Perhaps the first time in a while I haven’t heard her parroting ‘brexit means brexit’ because after all the fucking mind numbing dumb shit sloganing, it now doesn’t.
The Irish border issue is somewhat difficult. Does the EU have any other land borders with countries outside the EU that don’t have some kind of physical infrastructure at the crossing points?
Isn’t Switzerland in the EEA but not the EU, hence the lack of border controls is OK? Ditto for Norway. If we’re outside the customs union I have no idea how it can work without controls.
Looking into it, Norway is fully in the EEA/EFTA and abides by EU laws. Switzerland is not, but the free trade agreement took nine years from commencement to implementation.
A few years ago I toured Europe on my motorbike, I bought my Swiss and Austrian Autobahn passes online, for quite a decent discount.
As I already had the stickers on my screen I never got stopped once at any border point, not even Liechtenstein.
I fancy doing it again in a few years time. I especially look forward to being stopped everyfuckingwhere and then a nice interview with Customs when I get back to explain the inevitable couple of litres of Schnapps I get given whenever I visit the folks. What an utter clusterfuck.
You wouldn’t believe the shenanigans that go on at CERN to do with moving kit between the Swiss and French parts of the site. For my sins I spent 2-3 years building, in the UK, a piece of kit for delivery to CERN whose component parts were bought by CERN so they could be delivered in Switzerland at a VAT rate of 8%. The parts were then shipped from Switzerland to us, assembled and tested here and finally freighted back to Switzerland before being moved into France, where they were to be used, through the accelerator tunnel. Except they had to go through a virtual tunnel (invisible, and on the surface) since they were too big to get through the actual tunnel. I am not making this up. I swear more was spent on the process than was saved on the VAT.
It’s good to see someone like Pie talking about what pricks Juncker and Tusk are. In many ways the EU is quite toxic, and I say that as someone who thinks that overall, it’s a force for good.
(I actually initially typed a farce for good, maybe I should have left it!)
What has been instructive is people having to admit that deals such as that the EU has struck with Canada won’t & can’t be as generous or helpful as the arrangements that an existing EU member benefits from. While it’s obvious, it hasn’t really been made clear. We aren’t going to get those same terms if outside, however much May, Redwood & Rees Mogg bleat that we are. The Norway deal cedes too much control. The Canada deal gives too little (relatively) access. But they aren’t going to give some ‘in between’ terms even for the transition.
So while it’s entirely possible that Britain could end up with some Canada or Japan style relationship with the EU it is inevitably going to be on much worse terms than those we currently have. They aren’t going to let us have that cake. Reality is starting to bite. They’ve also made clear their 3 issues before future trade can be discussed. I guess our dimwits realise they’ll need to satisfy those a bit but the only leverage we have is money. Money on our side. Time or lack of it being the pressure they’ll apply. It all has to go to the wire. Given the circumstances i actually understand the negotiation approach, I just wish we hadn’t forced ourselves to have to do it. I also wish the UK had adopted some of the migration control/monitoring measures other EU countries already use. Might have prevented a Brexit vote in the first place.
I think the vote was always inevitable, the loons on the left and the right were just waiting for their moment. Electorally it came when Cameron lost his majority in the Tory Party. As for the left loons, you can already see Corbyn and Momentum distancing themselves from the Single market as it would prevent Government intervention in UK industry, including being an impediment to nationalisation.
I bet rich farmers will still get a subsidy and the poor regions will get screwed in a post Brexit UK. The latter will lead to Scotland leaving the UK, I couldn’t believe the number of EU funded infrastructure projects up there. The plans to retire to Scotland are looking good.