How is Brexit affecting us?

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  • Interesting piece of misinformation I was told this week - that Britain had to come out of the EU as the time we could stay out of the Euro was running out. I have no idea where that one came from as it's not refuted on the Fact Checking sites, which usually point to the source of these stories. Checking Gordon Brown's five requirements they are acknowledged to have been set up in such a way as to make joining the Euro virtually impossible.
  • Interesting piece of misinformation I was told this week - that Britain had to come out of the EU as the time we could stay out of the Euro was running out. I have no idea where that one came from as it's not refuted on the Fact Checking sites, which usually point to the source of these stories. Checking Gordon Brown's five requirements they are acknowledged to have been set up in such a way as to make joining the Euro virtually impossible.

    Sounds like complete bollocks to me. If that were the case wouldn't we be hearing about Sweden and Denmark gearing up to join?
  • Hugal wrote: »
    Nigel doesn’t deserve any of this. I am sure there are worse things we can think of

    Yes but I was steering well away from suggesting actual violence to a real person (it must be against the rules) so went for the 'harmless but humiliating' idea of being slapped with a smelly fish.
  • Brexit probably makes joining the Euro more likely. In a decade when the nation is a real mess and the people wake up and vote in parties committed to re-joining the EU, will the UK be able to re-join without also committing to joining the Eurozone?
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Interesting piece of misinformation I was told this week - that Britain had to come out of the EU as the time we could stay out of the Euro was running out. I have no idea where that one came from as it's not refuted on the Fact Checking sites, which usually point to the source of these stories. Checking Gordon Brown's five requirements they are acknowledged to have been set up in such a way as to make joining the Euro virtually impossible.

    Sounds like a rehash of part of the Lisbon Treaty nonsense that was floating around a few years back.
  • @Alan Cresswell I am pretty sure you're right, that the Brexit nonsense is more likely to put us into the Euro when another Government try to take us back into the EU. 41% trade loss is pretty huge (link] to Standard).

    I do hear some of the misinformation circulating because I get told it and for this one, I wonder how to refute it, when it was another Guide leader misinforming the Girl Guides.
  • The RogueThe Rogue Shipmate
    Why is a Guide leader talking to Girl Guides about Brexit?
  • Maybe one or more of the Guides asked her a question?
  • It was a totally irrelevant aside to an exercise talking about different currencies and ways to pay money (cheque, debit card, and etc.) called Bank or Bust (it's a UMA to anyone really interested). We were asking the girls to name other currencies and which countries used them, and she just dropped that little nugget into the conversation.
  • I take it that she's not a Remainer?

    Either way, it seems wrong for someone in that position to foist their own particular political views on the young people in their charge - if that's what she was doing.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    edited March 13
    @Curiosity killed based on my hunch this was one of the false claims about the Lisbon Treaty, I did some googling. Here's what was the actual position of the UK wrt the Euro:

    https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:12008E/PRO/15&from=EN
  • I recall that those who wanted to retain the Pound were swooning with horror at the thought of having it replaced with the Euro.

    Yet surely, thought I at the time, it's what you can buy with it that's important, and not what it's called?

    BTW, a facsimile of William V would appear on our version, I guess, should the monarchy still exist in the future...
    :naughty:
  • EirenistEirenist Shipmate
    Let's be optimistic, it might be Charles III.
  • I recall that those who wanted to retain the Pound were swooning with horror at the thought of having it replaced with the Euro.

    Yet surely, thought I at the time, it's what you can buy with it that's important, and not what it's called?

    There's a sensible discussion about whether having a fixed rate of exchange between different countries in the EU is a good thing (and specifically between the UK and the rest of the EU).

    Once you have a fixed exchange rate, renaming all your currencies has convenience / simplicity benefits, and emotional costs to people who have a sentimental attachment to the name of their currency. But the real arguments are about the fixed rate of exchange. The UK's time in the ERM was not encouraging.
  • Dave WDave W Shipmate
    The problem seems less what the currency is called and more who gets to determine the monetary policy.
  • HugalHugal Shipmate
    The European government should determine monetary policy. Those who have more power in the EG could sway things.
  • EirenistEirenist Shipmate
    Our impeccable government has decided, as an alternative to to creating aSingapore-or-Thames, to take the UK to Singapore in the shape of an aircraft carrier with aircraft and aircrew supplied courtesy of the US Marines. No doubt this will impress the locals with British world-beating power mightily.
  • Especially as it's oil-fuelled (the US and France use nuclear), so at some point along the way will need a friendly country to fill it up.

