Brexit.

[Innula Zenovka]

Who could have predicted rain in England?

Up there with "leaves on the line" and the wrong sort of snow.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

"Extra drei" is a political satire show, they sometimes do have such little parodies on series.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Another development, not wholly unexpected.

Brits who still use Facebook may wish to consider their options

Facebook will move UK users to US terms, avoiding EU privacy laws

Company is reportedly making the change partly because the EU privacy regime is among the world’s strictest

www.theguardian.com

 

[Sid]

Yay!
Fingers crossed here.

 

[Arkady Arkright]

Yay!
Fingers crossed here.

There's still plenty of time for Boris to fuck it up...

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

 

[Innula Zenovka]

 

[Sid]

Michel Barnier seeks to end Brexit deadlock with fresh fishing proposal

EU chief responds to Boris Johnson’s request for Brussels to seal deal in final hours

www.theguardian.com

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

Isn't this like saying water is wet?

 

[Sid]

Nope.
The latest:

Boris Johnson has called on Brussels to make a final offer on access to British fishing waters to break the Brexit deadlock, as the EU’s Michel Barnier said the trade and security talks were entering the final “few hours”.

Source: Guardian and others.

There will be a deal tomorrow IMHO.
If Barnier (a very cautious negotiator and diplomat) says so, that is good enough for me.
It would surprise me very much if the deal would still bounce now.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Nope.
The latest:

Boris Johnson has called on Brussels to make a final offer on access to British fishing waters to break the Brexit deadlock, as the EU’s Michel Barnier said the trade and security talks were entering the final “few hours”.

Source: Guardian and others.

There will be a deal tomorrow IMHO.
If Barnier (a very cautious politician) says so, that is good enough for me.

While fishing is an emotive topic, and very important indeed if you live in a town where it's a major industry (my late partner was from Hull and used to work for a trawler company), it's also of very little economic importance -- its contribution to the GDP is a rounding error in the NHS budget -- and I've never believed Johnson would hesitate to throw the trawlermen under a bus (a big red one, with lies about the NHS painted on the side) if he needed to.

 

[Sid]

I'm very glad it most likely turns out the way you predicted in the past already a few times.
Thankfully BOJO did the right thing in the end, the way it seems at the moment.

 

[Arkady Arkright]

I'm very glad it most likely turns out the way you predicted in the past already a few times.
Thankfully BOJO was forced to do the right thing in the end, the way it seems at the moment.

FIFY

 

[Innula Zenovka]

As far as I can remember, the reason fishing is now so small a part of the UK's GDP is that a lot of trawlers over the last 30 years have either been decommissioned (with EU money) and recommissioned for some other purpose, like seismographic survey vessels, or have been reflagged, because of fishing quotas.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Lorry drivers heading to EU face ham sandwich ban

Regulations on biosecurity and other issues will affect hauliers from 1 January

www.theguardian.com

 

[Sid]

The optimism that I had is tempered by reading this:
The so far latest version of the story:

Michel Barnier seeks to end Brexit deadlock with fresh fishing proposal

EU chief responds to Boris Johnson’s request for Brussels to seal deal in final hours

www.theguardian.com

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Pure speculation here, but I'm wondering if part of HMG's plan for the future is to take advantage of the fact that a very large number of Chinese citizens of Hong Kong are eligible to settle in the UK if they need to, and who will bring with them particular expertise, existing business relationships and investment in the Asian markets, which they will doubtless wish to maintain and develop from London.

 

[Free]