Purgatory: Brexit V - The Final Reckoning?
lowlands_boy
Shipmate
The thread "Brexit IV; do or die in a ditch?" doesn't seem to have had any posts since October 3rd and has sunk to the 3rd page. On the one hand, that's not surprising as the US elections seem to have been quite important, as has the whole Covid business. On the other, it is quite surprising as we're getting pretty close to the business end of proceedings now, and last night Boris discussed fish over fish that apparently didn't end very well. Seemingly there's an English Channel's worth of gap between the UK and the EU.
The EU have set out some plans if all else fails, and apparently the latest and greatest final date is this coming Sunday 13th December.
So, is it the final reckoning?
The EU have set out some plans if all else fails, and apparently the latest and greatest final date is this coming Sunday 13th December.
So, is it the final reckoning?
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Will it be alright on the night? No idea. I've no faith.
We'd best all make a donation to The Ship so we can keep discussing the latest then.
Of course in all seriousness there is an apparently insurmountable deadline at the end of this year when there will be the big change from the transition period to what looks like no deal - at least for the time being. Something else might happen years down the line, but it's not looking very healthy for the short term.
We’ll need a change of government first.
"Right then, let's call a halt to these deadlocked 'talks' as we can see it's going nowhere. We'll manage with our massive population and market and internal argreements on trade and everything else. It'll cost us but nowhere near as much as it'll cost the UK. We'll have all the borders, delays, tarriffs, visas and costs resulting from your decision to leave us (with no attempt to discuss or understand the consequences of leaving). We'll allow current student courses to conclude under current terms and we'll be ready to talk again in a year - if you ask us nicely.
Good Luck - you'll need it! "
The UK as eternal victim.
You could equally well say Either the UK leaders will act in the economic interests of everybody and agree that free trade requires a level playing field and agree a trade deal. Or they'll act in their own short term political interests, and claim that the only reason the UK can’t have the political and economic unicorn they promised is because of EU intransigence.
O frabjous day!
Not.
https://theguardian.com/politics/live/2020/dec/10/brexit-dominic-raab-eu-trade-deal-boris-johnson-covid-live-updates
Refusing to keep the roads and air routes open? They really want us to become self sufficient, don’t they!?
I'm not sure that *amusing* is quite the word that springs to mind...
I see that *England* is to relax EU safety rules as regards lorry-drivers' hours over the Christmas period, in order to minimise delays. Hauliers are not too keen on this, as safety is likely to be impaired, so watch out for tired truckers veering from lane to lane on the motorways of England.
One or two massive pile-ups are all that's needed to bring Kent to a standstill, at the best of times.
We really are descending into the maelstrom...
Hauliers will not be doing any more hours than they want to.
Unusual to read a bit of criticism of the EU on here
Performed by Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage
Nothing is so good it lasts eternally
Perfect situations must go wrong
But this has never yet prevented us
Wanting far too much
For far too long
Looking back
We could have played it differently
Won a few more moments
Who can tell
But it took time to understand them
Now at least we know
We know them well
Wasn't it good?
(Oh so good)
Wasn't it fine?
(Oh so fine)
Isn't it madness
It can't be mine?
But in the end
We needs a little bit
More than us
More security
We need our fantasy and freedom
We know them so well
No-one in your life is with you constantly
No-one is completely on your side
And though we'd move our world to be with them
Still the gap between us is too wide
Didn't we know?
How it would go
If we knew from the start
Why are we falling apart?
To be fair to the Brexiteers, the EU wouldn't discuss any possible future deal before the UK triggered article 50. To be fair to the EU, of course they bloody wouldn't.
UK-based hauliers have traditionally complained about trucks from certain EU countries being dangerous. I'd imagine the domestic hauliers' concern is more over tired foreign drivers being even more dangerous due to longer hours, and less over their own operations.
You miss the point. There will no doubt be pressure on haulage companies, and their drivers, to work longer - and therefore unsafe - hours.
