite - cutting off our nose to spite our face one might say. One has to look at the pragmatics of the situation and disregard the knee-jerk reaction to the word 'Royal'.

POGS Thu 28-Dec-17 11:39:43

To be perfectly honest I don't care a jot what colour my passport is. Equally I don't care a jot that blue has been chosen either.

I do however find the 'spin' and politics over the colour choice fascinating and some passionate voices on both sides of the argument equally childish and not exactly looking very intelligent in their thinking. Certainly some celebrities and politicians are looking very stupid in their haste to 'stir the s--t'.

The fact is changing the colour of our passports will have little to no cost attached to it.

In 2009 De La Rue, won a 10 year contract worth £400m to supply the UK’s new biometric passport. Now to most intelligent people a 10 year contract signed in 2009 would imply a new contract has to be awarded in 2019 to produce the new UK passports which will supposedly made out of different material etc.

IT IS NOT DUE TO BREXIT! The only thing connected to Brexit is the coincidental timing of the renewal .

Another way of looking at the finance of it all could well be we are lucky the two dates do coincide as it will cost the UK government 'LESS MONEY' .

Why?

Because having to adopt a new passport which no longer has the European Union on it after Brexit would have indeed probably cost a great deal had the De LA Rue contract not been up in 2019 .

So why is it BREXIT LUNACY?

The only lunacy I can establish is the ease with which common sense flies out the window in the politically biased mind of some and equally the ease some swallow information without establishing facts for themselves. Twas ever thus!

jura2 Thu 28-Dec-17 12:34:48

It only took such huge proportions because Mrs May announced it as a massive step forward, towards regaining our Sovereignty, and so did all the populist press and the Leave social media.

durhamjen Thu 28-Dec-17 12:46:17

The MP fronting the Royal Yatch campaign is Craig Mackinlay, the Tory who fiddled his election expenses to beat Farage.

Just saying.

durhamjen Thu 28-Dec-17 12:46:59

Yacht, sorry. I knew it didn't look right as soon as I typed it.

POGS Thu 28-Dec-17 12:52:34

jura 2

Wait for it!

I agree!

Hence I said " I do however find the 'spin' and politics over the colour choice fascinating and some passionate voices on ''''''both sides '''''' of the argument equally childish and not exactly looking very intelligent in their thinking.

Having said that the principle of. 'If you say it, you own it' belongs to us all .

suzied Thu 28-Dec-17 13:57:36

Do those getting excited about “saving” loads of money not realise we will consequently have to increase our spending on civil servants, lawyers, customs officials etc etc as has already started ? Do they honestly believe that public services will benefit? Or that wealthy people will be able to squirrel away more of their assets? I’m not holding my breath.

MaizieD Thu 28-Dec-17 17:04:45

How could it be 'fake news' ninny? It was in The Telegraph.

I don't think that all these Leavers who think we're going to have oodles of money once we've stopped paying to be in the EU are keeping abreast of the economic forecasts or the progress of exit negotiations. There isn't going to be any spare money. There just isn't ... (and it was less than 2% of national expenditure, anyway)

MaizieD Thu 28-Dec-17 17:09:19

That Oil money came in very handy to crush the unions.

It also came in very handy to fund tax cuts, both to businesses and to the public (mostly the wealthy for whom a cut of several % is more meaningful than it is to the average wage earner)

ninny Thu 28-Dec-17 18:26:01

Plenty of fake news in the newspapers.

POGS Thu 28-Dec-17 19:02:40

'£490 million wasted spent on changing the colour of our passports. '

That's Fake News.

MaizieD Thu 28-Dec-17 19:12:48

Plenty of fake news in the newspapers.

That all depends what newspaper you read, of course, ninny, but it's no justification for saying that this particular item is fake news.

And yes, POGS, I know the passport one was a bit economical with the truth and I've already apologised for posting it

durhamjen Fri 29-Dec-17 12:19:57

www.theguardian.com/money/2017/dec/29/uk-to-sink-to-the-bottom-of-oecd-wage-growth-index-in-2018

More brexit lunacy.

GracesGranMK2 Fri 29-Dec-17 17:45:09

The money we won't have to fork out to the EU in Brussels will cover the cost. Billions. Any spending now in the divorce will be recouped many times over. We will save billions every single year. Bring it on!

The money we pay, in the main, pays for things we will now have to do for ourselves - where is the saving in that? Please explain to me where these billions will be? We may stop paying them to the EU but we will then have to put structures in place, employ people and give our poorer areas what they have been receiving from us via the EU.

suzied Fri 29-Dec-17 17:52:37

Does anyone believe money saved will go to the NHS? I know people who voted leave who did believe this -we have the evidence! Of course, once we are free of all the regulations- we can become a low tax haven , a centre for online gambling and attractive to foreign investors as the £ will be rock bottom. Those who gleefully shout “bring it on” -be careful what you wish for - do you honestly think most people will be better off?

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