Leavers. Were you absolutely clear that a no deal Brexit would mean job losses?

Brexit is the biggest and most absurd waste of money in history, splurging billions of pounds to make Britain poorer.

The £700million splashed on Brexit border bureaucracy, with the Government secretly buying a patch of Kent to check lorries, is a bill that’s rapidly mounting.

And the expensive campaign preparing for a New Year’s Eve no-deal crash out of Europe reinforces how Boris Johnson didn’t 'Get Brexit Done' when he partied in Downing Street at the end of January.

What the cynical liar did do, when toasting himself with English sparkling wine and celebrating his Vote Lie Government’s vandalism, was let Covid rip.

The link between Brexit deceit and negligence over the spread of coronavirus becomes clearer every day.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/kevin-maguire-brexit-biggest-most-22344268

I understand but I do wonder about some of the standards of the food currently sold and eaten in the UK. Can we be absolutely sure of its provenance?

If we have imported anything from outside the EU it has to conform to EU standards, that is a condition of any EU - third country trade deal. So that ready meal will be absolutely at the same standard as anything sourced from within the EU.

This is one of the many sticking points the UK is putting up because our Brexitty government wants to lower standards.

Which really makes me very angry when I think of 3 or 4 years ago when all the Leavers were assuring us that our standards were really much better than the EU's and we weren't going to lose any of that...

It should make the Leave voters angry, too, but it doesn't seem to have penetrated yet.

BTW. I think that there were plans in the last lot of 'no deal' planning for the excess lambs to be incarcerated, not sold off cheaply. It's cheaper to incarcerate than to get them onto the market...

The US have lower food And animal welfare standards than the EU So ours would have to be lower. The EU would then not buy any of our stuff. We could buy theirs if course, at a higher price. It’s makes so much sense!

I'm concerned about High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which is strictly limited in the EU, but Americans stuff into their manufactured foodstuffs. It's implicated in the obesity/diabetes epidemic in the US.

I'm actually even more concerned about the selling off of the NHS than I am about food.

Why are you all ganging up on one poster who is as entitled to express her views as anyone else without being ridiculed?

Perhaps not everyone read the thread started by GNHQ recently?

Urmstongran I can see the sheep on my way to the farm shops but NZ lamb is cheaper here in the supermarket!

It puts me off eating lamb anyway.

Davidhs

Sorry, I don’t see the connection between Ireland, The US and Brexit.

The land border will be open, commercial goods will (mostly) be checked, other customs will be done at the ports.

Brexit will separate Northern Ireland from the mainland, despite the promises of no customs checks between NI and the UK.

The UK currently imports a huge amount of beef from the Republic. If there's no deal, we'll have to pay tariffs, while tariffs with the US could favour American beef.

It's more complicated than that, but I'm pushed for time.

Yes, if chlorine was that harmful, we wouldn't chlorinate our water.
Ours here was especially strong this morning. I must get the filter out again.

I understand but I do wonder about some of the standards of the food currently sold and eaten in the UK. Can we be absolutely sure of its provenance?

Not everyone, in fact most people, can afford organically produced food from local farm shops.

A ready meal from a reputable supermarket may contain, for example, chicken from overseas, outside the EU.

I am concerned about hormones in beef.

Urmstongran

Most of the delicious (best in my view) Welsh lamb goes to France. It is then dressed and sold as French. I read an article about it last year, it was very interesting.

Maybe we’ll get the opportunity to eat more of it ourselves? That would be nice.

You really are a joker Urmstongran. It must be nice to live on a cloud.

Chlorine is used in the EU on fruit and vegetables

I don't know why people can't understand this. Or are they being deliberately disingenuous.

It isn't the chlorine that is the problem, it's what it is covering up; particularly in US chicken.

The chlorine itself, in the quantities in which it is used, is harmless.

Why would the food be mouldy or full of maggots just because it has come from far away?

vegansrock might be exaggerating a little, but US standards for the level of potential contaminents in foodstuffs are much lower than our EU standards.

There is also the fact that the US use pesticides and herbicides, which leave residues in foodstuffs, which are banned in the EU because of the long term danger to health that they pose.

Most of the delicious (best in my view) Welsh lamb goes to France. It is then dressed and sold as French. I read an article about it last year, it was very interesting.

