Guy Verhofstadt says “Happy Brexit Day”

The UK government said the UK Shared Prosperity Fund would match EU funding.

Like, the money for farmers would match the lost single Farm Payment? (It doesn't)

The news & politics thread is open to everyone with an opinion MaizieD. I do appreciate my wittering must annoy the hell out of you. Heaven forfend however that only people of high intellect are allowed to join in. No wonder other posters are wary of stepping into this bear garden of a forum. I do often provide links now if I read anything to show my source.

Horrifyingly, although I’m not the sharpest tool in the box, just think, others - some of whom have even less intelligence than me - get to vote in general elections and referendums! Beggars belief doesn’t it? It must gall you terribly o contemplate that fact.

I didn’t realise until recently varian that EU residents came to our universities and (like in Scotland) didn’t pay fees. Maybe the universities will make more effort now to teach our home grown scholars as places won’t be so limited.

I apologise as I’m wrong.

www.gov.uk/guidance/studying-in-the-uk-guidance-for-eu-students#:~:text=The%20EU%20Settlement%20Scheme%20allows,without%20applying%20for%20a%20visa.

Brexit: "The economic damage caused by the UK leaving the EU single market and customs union already exceeds the total cost of UK membership of the EU between 1973 and 2020."
Robert G. Patman
Professor of International Relations

Urmstongran

I’m not sure Siope that this bear of little brain can sort out the GFA on the back of an envelope this morning. I don’t have a clue how to resolve it. In time however, I’m sure pragmatism will prevail and more intelligent people than I will find a solution.

I think you make a valid point about whether or not we are being treated unfairly by the EU. Yes, we are considered now a ‘third world country’. It’s probably just how I perceive it and what I’ve heard on tv over the years - that the EU most definitely don’t want the other 26 countries to consider breaking away. Whatever, I’m sure we will manage. We have so far and I truly believe things will get better. Technology, smarter and more efficient systems will evolve for instance cutting time which companies (small and large) need more of for smoother operations.

As regards WTO that ship has sailed anyway.

We are not considered a third world country Urmstongran!

A 'third country' as defined by the EU is: A country that is not a member of the European Union as well as a country or territory whose citizens do not enjoy the European Union right to free movement

Of course, we may, if this government has it's way be considered a "third world country" by the whole world at some point. It just depends how quickly they completely impoverish us.

The research DD does has been massively hit by the loss of EU grants and, now that travel is possible again, she finds that foreign colleagues are confused and pitying about the UK's exit. Still I'm sure a Brexiteer will find an upside to this - perhaps going back to casting the runes rather than actual science?

Lib Dems are now also saying that rejoining now is off table and that we have to work to improve our relationship with Europe. Despite wanting to rejoin, I think that is the right thing to do initially. And they are now both singing from the same hymn sheet- and I so hope they will cooperate, make an alliance even, with Greens on board and possibly SNP- to fight to get rid of those fraudulent Tories (not all Tories are, but the current lot is) and fight for this common goal.

And for people to vote tactically to achieve this. My vote will go to Lib Dems- as there is, for the first time ever, a real, palpable, chance that Lib Dems will win in my staunch Tory Constituency.

MaizieD

^I’m not sure Siope that this bear of little brain can sort out the GFA on the back of an envelope this morning. I don’t have a clue how to resolve it. In time however, I’m sure pragmatism will prevail and more intelligent people than I will find a solution.^

Most uncivilly, I will point out that bears of little brain shouldn't talk nonsense about things they don't understand.

We are all bears of little brain in some aspect of our lives but, like Pooh, full of wisdom in others.

Perhaps it behoves us all to admit that much of what we "know" is opinion, hopefully built on the facts we can find and understand but not on lengthy learning in that area.

Urmstongran

I apologise as I’m wrong.

www.gov.uk/guidance/studying-in-the-uk-guidance-for-eu-students#:~:text=The%20EU%20Settlement%20Scheme%20allows,without%20applying%20for%20a%20visa.

It's might interest you to know that University Education and UK Boarding Schools in this country and the schools set up by our privately paid for schools as International schools overseas, are seen by some as one of Britain's most important exports.

Higher Education Institutions contributed £13.4 billion to U.K. revenue in 2016. Given the importance of this income stream, it is not surprising that the U.K. Government has set a target of 600,000 international students studying in the U.K. by 2030.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/773167/SFR_Education_Exports_2016.pdf

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/799349/International_Education_Strategy_Accessible

commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-7976/#:~:text=In%202018%2F19%20there%20were,EU%20and%20343%2C000%20from%20elsewhere.

www.linkedin.com/pulse/uk-education-britains-most-important-export-mark-steed

Yes, very interesting DaisyAnne and therefore it’s good that the UK government have set such a target for 2030. Seems the students still want to come here to study then.

He said it so well in 2002

fb.watch/irpwt_tABc/

Brexit had to be clearly defined, before Referendum. It was NOT, and those who voted for it can say 'we knew exactly what we voted for' all they want- it is nonsense. No-one knew what it was, let alone the Governement at the time, and the others after that, including the current one. NO-ONE.

And currently, Barbara Meaden said it so well on Newsnight very recently.

fb.watch/irqmqUTYdN/

a disaster for business, including all small ones, and innovation.

I notice that Brexiteers here do not deny all the disadvantages arising from Brexit which I and others have listed at length. It is all, alas, water under the bridge because no major Party with a hope of being in government wants to renegotiate entry to the EU and the valuable single market instigated by Thatcher and there is no guarantee the EU members would want us back. The only hope is a renegotiated treaty with better terms than those negotiated by the incompetent and careless Johnson who lied about some of the consequences e.g., no border in the Irish sea, no problems for fishers, no problem with farmers' pickers. My fear is that the Tories will get back in as a coalition with the Lib Dems. I voted Lib Dem to keep the Tories out and they ratted 13 years ago and I have no reason to suppose they wouldn't rat again once they saw the Ministerial salaries and expenses, cars, red boxes, etc., dangled by a Tory leader. The recent comments on the state of our hollowed-out military together with a lack of serious economic growth tells me we are sliding down from being a power in the world.

