Category Archives: Brexit

A border control post is being prepared for goods coming from the EU into Scotland through Northern Ireland.

The Scottish Government set out the plan at Holyrood for a site at Cairnryan in Dumfries and Galloway.

It was described as a consequence of Brexit and means there will be checks on goods such as animals, fish, plants and food between different parts of the United Kingdom.

SNP government minister Michael Russell said most Scots did not vote for Brexit.

In these circumstances it is a practical, common sense and timely action to provides additional planning certainty while detailed proposals are developed and a site for this post is selected, he added.

Time is of the essence. I have twice written to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster to press for a decision on the need for this post, but it was only in January that the UK Government confirmed checks would be required on non-qualifying Northern Ireland Goods at Cairnryan.

Russell said he is waiting to hear whether HM Revenue and Customs would the site for their responsibilities.

A Special Development Order (SDO) was lodged in the Scottish Parliament to ensure planning permission is in place for the infrastructure.

The Scottish Government said it pressed ahead because the terms of the Brexit deal negotiated by the UK Government mean goods entering from the EU are subject to the same border entry requirement and controls as goods from the rest of the world.

The Cairnryan post is goods arriving from the Republic of Ireland and other EU states through Northern Ireland.

The government said 2.59 million tonnes of freight entered the ports at Cairnryan and Lochryan in 2019, equal to approximately 400,000 freight movements.

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Brexit border post in Scotland planned for checks on goods from Northern Ireland - Daily Record

On last Tuesday night's Prime Time, Miriam OCallaghan was quizzing Tnaiste Leo Varadkar about several matters. It was civilised fare.

As the interview drew to a close Miriam brought up a controversy from Leos time as Taoiseach when it is claimed he leaked sensitive information to GP Maiti Tathail.

Miriam: "It is being said within the Fine Gael party some people are very unhappy about this issue and that it has made you less respected.Do you accept that and do you understand that if that is the case, why that is so?

Leo: "I have to say nobody said that to me ... perhaps they wouldnt ... butyou know,I think that anybody in their political career, and this goes for all of us in any career they have, all of us make mistakes on occasions. And I would never judge someone on their worst moments. I would always try to judge people on all the things that they tried to do. And thats what I would ask for everyone else."

Incidents, like that Leo one, involving public displays of fragility, linger. Maybe we are drawn to such moments because we recognise and empathise with a slice of our imperfect selves.

There was another example in 2002: Nora Owen's crushed state as she learned she had had lost her Dil seat. There was no possibility of shelter as she absorbed defeat before the cameras in a packed arena.

A Northern Ireland episode I will carry with me to the next address occurred on 13 December 2019. With his wife, son and daughter around him, the DUPs Nigel Dodds suffered public humiliation as he learned that his Westminster seat was gone.

Four times since 2001 Sinn Fins Gerry Kelly had tried but failed to wrestle the north Belfast seat from him. But at the fifth attempt and with a first-time candidate, John Finucane, son of Geraldine and the late Pat Finucane, Sinn Fin finally took out the sitting DUP MP.

How quickly change can occur. For more than two years, Nigel Dodds and his DUP colleagues practically had their own room at Downing Street as Theresa May and then Boris Johnson courted their support.

Here he now was, in the days before Christmas with his family around him, a beaten docket in full public view.

The Brexit he championed and shaped was probably the clinching factor in turning a decisive number of voters against him in north Belfast.

The winning margin was 1,943 votes. Crucially, the SDLP (and the Green Party) did not run candidates. They left the space to John Finucane is an effort to maximise the Pro Remain impact in a first-past-the-post contest.

Before he was cleared to successfully run for Sinn Fin, John Finucane had to first join the party. In Westminster, like his colleagues, he follows an abstentionist policy.

Two years before, on foot of his Brexit dealings with Theresa May, the Spectator magazine had named Nigel Dodds negotiator of the year.

An example of DUP unionism

The Dodds family are a vivid example of the complexities and the idiosyncrasies of DUP unionism.

Nigel was an August 1958 baby, born in the city he calls Londonderry, where his father, Joe, was a customs official. Work transferred the family to Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, where Joe would eventually become a local DUP councillor.Nigel went to the local Portora Royal School, where the past pupils included Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett.

Nigel was bright. He was a scholarship boy who went to Saint Johns College, Cambridge, and emerged with a first. Back in Belfast, he met his future wife, Diane, who was studying at Queens. Her family were farmers in Rathfriland, Co Down.She would later teach history and English at Laurelhill High School in Lisburn.

