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Happy Brexit Day!


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18 minutes ago, OmiyaHearts said:

Life goes on as normal and hardly anything will change. That's my prediction.

I go along with this.

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Space Mackerel
1 hour ago, OmiyaHearts said:

Life goes on as normal and hardly anything will change. That's my prediction.

 

For the next 365 days anyway.

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😂
 

There will be another “ Brexit Day “ when the “ transition “ finalises on 31st Dec 2020, and no doubt more days to celebrate when they cock that up and add more on to the £30B that will take years to pay back.

 

😂
 

 

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3 hours ago, OmiyaHearts said:

Life goes on as normal and hardly anything will change. That's my prediction.

 

Bookmarked. ;)

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Space Mackerel

Good article here:

 

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/promises-to-uk-fishing-industry-were-just-another-brexit-fantasy-tm7z96v53?fbclid=IwAR1mwpFOlFHlLH3Al3qcpNO7nUONryHZxGXnpmGoS_dy2Ir8Z8OGN-F9iJA

 

For a moment of self-proclaimed national triumph, the lack of celebration is striking. No grand treaty-signing ceremony in Brussels, just Boris Johnson alone at his desk in London. No festival, no fireworks, not even a Big Ben Bong; just a light show in Downing Street and a televised fireside chat by the prime minister. But on Friday at 11pm Britain will finally leave the European Union and on Saturday emerge blinking into the sunlit uplands, an independent nation once again, ready to seize the opportunities afforded by Brexit. If only anybody knew what they are.

What makes this moment extraordinary and, no doubt, explains the low-key celebrations, is that even now, three and half years on from the referendum, the government still can’t point with any conviction to any upsides to leaving the EU.

Brexit was always a solution looking for a problem. It has turned out to be a solution that causes far more problems than the Brexiteers, whose ignorance of what the EU does and how global trade works, has been cruelly exposed, had ever anticipated. Once Britain is outside the bloc, their rhetoric will inevitably collide with reality.

Nowhere is that collision likely to be so painful as in the case of fish. The fishing industry played a central role in the Brexit campaign as a symbol of all that was supposedly wrong with the EU. The tale of how it was betrayed in the negotiations over Britain’s entry to the European Communities in 1973 supplied the original stab-in-the-back narrative that sustained the anti-EU cause for 47 years. Brussels’ demand that Britain open up its waters to rapacious foreign trawlers was a disaster for British fishing. Leaving the EU was an opportunity to reverse this historic injustice by quitting the hated Common Fisheries Policy and taking back control of Britain’s territorial waters.

Yet as with so often with Brexit, this narrative was almost entirely wrong. It was not the EEC, as it then was, which brought foreign fishing fleets into British waters. They had been fishing them for centuries. The fisheries policy, for the most part, codified fishing rights that already existed by allocating quotas to European fishing fleets based on historic catches. It is true that the British fleet dwindled after joining the fisheries policy but that was true of fishing fleets everywhere, whether they were in the CFP or not, reflecting the trend towards larger ships and increased industrialisation.

If the British industry declined faster than others it was in part due to a domestic political decision, unique in Europe, to allow British fishermen to sell their quotas. In a depressingly familiar story of British short-termism, many businesses took the opportunity to cash out rather than invest. The result is that more than half Britain’s quota is held by Dutch, Spanish and Icelandic-owned ships sailing under British flags. More than half Northern Ireland’s quota is hoarded on to a single trawler. One Dutch multinational controls a quarter of England’s quota.

That is not to deny that there have been many problems with the CFP over the years. It took too long to grapple effectively with the problem of over-fishing. The result was that some fishing grounds had to be closed and quotas cut to allow stocks to revive. That included restrictions on North Sea cod fishing, which is important to the UK market. Nonetheless, recent reforms, that Britain played a leading role in shaping, appear to have addressed many

It is important to note that the CFP bought benefits to the UK fishing industry too. The reality is that Britain imports 70 per cent of the fish it eats, such as cod and haddock, but exports 80 per cent of the fish it catches, mostly to the EU.

