I agree with you but Farage is the wrong guy to hold accountable as he has not been part of the Government "negotiating" a Brexit deal, or responsible for action/inaction re Covid.
I maybe wrong but I thought they were allowing unaccompanied containers to cross, but nothing with drivers. The knock on effect, should things return to normal after 48 hours, is the impact it will have on fresh produce coming up from Spain. Although Spain celebrate 6th January as their main Christmas celebration, they do also celebrate Christmas Day itself, so will drivers put themselves at risk of being stranded in the UK, should the borders remain or close again after the 48 hour break, or just stop coming over?
Quotations from yesterday's Times. I like the Dad's Army reference although Mainwaring and his platoon would probably have done a better job than Johnson's inept crew.
Another Brexit bonus. Want to take a packed lunch on your journey abroad? If you manage to get a holiday in the EU next year unless Johnson does a deal you won’t be able to bring any animal products across the border, cheese, butter, meat, eggs, milk, canned, fresh or cooked. If you get stopped by French customs you could be fined and sent back then have a temporary ban. Great being a British third (world) country isn’t it
Not just holiday makers either. The same rules apply to lorry drivers crossing from England to France. No meat or dairy products, even if it’s to eat while driving. This is what’s known as being an independent sovereign nation. What a ****ing triumph.
Today's developments are suggestive to me that this is the beginning of the end for Boris. The journalist from the Mirror skewered him in the press conference this evening and none of the answers he gave addressed the questions that were being put to him. It will be interesting to see how things pan out over the next fortnight and who will be the first Tory to break ranks. I would not be surprised if we ultimately get to a situation where there is a vote of no confidence or even the 1922 Committee having a "quiet" word with Boris and telling him he needs to step aside. The likes of May and Hammond have kept their powder dry and I think that Javid will shortly be ready to pounce. If there was a referendum on Brexit today, I would anticipate that about 80% of the population would wish to remain. The government is not going to get the deal that was promised to people when they voted in the referendum. I understand the earlier comment regarding my remark about Farage being held to account and, to make it clear, I feel that Johnson is no less culpable. I find it very difficult to understand quite what the appeal is for anyone who votes Conservative. There seems to be absolutely no logic, their whole raison d'etre about supporting a free market has ultimately been smashed as a fallacy by the combined forces of Brexit and Covid. I hope the voters learn this lesson well by the time the next election comes around. We have long been used to the moral bankruptcy of the Tories yet the current administration is so inept you would hope that this will be the death-knell for this kind of right wing politics. If anything, the current crisis has demonstrated that the only answer to our woes is Socialism. People who rejected Jeremy in December last year should hold their heads in shame.
The real worry to me is, that this is exactly what a lot of the adherents to the cult of Brexit actually want; Britain - well, England and Wales really - cut off from the rest of the world, isolated, hunkered down, besieged. This new reality matches a kind of sickness of mind that has taken hold in the collective national psyche.
You are correct Archers. I’m a little shocked at how strong that feeling is and I’m not sure if it is me or them that is being naive.
I would like to know where all these people are who still think Brexit is a good idea. Even during the referendum, in the circles within which I move which is largely amongst construction professionals, very few people were in favour of leaving. This forum is predominantly against Brexit. Amongst my family, no one has expressed any opinion against the EU and that we would be better outside of it. If I ever encounter anyone either through work or socially who is in favour of quitting the EU, it is extremely rare. This was the case in 2016 and is almost certainly more so now. My opinion is that it must be geographically spread or amongst people much older than myself. I will be keen to see just how much attitudes change and how quickly once the reality of Brexit takes hold. A lot of people will regret their decisions when they voted and they will no doubt argue that no one explained to them what the consequences would be - which is clearly ridiculous because the negative impacts were clearly stressed at the time. It was just that they were dismissed as "Project Fear" at a time when people had not fully appreciated that the effusive comments from Boris about the benefits would have no relationship with realty. Once we have an understanding of how disastrous Brexit as been, I think there needs to be a reckoning to establish whether those people advocating Brexit benefitted personally and whether they had either been grossly negligent in how they handled the data or willfully manipulated it. The other thought that crossed my mind was that if the likes of Scotland, Wales and Ireland were reluctant to leave the EU, why do they not make England leave the United Kingdom and then allow the UK to remain in Europe. Although the Welsh are supposed to have voted for Brexit, I wonder whether a sort of loose "Celtic Union" amongst Eire, NI, Wales and Scotland that remained in the EU would be to their advantage ? Given the difficulties in leaving the EU, would it be easier for England to leave the UK and leave the other countries we have compromised to their own devices? Not sure why no one ever appears to have asked this question.
