Button- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 2,915
Charlie Elphicke
Voting record on the 27 February Brexit debate:
Against
Labour's amendment to back the party's proposals on Brexit, which include a customs union and a close relationship with the single market. (Amendment failed)
Against
SNP and Plaid's amendment to insist that the UK should never leave the EU without a deal. (Amendment failed)
Did not vote
Yvette Cooper's amendment re-stating Theresa May's commitment that MPs should have a vote on delaying Brexit if both her deal and no-deal are rejected by MPs. (Amendment passed)
(Not my real name.)
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Don't understand what he's playing at there as he has been insistent that we leave on time with no extension.
Pablo- Registered: 21 Mar 2018
- Posts: 614
Robbie Burns had sound advice for all politicians and for anyone with airs and graces above their station:
O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Reginald Barrington- Location: Dover
- Registered: 17 Dec 2014
- Posts: 3,206
Hardly a comparison: world's largest logistics company -V- wannabe ferry company!
Arte et Marte
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Reginald Barrington wrote:Hardly a comparison: world's largest logistics company -V- wannabe ferry company!
Not the point I was making Reg, they took on a contract so large they would have had to bring in people, devise systems and it still took a long time to get right. They would have had plenty of notice to plan things unlike the medical supplies which could be operational in under a month or not at all meaning they cannot start employing people and training them up.
Reginald Barrington- Location: Dover
- Registered: 17 Dec 2014
- Posts: 3,206
Who would you suggest gets the contract, Hermes?
Arte et Marte
Button- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 2,915
Extract from an interesting report by Drewry Shipping Consultants:
The mention (on page 15) of scanning of Transit declaration barcodes being included in the [commercial] check-in process is particularly fascinating to frontier geeks and extremely welcome. The statement that 'precise documentary requirements for the passage of exports through check-in are not yet known' is unwelcome, though pretty damn typical I guess.
ray hutstone and howard mcsweeney1 like this
(Not my real name.)
Pablo- Registered: 21 Mar 2018
- Posts: 614
#3586 Pedants’ corner: I would suggest that UPS is far bigger than DHL. DHL in fact comes 4th.
Button- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 2,915
Big Brown!
(Not my real name.)
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Courtesy of the Times.
Spain will announce a royal decree tomorrow to limit the impact of a no-deal Brexit on British tourists and expatriates. Under the plan healthcare provision for British residents and tourists would be guaranteed until at least December 31, 2020. British residents would also continue to have access to the social security system, which gives rights to unemployment benefits and pensions. The Socialist government will also guarantee freedom of movement for workers between Gibraltar and Spain.
The law will come as a huge relief to about 300,000 Britons in Spain, many of whom are pensioners living on the costas who rely on access to local hospitals and doctors. Madrid hopes that the measures will limit the damage Brexit might do to its tourism industry, the second largest sector of the economy. Last year 18 million British tourists visited Spain. However, today the European Commission ruled out an EU-wide agreement with the UK to ensure that the rights of expatriates are protected across Europe in a no-deal Brexit. The proposal, for a UK-EU commitment to preserve citizens’ rights, was passed without opposition in the House of Commons yesterday. But a commission spokeswoman said in response that the EU was not willing to conclude “mini-deals” with the UK outside the main withdrawal agreement. The agreement includes reciprocal commitments to maintain the rights of an estimated 3.5 million EU citizens in the UK and 1.5 million Britons on the Continent to live and work in their chosen homes after Brexit. The prime minister has pledged to honour this commitment for EU expats in Britain even if her deal fails. There has been no similar promise from the EU, which has left it to individual member states to decide how they will act in a no-deal scenario.
Asked whether the EU was ready to strike an agreement of the kind proposed by Alberto Costa, a former parliamentary private secretary who was forced to quit to bring his amendment, Mina Andreeva, a spokeswoman for the European Commission, said: “We will not negotiate mini-deals because negotiating such mini-deals outside the withdrawal agreement would imply that the negotiations have failed.” She said that the best way to protect the rights of expats was through the withdrawal agreement. So far all EU states have pledged that British nationals can continue to live in their countries in the event of a no-deal but some have insisted that UK residents will have to pay a registration fee.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
All seems a bit late in the day but Eurotunnel want their pound of flesh.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47403653Neil Moors- Registered: 3 Feb 2016
- Posts: 1,243
The Spain move will come as a huge relief to the hundreds of thousands of Brits living there. I spent some time as a health attache in the UK Embassy in Madrid, so know how chaotic it is on the ground there. What it will probably mean is British citizens 'regularising' their status, which may be quite difficult for many! I was there when the Valencia region unilaterally stopped providing health to UK residents (against the wishes of Madrid and in contravention of EU law) so it is quite a sensitive issue. To talk in Brexit parlance, it is all a bit "bloody Brits, coming over here, falling apart at the seams and using our health system".
