Post-Brexit fallout - we can't have our cake or eat it

[paruses]

Speaking of unpleasant and untimely deaths, apparently, two days ago, the Faragist Brexiteer ex-MEP for South East England, Robert Rowland, died in a diving accident at his home in the Bahamas.


_{Happier times}

I like how the rising seas killed him just because I like irony.

[JamesTC]

The irony of his corpse decarbonising as he decomposes.

[Paul Calf]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-55788542

Nigel Farage paid tribute to the "larger than life character"[nb]Cunt[/nb] and "enthusiastic" Brexit supporter[nb]Cunt and/or racist[/nb].

[jobotic]

He didn't even get to see employment rights abolished, or the sea devoid of life. Poor man.

I hope Sir Jim Ratcliffe doesn't have a stroke before trade unions are made illegal.

[NoSleep]

He didn't even get to see employment rights abolished, or the sea devoid of life. Poor man.

I guess he was taking a closer look for himself when he died. Maybe his last thought was "job done".

[dissolute ocelot]

Wow, according to Wikipedia, Rowland formerly worked for George Soros's fund management firm. Illuminati conspirator!

Also

On 9 July 2019, Rowland's Twitter activities received national attention when he tweeted at David Lammy, MP: "Lammy, you're[nb]sic[/nb] first port of call should be the Chicago School of Economics. Complete 3 years and then you might understand 10% of what we all understand. Ignorance and race baiting is your signature tune." Twitter users said that the Chicago School of Economics is not an actual university, but a school of thought; and that American degrees would in any case require 4 years, not 3. David Lammy also said that he had, in fact, attended Harvard University.

But fuck Wikipedia for this verbing: "Rowland schooled at Sedbergh in Cumbria".

[paruses]

I wonder where he Christmased.

[Fambo Number Mive]

He was so proud of Brexit Britain he stayed in the Bahamas.

[jobotic]

I wonder where he Christmased.

I know where he drownsed

[Buelligan]

Yep, the Bahamas - I wonder if he noticed this -


_{Nothing abnormal here}

[Fambo Number Mive]

Mastercard is to raise the fees it charges merchants when UK cardholders buy goods and services from the EU by fivefold - from 0.3% to 1.5%

Mastercard has said that is because of Brexit.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55796426

[SpiderChrist]

Mastercard is to raise the fees it charges merchants when UK cardholders buy goods and services from the EU by fivefold - from 0.3% to 1.5%

Mastercard has said that is because of Brexit.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55796426

Journalist on World At One described it as "a small increase".

[olliebean]

Mastercard is to raise the fees it charges merchants when UK cardholders buy goods and services from the EU by fivefold - from 0.3% to 1.5%

Mastercard has said that is because of Brexit.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55796426

"Because of Brexit" meaning because the EU cap on the fees no longer applies to UK cardholders. i.e., "Because we want to, and thanks to Brexit, we can."

[paruses]

Any idea if the ban on the surcharge for paying by credit card was an EU or UK instigation? Either way I would imagine it will be back soon enough.

[monkfromhavana]

I can't help thinking that the home advice to set up companies in the EU (and thus pay tax there) is the first step to making the UK a tax haven. Small companies go bust (no tax), middle-sized companies set up in Europe, rich people avoid tax = no tax on business being collected, might as well just abolish it. NHS etc. take a hit because of lack of revenue, sold to the highest bidder, job done.

[pigamus]

Yeah, the idea is to turn us into Singapore, supposedly.

[Gurke and Hare]

Any idea if the ban on the surcharge for paying by credit card was an EU or UK instigation? Either way I would imagine it will be back soon enough.

It was an EU directive, that the Tories claimed credit for. FWIW, if they do reverse it I'm sure someone will have kept the receipts of them claiming it was their idea.

[Paul Calf]

Yeah, the idea is to turn us into Singapore, supposedly.

Nearly a third of the population of Singapore are non-citizens. All but a very small number are 'non-native Singapore'. If Britain is to be Singapore-in-the-rain, that implies a sharp rise in immigration.

[Paul Calf]

Just over three million of the 5.7 million residents of Singapore are ethnic Chinese, many of whom were obviously born there. That's 52 percent. Other ethnic groups comprise Malay (545,500) and Indian (362,270). Ethnic Singaporeans don't even get their own category.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/622748/singapore-resident-population-by-ethnic-group/

Just wondering if anyone's told Farage about this?

[buttgammon]

Not a lot of freeze peach in Singapore either, unless you're a fan of corporal punishment.

[Sherringford Hovis]

Come on Northern Ireland, build a fucking jelly factory.

I, for one, welcome our new feline overlords. Sort it out, barry.

Great Kitten. United Kittendom. The sun never sets on the Kittish Empire.

[bgmnts]

I can't help thinking that the home advice to set up companies in the EU (and thus pay tax there) is the first step to making the UK a tax haven. Small companies go bust (no tax), middle-sized companies set up in Europe, rich people avoid tax = no tax on business being collected, might as well just abolish it. NHS etc. take a hit because of lack of revenue, sold to the highest bidder, job done.

I think covid confirmed us once and for all that tories actively want to destroy small to medium enterprises. Which I suppose will at least force us back into the age of monopolies as we say goodbye to capitalism.

[paruses]

Further to my question of how (lack of) pro-Brexit stories are being handled it seems that Covid is being used to distract from the UK's very obvious suicide attempt. Push notification of a Telegraph article - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/27/finally-country-seeing-eu-nasty-vindictive-nationalistic/

Fortunately I can only see the first few lines but it is Farage (whatever happened to that guy?) saying how the other MEPs hated him because he told it like it is. I assume the point of the article is to confirm that this inevitable business shit-show is because of them and not a basic error in understanding how international trade works (on the part of voters) and a long game big business coup (on the part of the orchestrators) .

