Brexit.

[Innula Zenovka]

I never claim my ideas are original.

Oh, I also don't see the MAKING OF PIZZAS ON THE FERRIES mentioned...

No, because the ferries never actually existed in the first place, which rather limited what could be cooked.

Chris Grayling cancels ferry contracts at £50m cost to taxpayers

Transport secretary scraps further deals made to ensure imports under a no-deal Brexit

www.theguardian.com

Oh, and he somehow managed to get the government sued in the process.

 

[Free]

No, because the ferries never actually existed in the first place, which rather limited what could be cooked.

Well. Mine would.

Oh, and he somehow managed to get the government sued in the process.

I'd never do that!

 

[Arkady Arkright]

From what I've read, though, it's just the details on fishing quotas and stuff they're still haggling over. Neither side is going to let things break down over that, not at this point.

I'm still not going to believe until it's passed by both houses of parliament, Boris' promises and predictions mean nothing any more.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Nigel Farage being an asshole again:

Christmas is Canceled in the U.K., and it's China's Fault

In life, it is often good to be judged by your enemies. I am perfectly happy if the Chinese Communist Party doesn't like me.

www.newsweek.com

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Bears likely to shit in woods, leaked papers suggest.

Boris Johnson to claim victory in Brexit talks, leaked paper reveals

Document drafted in attempt to sell deal to Brexiter MPs suggests PM’s negotiators got their way on 43% of key issues

www.theguardian.com

 

[Sid]

Brexit deal: What is in it?

A post-Brexit agreement has been announced. Here are 10 key questions.

www.bbc.com

I guess they have the main questions already.
Now it is waiting for the main answers.

I heard yesterday on Dutch TV that the agreement is expected to be around 800 pages plus there will be about 1,000 pages as attachments.

 

[Sid]

 

[Essence Lumin]

A couple of minutes ago:

Ursula von der Leyen

, the EC president, is speaking now.




We have finally found an agreement after a long and winding road, she says.

It is a good deal that is fair and balanced and responsible for both sides, she says.

Firstly, competition in the single market will remain fair, she says.

The EU rules and standards will be respected, she says.

We have effective tools to react if fair competition is distorted and impacts our trade, she says.

Secondly, she says, we’ll continue operating with the UK in al areas of mutual interest such as climate change, energy, transport.

Thirdly, we’ve secured 5.5 years of full predictability for our fishing communities, she says.

This whole debate has always been about sovereignty, she says, but what does it actually mean in the 21st century?

To seamlessly work, travel study and do business in 27 countries, pooling our strength and speaking together, and in a time of crisis, it’s about pulling each other up instead of trying to get back to your feet alone, she says.

Brexit deal: Boris Johnson says EU trade agreement resolves 'question that has bedevilled politics for decades' – as it happened

Ursula von der Leyen says ‘it is time to leave Brexit behind’; Labour will back deal when parliament returns next week, says Keir Starmer

www.theguardian.com

 

[Arkady Arkright]

From Bloomberg Johnson Claims Brexit Victory Over EU as Spin Battle Begins

JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s chief U.K. economist, Malcolm Barr, offered a different assessment from the British government.

“The EU appears to have secured a deal which allows it to retain nearly all of the advantages it derives from its trading relationship with the U.K., while giving it the ability to use regulatory structures to cherry pick among the sectors where the U.K. had previously enjoyed advantages in the trading relationship,” Barr said in a research note.

Well done Boris, bravely snatching defeat from the jaws of victory...

 

[Sid]

Someone who honestly believes that trading with the EU as a no longer member would give you more benefits then being an actual EU member, must be a truly conservative Tory or a frog named Nigel.

