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Corinthian

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And so we have about 1 million people immunised with exactly the same vaccine that is three weeks later being used in the rest of Europe. Stuart may tend to verge on the hysterical, but the context is clear - the UK decision making bodies took 3 weeks less time than the European equivalents, who decided that taking a Christmas break was more important than ending the pandemic. perhaps they were scared of breaking the Working Time Directive?
Yeah, these cheap shots are worth every penny.

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3 hours ago, DB said:

And so we have about 1 million people immunised with exactly the same vaccine that is three weeks later being used in the rest of Europe. Stuart may tend to verge on the hysterical, but the context is clear - the UK decision making bodies took 3 weeks less time than the European equivalents, who decided that taking a Christmas break was more important than ending the pandemic. perhaps they were scared of breaking the Working Time Directive?
Yeah, these cheap shots are worth every penny.

Seems like a good thing, no? 

Edited by rmgill
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8 hours ago, sunday said:

Is that an one-off declaration, or is there a record going back to the 1930s?

probably one-off, i´m not following religious themes much, but that one caught my ear

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I dropped into this thread earlier to check, and lo, the same tired nonsense is still being posted by the usual suspects. In that vein be advised that at 23:00 Greenwich Mean Time I lifted a glass of champagne to celebrate what will likely be the most significant event in the history of my country in my lifetime.

It took forty-seven years but the essentially dishonest, underhanded and anti-democratic wrong inflicted by morally bankrupt politicians upon my country has finally been righted. It was righted by the expressed will of the majority of the UK population via the largest democratic exercise in British history, and despite over four years of caviling and attempts to overturn that result by Brussels and their creatures here in the UK.

The deed is done. Happy New Year one and all. 

BillB

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1 hour ago, rmgill said:

Seems like a good thing, no? 

Of course it's a good thing, it's got the EU running scared of what's coming next as evinced by the desperate flailing and wishful thinking upthread.

BillB

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29 minutes ago, BillB said:

I dropped into this thread earlier to check, and lo, the same tired nonsense is still being posted by the usual suspects. In that vein be advised that at 23:00 Greenwich Mean Time I lifted a glass of champagne to celebrate what will likely be the most significant event in the history of my country in my lifetime.

It took forty-seven years but the essentially dishonest, underhanded and anti-democratic wrong inflicted by morally bankrupt politicians upon my country has finally been righted. It was righted by the expressed will of the majority of the UK population via the largest democratic exercise in British history, and despite over four years of caviling and attempts to overturn that result by Brussels and their creatures here in the UK.

The deed is done. Happy New Year one and all. 

BillB

From your former colonies, congratulations on your new won independence!

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28 minutes ago, BillB said:

Of course it's a good thing, it's got the EU running scared of what's coming next as evinced by the desperate flailing and wishful thinking upthread.

BillB

Mostly rhetorical for the usual suspects🧐

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I was reading a novel the other day, John Le Carre's 'A Small Town in Germany'. He spent some years in the Embassy in Bonn so his perspective is perhaps worth reflecting on. There is a line in the novel where  someone senior (perhaps the ambassador) suggests we have to stay in well with West Germany 'Because they are our meal ticket to Brussels'. You see, the French had shortly before the novel was written, through pure spite, stopped our joining the EEC. Twice if I recall rightly, once in 1964 and once in 1967. You can interpret that as De Gaulle worrying we were an American cuckoo in the nest, or worrying that we would turn his precious French influence engine into a trading shop. if it was the latter, he was of course spot on. We saw the West Germans as our way in because we could portray ourselves as defending them in a way the French arguably were not. Which worked as it happened.

