howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Courtesy of the Times.
The European Union is preparing for the House of Commons to take control of Brexit talks and believes that there is new “readiness” for Britain to stay in a customs union or in Europe’s single market. Michel Barnier, the EU’s lead negotiator, is on standby for rapid developments after Commons votes next week on the prime minister’s latest proposals and on amendments on the direction of Brexit that could put MPs in the driving seat, heralding a shift in Britain’s exit plan.
“Things could start moving rapidly,” he told the Luxemburger Wort newspaper. “We are ready to be more ambitious if the British decide to shift their red lines, for example by remaining in a customs union, or participating in the single market. I believe there is a readiness in London for that.”
Mr Barnier and other European governments, notably Germany, believe that the extent of Theresa May’s parliamentary defeat over Brexit last week will herald a shift in Britain’s current red lines against a permanent customs union or a “Norway” model of single market membership. EU negotiators are banking on a change in policy and for Commons votes to push the prime minister to go beyond seeking assurances on the current withdrawal agreement’s backstop to avoid hard border in Ireland. “Looking at it objectively, I have the impression that the backstop is not the central issue. Ultimately, the debate in Britain is about what the future will look like. I believe that we can overcome the current difficulties when we discuss that issue together,” he said.
“As you listen to the debates in London, you find that there are currently two majorities in parliament. One against the agreement and one against a chaotic no-deal Brexit. Now, British politicians need to find a positive majority for something.” Senior EU officials and diplomats do not think that the British political crisis has not yet fully played out and they have ruled out any new concessions to Mrs May over the Irish backstop. There is concern in Brussels that many MPs see a motion to rule out a no-deal as a substitute to finding political consensus for a softer Brexit.
“The dynamic of the talks will be determined by whether May comes back with the same demand on the backstop or not,” said a senior EU negotiator. “Everybody knows that the default option is no deal, regardless whether there is a parliamentary motion voted or not. That motion does not get you into a deal.”
Neil Moors- Registered: 3 Feb 2016
- Posts: 1,232
I think May would be absolutely fine with being directed by Parliament to extend article 50, or further, to enter a customs union. As long as she wasn't the one doing so, I think it would be fine. That said, being a former Home Secretary, she is of course obsessed with immigration, so expect that she would not countenance the single market.
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
ok then, lets extend it for another 50 years. just to make sure we want to leave.
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howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
I have now reached the stage of not actually understanding what is going on with motions, amendments, sub clauses and cross party alliances. I get the distinct impression that both parties are more interested in the next General Election. Last week we heard that Central Office had told local parties to prepare for one now, after doing their arithmetic they see Labour taking office in a coalition with the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Lib Dems. The Labour high command want a General Election then renegotiate terms with the EU, some hopes of that happening.
Just to confuse things further Michael Barnier insists that we will have to pay the 39 billion even if we leave with no deal.
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 7,500
Brian Dixon, Pablo and Ross Miller like this
'If no one went no faster than what I do there'd be a sight less trouble in this world'
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 7,500
Dyson shmyson! Other makes of vacuum cleaners are available. 300 NEW JOBS: Numatic planning massive expansion
https://www.yeovilexpress.co.uk/news/17376284.numatic-planning-massive-expansion-and-300-new-jobs/?ref=twtrecGuest 3065 likes this
'If no one went no faster than what I do there'd be a sight less trouble in this world'
Guest 3065- Registered: 10 Jan 2019
- Posts: 145
What ever happens we the leavers are not going to let them stop brexit it is going to happen because we will riot like never seen before there will be blood on the streets of London and they will get sued
Neil Moors- Registered: 3 Feb 2016
- Posts: 1,232
So, reading in a little bit of depth, it appears that a delay to Brexit is absolutely certain given the backlog of legislative instruments required from the UK side. So, I guess it now becomes a question of how that happens without it looking like the Prime Minister's fault. JRM appears to have seen this scenario coming with his call for prorogation yesterday. My guess is that the Cooper/Boles amendment deliberately says Brexit Day is 31 December in order to allow a Government victory in bringing that back to 30th June. All very synchronized - but, the EU must agree of course.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
just a question no offence ment.
if leave means leave, why don't the leavers bugger of and let the rest of us to get on with it.
end of rant.