As with his father, Joe, Nigel was attracted to the party founded by Ian Paisley. The Big Man secured an important political platform and a useful income source when he was elected to the European Parliament in 1979. An administrative EEC post followed for Nigel Dodds in 1984. He simultaneously began to carve out a political career in Northern Ireland and was elected a member of Belfast City Council in 1985. Four years later, aged 29, he became the citys youngest mayor.

Ian Paisley had a cohort of young fry helping to drive the party growth. Sammy Wilson enjoyed being jester; Willie McCrea could quote scripture and sing. Peter Robinson, had less academic qualifications, but he was the ice-cold strategist; Nigel, the barrister, helped to give the party a badly needed layer of intellectual respectability.

Within a world where the taking of life was routine, Paisleys DUP equated political compromise with weakness. But for decades the DUP could command no more than the space between loyalist paramilitaries and mainstream politics. The Unionist Party had first call on most of the full-time political jobs.

Belfast suffered some of the most awful episodes of The Troubles. As long as they live, Nigel and Diane Dodds will have nightmares about what happened to their family in December 1996.

The IRA ceasefire had been announced in August 1994 but broke down in February 1996. During Christmas week that year, the Dodds seven-year-old son, Andrew, was in Belfasts Royal Childrens Hospital, requiring care for his spina bifida and hydrocephalus conditions.

The parents were conscious of police advice that republican paramilitaries considered them legitimate targets. They routinely varied the car used when making hospital visits to west Belfast.

On the Saturday evening before Christmas Day, IRA gunmen came, determined to kill, to the intensive care ward on The Falls Road where the young child was being treated.

An RUC officer pushed Nigel and Diane Dodds and a hospital worker into a closet. The policeman was wounded in the leg by one of four bullets fired. Another bullet lodged in an empty baby incubator.

The Dodds survived their ordeal. They got their little boy home to their bungalow in Banbridge, with its wide doors and other special fittings.

The Good Friday Agreement, without DUP support, was agreed in April 1998.On 29 December that year, Andrew Dodds died. He was nine.

Party of protest to party of government

In the 1997 Northern Ireland Westminster elections, the outcome in unionist constituencies was UUP 10, DUP 2.

In 2001, the gap narrowed to UUP 6, DUP 5.By 2005, the balance had shifted completely to UUP 1, DUP 9.

The story of DUP dominance has been consolidated at every subsequent election.

In 2001, Nigel Dodds was a factor and a beneficiary in the turning tide.The DUP targeted Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble and his party over what their Good Friday/Belfast Agreement'appeasement strategy'. Republican prevarication about weapons decommissioning made the DUP task easier.

In north Belfast, Dodds took on and comprehensively defeated the sitting Ulster Unionist north Belfast MP, Cecil Walker.Nigel was set fair for the House of Commons.

Two years later, consistent with what is often a DUP trait, his wife Diane entered the fray. She was a candidate in 2003 Stormont elections and won one of the six Assembly seats in the west Belfast constituency.

It is an overwhelmingly nationalist/republican part of the city. Key to her victory was she gathered support from what are traditionally non-voting homes in the loyalist Shankill Road area.

Consistently throughout his career Nigel Dodds has given the impression that he doesnt want the top job. He seems more comfortable as a No 2 or less.

When Ian Paisley and Peter Robinson went south to government buildings on 30 September2004 and sat across a table from Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and then Foreign Affairs minister, Dermot Ahern, Nigel Dodds wasnt brought. It was an omission that, with the benefit of hindsight, might be done differently.

In 2007, when Sinn Fin held their first face-to-face meeting with the DUP to begin planning how their power-sharing government would operate, Nigel Dodds wasnt there. The shinners were spooked.They have their own problematic history with discordant voices. They were worried that Nigel might have jumped ship, at the first opportunity.

It turned out that he had been struck down by a bout of food poisoning as the DUP inspected its new surroundings at Stormont Castle. He had been genuinely sidelined by a temporary illness.

He served as Minister for Enterprise in that first DUP/Sinn Fin power-sharing partnership, formed by Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness in May 2007.

When Peter Robinson took over as First Minister in 2008, Nigel Dodds slotted into the vacant Finance Minister role.But when the choice had to be made between the House of Commons and the Stormont Chamber, he opted for the London assignment.

