UK Politics Thread (Part 3)

[peterroberts]

@Mascot

(You also know these Euro ‘they are trying to…’ scare stories were always totally fabricated, don’t you)

And one of the biggest culprits was our ex-pm Boris while he was at the Torygraph.

[peterroberts]

@Klopptimist

the Europeans almost universally hate the English.

That’s simply not true.

[anon27364116]

Germans don’t hate the Brits. Quite a lot of admiration and love for British culture in general.

[Noo_Noo]

I think @Klopptimist needs to look closer to home.

We’re entering swarm season here in North Wales now. Got a feeling this year could be a bad one.

[Bekloppt]

@anon27364116

Germans don’t hate the Brits. Quite a lot of admiration and love for British culture in general.

Absolutely. I have no idea where that idea comes from. I have had overwhelmingly positive reactions since I arrived in Germany 30 years ago, and have even had compliments on my charming accent! Being a Brit has been an advantage socially and in my career.
The only negative thing I have heard is from nightclub bouncers who were understandably wary of letting in groups of young British men, especially as Berlin became a favourite destination for the stag do crowd.
All the Germans I know were saddened and bewildered at the brexit vote.

[Klopptimist]

Like this one?

[Klopptimist]

I have conversational French, passable German, sufficient Italian, Mrs has good Spanish and I can even get by with Dutch.

You have to get off the beaten track though, you’ll be loved in tourist hotspots.

[Klopptimist]

Spend a fair bit of time in Cheshire by the sea (Abersoch) and I quite see why the Welsh hate it. I’m there because my brother has a place there, wouldn’t be my choice.

[Klopptimist]

“There was something we loved about them, their money!”

Muppets’ Christmas Carol.

[Klopptimist]

I have the demeanour of being on the winning team. Repeatedly. It’s great.

[RedWhippet]

@Klopptimist

I have the demeanour of being on the winning team. Repeatedly. It’s great.

Shouldn’t you be supporting Manchester City, then? Wins all the time and couldn’t give two hoots about the legality of it.

[Klopptimist]

Nothing illegal about democracy. Last time I checked. Which was never.

[ILLOK]

@Klopptimist

I have conversational French, passable German, sufficient Italian, Mrs has good Spanish and I can even get by with Dutch.

You have to get off the beaten track though, you’ll be loved in tourist hotspots.

Is it just the people you talk to that hate you?

[Klopptimist]

Ding ding we have a winner.

[peterroberts]

@Bekloppt

All the Germans I know were saddened and bewildered at the brexit vote.

Exactly the same in France.

[Dane]

@JU97ICE

@Noo_Noo

So, just for the record, you knowingly voted for queues at Dover despite every Brexiteer stating it wouldn’t happen. You somehow had the foresight of the Boris deal before he was even PM and this met your expectation of what Brexit would be and exactly what you voted for.

I take both the ferry and Eurotunnel a lot. Probably more than most on here. I never use it during UK school holiday periods, mostly because I refuse to pay £350 return for a ticket, but outside those peak dates, the routes are very quiet. And I mean, I’ve been on some crossings, usually those at about 10pm on a weekday, where there were less than a handful of vehicles - both lorries and cars - on board. It’s been kind of weird how quiet it has been. It has usually taken less than 15 minutes to get through the French and UK customs to the ticket windows. French customs at Dover never operated prior to Brexit and they now really only do a half-check of passports. They certainly don’t scan them. More look at them, if there is a French passport among them then they’ll let you go through straight away.

Is it just coincidence and the 10 or so crossings I’ve made in the last 6 months have all just been particularly quiet sailings? I can’t rule it out. But it feels like this is a case where there has been a particularly popular time to cross (just prior to Easter) and as always at Dover, the traffic fluctuates wildly with the dates.

I haven’t noticed too much extra time with security and passport checks at Dover since Brexit but I imagine a number of buses coming over at the same time would require a bit of extra checking than it did pre-Brexit. Not so much that we need a ‘Brexit caused this!’ headline from the papers. Such headlines don’t really help or highlight the actual issues that Brexit has caused.

Stop it, no room for sensible explanations here.
Thousands of people travelling on the same day and being angry at having to queue is unacceptable and must be the fault of Brexit, there can be no other possible reason…other than thousands of stupid people travelling on the same day being stupid enough to think there would be no queues.

[Noo_Noo]

The question is whether there were queues or not prior to leaving the EU or are they worse now?

If they are it’s right to question why.

Simple truth is the UK voted to implement border checks when travelling to Europe. That has impacts that we didn’t have before.

[Dane]

Fairly sure @JU97ICE has more than sufficiently answered that question.
Never mind though, I’m sure something else will surface in the next day or so for people to vent about Brexit or the Tories

[Bekloppt]

As I mentioned, I have lived and worked in Berlin for 30 years. That hardly counts as hanging around ‘tourist hotspots’.
When I arrived I was penniless, but I was shown a remarkable amount of generosity by everyone I met.

I can’t speak for everywhere in Europe, but the vast majority of Germans do not hate the British. That is simply wrong.

[Noo_Noo]

Not venting and it’s a straight up fact that checks are a result of what the UK voted for. If you’re happy with that, no problem. Some people aren’t and some of those would have voted to leave the EU with no knowledge that this would happen. Peak times will always exasperate the problem.

Now, the work round is more staff but guess what? That’s not in our control anymore