The reason why we were obsessed for a generation with joining European Economic Community is well known. British decline. We no longer had an empire we could force to trade with us, the Americans prefered to buy Japanese, and the Europeans prefered to buy German. So we thought, great, lets get in the European Community, and we use that as a springboard to increase trade with Europe. Which worked, except it, through a series of miscalculations and corporate greed, it helped kill off the last of British industry. I dont blame the Europeans for that. I think looking back it was a mixture of the greed of the banks wanting quick returns, and the indifference of British high street stores being wholly indifferent to where something was made. And of course Governmental indifference when it might have made a difference.

The point is this, and Ive said it before, but Ill say it again because clearly nobody was listening last time, if an Independent Britain didnt work in the 1950's and 1960's, then its really got its work cut out to make it work now. As the people who have pushed this dog and pony show are mainly financial services pundits, and the party that pushed it had the model of Switzerland to emulate for the past 30 years, I dont believe they are cut out to make it work. At least, not for the vast majority of people in the UK who voted for it.

Yes, it could work, if we had smart people in politics with a vision. if anyone could see any that have not latterly been purged from both the Conservative and Labour party by ideologist's who looked at the world through the bottom of a champagne bottle, do feel free to point them out to me sometime.

And that is positively my last post on Brexit. Good riddance to it. Im tired of the bitterness and the spite the wholly messy and bloody unnecessary exercise in navel fluff exposition it has produced.

God help us all if we ever get a Poxit....

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5 hours ago, BillB said:

I dropped into this thread earlier to check, and lo, the same tired nonsense is still being posted by the usual suspects. In that vein be advised that at 23:00 Greenwich Mean Time I lifted a glass of champagne to celebrate what will likely be the most significant event in the history of my country in my lifetime.

It took forty-seven years but the essentially dishonest, underhanded and anti-democratic wrong inflicted by morally bankrupt politicians upon my country has finally been righted. It was righted by the expressed will of the majority of the UK population via the largest democratic exercise in British history, and despite over four years of caviling and attempts to overturn that result by Brussels and their creatures here in the UK.

The deed is done. Happy New Year one and all. 

BillB

Congratulations. The UK is now free again.

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1 hour ago, seahawk said:

Congratulations. The UK is now free again.

+1. Now you could go back to the traditional means of balancing the budget, like harrying the seaways of the world! :P

Happy New Year, Bill!

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1 hour ago, BansheeOne said:

Ah, but is this The Brexit We Voted For(TM)? 😁

No, but it's the Brexit the UK deserves, but not the one it needs right now, so we'll hunt it. Because he can take it, because he's not a hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector, a Dark Knight.

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18 hours ago, sunday said:

+1. Now you could go back to the traditional means of balancing the budget, like harrying the seaways of the world! :P

Happy New Year, Bill!

If you'd start shipping gold from your old colonies again, we would.

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Few to no disruptions on day one. Of course that was really a holiday, but I think it shows the good will on either side.

Quote

First lorries cross into France as Britain and Europe wake to new Brexit reality

No early signs of chaos as trucks haul goods across the new customs border

Fri 1 Jan 2021 06.05 GMT
 
Moments after the UK left the EU with an 11th-hour deal, the first trucks hauling goods across the new customs border presented their clearance documents to French agents before loading on to a train to pass through the Eurotunnel.

With Britain having finally quit the EU single market and customs union, there were no early signs of feared chaos at the border in the first hours of 1 January 2021.

Ivanov Shumeykov was the first driver processed by officials late on New Year’s Eve. He smiled and waved as his HGV went through Eurotunnel controls in Folkestone, Kent just after 11pm. The first arrivals on the shuttle from France following the end of the Brexit transition period were expected at around 12.23am.

Scenes in Dover have been quiet as many hauliers have been staying away to avoid being the first to test new border controls.

Freight flows through the Eurotunnel’s Calais terminal were extremely light in the early hours of Friday morning. Yann Leriche, chief executive of Getlink which operates the Eurotunnel, told Reuters tweaks to customs procedures might be necessary but that there would be no chaos in the weeks ahead.