British waters are rich in species such as langoustines and crab, which are popular in France and Spain, and mackerel and herring, which are sold in Northern Europe. By opening up new markets for British-caught fish, EU membership helped create a thriving fish processing industry in Britain even as the numbers employed in catching fish dwindled.

Yet Brexiteers characteristically promised the fishing industry that, outside the EU, Britain could have its cake and eat it. Britain would become an independent coastal nation again, they said, taking back control of its own territorial waters, which under the UN Law of the Sea extend 200 miles from the coast. It would be up to the British government to decide how much access, if any, to allow to foreign ships. British fishermen were told they could expect massive increases in quotas without any restrictions on their ability to sell their catches in European markets.

This is of course a fantasy. Britain’s fishing fleet almost certainly doesn’t have the capacity to catch all the fish in British waters – and even if it did it would certainly need access to European markets to sell them. But the EU has been clear that the price of access to its markets must be access for its fishing fleets to British waters. There’s no reason to believe it is bluffing given that many EU countries have their own, often highly militant, fishing industries to worry about. Under the EU Council’s own negotiating guidelines, the EU wants a deal that would guarantee that existing access is maintained. Senior EU figures have suggested that access to EU markets for British financial services firms could hinge upon agreeing such a deal on fish.

That has prompted talk of a major clash later this year. But it is hard to believe that Mr Johnson is really going to die in another of his famous ditches over an industry that generates less than one per cent of GDP and employs just 12,000 people. Besides some parts of the industry, not least fish processors, will be pressing for a deal. Environment secretary Theresa Villiers this week introduced a bill in parliament that legally guarantees Britain will leave the CFP. But the government will have little choice but to negotiate a new deal that looks remarkably similar to the CFP. How Mr Johnson sells that deal to those whose expectations he so recklessly raised remains to be seen.

Simon Nixon is chief leader writer for The Times

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Great times ahead.

 

Not being an idiot I do not believe in the following:

 

The world will end

Britain will be destroyed

We are actually leaving Europe (some clowns actually think we must be establishing our own new continent)

We are losing our neighbours

 

Proud Brexit voter, proud Tory, proud Scot, proud Brit and proud European.

 

:fonzie:

 

 

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7 minutes ago, i8hibsh said:

Great times ahead.

 

Not being an idiot I do not believe in the following:

 

The world will end

Britain will be destroyed

We are actually leaving Europe (some clowns actually think we must be establishing our own new continent)

We are losing our neighbours

 

Proud Brexit voter, proud Tory, proud Scot, proud Brit and proud European.

 

:fonzie:

 

 

 

Being anti-Brexit but also not being an idiot, I don't believe any of the four things you posted either.

 

Painting those who who have opposite views to yourself as extremists or idiots isn't particularly healthy, i8.

 

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1 minute ago, redjambo said:

 

Being anti-Brexit but also not being an idiot, I don't believe any of the four things you posted either.

 

Painting those who who have opposite views to yourself as extremists or idiots isn't particularly healthy, i8.

 

 

 

Woah woah, I never said those who are anti Brexit are idiots.  I said if you believe in these 4 things you are an idiot.  Especially the 'leaving Europe' one.  You need to be a special kind of stupid to think Brexit means we are leaving Europe.

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Just now, i8hibsh said:

 

 

Woah woah, I never said those who are anti Brexit are idiots.  I said if you believe in these 4 things you are an idiot.  Especially the 'leaving Europe' one.  You need to be a special kind of stupid to think Brexit means we are leaving Europe.

 

It's just a lazy way of saying we are leaving the European Union - I wouldn't read too much into it. A great number of folk, even pre-EU, would incorrectly refer to the UK and Europe as separate entities. "Are you going to Europe for your holidays" would be treated as bizarre in almost any other country given that we're already in it. Folk would also conflate Europe with the European Union, despite several European countries not being members. That's not going to change now.