More than any DUP representative, Mr Dodds can hold his own with the Tory in crowd so meticulously ridiculed by Sasha Swire in her racy 'Diary of An MP's Wife'. In his Oxbridge phase he wasnt interested in competing with the extra-curricular history of Boris, Cameron, Gove and co. But they know he is at least their equal in terms of smarts and could never be dismissed as a backwoodsman.

A shy man, an Everton supporter, gracious and helpful in private, he rarely looked comfortable at the raw edge of interface politics in his north Belfast constituency. On a summer morning in 2013 I watched him, colarette on, as he and fellow Orange Order members gathered at Ballysillan.Below was the contested space of nationalist Ardoyne where the marchers would pass on their way to annual 12th July celebrations.

We both saw significantly more than the agreed number of supporters gather and prepare to stride down the road behind their bands. No fingers were offered for the dyke.

Later tensionreached boiling point. As the marchers sought to make their way home past nationalist homes, their route was blocked by PSNI land rovers. On this occasion, Nigel Dodds, sought to be a calming influence, interceding with the police. In the constituency he represents, he was hit on the head by a flying brick fired from the loyalist side and knocked unconscious.

Sammy Wilson carries a very obvious sense sense of 'hard done by' in DUP promotional stakes. But Nigel Dodds didnt push himself forward to succeed Peter Robinson as he retired as both first minister and party leader at the end of 2015.

Arlene Fosters coronation was Peter Robinsons parting example of craftwork. Nigel Dodds was content to stay on the Westminster beat - a different world to the Stormont where power must be parsed, analysed and shared with former foes.

Brexit - the game changer

Diane Dodds only managed one term as a west Belfast member of the Northern Ireland Assembly. In 2007, the DUPs partners in government, Sinn Fin, took the seat. But two years later she was back to a bigger job - one of Northern Irelands three positions in the European Parliament.

It was the seat Jim Allister took over when DUP leader Ian Paisley retired from it in 2004. Even though he resigned from the DUP over its power-sharing partnership with Sinn Fin in 2007, Jim Allister wanted to retain the job. Diane Dodds outvoted him in 2009. She withstood his challenges in the 2014 and 2019 European Elections.

The Brexit Referendum of June 2016, arranged by then British prime minister, David Cameron, changed the lives of Nigel and Diane Dodds. It also set the DUP on a journey, way beyond its control, destination unknown.

The DUP was the only one of the five main Northern Ireland parties to campaign for leaving the European Union. Diane Dodds supported her party policy, even though success would take away her MEP job. When Pro Remain Conservative prime minister David Cameron lost the referendum, he resigned and his successor Theresa May subsequently called a general election. The result saw Theresa Mays minority conservative administration depending on the DUP to remain in power.

Stormont was in mothballs due to the RHI dispute while the DUPs Westminster team exerted influence over Theresa May. They grew tall in their transformation from stage hands to star turns. The DUP extracted considerable largesse for Northern Ireland from the prime minister. Then it rejected the Brexit backstop model she proposed and transferred loyalty to Boris Johnson.

The new Conservative party leader promptly called the December 2019 election to assert his authority and to provide him with the means to deliver Brexit. His landslide victory and 80-seat majority ended his dependence on the DUP.

That General Election election also finished Nigel Dodds' 18-year career as an MP. When the UK left the EU, Diane Dodds lost her MEP job.

Dealing with uncertainty

The two have since started new political chapters. In July, as expected, Nigel Dodds was given a berth in the House of Lords and took the title, Lord Dodds of Duncairn.

Diane Dodds was handed a DUP Upper Bann Assembly seat, vacant because its holder, Carla Lockhart, successfully contested the 2019 Westminster elections. Arlene Foster appointed Mrs Dodds Economy Minister when she formed her ministerial team in January 2020.

A part of Diane Dodds came to the Stormont role, intent on creating a legacy of pathways. During more than ten years working and learning on the European stage, she developed an appreciation of how job creation can transform lives as well as an economy.

Like her counterpart south of the border, Leo Varadkar, she was looking forward to busy times chasing down foreign direct investment and engaging with entrepreneurs.

But then came the ambush: our generations version of cataclysm - the Covid-19 pandemic.

Seeing Diane Dodds on her feet in her Assembly ministerial role last week, buffeted by the pressures of Covid-19 and the Northern Ireland protocol, made for painful watching.

In better times, things could be, she could be and probably would be different.

