A big thank you to those who voted for Brexit

Why does the EU need an Ambassador, it is not a Country posters have been repeatedly pointing out that the EU is a trading block ?

The member states of the EU have Ambassadors

What an embarrassing country we are becoming!

We refused to recognise the EU ambassador, which means he can’t present his letters to the Queen and set up an embassy.

We are the only bloody country to do so.

Just like Trump, Brexit will be got rid of.

Will Hutton

It took four years, but the teller of the Big Lie has gone.The sense of relief and hope is palpable everywhere. In Britain there is neither.We live with the unfolding Big Lie of Brexit. However support shrinks by the day. Be sure it, like Trump,will go. Sooner than anyone expects

Lyndie

We have a business which sells all over the world and have been collecting VAT for each country in Europe . Nothing has changed. I can only assume European countries have not been collecting VAT for the UK. Someone might enlighten me.

As I understand it, the change is that VAT is now collected at the point of sale by the seller (who has to register with HMRC) whereas before it was collected on the point of import (by the importer?). This has added extra costs and inconvenience to people selling into the UK.

I don't really have any practical experience of VAT so I don't know how this affects what you have been doing, Lyndie, but it's reported that businesses aren't too happy about it.

Well that's good news Lyndie - pleased it's working for your company. Wonder what's going on then... ?‍♀️

We have a business which sells all over the world and have been collecting VAT for each country in Europe . Nothing has changed. I can only assume European countries have not been collecting VAT for the UK. Someone might enlighten me.

The first Cantonese restaurant opened in London in 1908. Who knew? Well not me for sure. Apparently his son opened another one in London in 1958.

Cannot speak for the South of England as I lived in London, multicultural in school, shops and restaurants.

I remember going to a Chinese restaurant in the northern area I grew up in. I went when I was about thirteen or fourteen with my Sunday school class for our Christmas outing. That would have been in the sixties. I also remember going to a different Chinese restaurant with my sister when I was a bit older. My parents would no more have gone to a Chinese restaurant than they would have flown to the moon. I don’t think there were many Chinese restaurants around, or Indian, but they were definitely starting to appear in the sixties.

How strange that so many southern towns and cities were so bereft.

No, just mine, apparently, Chewbacca

All the rest of the south of England was clearly a sophisticated multicultural melting pot of wall to wall supermarkets and Chinese curry houses.

There must have been an even bigger north/south divide in the 1960s/1970s than there is now. In 1963 I was taken by my godmother to a Chinese restaurant for my birthday. There weren't as many restaurants serving Indian, Chinese or Italian food as there are now because there simply weren't as many restaurants full stop; but there was a fair choice in the Northern town that I grew up in. How strange that so many southern towns and cities were so bereft.

Back to OP?

and the Swiss Centre of course- expensive nonsense. And the revolving restaurantat the top of PO tower.

Very much so- as OH had just finished at UCH and we often visited the area. And the Agra curry house- the first one I ever ate at. Byriani, nan, pint of lager- 10 bob and 6. But we truly do digress. I think Schmidt's was Austrian btw.

Talking of German restaurants, who remembers Schmidt’s in Charlotte Street?

Agreed.

However back to the one point, that even if British produce can be amazing (and I'd be the first to agree)- it is nice to have a wider choice- and without it coming from the far corners of the world.

I went to Veeraswamy's in an alley off Regent Street when i was a child in the 50s. It's the UK's oldest Indian restaurant,opened i 1926 and still going. Actually I'm surprised that it's still there because the premises must be worth a fortune.

Does anyone remember Madame Maurer's in Greek Street? I went there with a colleague in 1966 or 67. Old established, cooking German food.

Just writing this reminds me how wonderful Central London was when i first moved there in 1966. I actually moved in on the day England won the World Cup. Staying in a hostel in Gower Street and watched the tv in the afternoon to see the match.

This brexit thread seems to have morphed into "shopping in the 1950s/ 1960s/1970s.

Maybe that topic deserves a threadof its own - it's hardly "news and politics"

Same for wine, Liebfrausmilch and Mateus Rosé were all the rage. and Piat d'Or
Oh yes. The wine situation has improved somewhat.

I lived in Isleworth, Roehampton and Putney. I remember the choice of breads- it was white sliced or white sliced, or white sliced a bit thicker.

You should have moved to Devon biba!
In our village there were two bakers and a bakery in our supermarket too.
What a pity I was allergic to their delicious nutty granary bread.

The baker Biba. Our village was much too posh for a Co-op. ?

Ellianne yes we do still get the publicity via the postbox but it is greatly reduced in quantity. Some comes via email too.

The first Chinese I saw was in Soho in the late 50s and the first time I tasted it was at a restaurant owned by Freddie Mills (the boxer) and run by a famous Chinese man of the time who played all the Chinese men in the films of the day!

At the baker's or local Coop? I was desperate for any bread that was not white sliced. I only shopped on foot or by bus, so perhaps my access to better shops was limited. And yes, I think we could get brown bread at Cullen's in Weybridge when we visited my OH's parents.

That's strange Biba because in our small Surrey village we always had granary and other brown bread and that was in the 1950s. My mother would never eat white bread.

MawBe

I wonder where some people were living in 1970. (Reference to East Germany)
We married in 1970 , lived in Blackheath and our weekly shop was done every Saturday at Lewisham Sainsbury’s, but even before we were married I can remember nipping out to the Victoria Street Sainsbury’s for my future MIL from their Westminster flat.
A year later, living in Richmond I had a choice between side-by-side Safeway’s and Waitrose a short bus ride along the Upper Richmond Road from us in East Sheen.
In the 1960’s Wm Lows in St Andrews (known to us all as Wimlows) in Market Street was also a supermarket -albeit small- with a wide choice.
Come to think of it, my grandparents lived in Berlin and I visited East Berlin in the early 60’s, and no, nothing like.

so we were almost neighbours Maw. I lived in Isleworth, Roehampton and Putney. I remember the choice of breads- it was white sliced or white sliced, or white sliced a bit thicker. Vegetables were seasonal, and that is good in so many ways, but the choice was very limited. I loved British cheeses, but the choice was very limited. Very limited to where I grew up and nearby France. Same for wine, Liebfrausmilch and Mateus Rosé were all the rage. The East Germany mention was tongue and cheek- but I did spend some months there just after the wall came down- and it did come to mind often.