 

"Europe" as a geographical continent is incorrect anyway. We should be Eurasia! ;)

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1 hour ago, i8hibsh said:

Great times ahead.

 

Not being an idiot I do not believe in the following:

 

The world will end

Britain will be destroyed

We are actually leaving Europe (some clowns actually think we must be establishing our own new continent)

We are losing our neighbours

 

Proud Brexit voter, proud Tory, proud Scot, proud Brit and proud European.

 

:fonzie:

 

 

What potential upsides are you looking forward to the most?

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1 minute ago, Rab87 said:

What potential upsides are you looking forward to the most?

 

 

Full control of our borders and punishing our criminals only in the UK.

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Just now, i8hibsh said:

 

 

Full control of our borders and punishing our criminals only in the UK.


What about, for example, a German coming over here, commiting a crime and bolting back to Germany ?

Edited by Boab
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3 minutes ago, Boab said:


What about, for example, a German coming over here, commiting a crime and bolting back to Germany ?

 

 

Ffs

 

I mean we have full control on punishments for our criminals.

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Just now, i8hibsh said:

 

 

Ffs

 

I mean we have full control on punishments for our criminals.


But lose control to prosecute foreign ones.

Good deal. 

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3 minutes ago, Boab said:


But lose control to prosecute foreign ones.

Good deal. 

 

I don't get you Boab.  Why will we not be able to prosecute someone outside our country?  Extradition treaties exist all over the world with many countries and have nothing to do with the EU.  All 200 countries of the world would acknowledge that bad people get punished regardless where they are.  We also have Interpol.

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4 hours ago, Space Mackerel said:

 

For the next 365 days anyway.

Ach, loads of stuff has happened over the years politically (admittedly, I'm far from being knowledgeable in that area).

 

I feel like it's all had very little impact on my day-to-day life. I'm work (never been unemployed), I go to the football, I go out for dinner / drinks at the weekend and get 3 great holidays a year with the wife. As long as that continues, I don't see any reason to be concerned.

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5 hours ago, OmiyaHearts said:

Life goes on as normal and hardly anything will change. That's my prediction.

 

I agree, YK2 millennium bug had some folk cacking their breeks.

 

Do a deal FFS! EU needs our fish, dicks here want BMW's, the Costa's will always remain a Brit favourite and UK financial services will continue as a dependable constant (RBS excluded)

 

Can't wait to see the return of overly kinky bananas and cucumbers ...🍌🥒🍌🥒🍌🥒🍌🥒🍌

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Just now, i8hibsh said:

 

I don't get you Boab.  Why will we not be able to prosecute someone outside our country?  Extradition treaties exist all over the world with many countries and have nothing to do with the EU.  All 200 countries of the world would acknowledge that bad people get punished regardless where they are.  We also have Interpol.


Germany have just said they won’t honour treaties in the transition period. This will rumble on. The buffoon, Johnson has done a number on the electorate, largely idiots, have fell for it, hook, line and sinker.

Let’s have a confab in a couple of years, then we’ll see how big a disaster this is for the rights of everyone, bar the elites.

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6 hours ago, AlimOzturk said:

Honestly reckon we rejoin the EU after this all going tits up in a few.years. 

 

No chance! Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spanish economies are basket case's, well rid.

Edited by Old Blue Eyes
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11 minutes ago, Boab said:


Germany have just said they won’t honour treaties in the transition period. This will rumble on. The buffoon, Johnson has done a number on the electorate, largely idiots, have fell for it, hook, line and sinker.

Let’s have a confab in a couple of years, then we’ll see how big a disaster this is for the rights of everyone, bar the elites.

 

Sorry Boab but you have totally lost me.  Are you suggesting Germany would not engage in an extradition for criminal suspects with the UK?  Do you think if a murderer flees to Germany they will say “tough titties” and let the guy roam free. 