In behind-the-scenes interactions with the British government over the Northern Ireland Protocol, Nigel Dodds has 'trusted trader' status. He is the wisest, most loyal and most influential colleague available to DUP leader, Arlene Foster, in challenging times.

But from him or his party so far there is no sign of a plan to better the imperfect formula that emerged from four years of tortuous negotiations between London and Brussels.

Northern Ireland is the most vulnerable UK family member after the messy divorce it sought and got from the European Union.The fundamental problem with Brexit is it challenges the sensitive chemistry of the Good Friday Agreement.

The two - Brexit and the Good Friday Agreement - struggle to comfortably co-exist.

Maybe the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his chief negotiator, David Frost, did not understand that truth. It certainly is not reflected in the Brexit deal they pursued and agreed, Northern Ireland Protocol included.

Or maybe they had a sense of what they were doing but ploughed ahead because they had other priorities.

David Trimble and his lifelong political rivals, the DUP, are now calling for the Protocol to be scrapped. Mr Trimble, the former Ulster Unionist Party leader and now Conservative party peer, negotiated and signed the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.The DUP walked away from those same talks. For years afterwards they pilloried him and undermined him for the deal he struck.

Yet on Brexit, they were on the same side. Mr Trimble as well as the DUP supported leaving. And, again like the DUP, he opposed Theresa Mays backstop solution. At one stage, he actually shaped up to take a legal challenge against it.

But it would be wrong to decide that Northern Irelands Brexiteers should be left to contend with a mess of their own making. Or to conclude 'problems, I see no problems' and seek to swiftly move on.

Memories from almost two decades ago return of a Northern Ireland count centre where David Trimble and his wife were pushed and heckled by baying crowds (including DUP supporters) in circumstances that would have terrified most of us.

Nigel and Diane Dodds were once corralled in a hospital intensive care ward with their ill child when gunmen came to kill.

Such pain and resilience cannot be forgotten because they contributed to the dynamic that removed the scourge of violence and threat.

A willingness to compromise and to take account of the other side defines the Good Friday Agreement. The template the DUP eventually signed up to, using the St Andrew's Agreement as a convenient bridge.

Brexit has completely different priorities.It was based on a "were off and really we were never happy here" attitude.

If Good Friday Agreement principles are used by London, Brussels, Belfast and Dublin in the search for a solution to the Northern Ireland Protocol controversy, there is a chance of success.

If the negotiations are reduced to "give us our way" arguments, the trouble will deepen.

All sides need to understand that.

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Brexit and the NI Protocol - the difficult truths - RTE.ie

By Conor Humphries and William James

The European Union on Wednesday rebuffed a British demand to extend a grace period for checks on goods going from Britain to Northern Ireland, saying the post-Brexit trade treaty gave London enough tools to solve the problems.

But it agreed to work intensively with Britain to resolve difficulties that have already impeded deliveries of goods, notably food, from other parts of the United Kingdom and caused shortages in supermarkets, even with a grace period still in force.

The dispute, which stems from Britains exit from the EUs orbit on Jan. 1, threatens to reopen a rift that bedevilled years of Brexit talks, and further strain relations between the EU and its former member.

British minister Michael Gove sent a terse letter to European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic, demanding that grace periods for the transport of food from Britain to Northern Ireland be extended from a few months to at least two years.

Then, after a video call with Gove, Sefcovic told Irish RTE television that, under the terms of the post-Brexit trade deal signed in December, it was for Britain to resolve the problems.

I really think that if all the flexibilities we put on the table and into the (Northern Ireland) Protocol would be used to the maximum, that all of the issues which we are discussing today would be really resolved, Sefcovic said.

Another politician present at the meeting, Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Michelle ONeill, said Sefcovic had told Gove the EU expects rigorous implementation of the Protocol.

In a statement, Gove said he and Sefcovic had reiterated their full commitment to the agreement that made peace between the provinces pro-British and pro-Irish communities two decades ago, and to the proper implementation of the Protocol, and would meet in London next week.

Britain left the EUs single market a month ago with a trade deal that also created a customs border between Britain and Northern Ireland.

As part of its divorce treaty, it had agreed to ensure there were no checks on goods crossing the land border with the Irish Republic by instead introducing checks on goods reaching Northern Ireland from other parts of the UK.

This was intended to protect peace in the province while also preventing it being used as a back door into the EUs single market.

