Impact of no-deal Brexit on grocery prices

[mike]

To follow on from that, had we still been members and done a unilateral procurement, as members of the single market, the EU would not have been able to prevent the vaccines crossing internal borders.

Combined with our total access to world's biggest trading market, veto, rebate, ability to not have to join single currency, EU armed forces and tax harmonisation, we really did have our cake and were eating it like Orinoco womble.

[mike]

An interview with Philip Hammond is interesting reading, he says that Theresa May had no idea what Brexit meant, hence her famous quote, but was just desperate to lead the loony party members.
Which is why instead of respecting the referendum and going for the lightest touch Brexit, she went the full ERG.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... rexit.html

(In my defence, I believe you should read a wide range of sources)

[pabenny]

Agree about a wide range of sources but there is never any excuse for that 'newspaper'.

[blythburgh]

Agree about a wide range of sources but there is never any excuse for that 'newspaper'.

And now Johnson wants to make the former editor, Paul Dacre, head of Ofcom. Dacre was one of the worst offenders when it came to twisting stories to make the EU and foreign workers our enemy

[Sarah]

Shameless hard-right channel 'GB News' also just announced a carriage deal for all the major UK broadcasting platforms. Yet another nail in the coffin of UK democracy; things look set to only get worse for years to come.

[Sarah]

As reported in The Observer today, exports from the UK to the EU fell by 68% last month.

“But: sovereignty” – why the question needs to keep on being asked of Brexit as to how any of this is worthwhile

Even on the one topic on which the current government has struck lucky – and that was more by chance than design – it was possible under European Union law for the United Kingdom to procure the AstraZeneca vaccine on its own terms.

And, indeed at the time, the United Kingdom was still subject to European Union law under the transition arrangements.

No assertions – however loud – about Brexit in practice being justified by ‘sovereignty’ in principle add up with a moment’s thought.

Not one incident of Brexit so far has shown any value of Brexit as an exercise in regaining ‘sovereignty’.

And this is not so much because Brexiters are wrong to prioritise sovereignty above everything else – but because none of this is really about sovereignty in the first place.

And so the question needs to keep on being asked as to why any of this is worthwhile.

Because it is only by pressing this question that we can ascertain the real reasons for certain botched policies and decisions – and then once the real reasons are ascertained then something useful can be done to mitigate the disruption and damage.

For like some character in an ancient myth or a folklore tale, the United Kingdom has chosen to bring destruction upon itself in supposed pursuit of a thing it had already.

https://davidallengreen.com/2021/02/but ... orthwhile/

[sanity clause]

UK importers brace for 'disaster' as new Brexit customs checks loom.

Exporters badly hit already but KPMG says ‘biggest headaches’ have yet to come’ for importers.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... hecks-loom

Next to the damage done to the capital's financial sector, with billions of assets already moved overseas, this is one of the biggest and most damaging aspects of Brexit.

Anyone who has worked in the shipping industry will understand the implications of what is to come. A return to the days of increased documentation, Customs examinations etc is a major blow to the movement and cost of European imports/exports.

Shipping rates have already risen, with more to come. Import duties plus VAT on goods and shipping are also due.

Apart from the problems faced by shipping companies, HMRC have had to face department mergers, staff cutbacks and bigger workloads for decades. They are in no shape to deal with the coming problems.

I've not found much comment from HMRC. Perhaps, being a govt dept, they've been told not to. However, I did find this, from 2 years ago...

HMRC warns no-deal Brexit costs to run to billions

https://www.tax.org.uk/media-centre/blo ... n-billions

Businesses will have to complete 164 million new import declarations per year, up from the current 41 million
HMRC estimates this will cost £13 billion per annum in administrative costs. For exports, the similar figure could hit £8 billion.
New tariffs on UK trade with the EU could amount to £22 billion per year as the UK moves to World Trade Organisation (WTO) ‘Most Favoured Nation’ rules.
An estimated 27,000 small e-commerce companies will be obliged to set-up new EU VAT registrations.
Thousands of other businesses of all sizes will have to appoint expensive Fiscal Representatives on their existing foreign VAT registrations
EU states are still not clear on their plans to honour EU VAT reclaims from the UK.

Welcome back to the 1970's.

[Chadwick]

Surely there's a good news story somewhere?

A lot of people wanted this, so where are the news stories about admin departments delighted in the increased work that adds no value to their company?

"Now we've got our sovereignty back, we can add a full day to our delivery times and increase the cost!"

"Our drivers used to complain they rushed straight through Kent, the Garden of England. Now they've got plenty of time to wander round the docks or up the M20 while they wait in the queue."

"We love getting a permit to enter Kent for every trip - that's something we couldn't do under the EU dictatorship."

"We hated the fact that so much of our product was being sold abroad. Now it finally makes sense to halve our output and sell just to British people who didn't want our product before Brexit."

So many positive angles, yet so little coverage of the benefits of Brexit.

[blythburgh]

Love this cartoon: https://scontent.flhr3-1.fna.fbcdn.net/ ... e=6046F3FB

[sanity clause]

Yet more revenue loss...

London Finance Takes Another Hit as Carbon Market Goes to EU

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... oves-to-eu

Intercontinental Exchange Inc. plans to move its 1 billion-euro ($1.2 billion) daily market for European carbon emissions contracts to the Netherlands from London in a blow to the U.K.’s attempts to build a green finance powerhouse after Brexit.

https://www.cityam.com/london-loses-car ... t-to-city/

More than €6bn a day of euro-denominated share trading has already left London for Amsterdam and Paris, along with some trading in derivatives such as interest rate swaps.