    Competing with the far East worked really well in the 1960s and 1970s, I'm sure it will be just fine now...
  • Without the accompanying protective screen of frigates and destroyers, it's just an easy target for anyone with a swarm of fast attack boats crewed by folk who don't much care if they get home.
  • EirenistEirenist Shipmate
    And one of the escorts is provided by the US Navy. I hope we have enough sailors to man all the ships.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited March 17
    Isn't most of the Navy busily engaged in protecting the Happy British Fishes in our Sovereign Waters?
  • Eirenist wrote: »
    And one of the escorts is provided by the US Navy. I hope we have enough sailors to man all the ships.

    Narrator: They did not have enough sailors to man all the ships.
  • Well, now here's a surprise. A local small business that could thrive under the EU is being screwed by Brexit.

    https://www.banksidebeers.co.uk/
  • EigonEigon Shipmate
    It's very trivial in the grand scheme of things, but I wanted a wig for cosplay purposes, and the best choice was from a US firm - which no longer ships to the UK because of Brexit.
    And I don't really want a cheap and nasty version from China, which is just about the only other option.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    I don’t understand why something coming from the US would be affected by Brexit - weren't the liars Brexiteers always banging on about what wonderful trade we'd be able to do with America once we were "freed" from the EU?
  • Piglet wrote: »
    I don’t understand why something coming from the US would be affected by Brexit - weren't the liars Brexiteers always banging on about what wonderful trade we'd be able to do with America once we were "freed" from the EU?

    Generally it's the fee for VAT registration and associated paperwork that is impeding small businesses selling into the UK.
  • Fawkes CatFawkes Cat Shipmate
    Piglet wrote: »
    I don’t understand why something coming from the US would be affected by Brexit - weren't the liars Brexiteers always banging on about what wonderful trade we'd be able to do with America once we were "freed" from the EU?

    Generally it's the fee for VAT registration and associated paperwork that is impeding small businesses selling into the UK.

    And presumably you (as a trader outside the UK (or is it outside GB?)) now have to register separately for UK VAT: for an external trader this will be a nuisance (a) anyhow and (b) because the previous all-EU registration won't work any more.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Ah - that begins to make sense - thank you!
  • After much procrastination and diversion I have at last submitted my application for registration of an Irish birth abroad, eventually leading, I hope, to a passport. It seems there is now a huge backlog on account of the Brexit refugees. But that is all I am saying, or can say, about Brexit - still too angry.
  • My sister is doing the same for herself, our brother, and I.

    See you in Dublin!
  • Lucky sods
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited March 21
    Well, if and when it happens...my sister is doing all the work, but my brother and I (lazy gits, both of us) are supporting her in spirit, as it were.

    She had an appointment with a lawyer a couple of weeks ago, to sort out some of the paperwork, so I must give her a call and see how she's getting on. Some of the necessary documentation relating to our Ma is proving difficult to obtain, AIUI.

    Still, I'm looking forward to my green passport, and a letter (or perhaps a poem) of welcome from President Higgins! Hopefully, before I die...
  • My sister is doing the same for herself, our brother, and I.

    See you in Dublin!

    I'll hold you to that!
  • Some of the necessary documentation relating to our Ma is proving difficult to obtain, AIUI.

    Is that a problem with the NI protocol? [/terrible pun]
  • I learned something new from the application process. I didn't know that the border is not recognized in the Republic, and the fact that my grandfather was born in Antrim is irrelevant, though of course, that was before Partition. I also learned that it really has to be worth the €278 to you if you want to go through with it. I felt it was. I sort of wish my mother were still alive so I could taunt her with it. Her opinion would be unprintable on a nice website like this.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited March 21
    A friend - who was born in Norn Iron - had no problem in getting his Irish citizenship. He reckoned that the 278 Euros were well spent.

    ADAIK, he has no intention of moving to Ireland, but simply wants to continue to be a European...

    A perhaps unforeseen effect of Brexit seems to be the odd desire, on the part of numerous citizens of this country, to be counted as citizens of somewhere else.
    Some of the necessary documentation relating to our Ma is proving difficult to obtain, AIUI.

    Is that a problem with the NI protocol? [/terrible pun]

    No, but you're right about the terrible pun...
    :naughty:
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Still, I'm looking forward to my green passport,
    .

    It'll be proper European maroon - albeit with Irish stuff on the front. And 278€? Bloody Hell I didn't pay anything like that - mind you, I got in before the rush.

