BMW have announced today that the majority of their models will carry a £3000 custom duty related increase from January 1st 2021. 
fleetnews.co.uk/news/manufa … trade-deal
lancpudn:
BMW have announced today that the majority of their models will carry a £3000 custom duty related increase from January 1st 2021.
So the sensible thing to do, you’d think is “stop buying BMWs”…
What’s so bloody good about them anyways? 
UK’s Brexit negotiator predicted Brussels would have upper hand
David Frost wrote in 2016 that Britain would be the one having to blink to secure EU trade deal
David Frost, Boris Johnson’s Brexit envoy, was hanging tough as trade talks entered the endgame in Brussels this week, but he once felt far less bullish about the likely outcomes of such negotiations.
Writing in a largely forgotten pamphlet just before the 2016 Brexit referendum, Lord Frost warned that in trade talks with the EU “it will be Britain that has to make the concessions to get the deal”.
Talks in Brussels are now in what Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney called “move week”, with both sides waiting for the other to blink. Officials in London and Brussels expect talks to succeed or breakdown next week.
But in what now seem prescient remarks, Lord Frost said in June 2016 that while the EU and countries around the world would want trade deals with Britain, they would have the upper hand and would run down the clock.
“Britain will be demandeur,” he wrote, a reference to the fact that the UK would be the applicant seeking new trade deals after Brexit. The demandeur is usually regarded in trade circles as having less leverage.
“After leaving, the UK will have to renegotiate trading arrangements simultaneously with many major countries, including the EU, in a two-year window,” he wrote.
“There may not be goodwill,” he said, adding that it would be “Britain that has to make concessions to get the deal”. He continued: “True, other countries will want deals too, but they won’t be under anything like the same time pressure and can afford to make us sweat.”
Lord Frost now finds himself in the hot seat facing exactly the predicament he described: Britain is seeking a deal before the Brexit transition period ends on January 1 and the clock is ticking. Lord Frost’s spokeswoman declined to comment.
Lord Frost was writing in a report produced by political consultancy and PR agency Portland Communications, entitled “Britain Votes Leave: What Happens Next”. At the time he was chief executive of the Scotch Whisky Association but was writing in “a personal capacity”.
Lord Frost’s understanding of the dynamic of the negotiations has been evident throughout: he has always struck a tough tone, never wavering from his warning that Britain would walk away without a deal if necessary.
“We are working to get a deal, but the only one that’s possible is one that is compatible with our sovereignty and takes back control of our laws, our trade, and our waters,” he tweeted on Sunday. “That has been our consistent position from the start and I will not be changing it.”
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier tweeted on Monday that “we remain determined, patient, respectful” in efforts to secure a deal. “We want our future co-operation to be open but fair in all areas.”
The two sides are also still at loggerheads over how to protect companies from unfair competition. EU officials said issues around Britain’s possible divergence from EU environmental and labour standards, climate targets and carbon pricing remained problematic.
Officials said no plans exist to add Brexit to the agenda of a videocall of EU leaders scheduled for Thursday.
Lord Frost is trusted by Conservative Eurosceptics but he was not always convinced about the merits of leaving the EU single market, arguing in 2016 that the benefits of future trade deals with the US, Japan and India would not compensate for the far greater loss of trade with the EU.
“The orders of magnitude are different and it simply isn’t worth jeopardising access to the single market for the sake of global trade,” he wrote.
The EU are not going to be able to flood our produce markets with their stuff IF there’s no deal in place.
That’s their loss, not ours.
Andean Oranges - look rather competitive compared to the Seville variety - once there’s tariffs on the EU stock as well…
There’s no need for Britian to worry about “food shortages” - not ever.
We are simply buying for similar prices from further afield.
Germany are currently printing news story “fluff pieces” with regards to “Political Instability” in Peru where the Andean Citrus happens to originate, but then they WOULD say that - wouldn’t they?
