Brexit negotiations

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.

Fish and passports, that’s what the Brexit debate has been reduced to now. What a load of shit.

T.R.O.Y wrote:Fish and passports, that’s what the Brexit debate has been reduced to now. What a load of shit.

That's because there hasn't been a a proper debate about the bigger issues, and to some extent the economy, immigration and extant international commercial partnerships remain the elephants in the room - perhaps due to Brexit fatigue, or perhaps for political reasons.

However, taking control of our fishing waters is a pro-Brexit interest group's thing, so May's Government have to respond to that and passports are symbolic of nationalism and independence so both topics relate to the pro-Brexit core voter ideologies and are therefore getting attention.

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?)

My bold. Geezer from Guernsey sometime started the company.
On the subject of passports, they have been knocked up in Switzerland. Then the blanks are sent to countries for final detailing. The French got it because of the cost. The EU, yes we are still members, demand a sort of open bidding process from which the winning company is selected...unless you're France, Germany or Italy when you are allowed to stick your finger up at the rest of the EU and award the contract to your own firms.

Any cases of France Germany or Italy flouting the rules on a regular basis or are we just taking your word?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-43527924

No surprise given the people involved.

I read that 80% of De La Rue’s profits are made outside the UK, and they have produced passports for 40 other countries. What an outrage, bloody free markets hey?

Great article in the Sunday Times today pointing out that even after we leave the EU most of Britain's fish will still belong to Spain, Holland and Iceland because they have bought up more than half the quota assigned to Britain.

Perhaps a brexit fan could explain exactly how this is "taking back control".

Fuckin' Hell, are you still at it?

Get a fucking life you massive bellend, you're sucking the life out of this site. Even I can't be arsed posting anymore.

I never thought that I would see Wanderlust posting on the Daily Mail  

xmiles wrote:Great article in the Sunday Times today pointing out that even after we leave the EU most of Britain's fish will still belong to Spain, Holland and Iceland because they have bought up more than half the quota assigned to Britain.

Perhaps a brexit fan could explain exactly how this is "taking back control".

The worrying part in your comment is that for some reason the British allocation wasn't bought. Why is this, were they outbidded, or have the fishing fleets been reduced so much they couldn't put enough out to complete their allocation? Either way, its not good. Maybe there's another reason. Perhaps you know what it is XM, but have ignored it in your constant tirade against anything Tory, or Brexit.