  • Sadly, I can't quite qualify for Irish citizenship. My great grandmother's parents were both Irish but they moved to Bristol a couple of years before gt grandmother was born.

    But the good news (for me) is that I now qualify to apply for Canadian citizenship. I'm giving it serious consideration.
  • la vie en rougela vie en rouge Circus Host, 8th Day Host
    edited March 21
    My maternal grandfather was Irish. This fact might be potentially useful to my Mum and brother, but it would be very complicated to apply because the papers have disappeared and trying to get them again would be a nightmare.

    In my case, it was much easier to become French. It cost me €55, plus about €150 in auxiliary fees for getting documents translated and taking a French language exam.
  • My maternal grandfather was Irish. This fact might be potentially useful to my Mum and brother, but it would be very complicated to apply because the papers have disappeared and trying to get them again would be a nightmare.

    In my case, it was much easier to become French. It cost me €55, plus about €150 in auxiliary fees for getting documents translated and taking a French language exam.

    Obtaining copies my grandfather's birth and marriage certificates from Ireland was quite straightforward and not costly, so it may be worth doing just for completeness of your own records. At €55, French citizenship sounds like a really good deal.
  • Firenze wrote: »
    Still, I'm looking forward to my green passport,
    .

    It'll be proper European maroon - albeit with Irish stuff on the front. And 278€? Bloody Hell I didn't pay anything like that - mind you, I got in before the rush.

    Yes, I know, but I sort of *see* it as green...
    My maternal grandfather was Irish. This fact might be potentially useful to my Mum and brother, but it would be very complicated to apply because the papers have disappeared and trying to get them again would be a nightmare.

    In my case, it was much easier to become French. It cost me €55, plus about €150 in auxiliary fees for getting documents translated and taking a French language exam.

    Same with my Irish ancestry, and AIUI my sister is having problems finding (or obtaining copies of) long-gone paperwork.
    :disappointed:
  • EirenistEirenist Shipmate
    Now Boris is proposing to lecture Continental leaders about avoiding a vax war. Perhaps he is forgetting that it takes two sides to start a war. He is already provoking dark suspicions of 'divide and rule' tactics in Brussels. One hesitates in this context to use metaphors about mending fences but the UK needs to sit down at a table with the EU and work out a modus vivendi (way of living together). Given that, wisely, no-one in Brussels trusts Boris an inch and the alternative is Lord Frost, this is going to be difficult, but it has to be done, and quickly.
  • Why is Bozzie the Bumblewimp bothering to lecture *Continentals*, when we are now *GLOBAL BRITAIN*?

    We can do without Johnny Foreigner just across the Sovereign Waters...
  • EirenistEirenist Shipmate
    Johnny Foreigner isn't going to go away, though. But as long as we have the Falklands and two large empty aircraft carriers, as you say, Bishp's Finger, who cares?
  • Eirenist wrote: »
    Johnny Foreigner isn't going to go away, though. But as long as we have the Falklands and two large empty aircraft carriers, as you say, Bishp's Finger, who cares?

    We have TWO aircraft carriers?
    :flushed:

    Who knew? World, here we come!
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host, 8th Day Host
    I’m not going to get a better excuse to post this Twitter exchange:
    Police Scotland: 'Please be advised that for the duration that the HMS Queen Elizabeth is visiting Glen Mallan, no aircraft are allowed to fly within three nautical miles of the ship and below 6,000ft within the three nautical mile radius.'

    Kerry Newton (and other similar tweets): 'Why is the Queen visiting anywhere during the pandemic?
    'Can I visit Aberdeen or Cheltenham?'

    UK Defence Journal: 'Are you a 65,000 tonne Royal Navy aircraft carrier?'
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited March 22
    :lol:

    Reminiscent of the apocryphal exchange between a British Lighthouse and an American aircraft carrier...

    The Lighthouse unaccountably refused to get out of the way of the Ship.
    :wink:
  • A no-fly zone around an aircraft carrier seems reasonable if you don't have any aircraft to land on it.
  • Did anyone notice the story of a lorry of migrants stopped by the police, with the traffickers profiting from the demand to get people out of the UK?
  • Eirenist wrote: »
    Johnny Foreigner isn't going to go away, though. But as long as we have the Falklands and two large empty aircraft carriers, as you say, Bishp's Finger, who cares?

    We have TWO aircraft carriers?
    :flushed:

    Who knew? World, here we come!

    The proper number is - of course - three. But procurement is a balance between affordability and the kinds of commands that the seniors had on their way up.
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