But Matt Smith, managing director of HSF Logistics, which ships mainly fresh meat and chilled goods between Britain and Europe, said the new post-Brexit customs systems and paperwork were largely untested.

“We’re not too sure to be honest, it seems to be a bit of a headache,” he told AFP. “There’ll be delays along the line at some stage.”

British and European businesses have warned of carnage as they learn to navigate a wall of red tape and paperwork that threatens to disrupt the smooth flow of nearly €1tn in annual trade.

The Brexit transition period’s end still leaves Northern Ireland remaining in the EU single market for goods.

Northern Ireland will also apply the bloc’s customs rules at its ports, even though the region is still part of the UK customs territory, to prevent the return of a hard border with the Irish Republic.

To avoid disrupting cross-border trade and a return of checkpoints along the politically sensitive Irish border, the EU and UK agreed to move new regulatory and customs processes to the Irish Sea.

That means checks are focused on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Many hauliers based in Northern Ireland will keep volumes light for the first few days of 2021 as they wait to see what the impact will be, industry figures have said.

While the UK formally departed the EU at the end of January 2020, a transition period meant almost all tangible changes were deferred – until now.

From Friday morning, individuals and businesses both in the UK and beyond face a dizzying new array of red tape, a good deal of it still to be confirmed, covering everything from travel, residency, work and tourism, to the supply of goods and services.

Considerable government anxiety remains focused on the situation at the Channel ports in Kent, particularly after Covid-related delays earlier in December saw thousands of lorries backed up at a disused airfield – one of 10 sites prepared for possible Brexit-caused disruption.

Officials are hopeful of a smooth start to the new era but are braced for possible delays next week, with government estimates suggesting that more than half of smaller businesses have not yet prepared for the end of the free movement of goods and services.

[...]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jan/01/first-lorries-cross-into-france-as-britain-and-europe-wake-to-new-brexit-reality

Edited by BansheeOne
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On 12/31/2020 at 10:38 PM, DB said:

And so we have about 1 million people immunised with exactly the same vaccine that is three weeks later being used in the rest of Europe. Stuart may tend to verge on the hysterical, but the context is clear - the UK decision making bodies took 3 weeks less time than the European equivalents, who decided that taking a Christmas break was more important than ending the pandemic. perhaps they were scared of breaking the Working Time Directive?
Yeah, these cheap shots are worth every penny.

In this part of the world (Denmark), they do make a note of the fact that the British approval of the vaccine was an emergency approval, not quite up the standards normally used, while the EU approval was the full thing, requiring more time and paperwork. 

Make of it what you want :)

 

Edited by cbo
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On 1/1/2021 at 11:32 AM, sunday said:

Chinese Commies have the monopoly on that now.

It may actually go the other way, the UK becomming the "Unsinkable Aircraft Carrier Comrade Xi" in a few years time 😁

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On 1/1/2021 at 1:30 AM, TonyE said:

Homo Brexiticus, the post-brexit man, has now become a reality.....

Recent anthropological evidence suggests that he is an ancestor of the Piltdown man, half man, half ape and a complete fraud 😁

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58 minutes ago, cbo said:

In this part of the world (Denmark), they do make a note of the fact that the British approval of the vaccine was an emergency approval, not quite up the standards normally used, while the EU approval was the full thing, requiring more time and paperwork. 

Make of it what you want :)

The EMA had no more or less data than was available to the UK, so the only reason for a difference in timing is because one set of experts made a decision and the other did not. the UK authorities insist that there were no shortcuts, because they were using exactly the same data made available to the everyone.

Make of *that* what you will - I choose to consider that the EMA is spinning this narrative like a top to avoid criticism of their unwillingness to make a decision, but then that's what happens when committees get large - decision time is at least  directly proportional to the number of members, and may even scale exponentially.

There was nothing preventing any of the member states from taking the leap and serving their citizens' needs rather than waiting for the turgid bureaucracy to find its rubber stamp under the Christmas tree.

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