…Then there’s the “Do good for the third world” angle, which should placate the Greens and Lefties…
“Do you wish for the UK to line the pockets of your former beloved EU, or should we do a lot more “Fairtrade” type stuff with third world countries instead in future?”
A good way to sell WTO to the masses, actually!
A story of stupid Brits and smart Swiss
Swiss voters reject nationalist proposal to curb immigration
Talks with EU on a new treaty still face difficult path in post-Brexit environment
Swiss voters have defeated a nationalist initiative to tear up their free-movement agreement with Brussels, deciding by a large majority to maintain existing ties with the EU.
A referendum proposal from the rightwing populist Swiss People’s party (SVP) to end free movement for EU citizens was comfortably rejected, preliminary results showed, with about 62 per cent of the electorate voting against.
The vote was a key test of sentiment ahead of complex negotiations between Switzerland and the EU over a new treaty defining their future relationship. The Bern government had campaigned against the nationalist initiative, warning that it would damage vital economic ties and void existing treaties.
The EU-Swiss negotiations have been complicated by Brexit, with Brussels highly reluctant to cede ground to Switzerland, in case London demands similar concessions.
Switzerland, for its part, must agree a package which is saleable to the entire Swiss population. Under the country’s idiosyncratic and highly devolved political structure, any new treaty with the EU would be subject to a national referendum.
A vote to end the free movement of citizens between the EU and Switzerland would have torpedoed the talks on a new framework agreement. About 1.4m of Switzerland’s 8.5m residents are EU nationals.
Even absent a victory, the size of the Yes vote will be closely assessed in Bern. With about 38 per cent of voters supporting the initiative — more than the electorate of the SVP — the government in Bern is likely to be far more cautious in what it agrees to with Brussels. That will in turn irritate the EU and lead it to increase pressure on the Alpine state for a deal.
Sunday’s results nonetheless suggest a significant shift against the anti-immigration politics of the SVP, which have been a leitmotif of Swiss politics for the past two decades.
The party, which is still the largest in Switzerland, lost seats in last October’s parliamentary elections for only the second time since 1975.
Just six years ago, the SVP scored an unexpected victory on immigration when Swiss voters opted to narrowly support a 2014 referendum calling for free-movement agreements with Brussels to be abandoned. Deft legal footwork by the government managed to avoid the full implementation of the vote, much to the anger of the SVP and its supporters.
Pollsters suggested the SVP had overplayed its hand in this weekend’s referendum. Its proposal would have meant a unilateral end to free movement for EU and Swiss citizens across the country’s borders, and would have immediately voided six other crucial bilateral treaties.
Despite widespread concern over immigration and sovereignty, Swiss voters are wary of taking hardline ideological positions, pollster Lukas Golder told the Financial Times ahead of the results, because of how the UK’s painful Brexit negotiations with Europe are playing out.
National referendums are a crucial part of the Swiss democratic model, with several held every few months. Four other issues were voted on this Sunday, including the institution of paid paternity leave and the authorisation of SFr6bn ($6.5bn) in funding to acquire new fighter jets for the Swiss Air Force. A contract for the aircraft has yet to be awarded.
Soon there will be so many workers on around minimum wages, that there will be no one left to pay the ramped-up taxes to PAY for all this unfettered immogration across borders where criminals are welcome, but say, Muslim women on their own “looking for work” - have no presence whatsoever… That’s just the Non-EU citizens and all!
China is winning the war for world-wide Communistic Serfdom, the exact opposite to Patriotic Nationalism.
3rd year running we’re on a big pre-xmas and pre-Brexit rush. Our regular clients are upping orders as is normal this time of year, but are also hiring in extra warehousing space, (dunno how easy or expensive that is at the moment). Apparently it’s harder for us to deliver the stuff they ordered. Bookings apparently being knocked back because of lack of warehouse space.
.
First glance, seems good for us to be busy, but we are probably running less efficiently to cover all our obligations. Supermarkets are spending more on warehousing which will be passed on to the customer sooner or later.
