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Brexit: give me a positive effect... XV

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EV, you don't have to tell us about sewage in Clacton, it's OK. But what did Maggy say? I'm on tenterhooks.
 
Oh, it's not very exciting, and unjustifiably frivolous.

"Rejoice, rejoice!"

In truth, of course, I've never felt that Brexit is something to rejoice, and I don't now. It was, and remains, a massive failure of diplomacy and political imagination, though unlike you, I see much of that failure through the prism of the EU itself. The hapless crook Borrell serves only to vindicate that view.
 
eternumviti said:
Oh, it's not very exciting, and unjustifiably frivolous.

"Rejoice, rejoice!"

In truth, of course, I've never felt that Brexit is something to rejoice, and I don't now. It was, and remains, a massive failure of diplomacy and political imagination, though unlike you, I see much of that failure through the prism of the EU itself. The hapless crook Borrell serves only to vindicate that view.
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It is important to indulge in these little joys, however small.
Regarding Borrell, your repeated focus on his crookedness (his insider trading offense, recommending to a friend to sell 9K€ worth of shares in a company where Borrell was a non-exec director; Borrell was fined 30 K€ by the market regulator) really misses the main point, which is that he does not seem very effective as the EU foreign affairs representative. But I would have thought you would welcome such ineffectiveness.
 
Yes, but getting caught telling a friend to dump 9K€ worth of shares is a minor aspect of his haplessness IMV.
 
Indeed it is. He was made to look a fool by Putin, and should really have been handed his P45 then.

You seem to go to great lengths to exonerate bent EU officials, PsB. Corruption is corruption, and this particular idiot is well beyond democratic oversight. Borrell was caught with his trousers down, found guilty, and as I remember, fined €30k. He thought it below him to even offer his resignation from the Spanish government, and the issue seemed to be no hindrance to him picking up the brief as EC Commissioner for Foreign Affairs on a tasty €22k a month basic, a job for which both he and the EC itself are patently unsuited.
 
Ah common EV clutching at straws. Mister Cox is showing the Spanish lad how to get real money and Putin laughing at anybody over corruption is the greatest oxymoron of all time. Corruption in politics has and will always exist. Brexit had nothing to do with cleaning up politics it is pointless using it to try and score a positive.
It merit mention in relation to the Tory party in the context of Britain because of the scale and the potential for it to get worse.

We had Charlie Haughey and a range of individuals that would make your eyes water. Still not a reason to leave the EU.
 
eternumviti said:
Indeed it is. He was made to look a fool by Putin, and should really have been handed his P45 then.

You seem to go to great lengths to exonerate bent EU officials, PsB. Corruption is corruption, and this particular idiot is well beyond democratic oversight. Borrell was caught with his trousers down, found guilty, and as I remember, fined €30k. He thought it below him to even offer his resignation from the Spanish government, and the issue seemed to be no hindrance to him picking up the brief as EC Commissioner for Foreign Affairs on a tasty €22k a month basic, a job for which both he and the EC itself are patently unsuited.
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You have made that claim a few times now, and I really don't. But I do occasionally try to provide some perspective vis-à-vis your more excitable ramblings about EU officials. IIRC, I specifically pointed out that Verhofstadt being a non-exec director of a very large Belgian financial holding company controlling a <1% share of a colossal French utilities company trying to make a small investment in Greece did not, per se, amount to corruption, contrary to your breathless claim. Nor was it necessary to explain Verhofstadt's position on the whole Greek crisis, which was in line with many (most?) other politicians' in Europe, even those without directorships in investment companies with utilities holdings.

You are at it again with Borrell, a fellow who, if I got the story right, was stupid enough to tell a friend 24 hours beforehand that the energy company in which said friend had a 9000€ investment was about to fold. He was caught, predictably, and fined fairly heavily (30,000 €). All good and normal: even though Borrell did not benefit personally (or did he in some way?), it was a remarkably stupid thing to do, and it is good to see the Spanish regulators enforcing their rules without fear or favour. Does this amount to high level corruption? I dunno. Compared to some other news items recently, it seems small beer to me.

I am mostly upset with Borrell for other reasons, as described above: lack of performance in his current job. I am fine with his salary, but for that money one expects top performance. I do worry about his judgment, and if your claim is that this insider trading episode is a sign of that lack of judgment then I would agree with you. If you claim that this should have disqualified him for his current position, I could perhaps agree with you, too. As a sign of institutional corruption in the EU, I don't find it persuasive.
 
eternumviti said:
I'm a 'small c' conservative. I also cannot abide excessive, illegitimate and unnecessary authority. I realise that currently leaves me somewhat homeless from a political point of view, but I suspect it places me as one amongst a majority of people, and certainly of traditional conservatives.
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Interesting parallel. That would pretty much describe my political views (inasmuch as I really have any), yet .. living in Ireland, I've considerably more faith in trusting the larger economic and legislative calls to the broader grouping in Europe, than trust in the local parish pump types who often dominate politics on this island.
 
TheDecameron said:
“Rishi Sunak unveils Brexit masterplan: EU rules ripped up to unleash finance explosion
RISHI SUNAK has set out his vision for ripping up bureaucratic EU rules to unleash the potential for the UK's financial services”.

(The Sexpress).
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UK’s Money Laundering Services?, polluting the waterways and beaches is just to get everyone used to the stench of corruption that’ll inevitably get worse.
 
What’ll happen to Baron Frosty once the organ grinder leaves Downing St? I imagine Sunak will need to get shot of him very quickly, his job after all is entirely about protecting Johnson. Also, what’s become of those two lusty Brexit champions Govid and Private Francois- do they have their fingers in other pies at the moment?
 
You do realise with what’s going on right now, that Johnson and his porcine negotiator starting a trade war with Europe would be an act of madness. You can smell the petrol fumes in Northern Ireland but it’s not going to stop there.
 
Never mind we are becoming such an attractive option for tourism and education.....

"The UK's exit from the EU was always going to cause upheaval in the travel industry -- not least because Europeans are the second most valuable market for inbound tourism after Americans. Since October 1, EU citizens can no longer travel to the UK on their ID cards; instead, they must use passports. "That's enormously important," says Tom Jenkins, who says that around three quarters of Europeans don't have passports, since they can travel around Europe with their ID cards.

"For a family of four, the logistical and cost implications of traveling to the UK become really prohibitive. It affects school trips too -- if some kids don't have European passports, before they'd have used ID cards, but now they'd need a visa. It means schools will either have to exclude kids on grounds of ethnicity -- or they won't bother coming to the UK and we'll see a genuine drop in visitors." Janson calls it a "total disaster" for school groups and students, saying that it would "go against equality rules" to take some kids to the UK and leave others behind.

"There's a whole industry of English language schools based on student groups coming over for six weeks -- they spend a couple of weeks learning English and then take cultural trips," he says. "They get an immersive experience in English language and UK culture, and it's worth about £1.5 billion per year, just from European students alone."

Now, he says, European groups are picking Ireland and Malta over the UK, as they have English language schools, but not the red tape. According to English UK, the first year of the pandemic saw an 83.6% drop in students."

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/uk-tourism-decline-restrictions-cmd/index.html

So "taking back control"* much more effective at keeping out tourism and students than desperate people risking their lives in the channel (well up on pre-Brexit levels). The effect of the Pandemic has to be balanced by looking at the highly restricted 2020 v 2021 - which is actually even worse, part of the reason being the UK's failures to deal, or even look as if they are serious about dealing with anything beyond vaccinations. Even there we are now well down the list after having a better start.

* EU's fault that we can't control our Brexit borders natch.
 
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