New EU Treaty - a good deal or not?

Our son-in-law has clients in several countries in Europe and America. The paperwork he is going to have to deal with to send his products will mean it will, unnecessarily, take up more of his time and increase costs which he may have to pass on to his clients. In the past he has attended exhibitions in Europe where entrepreneurs show their products in the hope of increasing business. As far as I know this will mean more form filling as he will have to itemise his products to go through customs, if he wants to do this again in the future. When we were in the EU, everything was a very straight-forward process; now it sounds as if it will be a right pain in the proverbial.

I wonder how many of you happy brexiters can really understand or acknowledge the consequences of your actions on other people?

flump . They really don’t care, I’m afraid....

I’m bemused. Why will it be “bye bye” to all these people you mention (like Gina Millar ) ?

I’m bemused by the whooping and ra ra ? What difference will it make to YOUR lives ? Never yet understood

Jaberwok

Of course the covid deaths are a tragedy, but being the first to roll out the vaccines is surely a triumph? Well it is for some of us.

What does that have to do with EU deal/Brexit ?

Flump. I really hope his business is able to find a way through.

I’m afraid maybee is right though. I shut my (very small) service business in the autumn, in part because the paperwork was just going to make it unviable in terms of time for me. I was told I must just be a terrible business person and that if I was any good I would be accessing the sunlit uplands (I paraphrase). Personally I would have thought recognising when something was unviable showed some decent business skills, but there we are.

They had a Brexit voting eel farmer on BBC yesterday - all his eels went to Europe, 100%, and it sounded as if he was concerned his customers wouldn’t want to fill in their paperwork and the business was at risk. I posted a link to the bbc report earlier in this thread.

Businesses were told there would be less red tape, fewer forms to fill in etc, when of course that is not the case. I don’t think the U.K. has recruited anywhere near enough customs agents either. If I’d been furloughed I would have considered using my time to do some of the qualifications (they’re all on line) as they are tens of thousands short.

Let’s hope things get better & I have my fingers crossed for your son in law’s business

I really don’t like to competitiveness around Vaccination. To eradicate this virus will require global effort & not the developed countries hogging all the vaccine (as Trump tried to do(.

Johnson yesterday seemed to be edging perilously close to talking about the Oxford vaccine as the great British this & that. I thought it just showed him to be an ignorant oaf. Universities & research labs are very international places. Especially in Science. When I worked in a university research lab my colleagues and collaborators were from Italy, France, Canada, Russia, Argentina, Brazil, Turkey & America.

No one has ever had to listen to Gina Miller, high court judges etc , or the 99% of academic scientists who wanted to remain in the EU, well why bother with experts....Those people aren’t going anywhere btw, maybe we won’t have to listen to Farage and xenophobes etc, silver lining and all that.

AstraZeneca - a truly international effort, the head is French...just saying....

The deal is done, but is not over.

Payback time is coming. The U.K. is smaller, less able to compete, less influential, and whose reputation has suffered enormously.

I alongside all the brexiters will suffer the consequences. I am bloody furious.

Not only did they vote for something that already existed, but in doing so they voted for the most right wing government the U.K. has ever had the misfortune to have in power, and they aren’t finished yet.
So your vote is going to buy you right wing policies that will take away your rights as citizens, ensure the smallest state we have had for over a century, and continue with the policy of nationalism and division in order to boost the populist government.

Good for Boris, the Oxford vaccine is a British triumph! what's wrong with being proud of that ? If we had been behind the loop that would certainly been for some yet another stick to beat the government with, as it is, predictable sarky comments!!
How equally predictable that apart from France, every country obediently signed the agreement without a murmur, you bet they did!!!

Thoughts from an academic

mary beard
@wmarybeard
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13h
Thoughts on Erasmus scheme, & how it's been misrepresented as Europe-only scheme for fun abroad. It's international & includes apprenticeships, youth progs & teachers, not just undergraduates..& UK benefits hugely. Turing scheme looks limited & underfunded

Because if you had ever set foot in a research lab you would know that it will have been an international group of scientists working on the vaccine. Not a bunch of plucky Brits. I wonder how they feel seeing it described as a British affair.

Research is an international business and effort - Brexit has already damaged that in loss of research funding & academics.

And if countries start getting competitive about the vaccines it will not help in combatting the disease. As WHO said this requires countries to work together.

Of course given our numbers & death rate (that great British triumph) it could be argued we currently have a greater need than elsewhere.

It is called the Little Englander syndrome.

A lot of it about, almost as widespread as covid, and more difficult to treat.

Given the rate we are losing academics maybe it soon will be ‘British universities for British academics’ (boak). www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/increase-in-academics-leaving-the-uk-since-brexit-vote-66656

Japanese friends of mine left the U.K. after years here. They didn’t want to - they had bought a house here. They had to go to Germany because the project is European funded.

Jaberwok

Good for Boris, the Oxford vaccine is a British triumph! what's wrong with being proud of that ? If we had been behind the loop that would certainly been for some yet another stick to beat the government with, as it is, predictable sarky comments!!
How equally predictable that apart from France, every country obediently signed the agreement without a murmur, you bet they did!!!

It had nothing to do with either Brexit or Boris that’s what I’m saying, if you read my post......

Urmstongran et al.

We have had many years listening to Farage and his cronies campaigning to leave the EU. Their actions (those that were MEPs) helped to bring the UK into disrepute. You may not like it but there will be many more campaigning to rejoin the EU. Perhaps instead of calling us Remoaners you could call us Rejoiners?

Happy New Year to everyone.

There are many more rejoiners after this referendum. than there were leavers after the 73 referendum. So the momentum is already there, and will gather rapid pace once the result of leaving is clear for all to see.

I give it 5 years.

I give the EU five years.

We won’t be back in the EU in 5 years - we’re saddled with this incompetent bunch for most of that for starters. The EU certainly won’t be gone.

I reckon 10 years & we’ll be looking to EEA. Although depends who is in power & what happens to Scotland and Ireland.

My main concern is that to shore up public opinion against the consequences of Brexit the government will be dialling up the flag waving & xenophobia. They know it works - look how many people still support them despite the numbers of lives their incompetence and cronyism has already caused. The know that if you shout about how Great Britain is and how dreadful Europe is it doesn’t matter what else you do.

Happy leaving day to all brexiteers ??????????

If we had not left we would be in this situation.
www.spiegel.de/international/europe/the-planning-disaster-germany-and-europe-could-fall-short-on-vaccine-supplies-a-3db4702d-ae23-4e85-85b7-20145a898abd

Happy new year to all who are Rejoiners.
Good luck with that.
Who will lead you? Serious question there.

Clue: it won’t be Starmer.

Morning petra happy to have you join the joyful band on here!
Take a recommend.
?

Careful how you go though. There’s a lot of gloom on here still.

It’s not gloom at all. Just realism.

BTW I think everywhere will have problems sourcing enough vaccine (at the rate they want it) - they were discussing exactly that in relation to the U.K. on the bbc last night.

I'm with Urmstongran and Petra
Yes Happy Leaving Day Brexiteers
????????????????????????????

Its been a long time coming but we finally did it.

Happy New Year ???

Whitewavemark2

There are many more rejoiners after this referendum. than there were leavers after the 73 referendum. So the momentum is already there, and will gather rapid pace once the result of leaving is clear for all to see.

I give it 5 years.

The above isn’t realism though ....more like crazy crystal ball gazing.?