Rushing now to stand still in January has always been a feature of supplying retailers, but Brexit is exaggerating it again.
Franglais:
3rd year running we’re on a big pre-xmas and pre-Brexit rush. Our regular clients are upping orders as is normal this time of year, but are also hiring in extra warehousing space, (dunno how easy or expensive that is at the moment). Apparently it’s harder for us to deliver the stuff they ordered. Bookings apparently being knocked back because of lack of warehouse space.
.
First glance, seems good for us to be busy, but we are probably running less efficiently to cover all our obligations. Supermarkets are spending more on warehousing which will be passed on to the customer sooner or later.
Rushing now to stand still in January has always been a feature of supplying retailers, but Brexit is exaggerating it again.
Yes, I’ve noticed that at places in the Midlands. “Trucks bringing in stuff so fast, there’s no floor space to unload it at the warehouse”.
Funny thing is, that the trucks bringing stuff in that are queueing back out onto the main road - are all BRITISH liveried trucks. They might have EE drivers living in Britian among them, but it does seem that the foreign drivers about the country “tramping” are starting to peter out a bit… Hardly “Operation Stack Fears” any longer then?
If the scare story predictions come true - it will be for those firms who believed them so much, they let it happen to themselves. JUST themselves… 
Franglais:
3rd year running we’re on a big pre-xmas and pre-Brexit rush. Our regular clients are upping orders as is normal this time of year, but are also hiring in extra warehousing space, (dunno how easy or expensive that is at the moment). Apparently it’s harder for us to deliver the stuff they ordered. Bookings apparently being knocked back because of lack of warehouse space.
.
First glance, seems good for us to be busy, but we are probably running less efficiently to cover all our obligations. Supermarkets are spending more on warehousing which will be passed on to the customer sooner or later.
Rushing now to stand still in January has always been a feature of supplying retailers, but Brexit is exaggerating it again.
Here at STEF we are at our normal November export deliveries to the UK, maybe a little bit more, but nothing drastic.
We’re doing our usual seasonal double/triple trailers deliveries to clients to the norm per week/day.
Deleted , double post
First announced in 2018 by then prime minister Theresa May, the festival – intended to mark Brexit as a moment of “national renewal” and to “celebrate our nation’s diversity and talent” – was given the go-ahead by Boris Johnson last year.
It has since been rebranded under the rather more prosaic working title “Festival UK* 2022” with a budget of £120m, spearheaded by London Olympics 2012 head of ceremonies Martin Green.
What a waste of money .
OwenMoney:
First announced in 2018 by then prime minister Theresa May, the festival – intended to mark Brexit as a moment of “national renewal” and to “celebrate our nation’s diversity and talent” – was given the go-ahead by Boris Johnson last year.It has since been rebranded under the rather more prosaic working title “Festival UK* 2022” with a budget of £120m, spearheaded by London Olympics 2012 head of ceremonies Martin Green.
What a waste of money .
Throwing around money we don’t have on a project we don’t need? Johnson?
And nothing to do with feel good, pork barrel politics.
bylinetimes.com/2020/11/11/robe … k-scandal/
Fish and chip shops could face supply shortages and even lose thousands of jobs if the UK does not secure a new fishing deal with Greenland as well as the EU, the industry has warned.
The self-governing overseas Danish territory has a deal to trade its plentiful fishing stocks with the EU, but once the transition period ends on 31 December and Britain quits the bloc, a new arrangement will have to be struck.
Some 10 per cent of the fish supplied to England comes from Greenland’s waters and cannot be easily replaced, the National Federation of Fish Friers (NFFF) has warned.
“The British fleet cannot be expected to catch all the fish we need. Greenland’s fish is a premium product and supplies some 10 per cent of fish to the south of England,” Andrew Crook from the association told The Sun. Reported in the Independent.
“We must not let a deal slip through the net.”
Brexit -It’s sole destroying - Johnson floundering and the uk kippered on the salty alter of nationalism
OwenMoney:
Fish and chip shops could face supply shortages and even lose thousands of jobs if the UK does not secure a new fishing deal with Greenland as well as the EU, the industry has warned.