The issue was arguably the most contentious in Britains five-year Brexit negotiations, and the search for an arrangement led to the downfall of Prime Minister Boris Johnsons predecessor, Theresa May.

The rules are due to get even tighter when a three-month grace period for some goods expires.

In his letter to Sefcovic, Gove said the grace period must be extended until at least 1 January 2023.

If it is not possible to agree a way forward in the way we propose, then the UK will consider using all instruments at its disposal, he added, saying that what was needed were political, not technical, solutions.

London feels it has gained some moral authority since the European Commission briefly threatened last week to impose emergency controls on vaccines crossing the land border.

After an outcry from London, Belfast and Dublin, the commission swiftly changed course, but the blunder reinforced Britains case that the agreement needs updating.

Read more:

EU rebuffs UK demand to soften N. Ireland Brexit trade ...

A Sussex pharmaceutical company has told how it had to bundle a production line into a white van and take it to Amsterdam to beat a Brexit medicines ban.

The impromptu four-wheeled mission to the Netherlands has secured the supply of the asthma drug Ventolin for France, where the company, Mediwin, had a huge order book.

Lisa Cooke, its finance director, said the company had been preparing for Brexit since the referendum but had not counted on an overnight block on wholesale distribution from the UK into EU member states.

It was a bit of a white-knuckle ride a couple of weeks ago. We had stockpiled supplies, particularly of Ventolin because it was being sold in huge quantities in France and we were getting anxious that we would run out, she said. So our production manager hired a van and took five machines which was essentially one production line to the Netherlands. He got the line up and running. Weve rented an apartment and got six people working over there now. And so far weve hired 15 people in the Netherlands and they want another 10 or 11.

Under the EU single market freedoms known as parallel distribution, Mediwin was allowed to buy drugs for a range of conditions, including type 2 diabetes, glaucoma and atrial fibrillation, from one member state and repackage them for another member state at lower prices.

In a blow to the British company, production lines in Littlehampton are now at near standstill while assembly ramps up in the Netherlands. Further expansion will take place in Spain and other EU countries.

To put things into context we usually receive around 75 pallets of stock a week in January we have received two, Cooke said.

She said while she hoped over time to replace the EU sales with UK custom, it had been heartbreaking to have to slash production and work hours for staff in the UK. Ive got about 70 people at the moment who Ive had to ask to half their hours, she said. It has been horrible, absolutely horrible.

The drastic measures are a reflection of the lack of preparation time pharma firms were given for the new Brexit rules. Other companies have also been hit by sudden trade barriers. Two weeks ago it emerged that a Welsh pharma company producing a cancer drug with a short shelf life had moved its production to Dublin to keep supplies going for patients across the EU.

Ian Price, the director of the Confederation of British Industry in Wales, said the company, which did not want to be named, had to discard 200 to 300 consignments destined for the EU because of the new Brexit trade barriers.

Cooke said Mediwin was being forced to lay off 45 people in the UK. We were going to invest in a site in the UK a couple of years ago we we needed to expand. That 2m investment has gone to Spain. Weve got a fabulous new production facility which will come online in Barcelona, in two or three months time, she said.

Once we had the Brexit vote, we knew that we were in significant danger for a number of reasons, so our growth plans for the UK stopped almost immediately. We started investing in Barcelona. We have had to merge our main UK trading company with a Spanish group company to protect licences.

The company had built up a booming trade in wholesale medicine supply, going from 19 employees 10 years ago, to a workforce of 150 in 2020.

Continued here:

Sussex medicines firm takes production line abroad in white van to beat Brexit ban - The Guardian

The temporary documents have been designed by the government to satisfy EU requirements on meat products entering the bloc during the six-month grace period.

However from 1 July exports of sausages, mince and pate-type products are set to be banned altogether under strict laws on animal and plant health - unless the EU and UK can reach an agreement.

Bans on other GB agri-food products - including seed potatoes, certain seeds, and plants potted in soil - have already been in force since the start of the year.

Under the terms of the Northern Ireland protocol, which governs the movement of goods in and out of the region post-Brexit, all non-prohibited agri-food goods arriving from GB require an EU export health certificate (EHC) declaring that they pose no risk. There are hundreds of different types of EHCs, with different forms for different products.

As sausages and other chilled meat products are not ordinarily allowed to be imported into the EU under the bloc's tight SPS (sanitary and phytosanitary) regulations, there is no EHC covering those goods.

