Daily Archives: January 19, 2021

Irish customers of Currys/PC World have been asking where in the world their products are and why they have to pay import taxes and charges on things bought from a retailer with a significant Irish footpri nt.

The shop has become the latest to be snared in a web of Brexit-related delays and confusion as people who shopped on its Irish-hosted website have been told more taxes and charges are now owed because the goods have come from the UK.

Others said they have yet to receive products bought weeks ago while still more have expressed frustration at the absence of communication from the retailer as to what is going on.

With homeschooling back on the table Kevin Prendergast bought his daughter a laptop from the Currys/PC World website on January 9th.

We got an email to say to expect it on January 15th, he said but on that day a message arrived to say the laptop was leaving the UK. Then he received another message apologising for the delay and promising delivery on January 22nd.

Adam Greaney bought a MacBook from the the website on January 5th. It was dispatched on January 7th but then caught up in Brexit-related delivery delays and he has yet to receive it.

Liam Preston bought a laptop from Currys.ie on New Years Day and was not aware it was coming from a warehouse in the UK.

Not only did that delay the delivery he also had to pay 200.31 in custom duties to DPD before they would deliver the laptop. He complained that the website did not inform consumers they may be liable for customs and import duties on products sourced from the UK.

Paul McGaley ordered a vacuum cleaner for delivery from Currys on on January 2nd and paid Irish VAT and said at no point was he told the product was being shipped from the UK. His delivery was being held by DPD pending customs charges including more VAT.

I couldnt get through to a person on Currys phone support, tried twitter, got a please send us more details reply and then nothing further.

A spokeswoman for the retailer said that as a result of a technical error, a small number of our customers in the Republic of Ireland have mistakenly been asked to pay import duty on their orders. We are contacting all affected customers to refund them any costs they may have incurred. We apologise wholeheartedly for the inconvenience.

Addressing the delays she said that its delivery partner, DPD, had paused all deliveries from the UK to ROI due to disruptions caused by Brexit. Unfortunately, this means our deliveries to ROI will be delayed. We have contacted all affected customers, and DPD has assured us they will receive their orders by 22nd January. We are grateful for our customers patience as we continue to work closely with DPD.

Last week Brexit-related teething problems were blamed for dozens of Arnotts shoppers being hit with additional taxes and charges after buying shoes on the Dublin-based department stores website since the start of the year. The company apologised and said impacted customers would be re-imbursed.

Read the original:

Brexit: Currys/PC World Irish customers asked to pay import taxes in error - The Irish Times

As a European resident born in France to British parents, I never used to consider my nationality a disadvantage.

Besides its association with poor food and worse weather (at least as far as my French friends were concerned), my status as a Briton had its benefits. For years I was able to enjoy the climate and cuisine of the south of France while also being able to appreciate the British sense of humour, crackers at Christmas and the occasional baked bean.

I really must take my hat off to Brexit. It has had the revolutionary effect of transforming our best of both worlds into the best of no worlds. Brexit has stripped us of the right to vote.

Voting is a fundamental right which allows us to shape and influence the laws which govern our livelihood. If I want to enjoy free healthcare, I vote for a party which promises a national health service. If I want to create a more sustainable planet for future generations, I vote for a party in favour of strict environmental reforms. In modern European democracies we are lucky enough to enjoy this right. Or so I thought

Shortly after Britain joined the then-EEC in 1972 my grandparents wanted to embrace opportunities open to them. Just as many more would go on to do after them, they decided to permanently relocate to continental Europe.

My father and his brother still live in France and my three aunts have lived in Italy for more than 50 years. I have cousins in Spain and Germany, but no relatives in the UK.My sister and I were both born in France and attended local schools. We were members of various local associations such as dance, swimming and tennis clubs. We were versed in Jean de La Fontaine, never phased by regular strikes and considered no good meal complete without a cheese course.

When I was 13, my parents sent me to school in the UK. There I discovered that it was not unusual to play sport in the rain, that there was more to modern history than the French Revolution, and that British food was not nearly as bad as I had been led to believe.

At this time I started to struggle when asked where I came from. When I was younger it had been easy: I would tell French people I was British and British people I was French. At least that made me sound interesting.

Soon the novelty wore off and I started to reflect when I was asked this question. Where did I come from? My home was in France. And yet my passport told me I was British.

