Brexit: The aftermath

[allezfred]

World’s largest daffodil farm forced to let flowers rot in fields

Cornwall’s Varfell Farms doesn’t have enough pickers as Cornish workers don’t last

www.cornwalllive.com

 

[allezfred]

Post-Brexit crossroads: Decision time for the EU and UK

Just two months into Brexit, the EU-UK relationship is already facing a crossroads.

www.rte.ie

Some officials entertain dark fears that maintaining friction is what the UK would prefer. They even worry that by keeping the Protocol in a state of perpetual turmoil, the UK could end up driving a wedge between Ireland and the so-called "coastal" EU member states (France, the Netherlands, Belgium) which take in Irish exports.

If those countries cannot depend on the checks and controls at Northern Irish ports, might they suggest imposing their own controls on food products coming in from the island of Ireland?

Brexit has a way of keeping such mood swings alive.

 

[SHARPIE]

Hilarious article from the Daily Mail
Blaming Brexit and vaccines for the French referee for not favourably treating the England rugby team well on Saturday.


They were playing ..... WALES

DOMINIC LAWSON: From rugby to the vaccine, the French put the boot in

DOMINIC LAWSON: Well, it would have to be a French referee, wouldn't it? English rugby fans are still raging about a decision by Pascal Gauzere in the match between us and the Welsh

mol.im

 

[Cachoo]

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/25/investing/brexit-london-financial-services/index.html

Who pushed so hard on Brexit? Is it too late and too inhumane for tar and feathers?

 

[allezfred]

Brexit blinds Britain to AstraZeneca’s blunders

Lack of transparency on Oxford-developed vaccine fuel for European and US caution

www.irishtimes.com

British ministers treat every question about the safety or effectiveness of the vaccine as a grievous insult to national honour. Even some Remainers ask whether EU scepticism towards the AstraZeneca jab springs from the continental view that Britain is run by cowboys.

There is no denying that European leaders have found it galling to see the UK sprint ahead in the vaccine race. The rapid start in the UK, as well as in the US and Israel, has increased domestic pressure on those leaders, even if delivery schedules in the EU and the UK suggest the continent will largely have closed the gap by early summer. But the Brexiteers’ conspiracy theory doesn’t hold up to any real scrutiny. In England, “the Oxford vaccine” is treated as a national champion, a symbol of British pluck and ingenuity.

That link is seldom drawn in the EU, where “the British vaccine” is a formulation applied as rarely to the AstraZeneca jab as “the German vaccine” is used to refer to the one developed in Mainz* by BioNTech and produced by the US pharma giant Pfizer. AstraZeneca is an Anglo-Swedish firm run by a Frenchman. The biggest share of investment in its vaccine came from the US and the bulk of its production is happening in India. The multinational Oxford vaccine team is jointly led by a scientist from Dublin.

 

[allezfred]

Tears flow for Brits as they head home to avoid being deported as illegals in Spain

Tears flow for Brits as they head home to avoid being deported as illegals in Spain: Brits this weekend across Spain, leave the country

global247news.com

Good grief!

Tears flow for Brits as they head home to avoid being deported as illegals in Spain

Another returning at Malaga airport today was Shaun Cromber who despite voting for Britain to leave the EU, didn’t believe it would end his Spanish lifestyle, he said: ” Yes I voted out, but I didn’t realise it would come to this, my application has been rejected and we are on our way home – the wife is in tears, she’s distraught if I’m honest and I’m not too happy at the prospect of returning back to the UK.

“I’ve loved living on the Costa del Sol and after 5 years can’t believe it has come to this, we applied but got rejected and so have no choice, although long term I think the Spanish will regret chucking us out of Spain”

 

[Vagabond]

Cook though says he knows of any who are going to try and ‘wing it’ and stay, he said ” I know of loads who are going to stay thinking they won’t get caught

Undocumented foreigners sponging off the state, taking jobs from citizens, and probably never learning Spanish. I'm shaking my head.

​

 

[taz'smum]

Tears flow for Brits as they head home to avoid being deported as illegals in Spain

Tears flow for Brits as they head home to avoid being deported as illegals in Spain: Brits this weekend across Spain, leave the country

global247news.com

Good grief!

Wow, I'm a bit shocked as here in France you have until the end of June to apply for the right to remain.
So Spain is kicking out people a lot quicker than France!

 

[antmanb]

I don't honestly know how any British person living in Spain (or anywhere else in the EU) could have voted to leave the EU and think they would be ok?

 

[taz'smum]

I don't honestly know how any British person living in Spain (or anywhere else in the EU) could have voted to leave the EU and think they would be ok?

British exceptionalism at its finest....

