A boost for Brexit?

Hunt's speech had nothing of substance except the bit about no tax cuts in the budget. It was mostly the usual delusional blah blah about Britain being ahead of the world, technological superpower, freed by Brexit nonsense, etc. Do we really have to listen tomthis kind of guff for another two years?

Fleurpepper

I think this is quite a significant moment

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq6ltGVQxM4

Andrew Marr in the New Statesman. So Starmer is talking to EU leaders about much closer alignment, and the EU is truly listening. Quietly, persistently, efficiently. Hope? Light at the end of the tunnel.

Also described by Lammy in the House of Commons on Monday.

Excellent. Something to be optimistic about. We do need it at the moment to counteract all the dismal news from this parody of a government.

I see Hunt’s speech about growth in a post Brexit society went down like a lead balloon with businesses - big and small.

I think this is quite a significant moment

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq6ltGVQxM4

Andrew Marr in the New Statesman. So Starmer is talking to EU leaders about much closer alignment, and the EU is truly listening. Quietly, persistently, efficiently. Hope? Light at the end of the tunnel.

Also described by Lammy in the House of Commons on Monday.

Another wonderful consequence of Brexit. The misled referendum voters didn't just shoot the UK in the foot, they shot the foot right off. I blame Johnson and Farage and our educational system for failing to teach people the difference between straight and crooked thinking.

I know. I was hoping not to inflame any remaining Brexiteers!

Dinhmo it’s not the EU which has silly rules - it’s the U.K.insisting on shooting itself in the foot.

MaizieD It shouldn't be a problem at the ports because they are set up for cars. The problem is at the railway stations because they don't have the capacity for the numbers that have to get their passports checked.

re the above:

Several years ago we went to Mexico for a holiday, with a change of planes in Houston, going out and Newark in the way back. on both journeys we had nearly 3 hours between flights. On both occasions we had to collect our luggage (no transit facility) and go through immigration and passport controls. We were asked the purpose of our visit to the US. The answer was that we weren't visiting, we were in transit to Mexico. Eventually this was accepted bu we very nearly missed our onward flights.

So, it's not just the EU that has rules which may seem a bit silly.

Dinahmo

Another Brexit boost? Eurostar trains are running between London, Paris and Brussels are running half empty because British passports now have to be stamped.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jan/24/eurostar-trains-empty-seats-brexit-passport-rules-london-paris-brussels

Oh heavens, we're going to France at Easter (by ferry). First time for me since the oven ready deal was signed. I am dreading it.

Another Brexit boost? Eurostar trains are running between London, Paris and Brussels are running half empty because British passports now have to be stamped.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jan/24/eurostar-trains-empty-seats-brexit-passport-rules-london-paris-brussels

Britain has dropped from 5th exporter in the world to 14th since Brexit.

Those white elephants at Dover, Plymouth and elsewhere cost millions and have never been used. Shows how well Brexit was planned.

www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/22/business-minister-boasted-britishvolt-brexit-success-months-before-collapse?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Business minister boasting os Brexit “success story” before company collapse.

£45million awarded to Dover from the levelling up fund to deal with the chaos caused by Brexit.

More money down the drain because if Brexit, and since when was the levelling up fund supposed to be to mitigate Brexit chaos?

The Tories would certainly have called another election, Maizie and as you know they are very well funded by their billionaire backers, whereas the other parties had virtually exhausted both funds and resources.

There would almost certainly have been a Tory majority- they did not need 50% of the votes or anything like it.

The result would have been the appalling chaos, incompetence and corruption we have seen since 2016, but starting five years earlier.

What would have happened if the LibDems had refused to join the tories in a coalition? There was surely no obligation for them to do that?

We would then have had a minority government and, presumably, another GE because the government wouldn't have been able to pass any legislation...

I suppose the risk of losing seats might have been too great for them?

It was not possible for the LibDems and Labour Party to form a coalition government after the 2010 general election Grantanow, no matter how hard they worked.

They had, between them, more than 50% of the votes as Labour had 29% and LibDems 23%, but because of our undemocratic First Past The Post electoral system, the two parties together did not get the required 625 (50%) of the seats. Labour got 258 and Lib Dems only 57.

The Cons, with only 36% of the vote got 306 seats. FPTP always gives them a disproportionately high number of seats.

The Con / LibDem coaliton did have more than 50% of both seats and votes.

Most LibDems, including me, would have much preferred a Lab / LibDem coalition but the artithmetic ruled that out.

It may be true, varian, that the Tory Lib Dem coalition enacted some minor Lib Dem policies (and the alternative vote system was roundly defeated by referendum) but if the Lib Dems had worked harder to form one with Labour we would not have had 12 years of appalling Tory governments, the rise of unelectable Corbyn, the Brexit fiasco, etc. I accept that Gordon Brown must bear some responsibility for that (as well as Blair for handing him the job) but I simply can't trust the Lib Dems again. Once bitten, twice shy.

Sadiq Khan condemns Brexit damage ‘denial’ and calls for debate on rejoining single market

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/sadiq-khan-brexit-eu-single-market-b2260691.html?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=IND_Brexit%202023-01-19&utm_term=IND_Brexit_Beyond_Newsletter

Unfortunately many immigrants are stuck in hostels, hotels and other accommodation awaiting the assessment of their asylum claims and not allowed to work.

These people include highly qualified doctors, nurses, teachers, lawyers, engineers, architects, accountants, teachers, university lecturers, scientists, technologists, IT professionals, etc, but also many unskilled migrants who would be happy to do agricultural work, reaping crops, picking fruit and vegetables which would otherwise rot in the fields.

All we need is for the civil service to prioritise assessing their asylum claims. We know from experience that more than 80% of them will be successful.

Hey presto -Labour problem solved

It’s funny that immigration has increased since Brexit so much for taking back control of our borders. The number of people applying for EU passports has increased significantly too - that’s another boost!

I read today that The Telegraph reckons we will be rejoining much sooner than expected.

Good-oh. Might happen before I pop off.

Brexit has led to a shortfall of 330,000 people in the UK labour force, mostly in the low-skilled economy, a report by leading researchers has found.

The departure from the EU in 2020 led to an increase in immigration from non-EU countries but not enough to compensate from the loss of workers from neighbouring countries, according to the joint findings of the thinktanks

Did Russia Influence Brexit?

www.csis.org/blogs/brexit-bits-bobs-and-blogs/did-russia-influence-brexit