Andrew Crook from the association told The Sun.
The Sun?
Really?
I wouldn’t believe the date in the sun!
Just more scaremongering from remoaners.
We voted leave and these remoaners still won’t accept it and still come out with absolute bull shine trying to justify the fact that the majority of the voting public in this country want no part of the EU!
“We must not let a deal slip through the net.”
Brexit -It’s sole destroying - Johnson floundering and the uk kippered on the salty alter of nationalism
thesun or not it’s a good chance to get some fishy puns in - don’t be shellfish.
Reported in the Independent .
Grumpy_old_trucker:
OwenMoney:
Fish and chip shops could face supply shortages and even lose thousands of jobs if the UK does not secure a new fishing deal with Greenland as well as the EU, the industry has warned.
Andrew Crook from the association told The Sun.The Sun?
Really?
I wouldn’t believe the date in the sun!Just more scaremongering from remoaners.
We voted leave and these remoaners still won’t accept it and still come out with absolute bull shine trying to justify the fact that the majority of the voting public in this country want no part of the EU!
That’s the spirit, just keep blaming ‘remoaners’ for every f**k up. You may even start to believe it yourself eventually. Got to love that famous ‘Remoaner’ Rupert Murdoch. So passionate about the EU of course
In order to manage Boris Johnson’s brexit customs arrangements, we need to hire another 50000 brexit bureaucrats. The problem is that there just aren’t enough in the UK with the skills to do this. They are also more expensive than may be found elsewhere. So companies are hiring in Romania in India, in order to get the workers they need for less money and greater skills. Brexit benefits for everyone but the UK again.
There seems to be an entirely extra concept introduced into these so-called “Trade Talks”.
All other trade arrangements with the rest of the world, i.e. those countries in the world that are not the EU or USA - We’re being spoken to like “Brexit” means we are leaving the entire WORLD at once here?
All this rubbish about the importance or lack thereof “Greenland” or “Australia” or “Peru”…
FFS we are already trading with these other “minor” countries, and presumably will continue with the same arrangements post-Brexit.
Have the EU demaned that we leave all the other arrangements world-wide as well, hidden somewhere down in Theresa May’s original surrender document?
The EU trade talks, as far as I am aware - are about the UK blocking access to our fisheries, whilst the EU tries to negotiate something that will let the French have them for free, such as “weaponized power cuts” arranged by the now Right-leaning French leadership just as our former Right PM hurries off the Leftern Cliff…
When it comes down to it, the mis-handling of Brexit has been all about keeping Farage out of Westminster, in a similar manner to how cross-party support has been loaned to the notion in the USA of “unseating Trump without unseating any of ourselves on either side of the aisle”…
If our politiicans had “gone straight” at ANY point, they could have said. “Nope. I aint doint it. WE ain’t doing it. At the next election you can vote for Remainer Me, or Remainer Opposition - no one else will be winning the next election, and a vote for Farage will continue to be a wasted vote”
Better the good-old-fashioned HONEST risk that Farage then grabs a couple of benches in the commons, that like the SNP, never seriously advance enough to be of any consequence to the mainstream two parties…
But no.
Even countenencing just Farage all by himself at Westminster - seems to have been just too much for the establishment to risk… Better to “Pretend” to do Brexit, but actually find any and every excuse to “extend” all the time, for which “Covid” is the lastest excuse to do just that…
Boris Johnson, like Tony Blair - won a full majority - because he lied better than anyone else.
…Let’s see if Corbyn makes any kind of comeback at Westminster now, as there’s still an angle for him to become an “upstart” of his own, of course…
If Corbyn tears Labour in half at the same time Farage tears the Tories limb from limb, as he once threatened to do - A game-changing six-party parliament is at hand, that’ll finally leave the British Public to their own devices, because they won’t even manage to agree in committees at that point “what colour the paintwork in the gents should be”…