I agree, it’s almost as if this was a bit of a rush job!
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So far I have been told by three separate companies in the UK that they can’t sell/send items to NI because of brexit. One company in Germany also. I’ve been to the supermarket to see rows of empty fresh veg shelves. Prob all NI specific issues and maybe will hopefully improve with time.
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Nissan would be an obvious one to be honest where the price of a production line stopping against the cost of an empty lorry is not really any contest whatsoever.
I think for most people any effect on food will be the most obvious impact. If that really bites then the discontent may escalate.
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Honest question were you expecting this level of disruption, more or less?
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Honest answer, I don’t know. It’s really hard to distinguish what degree of the disruption is due to covid and what is due to Brexit.
On what I expected, I hoped for a longer transition period to allow for more comprehensive agreement and a more gradual evolution. That would have had less disruption but at least we didn’t leave on WTO terms which would have been a disaster and certainly more disruptive.
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Fair point.
i think it’s fair to expect some, simply from what is an abrupt change. How much is deemed acceptable I suppose is the question. That opinion will vary from person to person.
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Any major problems would have hit at 00:01 surely.
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Like this?
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Grace period
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Brexit isn’t truly an ‘economic shock’ though. You would not expect major disruptions akin to a massive storm or the like, particularly from something fundamentally regulatory effects. The real effects will come from factor dislocation, as labour/land/capital are shift their competitive position. It would be more accurate to compare it to something like an IMF structural adjustment program, and think of it in those timescales.
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Not sure how this snuck in here without me noticing.
I’d agree with the headlines of those Tweets. I’ll read them shortly. What I would say is that people are generally happy with Labours covid response although there are concerns here and there. The speed of the vaccine roll out for example.
The issue that Labour have is that there is a growing discontent with the Wales is being treated by Westminster. This puts Labour in a horrible position where if they start pushing pro Welsh policies too far it pushes them further away from the Labour Party in England. There is also the fear that Westminster under Boris is looking for a power grab. It’s no coincidence that Farage, UKIP and the like have started voicing for abolition of the Senedd for example. They’re probably leaking votes to those people as well from people that don’t believe the Senedd is working. Most dont understand how badly it is actually hamstrung.
Labour are in reality in a real tight spot to be honest. With Scotland looking for independence and growing calls for changes in Wales if they lose seats gaining power in Westminster becomes a near impossibility.
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So the empty shelves and long queue of lorries are due to paper-work (apparently a heave of it)???
In the main, yes. We’ve been in the single market for so long that many people had forgotten what it was like before, and why we wanted to join it - with many businesses or industries building their supply chains across borders since. There are a whole host of Non-Tariff Barriers we now have to comply with, which result in lots of additional paperwork (and our brand new Border IT systems are still being worked out).
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How likely is it that the four members of EFTA would unanimously welcome the UK, if it were to present its candidacy to join EFTA?
Assuming the UK was accepted as a candidate, how long do you think it might then take for the UK to negotiate and conclude an accession agreement to become an EFTA member?
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Interesting to hear a theory on the radiio today that the tories waited from March until now before stopping flights coming into the UK to stop the spread of covid as it wouldn’t have been appropriate to actually be seen to be in control of the borders while still in Europe, before the 31 December leaving date.
There certainly can’t be any scientific or medical reason.
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If that’s the case any argument against these clowns not having blood on their hands is void.
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