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EU Referendum: The result and aftermath...

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The agreements were all negotiated separately and is nothing to do with the EU - agreements are purely based on business done between networks and commercial terms.
 
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"Price rises" and "comptetitive market" are very rarely, if ever, part of the same sentence without a negative joining clause - for example "price rises have been minimised due to the competitive market" or "despite price rises, the market remains competitive"...

After all, if the market is competitive raising your prices is hardly likely to win you new customers!

I can’t remember the exact wording, bearing in mind I left a year ago, but I can assure you all the briefings alluded to that being the case for the price rises.
 

alex397

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Going on holiday next month with a few friends.

One of my friends passports expires in a few months. As of 31st January, you now need 6 months on your passport to travel to EU countries (except Ireland). So, my friend only has a few weeks to get a new passport.

Brexit. The gift that keeps on giving. No doubt this passport issue is someone else's fault though.
 

Struner

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On the other hand, this man promising - but in the end refusing - to die in a ditch, gave your friend an extra month to sort it out...
 
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Going on holiday next month with a few friends.

One of my friends passports expires in a few months. As of 31st January, you now need 6 months on your passport to travel to EU countries (except Ireland). So, my friend only has a few weeks to get a new passport.

Brexit. The gift that keeps on giving. No doubt this passport issue is someone else's fault though.

Incorrect. During the transition period, nothing changes so you don’t need 6 months on your passport.
 

Jimbob52

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Going on holiday next month with a few friends.

One of my friends passports expires in a few months. As of 31st January, you now need 6 months on your passport to travel to EU countries (except Ireland). So, my friend only has a few weeks to get a new passport.

Brexit. The gift that keeps on giving. No doubt this passport issue is someone else's fault though.



So why doesn't your friend just apply for a new passport? It is not as if Brexit is a surprise.

In any event, in my experience, a replacement passport usually arrives within a few days.
 

alex397

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Incorrect. During the transition period, nothing changes so you don’t need 6 months on your passport.

That is not what the Gov.uk website says. They have said my friend's passport will not be valid after 31st January 2020 'if the UK leaves with no deal'.

It would seem a bit risky to not apply for a new passport.
 

edwin_m

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That is not what the Gov.uk website says. They have said my friend's passport will not be valid after 31st January 2020 'if the UK leaves with no deal'.

It would seem a bit risky to not apply for a new passport.
The risk of a no-deal in two weeks time seems remote, considering a withdrawal deal has been agreed between the EU and the UK government and just awaits ratification from a Parliament that will now do Boris's bidding. It's possible though that the Lords voting today to put back some associated measures removed by the government will lead to some brinkmanship where the government and the Lords might dare each other to blink as the clock runs down.

There's another sticking point at the end of December as Boris has said that deadline for a longer-term agreement won't be extended, but most people with knowledge of the matter believe a full agreement is unlikely by then. Who was it that said it would be "done"?
 

najaB

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There's another sticking point at the end of December as Boris has said that deadline for a longer-term agreement won't be extended, but most people with knowledge of the matter believe a full agreement is unlikely by then.
The EU-Canada deal took ten years...
 
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That is not what the Gov.uk website says. They have said my friend's passport will not be valid after 31st January 2020 'if the UK leaves with no deal'.

It would seem a bit risky to not apply for a new passport.

The no deal referred to there is for the end of December potentially...
 

Enthusiast

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On the other hand, this man promising - but in the end refusing - to die in a ditch

I think the conversation went something like this:

A. Journalist (can't recall which one): Prime Minister, will there be an extension [to Article 50]?

Prime Minister: I'd sooner die in a ditch.

Hardly a promise, I think.
 

Doppelganger

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ONE of our trade deals will be with the EU, which is a minority of our world trade AND an area where our imports heavily outweigh our exports.

Minority? The EU is the UK's biggest trading partner at present.

Where will all the lost volumes be made up? Africa, where their combined GDP is lower than France's?

The UK is in for a rude awakening and seeing as Johnson is ruling out an extension to the transition period, no deal has just been postponed 11 months...
 
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najaB

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ONE of our trade deals will be with the EU, which is a minority of our world trade AND an area where our imports heavily outweigh our exports.
I know you say that like it is a good thing, but neither of those inspire any confidence. Eight of the ten largest purchasers of UK production are EU members, and more than half of UK food imports come from EU member states.
 

dgl

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Irn-Bru could also decide to stop selling it's products in Scotland, and like not having a trade deal with the EU would be suicide. Whether we like it or not the EU have us over a barrel, they don't need us in anywhere near the capacity to which we need them and they are not going to harm their political union for the "little Englanders".
 

Peter Kelford

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Where will all the lost volumes be made up? Africa, where their combined GDP is lower than France's?