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 7,500
From the Speccie:-
Leading article
Dyson’s move shows he thinks the Brexit opportunity will be squandered
If knighthoods could be removed by vote of parliament, Sir James Dyson would be first in line. Knighted for being one of Britain’s most celebrated entrepreneurs, he backed Brexit — only to decide this week to scarper to lower-taxed Singapore. To Sam Gyimah, a former Tory minister, it is a ‘betrayal of the public’. To Labour’s shadow business secretary, Rebecca Long-Bailey, it exposes a ‘culture of short-termism’ in British business. To the Lib Dem Layla Moran, it is an act of ‘staggering hypocrisy’.
This response encapsulates a failure to understand the economically liberal case for Brexit. The truth is that Brexit, in and of itself, will do very little for Britain. It brings new powers. If they are used well, we can walk taller; used badly, we can fall further. Brexit will not make global competition any easier.
Let us set aside the question of whether Dyson is a villain. His decision to designate his Singapore office as the global HQ offers useful insights into business, power and the need for realism. Dyson’s ‘move’ means just two senior staff moving to Singapore, while investment in the Wiltshire plant will not be stopped. Dyson’s decision will allow the company to avail itself of lower corporation tax (17 per cent to Britain’s 19 per cent) and better access to Chinese markets. Multinational companies are obliged, by shareholders, to conduct a regular review of whether to move their headquarters and they weigh up various factors when doing so. Forbes magazine recently conducted a worldwide survey on the best place in which to do business in terms of property rights, innovation, taxes, technology, corruption, freedom. All told, it found, nowhere was better for business than the United Kingdom.
And why? We can thank, in no small part, the ministers within the coalition government who brought in reforms to help Britain cope in the ‘global race’: it prioritised regulatory restraint, lower corporation taxes, more students in world-class universities and a pro-business environment in general. It tended to favour software firms and, as a result, London now has more computer programmers than San Francisco and New York put together. For all manner of endeavours, Britain is the best place in the world.
But not for everyone. Dyson is focusing on Singapore not because he is thinking short-term but precisely the opposite: he can see that the growing market for his company’s products lies in the Far East. This is especially true for its next big venture, driverless cars. He has sought to develop them in Britain but found the government obstructive over basic issues, like allowing him to test the cars at disused RAF airfields. Even within the vacuum cleaner market, there were problems. Dyson ended up in a five-year legal battle with the European Union, at the behest of German rivals who feared competition from bagless models. This was simple harassment, and he eventually won.
Is there any reason for hoping that Brexit will make British innovators less vulnerable to all this? Theresa May’s various proposals have involved the UK going along with all of EU regulation, even green targets. We might end up with precisely what Remainers feared all along: having technically left the EU, only to have signed up to all of its various regimes but without a say in how they are decided. Brexiteers seem to forget that their optimistic vision of a global Britain requires leadership, which does not, alas, seem to be forthcoming from the Conservative party.
EU membership did not really help companies like Dyson. Nice though it was to have tariff-free trade with the EU, two-thirds of its customers were outside the continent and there was a far bigger potential prize beyond. Of course, Brexit could, in theory, mean a more globally minded UK that lowers tariffs. But in practice, what will we get?
We have a prime minister who is preoccupied with cutting immigration, the architect of the justifiably derided ‘hostile environment’ for migrants. And if the Tory government falls, we could end up with a red Brexit. Jeremy Corbyn could use his new freedoms to push through nationalisation and state aid programmes, which would be much more difficult to enact if we were still members of the EU.
