UKC

Yeah, I know, I thought things were going to be really difficult - delays at ports, shortages on shelves, that sort of thing. Not a bit of it!

It does help, though, that HMG seems to have - well, sort of cancelled Brexit without telling anyone. So we're not checking goods going to Ireland - because we can't, because we didn't do any planning - but that's OK because we're not checking any goods coming in from the EU either because ... we can't be a*sed. God knows what's in the lorries coming across the Channel right now, or where they've come from, or what they are full of, becaause the French won't be checking and we aren't either.

There aren't any holdups at the ports because we're not checking incoming goods, and the lorries going to the EU are empty. All that's happening at the moment is otherwise unemployable scum like Lord Frost are whining that it isn't easy, insulting our closest partners at every opportunity and squandering any remaining vestiges of good will and respect that we may once have enjoyed. 

In reply to Rob Exile Ward:

it's ironic isn't it, that we brexited in order to "take back control of our borders" but are unable to do so several months down the line, whereas the EU were able to secure theirs (other than with regards to our failure to implement our side of the agreement on northern Ireland) from day one.

In reply to Ciro:

Surely not, Frosty assured us that the UK was totally ready and perfectly capable of controlling our borders. We've just decided not to, out of the goodness of our hearts, probably out of pity for all those EU exporters who wouldn't be able to cope with the awesomeness of our world-beating border control posts. Or something. The fact that they haven't been built and are still holes in the ground is merely a coincidence.

In reply to Rob Exile Ward:

I'm still at odds with the mention of no hold ups at ports etc. The media keeps saying the import of goods has not been affected, yet I know of several business orders that have been delayed or cancelled. 

Also my regular commute involves the M20 and the A12, along the two main roads for road transport from the EU. Before Christmas and all last year the roads were packed with foreign plated lorries.

Post Christmas they were practically empty and are still much quieter than last year or any year previous.

Lorries going to the EU are very few and far between, the special lanes for them on the m20 are regularly empty when I travel down it. 

In reply to Rob Exile Ward:

Regarding borders, I think a lot of the general public thought that "taking control of our borders", was easily achieved.  It is - in theory!!±    Unfortunately every border has two sides.  Yours and theirs.  So unless they agree to your terms then you're stuck - you just can't dictate your own terms on someone who doesn't want them.

No one told us this when we left.

In reply to artif:

Well I had 3 pallets leave Florence last Thursday and in my warehouse Tuesday at 10am. 

Today's lie in relation to this is Gove blaming Covid for the problems rather than the fact their rushed through deal is rubbish. 

In reply to J1234:

Just out of interest are those timings similar to last year?

In reply to Rob Exile Ward:

Jeez.  That's pretty scary but it could be worse.

I mean, it would be terrifying if our police and security services weren't still sharing information and working effectively with their counterparts in neighbouring countries.

In reply to Rob Exile Ward:

Oh, really?... Somebody ought to have informed the bugger who slapped an extra £100 of customs duty on a £400 electrical item that I ordered from Spain. 

It took the best part of 2 months to reach a depot in Manchester, and I expect that it'll take a similar amount of time to return from whence it came, because I ain't bloody well paying 25% extra for it. 

Brexit. An utter f@cking shambles, every way that you look at it. 

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In reply to artif:

I have been waiting for some spare parts to come from Germany for my Wolfcraft router table. The nice lady with whom I’ve exchanged emails over the last two and a half months tells me she has dispatched the parts 3 times now and they show no signs of arriving yet. BTW, just for the record, there is no charge for the spare parts or the carriage and this for a nearly 20 year old piece of kit. That’s what I call service.

In reply to Billhook:

!

In reply to Rob Exile Ward:

We didn't seem to do much controlling of borders when the pandemic was in full swing. There was little control over who we let in (no compulsory testing preflight) or where they went afterwards (please self isolate, but we cant really enforce it.) If we don't control our borders to prevent death, then we wont control them if it gets in the way of commerce, which is much more important.