This is a big issue here locally. Not far from here, next to the motorway, there are several companies specialising in delivering too and from the rest of Europe. They gather stuff at their yards, then the trucks set off in the evening when there's little traffic and thus fairly predictable journey times. The drivers can get to Dover within their limit of driving without an long break. Their trucks cross the Channel to be picked up by other drivers, and they pick up loads that have come the other way to drive back up the following night after they've had a sleep. Add even an hour to that journey time and the chances of them not being able to complete the drive increase dramatically and the whole business model they work on collapses, and the businesses will need to relocate further south - Carlisle, or maybe even into Lancashire if delays getting onto the ferry are too long.
As level playing fields are so important to the EU, I look forward to the EU agreeing to a level playing field with regards to agricultural products, ie, they remove farm subsidies and stop dumping cheap pork and frozen chips on our shores.
The restricted hours laid down by EU law (and to which this country subscribed) are there for a purpose.
Working lorry drivers longer is certainly one way to 'take back control', though it only works on one side of the channel. Incidentally, the lorry park currently doesn't have any permanent toilet facilities.
The law will be relaxed for those who don't cause accidents. Same as Emergency serrvices who speed and/or go through red traffic lights
The overflow in Kent -- it's also on a flood plain.
So not being able to see the future, we un-relax the law for those who cause an accident and prosecute them, leaving drivers who didn't cause an accident while driving long hours, unprosecuted? All fine, except for the victims of the accident.
I have a friend who has driven class 1 in Europe, in and outside the EU. I don't like his stories of 24hr non-stop trips with match-sticks under the eyelids. Do folks realise just how heavy 44 cubic m of water, are? And if they are travelling at 60mph, what a big deal that is and how hard it is to stop?
To give you a clue, at work today we scrapped a steel doughnut about 1m dia, 250mm wall thickeness and about 300mm deep. It weighed about 830kg. You're pulled up in traffic and a block of 50 of those things are advancing on you from the rear at 100kph. Do you want the driver to be awake?
Sorry I did not know I was in the presence of a legal expert. The decision to relax the law was not my decision and I do not support it. I don't know why you felt the need to include the last two paragraphs.
And with much greater substance to that than there is in Russ's post.
Right, so the last few posts where you were justifying it were just trolling then?
[as an aside, I've a friend from Japan who's a teacher, and he took up a job in Ireland in part so that he could cut his hours to a mere 70 per week. Japanese high school teaching - get to school to supervise the breakfast club because many parents leave home so early that's needed at 7am. Then teach through 'til 4pm. Then after school clubs and additional classes 'til 7pm. Home to do the teaching prep and marking. Then Saturdays and Sundays running 'voluntary' sports and other clubs most of the day. Add in holiday clubs and extra classes ...]
Why on earth are you thanking me.?
You frequently talk as if you think you have the right to not be disagreed with.
A moment's thought suggests that it is impossible to relax the law for drivers who don't cause accidents. It is only possible to relax the law for drivers who haven't caused accidents yet.
Emergency services have sirens to signal that they may override the law and that they take priority. Also, they don't get to override the law for several hours but only in emergencies.
So your statements are on the face of it highly implausible. Now, it may be that how things look on the face of it are deceiving and matters are in fact so. But as you have a track record of stating confidently and repeatedly things that you think you heard somebody (you don't remember who) say on the telly (you don't remember when), which nobody else can substantiate, you need to provide stronger evidence for your assertions before you can expect them to be taken seriously.
When do people do the things they actually want to do? I work to get money to do things I like; what would be the point if I had no time to do them?
How do people live like this? I'd go mad. No doubt some people would conclude I'm lazy, despicable and weak.
I've never been more grateful that I failed my teaching degree.
It's a vocation. At least, teaching is. I guess on the other hand, there are many people being abused on the minimum wage (or quite possibly less) who presumably do their job because otherwise they have no money at all. Rather than "less money for stuff they enjoy".
IANAL, but I used to drive Ambulances. I asked where you got this piece of information from. Please provide a link or citation.
I do a small amount of teaching, and would agree that it's something I enjoy, there's something about getting students to work through the subject so that they understand which is deeply satisfying. Hopefully the school will pass the environmental radioactivity course onto me when the current teacher retires and I can do more of that. But, I don't enjoy it enough for me to be satisfied if that was my full time job, and certainly not nearly double normal working hours.
It doesn't, but it's become a handy way to excuse treating people like dirt because they are doing something worthwhile.