Brexit.

[Chin Rey]

The city firms, though, are already multinational organisations. They're in competition with other firms and organisations, not cities or countries.

I suppose I stand corrected. What I didn't realise, was that so many of the tax havens are British territories. I stumbled across Michael Oswald's Spider's Web documentary today. That was a real eye opener and I think it explains a lot about Brexit.

​

 

[Sid]

'Absolute carnage': EU hauliers reject UK jobs over Brexit rules

Freight company director blames new requirement for EU transport firms to provide VAT and tariff guarantees

www.theguardian.com

it was “absolute carnage out there” trying to get EU hauliers to come to Britain, because they underestimated the gravity of the financial guarantees, known as T1s, that now apply to goods being exported to the UK.

A truck with a £200,000 cargo would need cash or a T1 financial guarantee document for £40,000 in VAT alone, he said, a significant burden for transport companies with multiple trucks going to the UK.

Transporeon, a German software company that works with 100,000 logistics service providers, said freight forwarders had rejected jobs to move goods from Germany, Italy and Poland into Britain.

In the second week of January the rejection rate for transport to the UK was up 168% on the third quarter of 2020 and had doubled in the first calendar week of the year.
Jeffries said one of the problems was how complicated exporting to the UK had become.

Eh....

 

[Innula Zenovka]

I suppose I stand corrected. What I didn't realise, was that so many of the tax havens are British territories. I stumbled across Michael Oswald's Spider's Web documentary today. That was a real eye opener and I think it explains a lot about Brexit.

​

Key part of the local economy. I used (a long time ago) to know some people involved in that sort of shady end of the tax avoidance/evasion/black economy game, including a guy who wrote the whole tax and banking privacy code for several of the smaller protectorates.

But that's a wholly different financial (and social) world from the completely legitimate city firms who handle the legal, insurance and non-tax financial affairs of large businesses and corporations, whether national or international.

That's all more or less open and legitimate transactions between international companies with presences, or at least relationships, all the major financial centres.

Parts of those transactions find their way into tax havens, by more or less indirect routes, but the two financial groups and sub-groups are very different.

"City" and "West End" are massively important distinctions in the London financial and legal worlds -- if you're a wealthy investor, you'll have city firms look after your business affairs, and their banking, and you'll let the West End firms handle your personal banking, tax and legal affairs.

Offshore and dark money are very much the less reputable, though very lucrative, part of the West End.

It's all the same money, of course, but it flows through two very different environments in London.

 

[Sid]

UK government rejects 'musician passports' as stars attack 'shameful' touring deal

Minister says UK is not pursuing a touring waiver, as stars including Elton John and Sting say musicians ‘shamefully failed’ by Brexit

www.theguardian.com

Let's blame the EU.

 

[Khamon]

UK government rejects 'musician passports' as stars attack 'shameful' touring deal

Minister says UK is not pursuing a touring waiver, as stars including Elton John and Sting say musicians ‘shamefully failed’ by Brexit

www.theguardian.com

This shit really pisses me off. But at least it's a small percentage of the population and a minor blip on the economy. So blah blah blah MPs blah banks blah city blah responsibility blah who cares.

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

UK government rejects 'musician passports' as stars attack 'shameful' touring deal

Minister says UK is not pursuing a touring waiver, as stars including Elton John and Sting say musicians ‘shamefully failed’ by Brexit

www.theguardian.com

Let's blame the EU.

Considering that Elton John also lives [or lived] in Georgia...

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

 

[Sid]

Just a boy, giving it all away.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

BoJo is moving on with his charme offensive: the UK is denying the new EU's ambassador full diplomatic status. The argument is that the EU is no real state.

The EU has globally 143 diplomatic missions, which have been granted everywhere full diplomatic status. Even when two years ago the Trump administration stripped the status from the mission in Washington, D.C., they revoked that decision after harsh protests from Brussels.

UK refuses to recognise diplomatic status of EU ambassador Joao Vale de Almeida - EU Today

EU Today - News, Views, & Analysis From Across The EU & Beyond

eutoday.net

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Over here, the government are saying pretty much what you are -- that it's primarily the fault of UK and EU businesses for failing adequately to prepare.

Both business and the Opposition are rejecting what they see as an attempt by the government to shift the blame for failing to provide business with the details they needed to comply with the new customs and regulatory regime after January 1st until just before Christmas, with the result that, while people knew well in advance they would need a great deal of extra documentation, they didn't know in detail what they'd need until the last minute, with the result they're struggling now.

I reject our government's analysis as a pretty feeble attempt to shift the blame for the results of their own bad policies and incompetence onto EU and UK businesses by telling importers and exporters that it's their fault, not the government's, that they're so poorly prepared for Brexit.