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29 minutes ago, Old Blue Eyes said:

I agree, YK2 millennium bug had some folk cacking their breeks.

 

And we weren't absolutely ruined by it because we listened to experts who warned of the danger and collectively pumped a quarter of a trillion pounds into making sure the result wasn't catastrophic.

 

 

 

 

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Just now, i8hibsh said:

 

Sorry Boab but you have totally lost me.  Are you suggesting Germany would not engage in an extradition for criminal suspects with the UK?  Do you think if a murderer flees to Germany they will say “tough titties” and let the guy roam free. 


Look it up.

 

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39 minutes ago, Justin Z said:

 

And we weren't absolutely ruined by it because we listened to experts who warned of the danger and collectively pumped a quarter of a trillion pounds into making sure the result wasn't catastrophic.

 

 

 

 

 

Here we go, ***king experts...Who was doing the pumping of the quarter of a trillion pounds?

 

My home pc, car, central heating, phone, camera and TV was all meant to go doolally. 

 

Experts convinced me to by a diesel, the experts changed their mind. Experts assured me this winter was gonna be the coldest in the last 20, due to the worlds axis being tilted X amount of degrees more than normal. I cut my grass today, it's 11 degrees in East Lothian. Experts predicted Andy Irving wood be lost in midfield on Sunday past...I have more but I reckon you get my drift.

 

I've no got 20 minutes to spare, I'll watch your Y2K thing later, conspiracy maybe?

Edited by Old Blue Eyes
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Montgomery Brewster
1 hour ago, Old Blue Eyes said:

 

I agree, YK2 millennium bug had some folk cacking their breeks.

 

Do a deal FFS! EU needs our fish, dicks here want BMW's, the Costa's will always remain a Brit favourite and UK financial services will continue as a dependable constant (RBS excluded)

 

Can't wait to see the return of overly kinky bananas and cucumbers ...🍌🥒🍌🥒🍌🥒🍌🥒🍌

Why rbs excluded ?

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5 minutes ago, Montgomery Brewster said:

Why rbs excluded ?

 

A bit blinkered, sorry MB, shouldn't have. Still reeling financially from the bank that almost broke Britain. I'll retract that bit in brackets.

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1 hour ago, Old Blue Eyes said:

I've no got 20 minutes to spare, I'll watch your Y2K thing later, conspiracy maybe?

 

I should have mentioned it was a video I just came across in the last week or so--so it was topical!

 

Anyway, I think there's a fair argument that maybe the proper approach to Y2K would've been to spend less money on advance preparation, and then fix most things as they cropped up as problems "post-midnight". But in the end, the world collectively decided to commit a ton of money and resources to fix things in advance. What's beyond dispute though is that if major things weren't done, there were going to be big, big issues.

 

I don't think it's a coincidence that we've arrived at Brexit by ignoring experts. We'll see how well it goes--keep your rant about them in mind in the meantime. :thumbsup:

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18 minutes ago, Justin Z said:

 

I should have mentioned it was a video I just came across in the last week or so--so it was topical!

 

Anyway, I think there's a fair argument that maybe the proper approach to Y2K would've been to spend less money on advance preparation, and then fix most things as they cropped up as problems "post-midnight". But in the end, the world collectively decided to commit a ton of money and resources to fix things in advance. What's beyond dispute though is that if major things weren't done, there were going to be big, big issues.

 

I don't think it's a coincidence that we've arrived at Brexit by ignoring experts. We'll see how well it goes--keep your rant about them in mind in the meantime. :thumbsup:

 

How can you fix things in advance if you've not got a scooby what's going to need mending? What major things were done to offset the pending big, big issues?

 

Misnomer experts are always on my mind.


 

 

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2 minutes ago, Old Blue Eyes said:

 

How can you fix things in advance if you've not got a scooby what's going to need mending? What major things were done to offset the pending big, big issues?