 

[SHARPIE]

I was just about to post that same article as @allezfred posted. It’s had me

 

[Louis]

I have no tears for the tax dodgers who could legally stay in Spain but don't want to register for residency because it would result in having to pay taxes. You can - although it's a d*ck move - be a Brit living in Spain, vote for Brexit, and end up absolutely fine. You just needed to register.

I would like to know more about those who were declined residency, though. I'd be interested to know on what grounds. The EU and the UK did make citizens' rights top priority and guaranteed that those already living in each other's territories would be OK. I hope that there are few of these cases, and that they're given serious (re)consideration.

 

[antmanb]

I have no tears for the tax dodgers who could legally stay in Spain but don't want to register for residency because it would result in having to pay taxes. You can - although it's a d*ck move - be a Brit living in Spain, vote for Brexit, and end up absolutely fine. You just needed to register.

I would like to know more about those who were declined residency, though. I'd be interested to know on what grounds. The EU and the UK did make citizens' rights top priority and guaranteed that those already living in each other's territories would be OK. I hope that there are few of these cases, and that they're given serious (re)consideration.

I imagine most Brits living Spain don't actually want residency. Assuming that you can only be resident in one country at a time, most people who spend a large chunk of their year living in Spain still want to be resident in the UK particularly if they still have a home in the UK and since the majority don't speak English they will want to come home for medical treatment too.

Also to get residency don't you need to show proof of earning and have money coming into your bank account. If you're living off a UK pension that is paid into your UK bank account (which you also lose if you aren't resident in the UK) would that qualify? If you can't show how you will support yourself financially (and the criminals living out there certainly won't have legitimate sources to show) would that be a reason to be denied residency?

Is healthcare another thing that you would need to take care of too? While the UK was still part of the EU you had the healthcard (or whatever the E111 became) for the public health system, but i'm guessing now the UK is a third country you would have to have private health insurance and that could be a condition for residency?

 

[allezfred]

My reading of “we got rejected” is “we didn’t file the paperwork correctly.”

 

[Vagabond]

My reading of “we got rejected” is “we didn’t file the paperwork correctly.”

Either that or they were deemed to be from what a certain former U.S. President would call a "sh!thole country."

 

[kwanfan1818]

The EU and the UK did make citizens' rights top priority and guaranteed that those already living in each other's territories would be OK.

Was that decided before or after the vote? If it was an agreement after, then the people who voted for Brexit would have had no indication that this would be a consideration.

I know that there was a small but vibrant Flamenco community of British expats living in Spain, which established itself under Franco's dictatorship, and I would guess it wasn't the only community. (There were almost two decades between Franco's death and the Maastricht Treaty -- was that when the right to live anywhere within the EU was established?) It may be that voters remembered the more informal arrangements and thought they'd be fine.

 

[allezfred]

Was that decided before or after the vote? If it was an agreement after, then the people who voted for Brexit would have had no indication that this would be a consideration.

I know that there was a small but vibrant Flamenco community of British expats living in Spain, which established itself under Franco's dictatorship, and I would guess it wasn't the only community. (There were almost two decades between Franco's death and the Maastricht Treaty -- was that when the right to live anywhere within the EU was established?) It may be that voters remembered the more informal arrangements and thought they'd be fine.

This isn’t the flamenco community. It’s “the weather’s not shit, but there’s English pubs” community.

 

[kwanfan1818]

I get that. What I'm wondering is if there were other British communities in Spain all along, ie, before the EU, like snowbirds in NA who spent bad weather seasons in good weather places*, and the reasoning was, well, we were able to hang around before the EU, so leaving the EU shouldn't hurt us.

*Plenty of Canadians lived in Southern California for long periods, but would return to Canada if they needed $$$$ medical care, until Canadian provinces started to make physical requirements of many months each year to be eligible for health care.

 

[Louis]

I get that. What I'm wondering is if there were other British communities in Spain all along, ie, before the EU, like snowbirds in NA who spent bad weather seasons in good weather places*, and the reasoning was, well, we were able to hang around before the EU, so leaving the EU shouldn't hurt us.

They can still do that, but they're limited to 90 days out of every 180. So if they go on January 1, they better be gone by March 31. They can then come back July 1.

One mistake people make is assuming that the rules are reciprocal. They are not. The UK allows visa-free travelers (of which all EU citizens are) to stay for six months. Several other rules -- e.g., ability to bring meat or cheese across the border -- are also not uniform. Ham sandwich is fine from EU to UK, but not allowed from UK to EU, as some Dover-Calais truck drivers found out.

