Brexit negotiations

xmiles wrote:

gloswhite wrote:

xmiles wrote:

gloswhite wrote:What, like the EU, you mean ?

So who are these allies that have "come out in support"?

No answer necessary for this one is there ? Just look at the news on the TV

I think you will find that France and Germany are in the EU.

Very astute XM, but they are not offering support as part of the EU, are they ?
In fact it was shown on the TV, that one of the other countries said, (about a week after the event), that it wasn't right that the EU hadn't discussed it at that time.

There’s also been plenty on television suggesting Putin sees the Uk as weaker after Brexit. And thus an easier target. 

All speculation of course as we cannot even confirm if the Kremlin was behind the attack. Worthy of consideration though nonetheless.

T.R.O.Y wrote:All speculation of course as we cannot even confirm if the Kremlin was behind the attack. Worthy of consideration though nonetheless.

Sure but Russia had the means, the motive and the track record.
As Mayday concluded, if they didn't do it, who did the Russians supply with their nerve agent?

I’m sure it was the Russians, but we cannot say categorically either way.

Provisional Brexit transition arrangements agreed with the EU - but no details given and still a bit of work to do on borders/Gibraltar etc.

wanderlust wrote:Provisional Brexit transition arrangements agreed with the EU - but no details given and still a bit of work to do on borders/Gibraltar etc.

Lets be honest, its about bloody time something happened. The EU have had such a tight hold on the negotiations, that its only time that has forced them to actually concede something. Having said that, the wagon is still rolling, albeit very slowly.

Hilarious! The new (old style blue) British passports which will be issued after Brexit will be manufactured in France. 

Couldn't make it up 

I assume everyone's aware of the Brexit deal regarding UK fishing waters? 

After his attention-seeking stunt throwing dead fish in the Thames, Nigel Farage gets absolutely rinsed in the EU Parliament for being a member of the Fisheries Committee - and failing to attend any of the meetings - whilst receiving a salary for it.

wanderlust wrote:I assume everyone's aware of the Brexit deal regarding UK fishing waters? 

After his attention-seeking stunt throwing dead fish in the Thames, Nigel Farage gets absolutely rinsed in the EU Parliament for being a member of the Fisheries Committee - and failing to attend any of the meetings - whilst receiving a salary for it.

Hoisted by his own petard!

wanderlust wrote:Hilarious! The new (old style blue) British passports which will be issued after Brexit will be manufactured in France. 

Couldn't make it up 

Have a look at the headline on today's Daily Mail for another laugh. Even by their barking mad standards it is a classic! They are outraged that we are not spending £100-200m extra by giving the contract to a British firm.

xmiles wrote:

wanderlust wrote:Hilarious! The new (old style blue) British passports which will be issued after Brexit will be manufactured in France. 

Couldn't make it up 

Have a look at the headline on today's Daily Mail for another laugh. Even by their barking mad standards it is a classic! They are outraged that we are not spending £100-200m extra by giving the contract to a British firm.

On the face of it, it does look stupid. Then you look behind the headlines and hear their management say that up to 200 people could lose their jobs. 
What makes me wonder is that the British company is call 'De la Rue'. (does it not also have French connections somewhere down the line, I wonder?)

gloswhite wrote:

xmiles wrote:

wanderlust wrote:Hilarious! The new (old style blue) British passports which will be issued after Brexit will be manufactured in France. 

Couldn't make it up 

Have a look at the headline on today's Daily Mail for another laugh. Even by their barking mad standards it is a classic! They are outraged that we are not spending £100-200m extra by giving the contract to a British firm.

On the face of it, it does look stupid. Then you look behind the headlines and hear their management say that up to 200 people could lose their jobs. 
What makes me wonder is that the British company is call 'De la Rue'. (does it not also have French connections somewhere down the line, I wonder?)

There are going to be a lot more than 200 people losing their jobs because of deals like this. The Government is going to have to cut costs and a lot of deals like this will happen. Isn’t that what was voted for though, the UK being able to make its own decision as to who it deals with ? I wonder how many at that Company voted leave ? I read somewhere this morning that the name of the Company comes from some old Cornish name, which would be ironic being that Cornwall had one of the highest percentages of leave votes in the referendum.

I reckon we're going to see lots of tales like this, purely because our way of living, trade, etc, is so interwoven with that of Europe. Its ironic that the government followed the rules regarding purchases, etc, and the order ends up with a Foreign company. Tells me that the rules themselves aren't in our favour, even with our own companies. so maybe opting out is the better option. (I'm expecting a riposte from XM now

I'm still laughing at Farage.

gloswhite wrote:I reckon we're going to see lots of tales like this, purely because our way of living, trade, etc, is so interwoven with that of Europe. Its ironic that the government followed the rules regarding purchases, etc, and the order ends up with a Foreign company. Tells me that the rules themselves aren't in our favour, even with our own companies. so maybe opting out is the better option. (I'm expecting a riposte from XM now

Well I won't disappoint you glos! All that is happening is that the contract is being placed with the cheapest supplier. Nothing odd about that. Surely that is how competition is meant to work.

Apparently the Lords are reviewing the passport contract today, however it will probably take a year or two to define "taking back control" before any decision can be made. 

I'm presuming the contract was issued under OJEU procurement measures which allows firms in any country in the EU to bid for any Government work in any EU country i.e. free trade. Historically, major British firms have made a killing under these regulations, but we're stuck with e.g. French Energy companies as the quid pro quo. Disentangling the international private sector joint ventures and alliances that were painstakingly set up over many years to take advantage of EU procurement law is going to be interesting and opens the door even further for British employers moving to mainland Europe.

XM, The point I'm making is that we do follow the rules, , and were losing out. I, for one, cannot see the French, or Germans adhering so fastidiously to the rules when it comes to preserving their own key businesses, or reputation. As things are, we will always lose out, because were the 'nice guys' when it comes to rules, and do stupid things like give away the production of the iconic British passport, to a foreign company.

The fact is it’s a free market and as such if another country can produce at a lower rate than we can that’s just capitalism. Nothing to do with being ‘the nice guys’, we export to the EU too, it works both ways. Clearly we don’t ‘always lose out’ we’ve flourished as an economy in the EU.

gloswhite wrote:XM, The point I'm making is that we do follow the rules, , and were losing out. I, for one, cannot see the French, or Germans adhering so fastidiously to the rules when it comes to preserving their own key businesses, or reputation. As things are, we will always lose out, because were the 'nice guys' when it comes to rules, and do stupid things like give away the production of the iconic British passport, to a foreign company.

Perhaps we do follow the rules more closely than other countries but a large element of this perception is caused by the lies of the anti EU press in this country. Remember for example the alleged EU plans to outlaw bent bananas, prawn cocktail crisps, double decker buses, rename Bombay mix, call fish by their latin names, etc, etc. All these and more received extensive coverage in the Sun, Mail and Telegraph.

Of course if we didn't waste money pointlessly changing the colour of our passports we wouldn't be giving the work to a foreign company.

On the subject of passports this article is worth reading for factual information:

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiqzpypsYPaAhWCPhQKHSW3B2UQFggpMAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FPassports_of_the_European_Union&usg=AOvVaw02VxXsvdcToJj4QUBYwCwB

EU passports are not all the same, not even the same colour! The UK Government voluntarily changed the colour of the passport in 1988 - it was not required to do so by the EU. Only British and Irish passports are not obliged by EU law to contain fingerprint information in their chip.