The only bright point is that the DUP, who have enjoyed being tory king maker, have just realized that they have been played. People who enjoyed a lot of benefits from cross border trade, vote to take away the benefits and then complain that they are worse off. It would never happen in England. Oh...

In reply to Clauso:

Is the item sold in Spain at £400 (well, the Euro equivalent) plus Spanish sales tax, or is Spanish sales tax included in that £400? If the former, well you're not really paying extra for it, as the Spanish have to pay sales tax on it too and that seems perfectly fair. If the latter, well they shouldn't have charged you sales tax in the first place. Maybe they'd refund it to you if you asked them. I assume you're being charged VAT at 20% of the item value plus a £12-15 admin fee?

I buy a lot of things from the EU for work. Paying UK VAT instead of the various EU VAT/sales tax rates, some of which are higher than 20%, has actually saved me money on big orders, even after factoring in the "admin" fee that the couriers charge. Don't tell the Brexiters though, it'll only encourage them...

In reply to Rob Exile Ward:

£2 a kilo for monkfish because of Brexit.

https://twitter.com/Santibuesa/status/1369967040665165832

In reply to J1234:

I assume that's an example of the problem. Because my previous business would dispatch pallets from Stoke for arrival at customers in mainland western Europe the following day, not the following week.

In reply to SFM:

Yes, in Summer it's slower as HGVs are kept of certain roads during the weekend. Its just crossing a national boundary, it happens all over the world. Its something we are going to have to get used to. The British are going to have to get used to crossing national borders.

In reply to Rog Wilko:

So pretty much bang on one of the most fundamental ways that the border between the EU and Britain is changed a person at Wolfcraft chose to try and send an item across that border, thats planning to fail I would suggest. I would suggest that you get that lady to go down to the warehouse and check that Franz the driver has not left that on a shelf in the warehouse and that it actually went on a wagon or in the post. Also if she has dispatched it 3 times, why has she not used a trackable service. I think she is some kind of numb nut if she keeps sending something in the same manner and its not arriving, why would anyone do that?

In reply to Philip:

Mainland Western Europe is a big place, Pallets to parts of German, Low Countries and France, yes I can see that, but Spain, Southern France and Italy, really, these are HGVs, with often one driver using a Tacho that the pallets are going on. I bet sending a Pallet to Thurso from Stoke defaults to a 2 or 3 day service.

In reply to tom_in_edinburgh:

So why is £17.95 a Kilo on Bury Market and £39.96 at Ocadoo doo doo,  push pineapple, grind coffee https://www.ocado.com/products/loch-fyne-scottish-monkfish-440629011 .
Why are we not feasting on Monkfish and Lobsters?

In reply to Rog Wilko:

Just heard on the radio, imports down 29% exports down 40%.

Bit of change from the previous estimate of imports at 95% which I heard repeated by several people

In reply to Billhook:

well, in all fairness, no one told me how to carry on breathing either

In reply to artif:

You are looking for things to confirm your beliefs. My imports where down 100% in January because even the best managed transition, which this has not been, would have caused turmoil, so I bought in 3 months of stock, and I would think any business dealing in non perishable goods with half a brain with 4 years notice would have taken similiar steps.

I am reserving my judgement for a couple of years, but it is going to be rocky.

In reply to J1234:

I'm not looking, I couldn't care less. Brexit and CV has given me much bigger problems.

Other than less traffic on my commuting roads, I see little benefit in brexit 

In reply to J1234:

Pallets are fine at the moment.

Similar for me. T think they have that one sorted.

But parcels is an absolute nightmare.

In reply to J1234:

Spot on and I agree with all your comments.

Meanwhile I am having to explain today to a customer in Germnay with manufacturing plant in Tunisa that its probaly far quicker for parts for machines to go direct and its causing them a headache.

Its going to be rocky.

In reply to Billhook:

Only a complete fool wouldn't know that - bugger, we have 17+million fools in this country (less the ones who led the charge, that have moved to their second homes in the EU !)