 

[allezfred]

Brexit: Scottish dog food firm relocates to France due to export red tape

Owner says he decided ‘enough was enough’ after encountering more and more trade barriers

www.theguardian.com

 

[hanca]

One mistake people make is assuming that the rules are reciprocal. They are not. The UK allows visa-free travelers (of which all EU citizens are) to stay for six months. Several other rules -- e.g., ability to bring meat or cheese across the border -- are also not uniform. Ham sandwich is fine from EU to UK, but not allowed from UK to EU, as some Dover-Calais truck drivers found out.

I wonder why the UK is treating EU citizens better than UK citizens are being treated by the EU. I think the rules should be same both ways, if we talk about the fairness.

 

[Louis]

I wonder why the UK is treating EU citizens better than UK citizens are being treated by the EU. I think the rules should be same both ways, if we talk about the fairness.

Well, each sovereign body sets its own rules. Both pre-Brexit and post-Brexit, the UK treats all visa-free nationals one way (6-month stay), and the EU (technically, Schengen) treats all visa-free nationals another way (90 out of 180).

The UK is treating EU countries like any other visa-exempt country, and the EU is treating the UK like any other visa-exempt country.

These non-reciprocal rules apply in other cases, too - e.g., the U.S. policy is the same as the UK's. So EU citizens can go to the U.S. for six months (and with a passport that just needs to be valid for their visit), but U.S. citizens can only visit Schengen for 90 days out of 180 and require at least six months of validity on their passport.

The US and UK (and Ireland) have taken a more lax approach to immigration generally -- no exit checks (other than API), and six months of stay (v. 90/180). The rationale is that these additional EU rules, which are designed to prevent illegal immigration / overstays, create extra process and complexity with marginal or negative payback.

 

[allezfred]

I had no idea that John Le Carre had an Irish connection

John le Carré ‘died an Irishman’ after gaining citizenship, son says

www.irishtimes.com

In a twist worthy of his great thrillers, John le Carré, the most English of contemporary novelists, “died an Irishman”. In a BBC documentary to be broadcast on Saturday, le Carré’s son Nicholas says his father, bitterly disillusioned by Brexit, embraced his Irish heritage and became an Irish citizen before his death last December.

 

[allezfred]

The unravelling of all the hard work put into the Northern Ireland peace process fuelled by Brexit is awful to watch.

Northern Ireland: ‘Dishonesty’ over Brexit fuelled loyalist anger, says Stormont minister

Justice minister Naomi Long points finger at UK ministers after four nights of street violence in Northern Ireland

www.theguardian.com

 

[Vagabond]

The unravelling of all the hard work put into the Northern Ireland peace process fuelled by Brexit is awful to watch.

Northern Ireland: ‘Dishonesty’ over Brexit fuelled loyalist anger, says Stormont minister

Justice minister Naomi Long points finger at UK ministers after four nights of street violence in Northern Ireland

www.theguardian.com

Those unfamiliar with Northern Irish politics may be interested to know that Naomi Long is the leader of the nonsectarian Alliance Party and holds a position in the Cabinet pursuant to the power-sharing provisions of the Good Friday Agreement. I am a bit surprised that The Guardian didn't include at least some of that additional information in the article.

 

[allezfred]

Those unfamiliar with Northern Irish politics

That would seem to include a large proportion of the current British government....

 

[caseyedwards]

Northern Ireland loyalists are angry that they have been separated from the UK because they are still in common market with Ireland within EU. Seems easy! Get Northern Ireland totally out of the EU and have it be only a part of the UK.


Protocol “That means goods arriving from Great Britain will be checked and controlled at Northern Ireland's ports from 1 January.”

But goods going into the Republic of Ireland and the wider EU will face no new checks or controls.

Northern Ireland needs to decide once and for all. A part of UK or part of Ireland. Can’t be both anymore. Unless UK rejoins the EU. UK rejoins the EU all this goes away. But they need to decide. Part of UK or part of Ireland.

 

[allezfred]

Northern Ireland loyalists are angry that they have been separated from the UK because they are still in common market with Ireland within EU. Seems easy! Get Northern Ireland totally out of the EU and have it be only a part of the UK.


Protocol “That means goods arriving from Great Britain will be checked and controlled at Northern Ireland's ports from 1 January.”

But goods going into the Republic of Ireland and the wider EU will face no new checks or controls.

Northern Ireland needs to decide once and for all. A part of UK or part of Ireland. Can’t be both anymore. Unless UK rejoins the EU. UK rejoins the EU all this goes away. But they need to decide. Part of UK or part of Ireland.

The people of Northern Ireland say “F*ck off” to Pro-Trump trolls telling them what to do.

 

[Vagabond]

The people of Northern Ireland say “F*ck off” to Pro-Trump trolls telling them what to do.

The people of Northern Ireland are not alone in that.

 

[caseyedwards]

So what’s the main proposal being discussed To solve the problems. Is it UK rejoining the EU?