The Times has seen the Operation Yellowhammer document. That’s the series of the worst things that can – will – happen if the UK leaves the EU without a deal on October 31. Guess what will happen?
Traffic jams.
Yes, very serious, we all agree, we’d better call it off.
France will impose EU mandatory controls on UK goods on Day 1 of No Deal and has built infrastructure and IT systems to manage and process customs declarations and to support a risk-based control regime.
Polly Toynbee tells us that a Brexit to full on free trade would be the death of the current system of British farming. She’s entirely right, it would be. She also tells us that this wasn’t how Brexit was sold – which is her error. For this is exactly how it was sold. I do in fact know this, I was one of the people doing the selling. And I’ve been shouting for well over a decade now that a major benefit of Brexit would be that we could repeal our modern day Corn Laws and all enjoy substantially cheaper food.…
See MoreOne of the more vile rhetorical tricks played upon us all is the confabulation of Europe with the European Union. To be against Ursine van der Lyin’ being in charge of our lives is to be against the very continent we sit a little offshore of. I’m regularly asked why I live in Portugal if I’m “against Europe”. The answer being of course that I’m not against the continent, the people, cuisines, landscapes or weather. Rather in favour of them all in fact.…
See MoreMichel Barnier insists, stoutly, that the Withrawal Agreement isn’t going to be changed in the slightest. Michel Bariner is of course wrong here. As the agreement hasn’t been agreed as yet and there is no agreement in the UK – more importantly perhaps in the Commons – that it should be agreed as it is. Therefore it will be changed.
Michel Barnier warns Boris that Withdrawal Agreement will not be changed as he receives cautious welcome
There are various options of course.…
See MoreAccording to the Grauniad those rotters at HMRC have done something totally ungreen:
HMRC pushes steep VAT increase for new solar-battery systems
Treasury proposes rise from 5% to 20%, while the tax on coal will stay at lower rate
Don’t they know there is a climate emergency on? The ‘Independent’ does:
Climate crisis: Huge VAT rise on solar panels makes installation ‘entirely uneconomic’, say experts
‘We could not have a clearer sign the government has failed to even begin to grasp the urgency’, says Green Party co-leader
Sian Berry, co-leader of the Green Party told The Independent: “A climate emergency has been officially declared, yet we could not have had a clearer sign that the government has failed to even begin to grasp the urgency.…
See MoreLordy Be and aren’t we lucky to be leaving?
Online shoppers face chaos and confusion with the introduction of anti-fraud measures which may lead to one in three purchases failing, City watchdogs have been warned. The measures, due to be brought in by the EU from September, will require shoppers to relay passwords sent to their mobile phone or other devices for orders over a certain limit. It means those without a mobile phone or whose signal is poor may have to use card readers or have a message sent to a landline telephone to complete a transaction.
This is more than just politically minded scaremongering from partisan types. This is an actual and real possibility. If the eurozone falls over then Britain could be stuck with a vast, £200 billion-style, bill for the clean up. This is because, although we’re not members of the eurozone as members of the EU we’ve a part in guaranteeing various of the debts existing under the eurozone scheme.
The problem with this being firstly that contingent liability, of course.…
See MoreBritain’s Attorney General states that withholding the £39 billion divorce settlement with the European Union would be illegal. The thing to note about this is that the Attorney General is a political position and his advice is thus political. Sure, the conceit is that he’s an impartial law officer put into government so that there is an impartial adviser upon what the law is. But that’s to miss the fact that he’s also a politician with all the usual political desires and wiles:
Cox legal advice could thwart Boris Johnson’s plan to withhold Brexit bill payments
The standard joke is the desire to find a one handed economist – any three will have at least 6 opinions on any one subject.…
See MoreThe European Union is talking about disinformation, lies, on the internet during the recent European elections. What they really mean is that they want us to stop talking about bendy bananas. To the point that we should be forced to stop talking about bendy bananas:
Russian bots tried to influence EU elections, says Brussels
Scary, eh? As opposed to the full force of the Brussels “information” machine telling us about those same elections.
An initial report by the European Commission has found that bots and fake accounts traced to Russia spread false information online in the run up to the poll in an attempt to radicalise debate and amplify divisive content.
This is a useful example of the drivelling incompetence with which Theresa May approached the Brexit negotiations. The first time anyone with even a sniff of the ability to make the £39 billion divorce bill contingent upon all other parts of the deal mentions the idea of that contingency then everyone agrees, yes, you’re right, it’s contingent. Instead of the former bovine insistence that we’ve just got to pay it whatever and that’s that:
A UK government led by Boris Johnson could not be dragged through the courts if it refused to pay the country’s multibillion-pound Brexit bill, the EU’s German budget chief has admitted, but Britain’s economy, security and universities would be made to suffer.