I was able to come up with a solution to this existential dilemma. When people asked me where I came from I would (and still do) respond: I am European.

In line with this European spirit, I decided to continue my studies at the University of Amsterdam, where I was delighted to discover that identifying as European as opposed to any single nationality was the norm.

You can imagine my dismay in discovering that I was to be denied this identity.I had always been proud of my burgundy British passport, but the day that I received my renewed passport was as dark as its new blue colour.

Every bone of my body feels European and yet international law now tells me I am not, and that I have no claim to be.The worst part? I never had any say in this decision in the first place.

This is the truth of the matter: many of those who were to be most affected by the outcome of the 2016 referendum had no possibility to influence it.Although this is true of those under 18 who could not vote, I am referring in particular to British citizens resident in Europe.

British law dictates that only citizens who have been resident in the UK in the last 15 years are eligible to register to vote. This meant thousands of Britons resident in the EU were silenced at a time when they would have liked to shout the loudest and must now live out the consequences of decisions made by others.

Since then, these same Britons have been dealt a further blow: they no longer have the right to influence the future of the European countries they call home.

While only nationals may claim the right to vote in the national elections of most European countries, all citizens of EU member states have the right to vote in European Parliament elections, as well as in local elections in the country in which they reside. For example, Germans living in France can vote in local municipal elections, and French living in Germany can vote in local communal elections.

More important than the right to vote in local elections, however, is the right to vote in European Parliament elections. The future of Europe is determined at European Parliament elections. For many individuals embracing the European ideal of professional, educational or cultural mobility across European member states, their right to vote in EU elections is one of the most important rights which they can claim.

There is a solution: apply for nationality from an EU member state. This, however, is not nearly as easy as it sounds. Citizenship of an EU member state is a prerequisite for being considered an EU citizen. However, embracing the principles and objectives promoted by the European Union is not always compatible with gaining citizenship to a member state.

The mission of the European Union is to ensure the free mobility of people, goods, services and capital within the Union, with its key objectives being a common European area without borders which respects all languages and cultures.

But it was because I followed these European ideals that I am currently finding it hard to get French nationality.

For the purposes of obtaining nationality, the French define a childs country of residence as the country in which they are schooled. Britain, on the other hand, defines a childs country of residence as the country in which their parents pay tax.

I was born in France, educated in France, and my parents have paid tax in France for more than 20 years. I now work and pay tax in France. And yet, my five years of schooling in the UK preclude my right to French nationality by birth.

I have chosen to live my life in a way which would be most favourable to entering a career in EU law, politics or business. I believed that studying in France, the UK, the Netherlands and potentially Spain, would be more conducive to this career path than a purely French education.

It would appear that these decisions now prevent me from entering such a career at all. When I explained to the lady in charge of my French nationality application (now submitted over four years ago) that I hoped to pursue a career in politics, and that this would be impossible in France or the EU without a French nationality, she smugly replied that the UK needs some good politicians.

Despite the truth in her words, I was essentially being told by the French administration to go back to where I came from. The irony is that as far as the UK administration is concerned, I never came from there in the first place.

Britons in Europe, like me, have been doubly disenfranchised by the process of Britains withdrawal from the European Union. We have been twice failed by the democratic ideals to which both the UK and the EU pledge themselves.

Despite our British nationality, we were excluded from its democratic voting process. Despite our commitment to the values and principles embodied by the European Union, we have now been excluded from it too. What amazes me the most? Nobody seems to care or be doing anything about it.

Follow this link:

Brexit and the curse of having a British passport - The Connexion

Speaking in an online debate on the Brexit deal, Lidington said, The EU will be satisfied that the solidarity of Member States held together and in demonstrating that there are some costs of leaving the EU.

There had been talk of other countries also leaving the EU but this has dissipated. On the UK side, it can point to the fact that it is no longer subject to ECJ jurisdiction and the fact that there no tariffs on goods between the UK and EU.

He said, All this has removed one element of possible future friction between the two sides but not all.

When you look at what the deal does, it looks to me very much like the association agreement the EU has with other countries but without the title.

The agreement permits it [the deal] to be developed and to evolve over the coming years if that is what the EU and UK wish to do although I dont expect any big changes to it any time soon.

His comments come with parliamentary procedure for approving the deal now under way.