As a result, the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has developed its own temporary version, to satisfy EU requirements during the six month grace period when their import is still permitted.

There was no initial requirement for certifications on these restricted products when the protocol came into operation on 31 December after the Brexit transition period ended.

That changed on Monday 22 February, with traders now requiring Defra's version of an EHC for sausages and mince.

EHCs have been required for non-retail agri-food products entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain since 1 January.

That has included unprocessed food stuffs - such as chicken carcasses, tankers of milk and sides of beef - being imported into the region to undergo processing.

Retail products have been exempted from this requirement under a grace period that will expire on 1 April.

From that date, GB-made agri-food products that are usually found on supermarket and shop shelves in Northern Ireland will need an EHC to be shipped to the region.

This includes all food of animal origin, some foods of non-animal origin (nuts, spices etc), live plants, other plant-based products and fish. Live animals and animal based food products require a vet to sign off the EHCs.

Products going to multiple destinations will also require multiple certifications. In theory, that could see a single lorry of retail goods requiring hundreds of EHCs.

Additional reporting by Press Association

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Brexit red tape ramped up on British sausages destined for Northern Ireland - The Independent

I coined the phrase The Big Sulk to describe those who refused to accept the result of the 2016 UK Brexit referendum and who have refused to engage with its outcome in any constructive way. So much time so many sulks! might well be the mantra for this past year. We all know that the Devil makes work for idle hands and, from student mobs attacking defenceless statues to teachers refusing to teach, its been like some proletarian Beezlebub himself was on a mission to prove that especially contrasted with the cheery graft of frontline workers every year of extra non-vocational education renders one less of a useful human being. Maybe those involved in such tantrums felt the absence of panto season this year, but whatever the reason, the squeals of Brexit its behind you! are getting boring.

When are the Remoaners going to admit they were wrong all along? Look at the facts. Our vaccine triumph; I recently heard one of those state-sponsored Radio 4 news-based alleged comedy shows and the feeling of dismay when the success of the roll-out was mentioned was palpable. The fictional labour shortage; Ive always found it weird how liberals seem to believe its fine for rich countries to go around robbing doctors and nurses from poor countries; now theres less need, with applications among UK students to work in medicine rising by almost a third during the pandemic. We didnt even get the super-gonorrhoea we were promised!

I cant help thinking of Platos Myth Of The Cave; people in chains, seeing flickering shadows at the entrance which they take to be monsters, thus making them fearfully cling to their bonds. But when the boldest break free, they selflessly return to help their more cowardly comrades escape from the darkness of ignorance.

Just this week the former finance minister of Greece, Yanis Varoufakis, said that it was now a matter of time before the Eurozone bubble bursts, throwing the EU into great economic hardship. In France, the eurosceptic Marine Le Pen is neck and neck in the polls with Emmanuel Macron. In a recent column called When Will Germany Grow Up?, the German journalist Katja Hoyer mocked the idea that there is anything mature about calling ones leader Mutti while pointing out that a recent Spiegel survey showed that nearly two-thirds of Germans said that their opinion of the EU had worsened due to its botched vaccine procurement plans.

Ive often thought that if we Brits had a leader we called Mummy our liberal establishment would have a field day mocking us for being infantile nanny-obsessives. But let the Germans put their trust in an all-powerful leader and everythings fine and dandy because that always worked out fine for them, didnt it?

When I think of what the EU will look like in 10 years time, I cant help but think of those old soul acts who gradually become shadows of their original selves, members dropping out until theres just one of the real line-up left. The new recruits do their best, but it isnt convincing; Germany upfront still singing lead, but in a voice broken and croaky, while Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia bumble about in the background bumping into the scenery.

What we were told was maturity was only ever fear; always keep a-hold of nurse (or Mutti) for fear of finding something worse is no way to run a country. We alleged Little Englanders dont think its a big cruel world out there they do, which makes Remainers, not we Brexiteers, the swivel-eyed misanthropes.

But carry on like this, thumbing your nose at your own government no matter how it succeeds while sucking up to foreign ones no matter how badly they do, and everyones going to think youre a little odd psychologically Stockholm Syndrome is never a good look.

Like a prisoner cringing in a cave and calling it home, theyve forgotten the centuries when we were Europe, not the EU, where human rights were gained and masterpieces were written without the aid of a gravy train going nowhere. The EU was just a tiny blip in history its over, let it go. Sulking isnt going to turn back time but it may well make you irrelevant in the future.