More from the Good Law Project: So much, so very much, is wrong with the Government’s decision to contract with Abingdon Health. As we understand matters, Government gave, without competition, substantial public contracts to develop Covid-19 antibody tests to a company which had no tests, ignoring established operators. We believe these contracts were worth £85m but it’s proving hard to pin Government down. Government took a cut of the revenues from the tests, which didn’t do what they were supposed to, and Government has - there’s no polite way to put this - lied about what it did. The detail of those allegations is contained in our detailed grounds and my witness statement. They make for startling reading - and I encourage you to read them. But we want to focus here on what looks to me like Government’s stark attempt to rewrite history. The Government’s National Testing Strategy has five “pillars”. Pillar 3 is described as “Mass-antibody testing to help determine if people have immunity to coronavirus.” And Pillar 4 is “Surveillance testing to learn more about the disease and help develop new tests and treatments.” On 8 April 2020 Government put out a Press Release which stated: “A business consortium, UK Rapid Test Consortium (UK-RTC), including Oxford University, Abingdon Health, BBI Solutions and CIGA Healthcare has launched, in order to design and develop a new antibody test to determine whether people have developed immunity after contracting the virus.” Government then issued two “contract award notices” announcing spending with Abingdon. The first, giving a figure of £10.3m, was in respect of an award of 2 June 2020 and said: “Provision of components and materials for lateral flow test kits for Covid-19 for use as part of the UK Covid-19 Testing strategy in support of Pillar 3 – antibody testing.” The second, on 14 August, giving a figure of £75m, you can see here and it says: “Provision of lateral flow test kits for COVID-19 for use as part of the UK Covid-19 Testing strategy in support of Pillar 3 - antibody testing.” However, a Government press release of 6 October announcing the purchase of 1 million tests from Abingdon said: “British-made antibody testing kits will support nationwide surveillance studies to track the spread of COVID-19 in the population.” Which is pillar 4. The reasons for that after the event switcheroo are likely to be that the test was not as accurate as key Government advisors had previously indicated, a fact that was both anticipated, and which Government had sought to suppress. But here’s the bad bit. On 12 November 2020, Abingdon Health issued a press release which contained a statement from the Department for Health in the following terms: “This report shows these tests are approved for use in surveillance studies, which is what they were purchased for." “They were never intended for, and have never been issued for widespread public use and it is misleading and unnecessarily inflammatory to purposefully ignore this fact in the report.” It might be convenient to try and rewrite history. It might suit both Abingdon and Government to pretend that the tests purchased were not antibody tests under Pillar 3. It might spare both sides’ embarrassment. It might be convenient - but the facts show it isn’t true. As I say, please read our detailed grounds and my witness statement. This is by no means the only extraordinary feature of the Abingdon Health story. You can support our attempts to expose what really happened here. Thank you, Jolyon Maugham QC Director of Good Law Project Good Law Project is able to carry out its work thanks to donations from thousands of people. If you are in a position to do so, you can make a donation here: Donate 3 East Point High Street Seal Sevenoaks, TN15 0EG United Kingdom Privacy Policy Unsubscribe please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
I think we’re approximately the same age Ian. I’m 51. I have a peer group that is similar age 49-55 plus a 40 and 45 year old. Out of 9, three of us are remainers. We fall out over Brexit and usually because they get fed up with my terrier like questioning (moi? ) but that is because they refuse to answer any question or have a semi-emotionally intelligent conversation about it. I do have a 63 year old mate who is separate to the group and he is also a staunch Brexiteer The one phrase I picked up from here a week or so ago (Chilcs, I think said it) is, “Jingoistic Xenophobia “ and that for me is spot on. Sadly I am struggling to stay part of that particular group. One mate has already had enough.
Same here (lol we are twins after all). I am a remainer and 30% of my friends are/were leavers. Strangely my 63 year old mate who I go to football with was a leaver and we discussed it at length on the way to the match on Saturday and he has totally changed his mind. He feels lied to and betrayed as it isn't such a good idea after all. I did mentioned if he looked beyond the nationalistic claims back in 2016 and actually thought about it then we wouldn't be in this state now. He blames the government, I still balme the population and the media.
Ian - I have 3 golfing buddies (yes, surprisingly enough, I DO have friends!). 1 of them told me he voted Remain but is SO fed up with Barnier, Merkel and Macron and the whine attitude of the EU (his own words) that he wished he’d voted Leave abc cannot wait for “us” to get out. He’s older than me and relies on medication coming from the EU, but he will not listen to any arguments about supply chain issues etc as he says that’s “just the french being french” The other two are just totally ambivalent and, as they say, “Bored of Brexit” ..... They think I’m some kind of Wolfie Smith (youngsters - google it) character who is full of doom and gloom and can’t see any upside. They will NOT listen to any counter-arguments, so we’ve had to stop talking about it or our friendship will suffer. These are 65+ year old retired professionals who are intelligent but just swallow the crap from the mainstream media and think the BBC is ultra left wing. It’s scary. I don’t want to lose their friendship so I keep schtum - I’ve already lost a girlfriend due to her views on it, so I’ve learned to be quiet - which is a shame really, as I so want to say “I told you so ....” My view on the general opinion that it was the older generation who voted out, is that the lie of the £350 million a week going to the NHS swayed many (despite, if they’d looked behind the figures, it being blatantly untrue) and the general apathy of all those who didn’t vote (and who now, in my opinion, can have NO argument about what’s happening) caused it all.