Last Thursday, members of Parliaments Foreign Affairs and International Trade Committees debated the deal at a joint meeting, further intensifying the parliamentary scrutiny process for the new EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement.

The Brexit agreement also has the ability to crumble away and it can be terminated at 12 months notice. Whether it grows into something more comprehensive or is whittled away will be subject to much debate in the coming years Sam Lowe, Centre for European Reform

The two committees will, later this month, vote on the consent proposal prepared by the two standing rapporteurs, Christophe Hansen (EPP, Luxembourg) and Kati Piri (S&D, the Netherlands).

That will pave the way for a plenary vote, probably in February, before the end of the provisional application of the agreement.

In the virtual debate organised by Brussels-based think tank the Centre for European Reform, Lidington, a former unofficial deputy Prime Minister to Theresa May, added, For most Conservative voters and Tory MPs the prime feeling will be of utter relief that this issue is not there to dominate and divide it has done for so long.

But it would be wrong to think everyone got up in the morning thinking of Article 50. Most voters want to know, for example, what our policies are on housing, education and health care. These are the things that bother people.

Asked if he thinks the issue of the UKs relationship with the EU will now fade, he said, Will it go away as an issue? Well, Boris Johnson has been conciliatory so far but he has a difficult balancing act.

I can see him saying at the next election in 2024 that people dont want to discuss the EU so much, but one fifth of people who voted Tory at the last election voted Remain so these have to be kept on board.

It will not be in the Conservative partys interest to take a hostile approach to the EU, but, at the same time, I dont think there is an appetite among the British or Member States for any campaign for the UK to rejoin, said Lidington, a Tory MP from 1992 to 2019.

The agreement permits it [the deal] to be developed and to evolve over the coming years if that is what the EU and UK wish to do although I dont expect any big changes to it any time soon

David Lidington, former UK Europe Minister

No one can now say that Brexit has not happened, but we still share a lot in common with Europe in, for example, tackling carbon emissions, combating terrorism and serious crime and managing the impact of migration.

The US, under Joe Biden, will expect its EU allies to exercise more [global] leadership and not to leave it all to the US, so that implies that the UK and EU will still have to work closely together, added Lidington, who also served under David Cameron.

Also taking part in the debate was Sam Lowe, a senior research fellow and trade expert with the Centre for European Reform, who warned, The Brexit agreement also has the ability to crumble away and it can be terminated at 12 months notice. Whether it grows into something more comprehensive or is whittled away will be subject to much debate in the coming years.

He said the UK had been fairly successful in excluding ECJ jurisdiction and not being bound by EU state aid rules, but added, the UK did not do quite so well as it had hoped in other areas, such as the mutual recognition of professional qualifications, temporary movement of people and rules of origin.

On all of these issues the UK did not get what it wanted and had to accept what the EU offered.

See original here:

Brexit deal has 'ability to evolve' in coming years, says former UK government minister - The Parliament Magazine

The relief that accompanied the announcement of a Brexit deal between the EU and the UK on Christmas Eve was tempered by the news that the UK would no longer participate in Erasmus+.

Instead, the UK government announced that it was creating a scheme, named after the scientist Alan Turing, to replace Erasmus with a global scheme for 2021.

The decision to pull out of Erasmus is a representation of Brexit itself. First, the promises: the Prime Minister assured the House of Commons in January 2020 that the UKs Erasmus participation was safe and accused Douglas Chapman MP of talking out of the back of his neck for suggesting otherwise.

Although universities and others involved in Erasmus knew a no deal end of the transition would endanger participation, the popularity of Erasmus was assumed to be one of the aspects that would be protected by a deal.

Second, the rapid change in that position, with no notice or consultation. The announcement, on 24 December when universities and colleges were closed until the New Year led to a flurry of trying to work out what it means.

Worried students who were due to study abroad in 2021 frantically started emailing. The announcement that a new scheme was being developed gave the impression of careful planning - but few had heard very much beyond vague plans to encourage more students to study globally since the EU referendum.

A scheme that only funds outgoing students, with a harsh and costly visa system for incoming students, is hardly going to help with the conclusion of exchange agreements with developing countries"

Third, Erasmus was shifted front and centre of the UKs Brexit culture war. Remainers decried the decision as both short-sighted and indicative of the UKs desire to cut all links with the EU, even to the detriment of young people who benefitted from this popular scheme.