 

Misnomer experts are always on my mind.

 

No I wrote that pretty unclearly. What I meant was, there was the argument that preparations ought to be made--training, education, etc. in the old software and what to expect as far as rewriting the code and all that, then latterly fix things after the year changed over, rather than do what everyone decided to do, which was correct everything in advance for which there was any risk of catastrophic issues.

 

See the thing is, they had plenty of scooby what would need mending because, well, a lot of people spent a lot of time looking into it.

 

I do hope you get a chance to look at the video as it lays a foundation of the answers to both these questions.

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Nucky Thompson
10 hours ago, AlimOzturk said:

Honestly reckon we rejoin the EU after this all going tits up in a few.years. 

I think the UK are just the start and you'll see a lot more leaving.

Greece are choking to leave.

Sit back and watch them topple like dominos 

Just my opinion of course

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11 minutes ago, Tazio said:

Personally I’m excited by the prospect of chlorinated chicken and hormone filled beef. 

 

To this day I still have never met a Scotsman who's taller than me (I'm 6'6"). I grew up eating that stuff for 35 years of my life, just saying. :wink:

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12 minutes ago, Justin Z said:

 

To this day I still have never met a Scotsman who's taller than me (I'm 6'6"). I grew up eating that stuff for 35 years of my life, just saying. :wink:

 

Imagine how tall you could've been.:P

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19 minutes ago, Old Blue Eyes said:

 

Imagine how tall you could've been.:P

 

:lol: My angle was that it must've been all those hormones that made me grow so much, but that's an interesting thought too!

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Space Mackerel
55 minutes ago, Nucky Thompson said:

I think the UK are just the start and you'll see a lot more leaving.

Greece are choking to leave.

Sit back and watch them topple like dominos 

Just my opinion of course

 

Spoke to Yanis Varoufakis lately because he actually argues for even greater EU cooperation.

Plenty interviews with him on YouTube instead of talking to some Greek person in a pub you thought was me. :lol:

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1 hour ago, Justin Z said:

 

To this day I still have never met a Scotsman who's taller than me (I'm 6'6"). I grew up eating that stuff for 35 years of my life, just saying. :wink:

I had a lad that used to work for me who was 6’11”. Vegetarian and lived on pizza and Irn Bru. A right fat *******. Scottish of course. 

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Nothing will change and it’ll be neverending trade negotiations. It’s going to be like a really long version of The Phantom Menace. Maybe like the film there’ll be a big fight at the end that isn’t really worth the wait. 

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annushorribilis III
10 hours ago, i8hibsh said:

Great times ahead.

 

Not being an idiot I do not believe in the following:

 

The world will end

Britain will be destroyed

We are actually leaving Europe (some clowns actually think we must be establishing our own new continent)

We are losing our neighbours

 

Proud Brexit voter, proud Tory, proud Scot, proud Brit and proud European.

 

:fonzie:

 

 

Wow. 

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5 hours ago, Nucky Thompson said:

I think the UK are just the start and you'll see a lot more leaving.

Greece are choking to leave.

Sit back and watch them topple like dominos 

Just my opinion of course

 

I doubt it, if the uk were to make a rip roaring success of it then maybe, but that's exceptionally unlikely given the weak bargaining position we've put ourselves in. 

 

The majority of our trade will still be with the eu so our businesses will still have to meet their standards, it's just that now we'll have tariffs and zero say in anything.

 

Any positives will be seized on by those we want to strike deals with - "oh you want access to our markets? Then we want access to your fish."

 

And because we're desperate, we'll have to give in.

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I'm looking forward to idiots going on about how everything is fine for the next 11 months, not realising that really nothing will really change until 2021. We are going to get stuffed in hastily made trade deals.

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8 hours ago, Justin Z said:

 

:lol: My angle was that it must've been all those hormones that made me grow so much, but that's an interesting thought too!

You know what they say about people with big feet?

 

Big Shoes!

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