Maybe we’ll get the opportunity to eat more of it ourselves? That would be nice.

Sorry, I don’t see the connection between Ireland, The US and Brexit.

The land border will be open, commercial goods will (mostly) be checked, other customs will be done at the ports.

We had a holiday in the US last November and were particularly disappointed with the food in general, the two best meals we had were an Indian and a Chinese. I do like a good steak but mediocre and expensive, although we weren’t in Texas.
LOL

Ah! ... The Irish question! It's strange how quiet people are about it.

david the USA is nothing if not aware of its own interests, but I was talking about the Irish question.

calliston I may be wrong but I think vegan is talking about what is deemed acceptable in USA food by its own standards.

It's not just about US food standards. UK producers will be forced to lower their own standards or go out of business.

So those behind Brexit (and don't kid yourself it was the "people") will be able to afford Welsh lamb and premium products, while the rest of us eat crap and there will be even fewer jobs in British agriculture. And who needs decent wages when our crappy food is so cheap?

Memo to myself to go and wash my brain ... this was all just Project Fear after all!

The chlorinated chicken in itself is not the problem.

The EU maintains that chemical washes are a form of quick-fix covering up for lower treatment standards, including lower animal welfare standards.

Chlorine is used in the EU on fruit and vegetables

I'm no fan of American husbandry but around the world it's not great either

For example, the German slaughterhouse that had the outbreak of Covid employs 6000 people

Many have said the workers, mainly Eastern European , are working in horrendous conditions

So if we eat meat we have to accept the awful reality of what that entails

vegansrock

So we have to accept poor welfare standards , maggots in orange juice etc as it will be "cheaper". We already have good quality cheap food - from the EU. I shop at Aldi - good quality, food- why should I want to pay more for my tins of Italian tomatoes, pasta , etc etc? Just to get mouldy food from thousands of miles away. It doesn't make any sense.

Why would the food be mouldy or full of maggots just because it has come from far away?
Personally, I do try to buy British but if you check the label on, eg an avocado, it may have come from Peru.
I've just checked the label on the bag of limes ordered last week - Produce of Peru.

No maggots, it's not mouldy either.
I did have some very mouldy peaches which were from Spain last week, but I got an online refund.

Tomatoes? I would buy British but someone else is picking my shopping. From Morocco.
The working conditions of the pickers can hardly be worse than those we have seen in Spain, with its supposedly high EU standards.

It’s funny isn’t it how holidaymakers eat USA washed chicken in Florida and have a great time

How do you know that none of them are affected? (I saw very graphic series of tweets from a guy who'd picked up a campylobacter infection from his US holiday. Not pleasant.)

Apart, of course, from the fact that they're not likely to be eating it very often over the course of 10 days or so holiday.

Whitewave
Don’t hold any great hopes for a better deal with a Democrat president it might reduce the tension with China, selling food more widely is a really important issue for the US not just Republicans. There are other issues, taxing US multinationals properly being contentious amongst others.

So we have to accept poor welfare standards , maggots in orange juice etc as it will be "cheaper". We already have good quality cheap food - from the EU. I shop at Aldi - good quality, food- why should I want to pay more for my tins of Italian tomatoes, pasta , etc etc? Just to get mouldy food from thousands of miles away. It doesn't make any sense.

I’ve not lost my rag. I very rarely do to be honest.
It’s funny isn’t it how holidaymakers eat USA washed chicken in Florida and have a great time.

I do agree that animal welfare is beyond awful in most countries. I wish I could fix it. But I can’t. We all pretty much have to content ourselves with being horrified.

Ditto slave labour in sweatshops.

Yep. ug crap jobs and crap food is the way to go. Can’t wait !!

Ooooh, don't lose you rag, Ug Pollyanna didn't 'do' anger...

Do you actually understand why we object to chlorine washed chicken?

It might just have something to do with the reasons for chlorine washing, the fact that it doesn't remove the risk of bacterial infection and the official statistic of 1 in 6 Americans getting food poisoning each year, as opposed to 1 in 60 Brits with our higher food standards.

The fact is not that we don't care about the poor, we do care. We care that their poverty doesn't force them to buy food that could make them ill.

Whereas you, so far this morning, have managed 'let them have crap jobs and let them eat crap'.