You seem take a different view, and agree, at least to some extent, and possibly without realising it, with people like Michael Gove and Jacob Rees-Mogg that it's not their and the government's fault Brexit isn't going as well as they might have hoped, and that any problems are primarily the fault of UK and EU customers and businesses failure to make better preparations, but I think we'll just have to agree to disagree about that.

To my mind, the problem is that, while everyone knew well in advance they had to prepare themselves for Brexit, and many of them did start making preparations well in advance, they weren't given sufficient information to make all necessary preparations in detail until it was too late to complete them before January 1, because the precise information about the exact preparations they needed to make wasn't available until the last minute, and I blame our government for that.

Just have a look at this side: Export goods from the UK: step by step - GOV.UK - Exporting goods from the UK. It's all been there since ages.

So you could of course argue that the late decision about the deal could have had a big impact on details - but it has not so really. All people knew that the UK will drop out of the customs union, which means that you need to deal with customs. This is the big picture which has been clear since a whole lot of time, especially given the fact that Northern Ireland was a big discussion point where these regulations were discussed in gory detail. This is what you could have planned for since ages.

The details might have changed some things, but not the big ones - no custom's union, having to do customs work and so on.

So yes, many companies probably underestimated the problem. That's their fault. Of course you cannot expect such a big change to happen without some hiccups as well, that's the other issue. That the HMG's infrastructure for forms and such collapsed is their fault.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Just have a look at this side: Export goods from the UK: step by step - GOV.UK - Exporting goods from the UK. It's all been there since ages.

So you could of course argue that the late decision about the deal could have had a big impact on details - but it has not so really. All people knew that the UK will drop out of the customs union, which means that you need to deal with customs. This is the big picture which has been clear since a whole lot of time, especially given the fact that Northern Ireland was a big discussion point where these regulations were discussed in gory detail. This is what you could have planned for since ages.

The details might have changed some things, but not the big ones - no custom's union, having to do customs work and so on.

So yes, many companies probably underestimated the problem. That's their fault. Of course you cannot expect such a big change to happen without some hiccups as well, that's the other issue. That the HMG's infrastructure for forms and such collapsed is their fault.

You've clearly been following the British preparations more closely than have I, but certainly both the non-partisan Brexit commentators I've been following (primarily legal and academic) and the various trade and export organisations have been complaining for months that, while most of the framework was there, there were too many key points of detail left hanging too long for particular businesses to complete their preparations, particularly when this involves third parties, be it government departments, external suppliers or (e.g,) veterinarians issuing various certificates.

Anyway, it's happened now. Much of it was bound to happen anyway, as a result of introducing friction into a previously frictionless process, but I blame our government for making the transition much more painful than it needed to be, primarily because they were unable to admit, having blathered on for five years about how simple and easy it would all be, with no downside at all, that it was going to be difficult.

 

[Arkady Arkright]

BoJo is moving on with his charme offensive: the UK is denying the new EU's ambassador full diplomatic status. The argument is that the EU is no real state.

UK refuses to recognise diplomatic status of EU ambassador Joao Vale de Almeida - EU Today

EU Today - News, Views, & Analysis From Across The EU & Beyond

eutoday.net

Public-school bullying at its best...

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Verifying Device

Evernote link because paywall

 

[Sid]

The British government is really trying to make things as hard as possible for themselves when it comes to the EU.
Even the Trump administration figured out that it does not work.

UK insists it will not grant EU ambassador full diplomatic status

Foreign Office says EU should not be treated as nation state, despite 142 countries granting bloc this status

www.theguardian.com

 

[Innula Zenovka]

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Thread (in case anyone is in any doubt who -- British government, EU, or British and EU businesses -- to blame)


Evernote link because paywall

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Verifying Device

British businesses will spend £7.5 billion a year handling customs declarations — as much as they would have done under a no-deal Brexit — the tax office admitted yesterday.

Jim Harra, chief executive of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), told MPs that the number of customs forms needed to trade with the European Union under the Brexit deal “is not materially different from a no-deal situation”.

Evernote link because paywall

 

[Arkady Arkright]

Logistics firm Losing their shit about delays and costs at customs

 

[Arkady Arkright]

And another one from Reddit, about the side-effects of Brexit stop immigration !

 

[Sid]

What a mess has been created.
I don't think I'll order something from the UK any time soon, because I guess it will be the same the other way (meaning shipment from UK to EU).

Britons buying from EU websites hit with £100 customs bills

Parcel firms demanding payment before delivering items ordered from European websites since Brexit

www.theguardian.com