Ham fisted Brexit

Ooops, I wrote about the ham sandwich in the customs thread---apologies. I thought it was funny.

I don't know why people are getting at all bothered by this.

You eat on the ferry then you stop at a shop on the other side and get stocked up with some nice continental food. You can usually even buy sandwiches on the ferry, no need at all to nip into Waitrose on the way.

I think it's amusing.

Though it will be a shame if we can't bring some nice French cheeses back to the UK.

I wonder if it was Danish ham?

"Just returning it to the EU, sir"!

Chewbacca

You can't take any food stuffs at all into Australia, they confiscate all of it and fine you if you do it again. When crossing borders, you need to educate yourself on what you can and cannot do, ignorance of the rules is no excuse.

You can't take fruit in, honey or even take bananas from one state to another but you can take in tea bags, chocolate bars and of course Marmite (although you can buy Marmite in Australia now).

You can't bring meat or meat products honey, eggs or dairy products into the UK from most countries Or caviar.
Presumably you can't bring them in from the EU either now.

MawBe

Interesting that is is not U.K. Customs officials.
If this is the best petty EU bureaucracy can come up with I might be glad we have dissociated ourselves from them.

Why is it petty? As has been said Australia is very hot on what you can and can't take in. If this is the general rule for third countries why should we expect to be special? We decided not to be.

Is this really the only argument leave voters can come up with as a good reason for us leaving?

There were signs in the airport in Italy as long ago as 2013 about not taking dairy or certain other foods from Italy into other countries and as chewbacca already said, many foods are not allowed into Australia and even those that are must be declared to avoid a fine.
It must have been a shock, but they won’t make the same mistake again.
On a different query, I wonder how they can instantly find ham sandwiches, but not locate illegal immigrants?

Next time they must remember to gobble down their sandwich whilst on British soil.

On a different query, I wonder how they can instantly find ham sandwiches, but not locate illegal immigrants?

They're going in different directions, Molly. customs are bothered with what is coming in, not what's going out.

I won't start an argument about asylum seekers not being 'illegal immigrants', though tempted. It's too late at night..

Chewbacca

You can't take any food stuffs at all into Australia, they confiscate all of it and fine you if you do it again. When crossing borders, you need to educate yourself on what you can and cannot do, ignorance of the rules is no excuse.

That is not strictly true. You need to declare any food you have and much of it will be allowed but that which not because it is seen as a potential danger to our agricultural sector will be confiscated.

Personally I can live with that as it is how we keep many pests and diseases common throughout the world out of Australia.

....but that which IS not................

PippaZ

MawBe

Interesting that is is not U.K. Customs officials.
If this is the best petty EU bureaucracy can come up with I might be glad we have dissociated ourselves from them.

Why is it petty? As has been said Australia is very hot on what you can and can't take in. If this is the general rule for third countries why should we expect to be special? We decided not to be.

Is this really the only argument leave voters can come up with as a good reason for us leaving?

To a bemused driver with several sandwiches wrapped in tin foil who asked if he could maybe surrender the meat and keep just the bread, one customs officer replied: “No, everything will be confiscated. Welcome to Brexit, sir, I’m sorry

I stand by calling that Dutch jobsworth’s response petty
And I was not a Leave voter, but some of the actions of EU countries recently do suggest a level of pettifogging spite and Schadenfreude.

A foot and mouth outbreak in the UK was once started because illegally imported food got into animal feed. Countries have to protect their boarders.
There have been several outbreaks of avian flu in France recently, the UK could ban imports.
I even had a problem once taking oranges from one US state to another, they were thrown on the heap.

Customs rejected my DD’s vacuum cleaner, and threw it out, when she immigrated to Australia, on the grounds it had some dust inside.

Thanks Spice101; I quite agree with you 're Australia's strict rules being the reason it's kept diseases and pests being brought in. It's makes sense, especially in countries that rely on their agriculture.

Likewise MaizieD I shall miss being able to bring British cheeses home with me. We will have to finish the pork pies in the car park at Portsmouth. ? It will be a pain not bringing garden stuff that we can't get here, as we have done that quite a lot up to now. DH has had his last batch of heritage seeds from Garden Organic. None of it is terrible, but combined with all the extra admin stuff we have to do it is just such a shame.
We can well remember when all the rules used to be like that, why would anyone want to go backwards?

It will be a pain not bringing garden stuff that we can’t get here

What sort of stuff? Another source of possible contamination coming in. Seeds, plants and suchlike might harbour insects or pests.

To be honest it’s all a storm in a teacup. Who cares if ham sandwiches can’t be taken into an EU country? Meat products can’t be be taken into America, Australia, New Zealand and a mountain of other countries. It’s not a big deal. Buy a sandwich when you’re in. What a fuss over nothing. The irony could be that the ham could have easily been from Holland originally.

Meat products can’t be be taken into America, Australia, New Zealand and a mountain of other countries
Including the UK
And yes, the ham may well have been from the EU.
I think I would have eaten the sandwich there and then.

I voted leave and would do so again, but I think it's a good thing that certain foods and other goods are not allowed into other countries. Perhaps the rules have been far too lax in the past and need tightening up both sides of the channel . As has been said Australia in particular are extremely strict as to what can and can't be brought in from overseas as are many countries which frankly is a good thing. Buy your foodstuffs on the ferry or when you arrive the other side.

And let's not mention the importation into the UK of Dutch Elm disease

It is frightening how people who make £££££ £££s from Brexit have persuaded some les well off people Brexit was a GOOD THING

It seems that there are still people who don't understand the purpose of the EU. The point was that we all agreed a set of rules - often with the UK leading - so that the whole area could trade freely.

Obviously this was a very silly idea in some people's view.

This was all mentioned in leaflets printed long before we exited. People just don't read up.

Maybe they could brush up on their narcs

Article from 2019

"We definitely have the characteristics of a narco-state," confides Jan Struijs, chairman of the biggest Dutch police union.

"Sure we're not Mexico. We don't have 14,400 murders. But if you look at the infrastructure, the big money earned by organised crime, the parallel economy. Yes, we have a narco-state."

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-50821542

I always understood that for bio-security reasons we were not permitted to take fresh foods into any other country anyway, but I suppose lorry drivers have always been used to taking their lunches and such with them for convenience. Just another petty fogging irritation benefit of being out of the EU for the poor lorry drivers. Also, possibly a bit of pot stirring by the popular press, how do they know the customs official 'smirked'?

Does it matter? You can’t take certain foods into Switzerland either, or Canada or any number of other countries. I can’t believe the fuss about something so small. If the lorry drivers want a ham sandwich then they should eat it first or buy a new one. Good Lord, it’s not rocket science. Do people actually care about this rubbish in the middle of a pandemic?

I don't honestly believe that anyone will care about this. Eat your sandwiches before you get to customs.

Buy yourself a nice sandwich on the other side

I don't think anyone's annoyed