Leavers retorted that Erasmus was used by only a small fraction of the student or working population, and that this outrage represented a middle-class obsession from those who refuse to see any benefit or opportunities in Brexit.

These are over-simplified positions, but only just. The universities minister, Michelle Donelan, criticised proponents for being too nostalgic for a Europe-focussed scheme because it is easier to imagine what you know, than to visualise the benefits of what is being brought in.

Fourth, the government scrambled to provide justifications for its decision. The decision to pull out was due to the high cost of participation for the UK as a non-EU Member State, and the unwillingness of the European Commission to allow the UK to cherry pick participation in some aspects of the scheme.

The replacement Turing Scheme, with a budget of 100m, would provide funding for 35,000 outgoing (but not incoming) students and therefore be cheaper to the UK taxpayer.

Numerous experts questioned how this figure was arrived at, and what it covers, but details are not yet available - even though it is supposed to be sending its first students in a few months. Once again, experts have been left out of the decision-making loop.

Fifth, the justifications quickly shifted to the perceived failings of Erasmus. True, the UK has had lower participation rates than France, Spain or Germany, but the numbers have been consistently rising.

The UK has not made the most of the opportunities in Erasmus or ensured awareness of the scheme to potential participations. But neither of these is the fault of Erasmus itself - which suggests that any replacement will suffer the same fate.

To claim that Brexit allows the UK to unilaterally replace it [Erasmus] in a matter of months with a global scheme is not ambitious; it is rash

As the most popular destination for Erasmus, the UK benefitted economically from incoming students, with these students leaving with (mostly) a positive image of the UK and its societies, and the excellence of the higher education system.

Soft power is difficult to put a price on. But, we are told, Erasmus did not help less well-off students, who will be the focus of the Turing Scheme - but again with no details.

Sixth, the new scheme represents Global Britain and the new-found confidence of the UK which allows young people to - in the words of Iain Duncan Smith MP - be out there buccaneering, trading, dominating the world again.

Apart from ignoring the global dimension of Erasmus that has been built in to the programme in recent years, the idea that Erasmus somehow prevented students or universities engaging in exchanges with the wider world is ludicrous.

Instead, Global Britain represents little more than a phrase, unsupported by details of what it means or how it will benefit society. The Turing Scheme will open up the world to UK students - but assumes the world wants it.

Seventh, the discourse of Global Britain ignores many of the stark realities only too familiar to anyone involved in organising exchanges. A scheme that only funds outgoing students, with a harsh and costly visa system for incoming students, is hardly going to help with conclusion of exchange agreements with developing countries.

And while the universities minister claims that disadvantaged UK students will, under the new scheme, study at Ivy League universities in the US instead of poorly-performing EU universities (using a ranking system that favours the US/UK university model), no thought is given to such basic practical questions as to whether students would be paying the high fees involved, nor the myriad of challenges involved in setting up and running exchanges.

Eighth, Global Britain can be contrasted with the (dis)United Kingdom. The Irish government announced that students in Northern Ireland can still participate in Erasmus via a workaround solution. The Scottish government has expressed its desire to continue to participate, but is hampered by its lack of legal ability to conclude international agreements in its own right.

As the most popular destination for Erasmus, the UK benefitted economically from incoming students, with these students leaving with (mostly) a positive image of the UK and its societies

In short, any support for study abroad schemes is welcome. If the Turing Scheme was launched as an addition to Erasmus, then university professionals, including myself, would be jumping for joy.

But instead, we now have a period of prolonged uncertainty while we work out what the new scheme means - and the answers given by the UK government in response to questions in the House of Lords on the new scheme were not illuminating.

Erasmus has built up over a 30-year period and become part of the fabric of education across the EU, relying on extensive contacts, familiarity, common standards, expectations and understandings.

To claim that Brexit allows the UK to unilaterally replace it in a matter of months with a global scheme is not ambitious; it is rash, and the students and young people who are the main beneficiaries of the scheme are likely to be the ones to lose out.

In this, we find many familiar aspects of the Brexit process: lofty promises about the opportunities afforded by leaving the EU, but without any of the detail and only the need to believe in a Global Britain that seems increasingly isolated.

Read more:

Erasmus and the Turing Scheme: A metaphor for Brexit? - The Parliament Magazine