The Eurostar train always leaves Amsterdam Central now with eight of its sixteen carriages empty because no more than 275 passengers can depart at the same time due to the control of passports and luggage since Brexit. https://t.co/ShMBzlQWTp
— Brexitshambles (@brexit_sham) January 6, 2023
A new Prime Minister is on the way.
It’s the final hustings before the results of the Tory party leadership election are announced, where fewer than 200,000 people will select the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Reporting suggests there are so many dog whistles that half the canines in the country should have been running towards Wembley Arena where the hustings took place.
- Fining people who miss hospital appointments.
- Criticising the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who is “anti-everything” and they need to get him (who was elected by the inhabitants of London) “out of office.”
- Obligatory references to “woke nonsense” and the culture that will “cancel our history.”
- Decrying self-identity.
- Supporting trans rights, but when asked if a “trans woman is a woman,” the answer was no.
- Would be willing to “look at” abolishing the speed limit.
Meanwhile, City A.M. is reporting that the pound sterling is expected to hit an all-time low against the U.S. dollar. Though it isn’t the first time there have been reports of GBP/USD approaching near-parity, and I take with a pinch of salt reports in a paper that also has a section titled “Crypto A.M.“
To NIMBY or not to NIMBY?
If anybody wants a site to rebuild a gasometer to help stabilise energy prices, it looks like we’ve got one here. Maybe the new homes would be better built on greenbelt rather than old industrial sites?
Getting Brexit Done
Is Brexit done yet?
UK science is struggling because it’s not part of Europe’s Horizon programme. The leading candidate to become the new Prime Minister next week is threatening to invoke Article 16 early in her premiership. I have to queue and get my passport stamped when entering Europe. Our energy prices have risen further and faster than the rest of Europe.
To say there’s a monster under the bed suggests the monster is hiding, not that politicians appear to have their head stuck in the sand.
City should brace itself for €900bn Brexit hit if Brussels plays clearing politics
Marks & Spencer blames Brexit as it closes 11 French stores
Brexit exclusive: Up to 80,000 EU nationals may be forced to leave UK
UK food firms beg ministers to let them use prisoners to ease labour shortages
Ian Botham appointed UK trade ambassador to Australia
Need I say more? Maybe just throw “cronyism” in there?
There is more to add. From the article:
“Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader, has been appointed a trade envoy to Cameroon. He already serves as a trade envoy to Egypt.
“The former Labour MP Kate Hoey, who sits in the House of Lords as a non-affiliated peer and who, like Botham, was a high-profile Brexit supporter in the 2016 referendum, has been made a trade envoy to Ghana.”
Rob’s politics notes, 8th January 2021
Here we are, a week after the end of the transition period, and the signs are that it’s going to get worse before it gets better (he wrote, with the naive hope to will get better).
BBC’s Reality Check asks “Were there hold-ups in first week after Brexit?” (Short answer: yes.). It also covers problems reported by Marks and Spencer, DPD, seafood exporters and others in “Marks & Spencer Percy Pig sweets hit by Brexit red tape.”
The Guardian mentions some of the “rules of origin” knock-on effects as “Firms including M&S suspend EU exports over Brexit smallprint“, and also talks to a few truck drivers “‘I’m stuck here’: lorry drivers in Calais begin to feel effects of Brexit“.