 

[Sid]

From tariffs to visas: here's what's in the Brexit deal

We take a look at the main agreements that make up the trade and security deal finalised on Christmas Eve

www.theguardian.com

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

 

[Innula Zenovka]

We have a Brexit deal, but cultural divide is here to stay

They promised. There are lots of reasons why not concluding a trade deal after Brexit would have been a political problem for ministers, but the biggest one is

www.thetimes.co.uk

Evernote link because paywall

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

 

[Chin Rey]

The European Commissions has been nice enough to make an overview of the new Brexit deal so simple that even Dominic Raab should be able to understand it (don't ask about Iain Duncan Smith): https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/api/files/attachment/867615/EU_Membership_benefits_two_columns.pdf

 

[Sid]

The European Commissions has been nice enough to make an overview of the new Brexit deal so simple that even Dominic Raab should be able to understand it (don't ask about Iain Duncan Smith): https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/api/files/attachment/867615/EU_Membership_benefits_two_columns.pdf

"Dear Brexiteers, that was really worth every single minute of political fuzz and haggling over all these years", nobody will ever say.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Keir Starmer to whip his MPs to support 'thin' Brexit deal

Labour leader has made ‘tough decision’ to back government despite shadow cabinet concerns

www.theguardian.com

I'm very much in two minds about this -- on the one hand, I am very reluctant to see my local MP, a committed pro-European and Labour whip, vote for the agreement, when I know both he and many of the people (including me) who voted for him hate that we left the EU, but I do understand the counter-argument, that we did leave the EU and this vote is about whether we should now have a trade agreement with the EU or WTO terms, and Labour policy is that, contrary to what Theresa May was so fond of telling us, a bad deal is better than no deal.

So, the counte-argument goes, Labour should accept the reality in which we find ourselves, though we didn't seek it, any more than did the EU, and go into the next election on the basis that we'll do our best to work with what's been agreed, and leave any proposals for changes until the planned review in (I think) 2026, just as will the EU.

At that point, both sides are committed to a review and both sides will doubtless have points they seek to change, but after then last five years, I think everyone now wants to stop arguing about Brexit and to try to make things work as best they can, while holding the Conservatives to account for the failures of what they've agreed.

I expect I'll be receiving something from my MP soon to explain how he's going to vote, which I will read with great interest.

 

[Sid]

Of course a bad deal is better than a no deal, I totally agree on that, but what I've seen so far, that deal could have been a lot better.
But thankfully there can be further negotiations over the years to improve things step by step.

 

[Sid]

The European Commissions has been nice enough to make an overview of the new Brexit deal so simple that even Dominic Raab should be able to understand it (don't ask about Iain Duncan Smith): https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/api/files/attachment/867615/EU_Membership_benefits_two_columns.pdf

I think the 3 different possibilities for each item are a bit to rich for Raab as well.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Of course a bad deal is better than a no deal, I totally agree on that, but what I've seen so far, that deal could have been a lot better.
But thankfully there can be further negotiations over the years to improve things step by step.

I agree, and I think it's probably in Labour's best strategic interests to say, "while we didn't want to leave in the first place, and certainly not on these terms, we'll concentrate on making the deal work as best we can, and seek to revise it in the light of experience after we've seen how it works in practice, rather than go into the next election seeking to overturn parts of it."

But it's still difficult to support something you really didn't want to happen in the first place, though I think everyone in the UK is now just so tired of the argument that we'll be glad to see it finally over, and it will certainly be good to watch supporters of Brexit get what they asked for. Just a shame the rest of us get it, too.

ETA

Deal – politicalbetting.com

How should we be judging the deal?

Ignore pretty much everything that both the British government and the EU have to say about it in the short term

Once the deal has been struck, both sides have an interest in selling it. That means they will talk up the bits that look good to them and spin them accordingly. They will have a mutual interest in glossing over the awkward detail.

We’re told there’s 2,000 pages of this stuff. That’s not just “lorem ipsum dolor sit amet”. Its content matters. Some of it will matter a lot. I expect the most extreme Leavers will eventually realise this when one of them gets round to reading it. On past experience, this will take about 9 months.