Post-Brexit News and Discussions

[Time_Traveller]

UK ports threaten legal action after spending millions on 'white elephant' post-Brexit border control posts

Sunday 10 July 2022 06:10, UK

Ports across the country are threatening the government with legal action unless compensation is paid to cover the millions of pounds they've spent building new border control posts.

The posts, due to be up and running this month, were designed to carry out post-Brexit physical checks on imports of plant and animal products from the EU - a measure that was to come into force from 1 July.

But they may now never be used as planned.

At the end of April the government announced the controls would be put on hold until at least the end of next year amid concerns about the cost of living crisis.

Portsmouth is the UK's second busiest cross-Channel port, and every year a quarter of a million lorries pass through carrying goods to and from Europe.

https://news.sky.com/story/uk-ports-thr ... s-12648261

[Time_Traveller]

Brexit legacy is just the start of incoming PM’s problems as cost of living crisis spirals

Sun 10 Jul 2022 08.00 BST

Boris Johnson has left the Conservative party in policy la-la land. “Cakeism” has run riot – vast, incoherent ambitions detached from political, economic and business realities. Thus the aim is to be “Global Britain” but an ultra-hard Brexit ensures shrinking exports, falling inward investment, dwindling financial muscle and inevitably global retreat.

Britain is to be a high-wage, high-innovation economy but there is only one hi-tech company in the FTSE 100, and no strategy to add any more. We are to be a science superpower but there is little chance when we are excluded from the biggest transnational scientific organisation on earth – the EU Horizon programme. There are targets to level up Britain’s glaring geographical inequalities but with scant resources – with what little there is directed at Tory constituencies.

As the cost of living crisis intensifies, the government consistently offers too little, too late. A mid-ranking European power must collaborate with others to have leverage over any significant policy area: instead, rancour, rows and delusions of a capacity to go it alone dominate. There are commitments to fiscal responsibility while simultaneously advocating more spending and lower taxes. It is an intellectual black hole.

The incoming PM’s problems start with the legacy of Johnson’s Brexit – the unchallenged, sacred verity of Conservative politics. But this allegedly “oven-ready” deal paid no attention to the realities of the 21st-century economy, now dominated by products and services that compete on their knowledge content, resilience and compliance with the highest regulatory standards. To exclude ourselves from the EU single market, which sets the standards for the whole of the EU, is thus a ball and chain around Britain’s growth potential – and by menacing our exports worsens the deficit in our current balance of payments so that a sterling crisis is an ever-present risk.

Importantly, the attempt to shoehorn Northern Ireland back into the UK market and suspend its relationship with the EU by unilaterally rewriting the NI protocol had led to no new contracts being awarded in the EU Horizon programme, and to existing ones being cancelled. It is a self-defeating debacle.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... is-spirals

[Time_Traveller]

Post-Brexit visa rules a ‘disaster’ for arts, says Edinburgh festival director

Sun 10 Jul 2022 14.27 BST

The outgoing director of the Edinburgh International festival has called for the UK’s visa and exports rules to be greatly simplified to allow musicians and artists to travel overseas far more smoothly.

Fergus Linehan, who directs his last international festival next month, said the UK’s post-Brexit visa rules had been a “disaster” for the arts and for artists by stifling collaboration and making it harder for British artists to tour abroad.

In an interview with the Guardian, he urged the UK government to introduce visa-free travel for artists and solve the huge logistical problems affecting companies importing touring equipment into the UK.

He said it was “much more difficult” for Britons to get visas to work abroad than it was for overseas artists to visit the UK, and that freight costs were “crazy just now”. Europeans who once might have applied for British arts jobs were also more hesitant about visas and their right to stay, particularly if they had families, he said.

“Clearly, when musicians go to perform [in another country], they’re not going to set up home. That’s not what it’s about. So visa-free movement for people,” Linehan said. “We’re part of an ecosystem. The idea of discouraging collaboration is a disaster in our industry.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... l-director

[Time_Traveller]

UK’s Liz Truss was warned of blow to food sector under Australia and New Zealand trade deals

July 12, 2022

LONDON — Conservative leadership hopeful Liz Truss was given detailed warnings by her own officials in 2020 that post-Brexit trade pacts with Australia and New Zealand would shrink the country's farming and food sectors, newly obtained government figures reveal.

Data from the U.K.'s trade department — shared with POLITICO and prepared for both deals ahead of the launch of negotiations in 2020 — for the first time details the relative losses and gains expected for each part of the British economy before Truss, then-trade secretary and now running to replace Boris Johnson as U.K. prime minister, forged ahead with pacts that have proven highly controversial with farmers.

The disclosure has already sparked anger from the U.K.'s farming lobby, which has long argued the deals — held up as a key prize of Britain's freedom from the European Union — will hit its members hard, while campaigners argue it shows tighter scrutiny of those deals is needed.

"It’s simply infuriating that the government ploughed on in its negotiations while, as these own government department reports show, ministers knew that British agriculture was likely to be the most impacted sector, putting at risk hundreds of millions of pounds and thousands of jobs,” said Minette Batters, president of lobby group the National Farmers' Union.

The trade department said it does "not sign trade deals which do not work for U.K. producers and businesses."

https://www.politico.eu/article/liz-tru ... rade-deal/

[Time_Traveller]

UK approved fewer new drugs than EU and US in year after Brexit transition

Thu 14 Jul 2022 14.58 BST

The UK approved fewer new medicines than the EU and the US in 2021, the first year after the end of the Brexit transition period, researchers at Imperial College London have found.

Their analysis shows that only 35 new drugs were approved for use in the UK by the country’s medicines regulator last year, compared with 40 approvals in the EU and 52 in the US.

Members of the academic community warned that there could be negative knock-on effects for the UK’s role in scientific research and development (R&D).