In reply to J1234:

You don't send much stuff around the world do you? Freight isn't too bad but parcels can be a nightmare, six weeks to clear customs is my worst (into a free-trade country) but I can guess it can be longer. (A couple or four weeks for flight safety processing isn't new to me either).

Tracking is no help whatsoever, the goods "leave" your country when it is scanned onto a truck/plane/ ship which is then sealed and then only "arrives" when it is scanned back into the delivery system AFTER it has left the customs depot. All the time in transit and customs the parcel doesn't exist for the tracking.

In reply to J1234:

Temporary profiteering.

jk

In reply to J1234:

Are you getting hassled by your suppliers? Most of mine are fine but one is questioning why we  had a bumper Q4 but we have ordered next to nothing in Q1 this year.

Their area sales manager just can't seem to get his head round us putting in a brexit buffer. 

In reply to Dax H:

No, not yet. I have kept up a dialogue with them and been dead open with them. 

Sales Manager, they know what's going on, but they will have a monthly or quarterly target to hit, always the same in sales, Monday is a new week, the fact you exceeded target last week is history.

In reply to Billhook:

Yes, that was one of the many problems with leaving the EU. It looked almost like the view that we just tell Johnny Foreigner what to do and he'll do it, and not helped by some of those in power telling us how easy leaving the EU would be.

Dave

In reply to jimtitt:

Then there's the price rises too:-

"This has been reflected around the world after the governing body which oversees the charges that each country can apply within their jurisdictions has significantly reformed these rates: ‘That means that each country is charging a lot more for delivery within their country."

https://guernseypress.com/news/2021/03/11/no-price-promises-in-wake-of-glob...

In reply to J1234:

A 5 kg Monkfish yields 2 x 400 g fillets (according to one website). Which confusingly also gives a 1.75kg tail as yielding ~900g. I assume the wholesale price is kg of whole fish.

So the £9.99 fillet on Ocado (250g) is £40 from £10 fish, not £40 from 50p of fish.

In reply to Toerag:

Doubt the UPU revisions have much effect outgoing (+2.66%) for the UK except that both incoming and outgoing the UK status has changed for the EU, now you are a third country the rates from Germany to the UK for example are ca. 80% higher. Plus customs processing costs. To give credit where it's due and galling as it is the UPU revision was one of the orange assholes better ideas.

In reply to J1234:

You are correct. One year I sold a 50k special drive motor and they hounded me for the next 2 years for orders of that magnitude. I asked them how many other sales of these motors they have had as a spare part rather than with the whole machine, zero was the number but they expected me to find at least 1 a year. 

In reply to artif:

That's because there aren't any benefits of Brexshit. It's all negative. Just as the public were told, but w*nkers like Gove and Johnson lied otherwise.

Andy F

In reply to Rob Exile Ward:

I thought it would be useful to post a short extract from the Government's Brexit economic assessment:

"

"

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/mar/12/labour-suggests-ministers-...

The Government had said it would not be publishing its analysis of Brexit economic impacts. It seems it hadn't done one...

In reply to Philip:

Of course, only a heathen would discard the lovely monkfish carcass by filleting it or at least after filleting it, makes an incredible fish stew!

In reply to Bob Kemp:

in a normal modern democratic state that would be prima facie grounds for removal of a government pretty damn fast - Is there any greater degree of negligence possible other than at the hands of a dictator ?

In reply to J1234:

I thought you'd retired?

In reply to Clauso:

Yup, exactly the same here. Plus brexit has stuffed my livelihood. And for what? Not one single tangible benefit. 

In reply to Rich W Parker:

Exports to the EU were down 40% imports 29% this year. No impact on non-EU trade, so it must be related solely to Brexit. The Cabinet office previously said it had information that volumes were 95% of the norms. So is Gove:

a. A lying turd

b. A dissembling git

c. A mendacious twunt 

In reply to George Ormerod:

All 3 ?