No. The US and/or China. In an ideal world, a mix of the two, but in a realistic world (we're seeing it already), the US is saying either the US or China. With China, we risk getting goods that have been made with cutting corner strategies, and the Chinese government obtaining scores of our data, while with the US, we risk becoming a vassal state where the worst-quality US goods are dumped (i.e. goods that the manufacturers know are barely safe). Alternatively, we can dip our toe into the water with three trading partners (i.e. the world's top 3 economies), be of little significance to either and suffer disadvantageous trading terms. For anything non-essential, we just wouldn't have it, thus we become a little bit more like Africa and less like the near continent.
 

Doppelganger

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No. The US and/or China. In an ideal world, a mix of the two, but in a realistic world (we're seeing it already), the US is saying either the US or China. With China, we risk getting goods that have been made with cutting corner strategies, and the Chinese government obtaining scores of our data, while with the US, we risk becoming a vassal state where the worst-quality US goods are dumped (i.e. goods that the manufacturers know are barely safe). Alternatively, we can dip our toe into the water with three trading partners (i.e. the world's top 3 economies), be of little significance to either and suffer disadvantageous trading terms. For anything non-essential, we just wouldn't have it, thus we become a little bit more like Africa and less like the near continent.

I was referring to this rubbish from the BBC yesterday:

BBC News - UK-Africa summit: Wooing Africa after Brexit
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-51149093

I don't know why people are being hoodwinked into believing this is a good idea and the danger of a no deal Brexit is even more acute now, albeit at the start of 2021.

An EU free trade deal has become more remote/drawn out as Johnson and Javid have both said they want to diverge from EU standards. It really is like they are trying to sabotage an already severely messed up plan.

Maybe they'll be an Emperor's New Clothes moment before too much damage is done. We'll see...
 

najaB

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I was referring to this rubbish from the BBC yesterday
Just to point out, the rubbish is coming from the government, the BBC just reported it, and I think they tried their best to point out that it was rubbish using neutral language.
 

edwin_m

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ONE of our trade deals will be with the EU, which is a minority of our world trade AND an area where our imports heavily outweigh our exports.
The post of mine that started this bit of the discussion was referring specifically to the EU trade deal, because that is the one that threatens another "cliff edge" at the end of December. The fact we have numerous others to conclude even to get back to where we are now (replacing the EU deals we are part of) is worrying but irrelevant to the point in hand.
 

edwin_m

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No. The US and/or China. In an ideal world, a mix of the two, but in a realistic world (we're seeing it already), the US is saying either the US or China. With China, we risk getting goods that have been made with cutting corner strategies, and the Chinese government obtaining scores of our data, while with the US, we risk becoming a vassal state where the worst-quality US goods are dumped (i.e. goods that the manufacturers know are barely safe). Alternatively, we can dip our toe into the water with three trading partners (i.e. the world's top 3 economies), be of little significance to either and suffer disadvantageous trading terms. For anything non-essential, we just wouldn't have it, thus we become a little bit more like Africa and less like the near continent.
Just in case anyone is still under illusions of what a free trade deal with the US would be like: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/15/business/economy/trump-bribery-law.html
The president asked administration officials to help kill the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, according to a new book from two Washington Post reporters.
This would make it perfectly legal in the US for American businesses to bribe British officials.
 

Doppelganger

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Which assumes, of course, that there are any significant "lost volumes".

At free trade level/zero tariffs, there most certainly will be come Jan 2021. I wish I shared you optimism, but pretty much everyone apart from staunch Brexiteers believe this to be the case.
 

furnessvale

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Minority? The EU is the UK's biggest trading partner at present.

Where will all the lost volumes be made up? Africa, where their combined GDP is lower than France's?

The UK is in for a rude awakening and seeing as Johnson is ruling out an extension to the transition period, no deal has just been postponed 11 months...
Still less than 50%, and falling, which by any definition is a minority.

Now, what did the IMF say about UK prospects yesterday, and how many EU finance companies have applied for UK registration post Brexit?
 

JonathanP

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Still less than 50%, and falling, which by any definition is a minority.

Repeating that the percentage value of the trade our largest trading partner is below an arbitrary number doesn't make it any less meaningless.

It's still not as crazy as Tim Martin's method of measuring the value of a trade deal by the number of square kilometres of the territory of the trading partner though. Personally I think he should be sent to negotiate the world's greatest trade deal with Sahara ;)
 
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Howardh

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I'm seraching round for an annuity and thanks to the uncertainty over Brexit (they say...not me!) rates are appallingly low right now - especially for those in good health who want returns to be RPI-linked. So looks like I'll wait until I'm 70 and reap all these wonderful Brexit dividends...which will be what, exactly?
 
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