Steve Bates, chief executive of the UK’s BioIndustry Association, said the Imperial analysis was a “wake-up call” for the UK, and stressed the need for the regulator to work closely with the NHS and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), which recommends whether drugs should be available on the NHS.

He said the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines had been fast, and the question was “How do we make that happen in other areas?”

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... transition

[Time_Traveller]

Green groups in last-ditch bid to block UK’s Australia trade deal

Mon 18 Jul 2022 15.49 BST

Environmental campaigners have launched a last-ditch legal bid to prevent or delay the UK’s trade deal with Australia, owing to concerns over its impacts on the climate and the natural world.

A group of seven environmental and farming organisations has filed a formal complaint alleging that the UK government breached international law in signing the deal, which they fear is about to pass into law without any further in-depth parliamentary scrutiny.

Opposition is also building within the House of Lords, with several peers telling the Guardian of their reservations that the trade deal could pass while the government is under a caretaker prime minister and parliament in the grips of the Conservative leadership contest.

The green groups – including WWF, Sustain, Green Alliance, Compassion in World Farming, the Soil Association, the Trade Justice Movement and the Tenant Farmers’ Association – have taken the legal action under the Aarhus convention, an international agreement that requires public consultation on decisions by the government or public sector that have an impact on the environment.

Their complaint could also have an impact on future trade deals, as the government could be told it must include more input from the UK public in future deals.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... eal-brexit

[Time_Traveller]

EU tourists could soon have to apply for ‘permission to travel’ before entering the UK

Updated: 21/07/2022 - 13:25

The UK is planning to implement “contactless” border crossings in UK airports from 2024, according to Home Secretary Priti Patel.

So what does this mean? It will allow some passengers to enter the country without using an electronic passport gate or speaking to a Border Force officer. Instead, they may have to upload a photo of themselves and submit it to the Home Office before they travel.

The scheme is intended to reduce queues at the border, “helping to speed up legitimate journeys to the UK”.

Travellers will undergo “pre-screening” says the government, allowing them to be “identified at the border using the latest technology.”

“As Home Secretary I have been focused on taking back control of our immigration system through my New Plan for Immigration,” Priti Patel said.

https://www.euronews.com/travel/2022/07 ... on-as-2023

[wjfox]

I've been following this poll for years now.

I just checked the latest result (14th July) and it's jumped to the highest ever percentage for "wrong" (53%). The percentage for "right" is now the lowest ever (35%).

The shift in public opinion is becoming really obvious now:

https://whatukthinks.org/eu/questions/i ... ve-the-eu/

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[Time_Traveller]

[wjfox]

[erowind]

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[wjfox]

[Time_Traveller]

[Time_Traveller]

[Time_Traveller]

UK to unilaterally continue suspending Northern Ireland border checks

Thu 15 Sep 2022 11.29 BST

The UK has made a unilateral decision to continue suspending border checks on farm produce and other goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain, a move likely to antagonise the EU but not provoke further action.

London notified Brussels of its decision on Thursday in its formal response to seven lawsuits brought by the EU over the alleged failure of the UK to comply with the Northern Ireland protocol.

The UK will also request that a full specialised committee on EU programmes, the official forum for Brexit implementation issues, takes place next week to discuss the ongoing exclusion of Britain from the flagship Horizon Europe science funds.

This could be read as a sign that further action will be announced next week with the potential for article 16 to be triggered, or an announcement that the UK is ready formally to re-enter talks.

A European commission spokesman said it needed time to consider the response. “We have received a reply from the UK. We will now analyse the reply before deciding on the next steps,” he said.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... der-checks

[Time_Traveller]

Government poised to scrap nature ‘Brexit bonus’ for farmers

Sat 24 Sep 2022 17.00 BST

The government is to scrap the “Brexit bonus” which would have paid farmers and landowners to enhance nature, in what wildlife groups are calling an “all-out attack” on the environment, the Observer can reveal.

Instead, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) sources disclosed, they are considering paying landowners a yearly set sum for each acre of land they own, which would be similar to the much-maligned EU basic payments scheme of the common agricultural policy.

The Environment Land Management Scheme (Elms), devised by the former environment secretary Michael Gove, was constructed to encourage farmers to create space for rare species including wading birds and dormice, as well as absorbing carbon to help England reach its net zero target. Pilot schemes have created rare habitats and brought back species including nightingales, beavers and white stork.

Now, landowners and land managers who have been were part of Elms have told the Observer that meetings with the government about their land have been removed from the diary as the scheme goes on pause.

Defra sources confirmed that Elms measures are under review and area-based payment is on the table.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... d-to-scrap

[Time_Traveller]

UK environment laws under threat in ‘deregulatory free-for-all’

Fri 23 Sep 2022 09.22 BST

Hundreds of Britain’s environmental laws covering water quality, sewage pollution, clean air, habitat protections and the use of pesticides are lined up for removal from UK law under a government bill.

Environmentalists accused Liz Truss’s government of reneging on a commitment made after Brexit to halt the decline of nature by 2030. They say the revoking of 570 environmental laws that were rolled over from EU law after Brexit amounts to a deregulatory free-for-all leaving the environment unprotected.

The RSPB said it was deeply concerned that the government was about to start a full-on attack on the laws that protect nature.

The bill laid before parliament outlines how 570 environmental laws, and hundreds more covering every government department, including transport, health and social care, working hours and other areas, are being lined up to be removed from UK law or rewritten. These include the habitat regulations that have been vital in the protection of places for wildlife in the last 30 years and laws covering the release of nitrates and phosphates into rivers.

The laws were retained after Brexit when the then Conservative environment secretary, Michael Gove, promised the UK’s environmental laws would not be watered down.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... ee-for-all

[wjfox]