Yes Grantanow Nick Clegg certainly threw the WASPI women to the wolves. It’s likely Lib Dems can only gain power through a coalition. When I first started voting 50y ago my dad used to say voting for them was a waste of a vote. Not much has changed in all these years. No wonder some people want PR introduced.

Another sector wishing to rid itself of what it calls ‘EU red tape’.
Source: The Telegraph today.

“BRITISH farmers have blamed EU red tape left over from Brexit for forcing them to relabel their free range eggs.

The Government told farmers yesterday that they must remove free range labels from their packs as they continue to grapple with the worst outbreak of avian flu in British history.

Eggs laid by free-range hens must now be labelled barn eggs, as a government order to keep flocks indoors extends into its fourth month in England.

However, chicken farmers said the requirement to relabel their eggs was a hangover from EU legislation.

Robert Gooch, chief executive of the British Free Range Egg Producers Association, said: “It’s EU legislation that, post-Brexit, we would have liked to have got rid of.”

Brilliant speech by Alyn Smith about the proposed Bill allowing the Governement to get rid of all Rules that emanated from the EU. Perfectly said.

Now, as far as eggs are concerned- the EU is quite rightly concerned that eggs can be produced in the UK with feeds which are banned in EU, and with husbandry and conditions which are not as strict as in the UK. If eggs are produced by hens kept in barns- then they are not free-range, by definition, even if due to avian flu. Quite simple, really.

Same for other meats, feeds, antiobiotics, husbandry, etc.

Same for so called chocolate full of sugar, palm oil and practically no chocolate. Why should they accept unfair competition from poor products with poor ingredients and worse conditions, be it for animals or for workers?

fb.watch/irz13bmcK-/

Simple - or pedantic? All that extra cost for ‘repackaging’ too! Not very ‘green’ is it?

BTW, re hens and eggs- avian flu has also been a problem ibn Europe, and European egg producers who have had to keep hens in barns have had to change their own labelling!!! DOH!

Easy to stick a label on top- eggs in Europe are sold in recycled cardboard boxes- a sticky label on top is hardly an ecological or economical disaster! No need to re-package anything.

Do you think chocolate which contains more fat (palm oil), tons of sugar and flavourings, and practically no chocolate, should be called 'chocolate'. Pedantic would you say for EU to say that would be unfair cheap and nasty competition for the real thing?

Of course eggs should be properly labelled.

Urmstongran

Yes, very interesting DaisyAnne and therefore it’s good that the UK government have set such a target for 2030. Seems the students still want to come here to study then.

I wouldn't get too enthusiastic. It is good to look at all sides of something you are forming an opinion about. Unfortunately, there is another side to this; that is the usual underfunding of education.

I'm not going to find the figures; I'm sure you can find them if you are interested. This government's idea to turn everything into a business has not served them well, although my understanding it come only from family anecdotal evidence and what I have read.

I think those in power are very different to previous Conservatives. They don't seem to have experience setting up a business from scratch. None of the you and the family painting out your first premises, and often taking less than your employees while you build it up. And none of the knowledge that your employees are your greatest asset. Any public service is something very different.

With those we have in power now, the greater number who say they know about business are people who have played the stock market and think they are entitled to take money from wherever they can find it.

I know running a country is not like running a business, but knowing how they run is bound to be helpful. My New Statesman* morning email suggested Sunak is the CEO of managed decline. I think the way in which they behave towards the public services shows us this may well be true.

*New Statesman was described by Marr recently as writing from a social, liberal, democratic point of view. Just to let you know where they are coming from. (Notice social, not socialist )

Fleurpepper

Do you think chocolate which contains more fat (palm oil), tons of sugar and flavourings, and practically no chocolate, should be called 'chocolate'. Pedantic would you say for EU to say that would be unfair cheap and nasty competition for the real thing?

Casbury’s greasy chocolate comes to mind, so no!

Urmstongran

Yes Grantanow Nick Clegg certainly threw the WASPI women to the wolves. It’s likely Lib Dems can only gain power through a coalition. When I first started voting 50y ago my dad used to say voting for them was a waste of a vote. Not much has changed in all these years. No wonder some people want PR introduced.

The 1995 Pensions Act increased the state pension age for women from 60 to 65 in order to equalise the age with men, with the change to be phased in over ten years from 2010 for women born between 1950 and 1955.

This transition was later sped up by the 2011 Pensions Act.

Both the 1995 and 2011 changes came as a shock to many, with women discovering that they would have to wait up to six years longer for their state pension, potentially affecting their retirement plans.

In 2015, WASPI was formed by five women to argue for the government to provide transitional payments to women born in the 1950s receiving their pension after the age of 60. They also call for compensation to women who now receive a state pension but had to wait longer.

Three of the original founders stepped down as leaders after a split in August 2016. A further three directors resigned in February 2018 following an emergency board meeting held the previous month where irreconcilable differences led to the resignations.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_Against State.Pension_Inequality

Pensions Act 2011 Sponsoring departments-

Department for Work and Pensions- Lord Freud
Conservative, Life peer

Department for Work and Pensions -Mr Iain Duncan Smith
Conservative, Chingford and Woodford Green

bills.parliament.uk/bills/815

I do realise that Nick Clegg is a favorite scapegoat of the brexiters for everything and anything but I see no mention of his name in relation to the pension changes that affected the WASPI women.

Can you substantiate your accusation UG?