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When will Remainers admit they were wrong about Brexit? - Telegraph.co.uk

Business News Labels & Publishers Live Business Top Stories By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 22 February 2021

UK ministers are considering setting up a government-funded creative export office that would help performers navigate and tackle all the new visa and permit issues that have been caused by Brexit. Such an office might then also run other projects and initiatives to support British creators and creative businesses looking to pursue export opportunities into new markets.

The UK government has come under significant criticism from the music and other creative industries ever since it became clear that visa-free touring had not been included in the post-Brexit UK/EU trade deal. That means that British performers touring Europe will now need to fulfil the different entry requirements of each individual EU member state, some of which will require artists and their crews to secure travel permits and/or equipment carnets.

The extra administration and costs that will create will make some tours completely unviable, or will result in British artists hiring crew based in EU countries, to reduce the amount of extra admin and expenditure. All of which will put further pressure on performers, crew members and live entertainment business that are already on the brink because of COVID-19.

The UK blames the EU for the trade deal not including provisions for visa-free touring, while EU officials have blamed their British counterparts. UK ministers insist that the door remains open for new talks with the EU on this matter, although culture minister Caroline Dinenage recently admitted that its likely to be easier to agree bilateral deals with individual EU countries to remove the need for permits and carnets than a new EU-wide arrangement.

She expressed that opinion during the latest Parliamentary session on the post-Brexit touring shambles which took place last week at the instigation of the culture select committee. During that hearing she and Alastair Jones from the Department For Digital, Culture, Media And Sport were asked if the government would provide financial assistance for performers facing these new bureaucratic challenges when touring Europe.

Dinenage initially pointed to existing government-funded export initiatives for the creative industries, like the Music Export Growth Scheme, though when pushed Jones said we are absolutely looking at our options. And although that was pretty non-committal, this weekend the Telegraph reported that a new government agency was now being considered by Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden to facilitate tours and assist artists with international gigs, including with things like visas and permits.

Quite what role such an agency would play in that domain remains unclear. Would it mainly provide information or advice possibly via a website like the one Dowden previously discussed with Elton John or would it actually help artists secure and pay for travel permits?

Given that Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his cronies have been so keen to stress all the glorious good times, positive benefits and financial savings Brexit would deliver for Britain, youd think some of that supposed Brexit windfall could be used to subsidise the cash-strapped artists and crew members whose livelihoods have been jeopardised by the PMs big fuck-the-foreigners experiment.

Who knows? Probably not. Not least because the windfall is fictional. Though, optimists might see the launch of a creative export agency alongside urgent bilateral talks with those countries that are both key touring markets for British performers and currently problematic in travel permit terms as at least a way to mitigate the worst of the damage Brexit is set to cause the UKs creative communities.

Any new export office could ultimately offer much more than just visa support too. A number of other countries have formal export offices that successfully support their music and/or creative industries in an assortment of ways when seeking opportunities abroad.

While the UKs Department For International Trade does already fund various initiatives in partnership with music business trade groups, including the aforementioned Music Growth Export Scheme, some in the industry have long called for more extensive government support to help the British music community fully achieve its global potential.

UK Music CEO Jamie Njoku-Goodwin welcomed the reports that an export office is being considered this weekend. He told the Telegraph: We should be doing everything we can to support and strengthen the British music industry as a key global exporter and spread British success internationally. The British music industry can help fly the flag for Britain globally and is a great example of the UKs soft power due to the huge influence of British music across the world.

However, he added, new Brexit rules have put barriers up and made it harder for British musicians to work and perform abroad. A new UK-wide export office for the music industry or the wider creative sector could play a crucial role in helping drive our post-pandemic recovery.

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Culture Secretary considering new export office to mitigate Brexit damage to creative industries - Complete Music Update

However, the Brexit Review Scrutiny Panel has recommended that the Island should continue to participate in the Trade and Economic Co-operation Agreement, which was agreed on Christmas Eve, a few days before the end of the Brexit Transition Period on 31 December.

The States agreed to sign up to the deal, which allows tariff-free trade in goods to continue, on 27 December, subject to a 90-day period in which the Island could withdraw should it choose to.

A review was carried out by the panel to examine whether the Island should remain signed up to the TECA. Its report, published yesterday, supported continued participation but highlighted some concerns over the UK exercising greater control over the Islands borders.