Brexit is not a proxy for political imagination and leadership. While MPs have been arguing about backstops and parliamentary standing orders, the world is moving on. Companies are moving, too. So the way to win business for Britain is not to shake fists at British companies for daring to relocate parts of their operations abroad. Instead, we must create the environment which allows Britain to compete. MPs will find it easier to denounce Dyson than ask questions about why his company found it so hard to develop driverless cars in the UK. Two decades ago, Britain was poised to become a global centre of GM technology only to see the industry driven abroad because the EU made it all but impossible to conduct trials.
After the EU referendum result, it seemed as if the government understood what it needed to do in order to seize the opportunities presented by Brexit. The Chancellor, Philip Hammond, spoke of following the example of pro-business Singapore. But he then went back on it, and the government as a whole then lost momentum and the initiative. The relocation of Dyson HQ to Singapore is no disaster for Britain, but it does raise questions about the country we want to be and how to make sure that the legacy of Brexit is a positive one.
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'If no one went no faster than what I do there'd be a sight less trouble in this world'
Weird Granny Slater- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 2,850
Brian Dixon wrote:just a question no offence ment.
if leave means leave, why don't the leavers bugger of and let the rest of us to get on with it.
end of rant.
Surely that's too short for a rant, BD. In any case, since there were more leavers than remainers it should be the remainers who leave and the leavers who remain. That would be more appropriate for our topsy-turvy times.
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'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
Button- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 2,907
I think it’s a case of hats off to that French chap M Bertrand (or whoever), after his article above in today’s Daily Telegraph and Le Figaro and which contains two bits of good news.
First of all, whilst we Brits may become non-EU citizens tomorrow, we will not become aliens. Actually, what he said was that the Brits won’t become “
extra-terrestres”, which sounds so much better, but anyhow it was a jolly nice thing to say because I have my doubts about a number of our MPs.
Now, M Bertrand may not be seen in a hard hat as often as some politicians on this side of Channel (today’s bleu one being an exception), but nevertheless he’s someone who gets things done. Just last week he tweeted that “To protect SMEs/VSEs and the tourism sector, and to avoid traffic jams in ports and the tunnel, an information campaign for logistics professionals from all over Europe is urgently needed on the new customs rules if there is no Brexit agreement”. BUT (and this is the second bit of good news) only a few days later we can be absolutely clear that French terminals will be ready for Brexit, ensuring 100% fluidity on day one even in a no-deal scenario.
Bravo Monsieur: sortie sorted! If you should ever want a job helping us take back control…
(Not my real name.)
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
I read that piece from Mr Bertrand this and thought that only a politician could come out with nonsense like that. Platitudes and not much else, we know that French terminals want fluidity but French customs have to treat us as a third country.
quote.“To protect SMEs/VSEs and the tourism sector, and to avoid traffic jams in ports and the tunnel, an information campaign for logistics professionals from all over Europe is urgently needed on the new customs rules if there is no Brexit agreement” quote.
A bit late in the day for the above and it is not just logistics professionals but anyone who buys from or sells to other member states.
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 7,500
And what's so wrong with 'aliens'?
The requirement for aliens (the then legal term for immigrants to Britain) to register with the police was introduced under the provisions of the Aliens Registration Act 1914; it was renewed by the Aliens Restriction (Amendment) Act 1919 and the Immigration Act 1971.
'If no one went no faster than what I do there'd be a sight less trouble in this world'
Button- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 2,907
I don't think there's anything wrong with aliens provided they integrate into the community and play nicely with the other children; I have watched Men in Black you know!
Plus there's the EU Invasive Alien Species Regulation..
(Not my real name.)
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
wgs,
1/ its mini rant question wise.
2/ if leavers remain they become remainers.
3/ if remainers leave that makes them leavers.
with all the rowlocks that's being spouted its a wonder that 99% of people haven't buggerd off to some better place [s].
Button- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 2,907
Clever, bold advert on the front cover of today's Financial Times: Keep calm and let's find you a new office (in time-honoured font and crown format). Provost.nl welcomes you to Amsterdam, it says.
(Not my real name.)