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howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Disappointing news for those who voted to leave over the immigration issue.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47400679howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Courtesy of the Times.
Political history is full of surprises and we may be on the brink of another. It may be that all the effort required to understand Labour’s stance on a second referendum, the blizzard of parliamentary amendments and the varied proposals for Brexit delay are all beside the point. The point is now on the horizon and, if you squint a little, you can glimpse the distant sign of a deal passing. Not many in the political class are ready for the surprise that may be with them before long. Brexit is the subject that it is impossible to keep in proportion. David Cameron exaggerated the threat from Ukip and so conceded an unnecessary referendum. The Leave campaign conjured up a phantom of federalism and imaginary immigrants to scare us all sceptical. The Remain campaign placed economic fortunes on a precipice and waited in vain for them to fall fast enough. With time now short there is a feverish conversation about the prospect of leaving without a deal, the mechanics of extending the Article 50 process and the Labour Party’s almost-adoption of a sort-of referendum (one day over the rainbow).
If Geoffrey Cox, the attorney-general, can squeeze a concession out of Brussels and call it a codicil, then the deal is done. Jacob Rees-Mogg called for a ladder to climb down in yesterday’s Daily Mail. Steve Baker has done TV interviews in which he raised, for the first time, the possibility that he might vote for the withdrawal agreement. The European Research Group will fold, the Democratic Unionist Party will claim victory and, with a few Labour MPs joining in, Mrs May will win an inglorious victory.
It is no surprise, of course, that change is happening tight against the wire. It is in the nature of negotiations that they crystallise late. Until this week all options were available and nobody profited from shifting. This week no-deal was, in effect, disqualified and an extension to the process loomed, on the face of it, larger. Something finally happened and all of it points towards the deal. There are three converging reasons to think that success on March 12 (or even before) is the most likely of all the unlikely outcomes: the collapse of Labour, the tribalism of the Tories and the late arrival of naked fear into the Brexit project.
The defection of eight MPs has changed the power dynamics in the Labour Party. Jeremy Corbyn, in his usual murky fashion, had to grant his backbenchers their desired second referendum. This was greeted as a big moment, which it was, but not for the reason stated nor with the effect intended. When Tory Brexiteers note that a second referendum could now be more likely, it helps to discipline them in favour of the deal. The more likely a referendum seems, the less likely it becomes. This is a second order effect that is probably greatly to Mr Corbyn’s liking. For the Tories this has helped to stir the political blood. Tribalism is kicking in. They know that failure to take Britain out of the EU poses an existential threat to the Tory party. The Conservative vote is such a Leave vote that a failure to complete the mission would be an abject political disaster. Anyone who cares about the political fortunes of the Tory party (and we can hardly expect Tory MPs not to) realises that they absolutely have to do this.
And if they achieve that much they can see a prize on offer. Not only Brexit itself but electoral victory. The Labour Party, with a century’s heritage, is now polling 23 per cent. The Independent Group, whose only (excellent) policy is that it is not even a party, is already on 18 per cent. The Tories have a lead in double digits and they may not all be disposed to throw it away in a fit of ideological purity on a border dispute. Don’t be surprised if their principled opposition turns out to be friable now they scent victory.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
To think we were concerned about a mere £13.8 million contract.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47414699Brian Dixon likes this
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
yeah grayling is failing, time for him to go to an obsolete department while sitting on back benches in the naughty school.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Jan Higgins and Brian Dixon like this
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,666
Grayling must be the most incompetent person in the Cabinet but I guess he is safe as long as he is a May supporter or until Brexit is sorted.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Button- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 2,915
Dear Mr Grayling
I hear that you are to pay Eurotunnel £33m not to run ferries. I think I could not run ferries as well. A while back I told my then employer that I wished to retire and they said "that's a good idea, Button, we'll pay you not to come into work"; I now have time on my hands and would like to diversify into not doing other things.
Yours sincerely
Button (rtd)
P.S. I'd prefer to receive my £33m by internet banking, just in case a cheque in the post doesn't reach me.
howard mcsweeney1, Weird Granny Slater, ray hutstone and
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howard mcsweeney1, Weird Granny Slater, ray hutstone and Paul M like this
(Not my real name.)