In reply to fred99:

Sorry I forgot the all of the above option 😉

In reply to George Ormerod:

None of the above; they are all too generous.

In reply to Rob Exile Ward:

Liz Truss has just been pictured announcing  we’ve signed a bumper trade deal with Albania so we’re saved...

... unfortunately the Albanians couldn’t be persuaded to take Truss as part of the deal on a permanent basis... you can’t win em all...

In reply to Richard Wheeldon:

I hope it's not for cheese.

In reply to Richard Wheeldon:

I haven't felt so excited since we opened new pork markets in China.

In reply to wercat:

He’s oozed away from the Brexit brief like the man-slug he is, leaving Frost to carry the can for the shit show he negotiated. I guess Gove might be a liar, but he’s not dumb. 

In reply to Clauso:

Can we send them some prawns as well?

In reply to Richard Wheeldon:

A wonderful new deal that rolls over the existing deal we had with Albania as an EU member.

Of course any trade deals done by the EU must be bad - because the EU did them. So any trade deals done by the UK and other countries must be ‘better’ than the existing deals between the EU and those countries. 

Another great win for Brexit logic!

In reply to Richard Wheeldon:

"Hurrah For Harry and Paul"

youtube.com/watch?v=ddd_aiCAiHo&

documentary on the state of Britain Today

has the news got through to the TV factories yet?

In reply to Rob Exile Ward:

Is this is what Liam Fox meant when he said the trade agreement with the EU should be "one of the easiest in human history"?

It is difficult getting an agreement, so don't bother, then its all easy. What a visionary that man is.

Dave

In reply to Tringa:

I wonder if he thought "This is the easiest Money in History" as he took all of his crooked expenses ...

Didn't turn out quite so well in the short term, long term he seems to have been rewarded for being crooked but that is the nature of the party

In reply to wercat:

You seem to be implying that dictators are negligent. I don't think so, it's just that they have a different mission statement and their political toolkit contains a different set of tools.

In reply to Michael Hood:

that was just miscommunication because I was too economical with language

Nevertheless you could argue that Hitler and Mussolini were totally negligent as to the consequences to their own countries of committing crimes against peace and against humanity etc - Following political ends so fanatically that nothing else matters and the end of your own project must mean the downfall for all of your people

don't tell me that the Brexit part government has not acted dictatorially and fanatically rather than on the very close result of a flawed referendum, flawed in design construction and execution.

In reply to Billhook:

No one told us????????

FFS! What did you think was going to happen? It was never rocket science and all we are left with is the same situation, professional bull***t merchants moaning that its all the EU's fault except its not - its ours.

Oh! And a nice new blue passport. Whoopy do.

In reply to Billhook:

This isn't exactly true, we can set our own border rules regardless of what the other side of the border says. If we want reciprocal agreements then things need to be agreed but if we want to close the borders we don't need any agreement.

Things fall down when a lot of leavers don't want anyone coming in to this country but still expect their 2 weeks in the sun every year. 

In reply to Thunderbird7:

There were lots of opposing opinions, factoids and amongst it the odd truth for both staying in and leaving.  Most of the information we were fed was based on politics and politician's own desire to get voted in - Boris wanted to stay in the EU, then once he decided it was a possible vote loser he campaigned to come out against the EU.  We were told one thing then the opposite by someone else who didn't agree with them.

 

In reply to Billhook:

You were told one thing by people who knew what they were talking about and one thing by liars, charlatans and deluded fools. It should come as no surprise as to who turns out to be right.

It will be interesting to see if a country brings a case under WTO rules.  The most favoured nation clause means you have to apply the same requirements to all trading partners  

In reply to Dax H:

What people voted for and what people actually get/got as a result of winning a vote is not always the same.

In reply to Billhook:

And those of us who could see what was happening were labelled remoaners and supporters of "Project Fear".  Actually my opinions over Brexit were formed from my own knowledge and experience and remembering stuff picked up along my life experience instead of believing propagandists.