None of this is a surprise and it's only the start of many similar lines I would think.

[olliebean]

Frankly I'd think considerably less of them if they didn't hate Farage.

[Huxleys Babkins]

Can't believe the EU aren't prepared to break their own laws to help the country that literally told them to shove their help up their arse.

[frajer]

Frankly I'd think considerably less of them if they didn't hate Farage.

He is an excellent Litmus test for cuntitude.

[Paul Calf]

Further to my question of how (lack of) pro-Brexit stories are being handled it seems that Covid is being used to distract from the UK's very obvious suicide attempt. Push notification of a Telegraph article - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/27/finally-country-seeing-eu-nasty-vindictive-nationalistic/

Fortunately I can only see the first few lines but it is Farage (whatever happened to that guy?) saying how the other MEPs hated him because he told it like it is. I assume the point of the article is to confirm that this inevitable business shit-show is because of them and not a basic error in understanding how international trade works (on the part of voters) and a long game big business coup (on the part of the orchestrators) .

None of this is a surprise and it's only the start of many similar lines I would think.

Finally, the country is seeing the EU for what it is: nasty, vindictive and nationalistic

In threatening Britain, the EU has shown its true colours

27 January 2021 • 10:48am
Nigel Farage

Spoiler alert

During the 20 years that I spent attending the European Parliament, I often found it to be a lonely place. I would launch attack after attack on the very concept of the European Commission, the executive branch of the EU, and for this I received complaints, cold shoulders, and sometimes abuse. Why? Because I was just about the only MEP who was willing to take a stand against this rotten system.

What used to enrage those on the Brussels payroll was my pointing out that the Commission was stuffed full of unelected politicians who had – at best – patchy records in domestic politics but who suddenly wielded significant power over 500 million people. The EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides, is a case in point. Her recent pronouncement that Covid-19 vaccines should not be exported outside the EU without official permission tells you all you need to know about the way the bloc does business.

When Boris Johnson's government decided that Britain would leave the European Medicines Agency in 2020, and that this country would therefore make its own public health decisions in future, there was a chorus of disapproval from the usual Remainer suspects. They claimed that anti-EU dogma would endanger the lives of Britons. So isn't it fascinating to see how different the reality is? Brexit Britain was the first western nation to approve the Pfizer vaccine for use, with substantial orders placed some time ago. True, much of the British government's handling of the pandemic has been erratic to say the least, but the fact that 10 per cent of the UK population has received the first Covid vaccine to date is praiseworthy. It goes to show how fleet of foot our nation can be now that it is free of the EU's shackles. 

Compare this with the EU's 27 states. After a considerable amount of dithering and delay that is so characteristic of bureaucratic machines like the European Commission, the EU is now trying desperately to catch up. Germany has managed just 2.1 doses per 100, the EU average is 1.9 and it's 1.7 in France. Other member states, such as the Netherlands and Sweden, are lagging further behind. Judging by Germany's seething tabloid press, and the nightly riots in Dutch cities, EU citizens are not happy with their overlords. More dangerous still from the perspective of Brussels is that political instability in Italy may force a general election there this year. Italy's Eurosceptic Lega Party is likely to do very well in any such election, and this will almost certainly put the European Commission under further pressure. To make matters worse, the European Commission was told last week by the drug company Astrazeneca that it would cut the supply of its vaccine to the EU by 60 per cent after production delays at its factory in Belgium.

It was against this tense backdrop that the virtually unknown Ms Kyriakides, a Cypriot psychologist turned politician, instructed Pfizer that the EU must be told before more jabs go to Britain. Her statement was designed to show the EU's people that their big brother in Brussels will look after them. By making what amounts to a nationalist decree that no exports to third countries will be allowed without prior approval, she may have gone some way to achieving her aim. Be in no doubt, however, that at the front of her mind was the relative success of the United Kingdom and the 3.5m vaccine doses that will shortly be delivered here that have been manufactured in Belgium. The fact that Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said that Britain is willing to help other EU countries tackle the Covid crisis appears to be of no consequence.

In her approval hearings to become a Commissioner, Kyriakides called for a uniform EU approach to vaccine distribution, as opposed to a national one. With the UK having made a successful national decision, something had to be said, of course. But by making a direct threat to the United Kingdom, this Commissioner has done more than any other to show the nasty, vindictive and nationalistic side of the EU. Everyone can now see its true colours.

This acts as a brilliant justification of our country's decision in 2016 to quit the EU. As I've said before, there are bad people in this bad organisation who are intent on building a new European Empire whatever the cost. But I believe it is high time that the British government went further and stopped chirruping its charming narrative that the EU is a good institution to which the UK happened not to be suited. If this crisis has taught us anything, it is that the best decisions are taken by national governments acting in their national interest. It is for this reason that I say Europe must leave the European Union. All of us who believe that the best decisions are taken by national governments which are directly accountable to their electorates need to make this crystal clear. With lives at stake, is it not our duty to do so?

[close]

Spoilered for people who don't want to read a single word written by this frog-faced Nazi cunt.

[sirhenry]

So the EU is nasty, vindictive and nationalistic because a commissioner wanted the vaccine to be distributed equally between all countries of the EU? How vindictive and nationalistic of her![nb]for no definition of 'nationalistic' ever.[/nb]

[NoSleep]

They were being "nationalist" against the nation(s?) of the United Kingdom[nb]Great Britain?[nb]England?[nb]London?[/nb][/nb][/nb].

[Cuellar]

Delighted to find out Nigel doesn't like nationalism.