Brexit.

Innula Zenovka

Nasty Brit
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The UK has a new party named "Reform UK", lead by Richard Tice. Tice was pro Brexit, and one of the founders of "Leave means leave" during the Brexit campaign for the referendum back then.

The goal of Reform UK is to destroy the Tories, and to ensure the Tories will never get a majority again.

It's not really new. It's Farage's old Brexit party, rebranded. It's an odd kind of political party, too, in that it has only three members (Richar "registered supporters" rather than members, and the registered supporters don't have any say over policy. This is in the hands of the three members and its honorary president, Nigel Farage (who doesn't himself seem to be a member).

I'm not sure what their long-term goal may be, other than providing a platform for radical right-wing policies and helping their members and supporters (and honorary president) gain high-paying gigs on GBTV (our internet version of Fox, only without the audience). They supposedly want to see proportional representation introduced, which Labour notionally favours but I don't see it happening under a Labour government, since it would almost inevitably lead to Labour splitting into two parties, one centre-left and one far-left.

They certainly command enough support to cost the Conservatives some seats -- how many is open to question, since it's certainly not safe to assume (as some on the right of the Conservative Party are trying to persuade their colleagues) that all Reform voters would otherwise vote Conserative. But, assuming the Conservatives lose the forthcoming election by a landslide at some point this year, as seems increasingly likely, it's hard to see that tacking still further to the right is going to win over enough Reform supporters to compensate for the move liberal Conservatives it would alienate.

There's an interesting op-ed here


He floats the idea that Farage might, if he decides to stand for Parliament for the eighth time, manage get himself elected as an MP at last. I'm not at all sure he'll take the risk -- it would mean giving up his lucrative contract with GBTV, at least until after the election, and Labour, if they win, are very likely to look at the rules about serving MPs taking jobs presenting TV shows, particularly on a partisan channel like GBTV. So that could cost him a lot of money if he won. And if he did, he'd find himself a very small fish in the Westminster pond, and probably be overwhelmed by the workload of an opposition MP for a very deprived constituency.
 
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Innula Zenovka

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So, now I have a new, not-quite-black-but-dark-blue UK passport – and not only does it still resemble a building society passbook, but it’s useless with it. To the great horror of about 100 British travellers every single day, it is no longer possible to enter the EU unless your passport was issued less than 10 years before the date you enter the country (so check the date of issue) and is valid for at least three months after the day you plan to leave (so look up the date of expiry). You may also be asked if you’ve got enough money to support yourself. The cheek!

Is this the Brexit we voted for? Well, yes: in the sense that we wished to end free movement and we ended up with a deal that was about as good as it was going to get, botched as it was by Boris Johnson and David Frost.
 
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Soen Eber

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Innula Zenovka

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Yes, it is a known fact that since the UK left the EU, the remaining EU members are studying ways to put all our deseases in cargo for the UK.
:unsure::ROFLMAO::banghead::fryingpan:
I think the problem is that, by not inspecting fruit, veg and other foodstuffs from the EU (which we've only just started doing) we were risking non-EU countries complaining to the WTO about our insisting on inspecting their exports.

And, to be fair, there have been several prosecutions since we left involving importers who were advantage of our not checking stuff to buy goods on the cheap that didn't meet EU standards and then selling selling them here.
 
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Sid

I never said that.
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And, to be fair, there have been several prosecutions since we left involving importers who were advantage of our not checking stuff to buy goods on the cheap that didn't meet EU standards and then selling selling them here.
Wasn't that one of the main reasons to leave the EU?
That the strict EU rules and regulations would no longer apply for the UK?
Or was that only for the in the UK produced products planned?
 
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