Brexit Watch

wanderlust wrote:The government has now introduced a raft of new documentation to be completed by importers of goods and parts to the UK effective from the 1st of January. This is the next phase of the Brexit hard border that will be phased in over the coming months.

Despite this being the "post-Xmas quiet period" already lorries are being turned back at Calais but to avoid images of queues appearing on the news, freight forwarders are being told to do the documentation in depots before setting off for the border where rigorous checks will be made.

Meanwhile...
The new Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade agreement came into force on January 1st covering fifteen member countries – Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The world’s largest free trading bloc is now open for business.
The countries that make up the trade deal account for around 30% of the world’s population (2.2 billion people) and 30% of global GDP ($26.2 trillion), making it the largest trading bloc in history.

I'm not a betting man, but I wouldn't be surprised if the RCEP, the USA and the EU prioritise setting up trade deals with each other.

Whitesince63 wrote:

Of course they’ll want to trade with each other but within the ten years or more it will take the EU bureaucrats to agree a deal we’ll probably have already done our own UK deal and be trading.

wanderlust wrote:More Brexit hypocrisy.

Whitesince63 wrote:

Come on Lusty, there hadn’t been a pandemic then and there wasn’t an energy crisis. If we keep cutting taxes, how are we going to afford the bale outs and pay down the debt? If we drop the VAT here they’ll only have to tax somewhere else and there are other ways to tackle the problem for those worst hit. In fact there are better ways period. Stop this insane net zero rush, increase NS Gas production, implement fracking and stop the reliance on foreign imports when we can do it cheaper ourselves and benefit consumers young and old.

wanderlust wrote:Data analysis by city broker reckons UK will lose a further 8% of exports to the EU as other EU countries pick up the slack


One in three UK business owners fear their businesses won't exist in a year.


Brexit has given a $228 billion boost to balance sheets of Irish banks

wanderlust wrote:
White - it's not about the excuses for why the Brexit promises have not and will not be delivered - it's not even about promising unicorns to rig the vote - it's about the U turns in strategy to ameliorate the damage.

And exactly how will increasing NS gas production help the UK economy? I can see how it helps global companies like Exxon and INEOS but since Thatcher sold off the NS fossil fuel rights to them and others we have no control over production and we don't own the gas that is produced in our own back yard.

Sure there'd be more gas to buy but the price would be exactly the same as it's fixed globally.

Whitesince63 wrote:

Why do you bother only focussing on the negatives Lusty, whilst completely ignoring any positives? Let’s just agree to differ on Brexit and leave it there because it’s utterly pointless looking for and posting alternate views. Brexit happened, why not try getting behind it instead of constantly upsetting yourself by wallowing in negativity?

Whitesince63 wrote:

Why do you bother only focussing on the negatives Lusty, whilst completely ignoring any positives? Let’s just agree to differ on Brexit and leave it there because it’s utterly pointless looking for and posting alternate views. Brexit happened, why not try getting behind it instead of constantly upsetting yourself by wallowing in negativity?

Whitesince63 wrote:Well you obviously only focus on negatives in the news Troy, so why should I bother adding anything positive. Maybe unemployment falling, more people in work, more jobs available, wages rising, people moving into better paid jobs and the fall out from hospitality jobs moving to distribution and warehousing jobs, more new companies being created in high growth areas than France and Germany combined might justify some positivity but it’s clearly not important to you so why should I bother?

wanderlust wrote:They're panicking in the EU. Apparently inflation has reached 3.30% - and may go as high as 4.5% before 2022 is out - way above the 2% they were predicting.

Whitesince63 wrote:

Yes and the difference now is that whilst individual countries can’t do anything about it, however badly it affects their economy, we can thanks to Brexit.

Whitesince63 wrote:

Yes and the difference now is that whilst individual countries can’t do anything about it, however badly it affects their economy, we can thanks to Brexit. Another good reason we’re out. 🥳

Also, be careful that pie doesn’t drop on your face Lusty!!

wanderlust wrote:
True. We've managed to get our inflation up to 5.4% so take that Europe! We win!

T.R.O.Y. wrote:

The EU never had control of our fiscal policy, we have the Bank of England - what controls have we won back?