The TECA recognises that the Crown Dependencies have separate competent authorities that are responsible for implementing customs or regulatory controls, it says. However, the UK will ultimately be responsible under the TECA which, in the absence of direct access, may impact on Jerseys autonomy.

The panel added that it must be ensured that the UK fully represents the Islands interests in international trade talks and the Island should have its own direct representation on specialised committees that will be set up to develop trade practices between the EU and UK.

A statement says: Although the panel received confirmation that the UK will respect Jerseys constitutional position in the TECA and work to strengthen new trading relationships, the review found that Jerseys participation in the agreement might be considered to impact on the Islands autonomy and ability to develop its international identity.

The panel believes increased engagement with the UK will be required to ensure full representation of the Islands interests, aided by the Government of Jerseys commitment to keep abreast of relevant developments.

The panel was chaired by Deputy David Johnson and included Deputies Inna Gardiner, Mike Higgins and Rob Ward, Constable Mike Jackson and Senator Kristina Moore.

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Brexit threat to Island autonomy? - Jersey Evening Post

LONDON, Feb 19 (Reuters) - For British pig farmers like Simon Watchorn, the start of 2021 has brought fresh problems after a pandemic-ridden 2020.

British pork producers have seen their profits eroded by COVID-19 and an outbreak of deadly African Swine Fever (ASF) in Germany, and are now having also to deal with Brexit red tape that has hammered exports and hurt demand from key buyers such as German sausage makers.

Pig prices, especially for sows, are tumbling just as feed costs soar.

Weve got expensive feed, ASF, COVID, and now were struggling to send stuff abroad. People have fallen into the red. If the situation doesnt change theyll be shutting shop, said Watchorn, who is based in Norfolk, eastern England.

Pigs remaining on his farm have grown overweight and some have lost up to half their value since COVID-19 disrupted meat processing last year.

This year, Watchorn said Britains exports to the European Union have been so disrupted following the countrys exit from the EUs single market and customs union on Dec. 31 that he no longer discusses price when sending older female pigs, known as cull sows, to slaughter.

We said well sort the price out later, it was just about (the abattoir) taking them, said Watchorn.

About 90% of Britains cull sows go to Germany to be processed into sausages, patties, salami and other cured meats.

Government data show 862,000 UK pigs were slaughtered in January, down 10% from the same month last year, while sows and boars saw a steeper 29% decline to 14,000.

With Britains EU meat exports currently at just 50% of normal levels, prices in the heavily export-dependant sow market have slumped by almost two thirds since last summer, only just covering the cost of sending sows to slaughter.

Meanwhile, ASF has been sweeping across the globe, decimating the hog herd in China, the worlds top pork producer, and it reached Germany in September last year.

China and other Asian countries banned German pig imports in response, leaving Europe with excess supplies and falling prices.

In a poll of 69 members of the National Pig Association (NPA) conducted last month, more than 80% said they are, or expect to be, in a loss-making position this quarter.

Prices for animal feed grade wheat in Britain are up 80%, year-on-year, data from the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) shows, while UK pig prices are at 1-1/2 year lows as farmers struggle to compete with cheap EU pork imports.

EU pig prices are at four-year lows and its cheap pork products are flowing into Britain uninterrupted because UK authorities are phasing in customs checks on EU products over six months rather than imposing them immediately from Jan 1.

A German meatpacker told Reuters German pork exports to the UK are flowing smoothly and even increasing, as British customs authorities are waving the imports through without fuss.

Some trucks are returning to the continent empty in order to bring the next EU load to Britain without delay.

Its especially galling that imports are flowing in freely. We dont mind a level playing field, but this isnt level or fair, said Richard Lister, a pig farmer from Yorkshire, north England.

Additional reporting by Michael Hogan in Germany, Editing by Nigel Hunt and Gareth Jones

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Two pandemics and Brexit leave UK pig sector in peril - Reuters

The Event Supplier and Services Association (ESSA) will be hosting a webinar entitled Employment and Brexit online at 10am, 26 February.

The webinar will be live with Pam Loch (pictured), solicitor and founder of Loch Associates, who will be explaining the specific consequences of Brexit to participants.

A quarter of the available places at the webinar have been allocated, following the announcement of the event to ESSA members last week.

This Brexit employment webinar is the second event of its kind organised by ESSA, and follows its Brexit & Logistics webinar in January that was delivered by the team from Agility Fairs & Events.

ESSA director, Andrew Harrison, said: The popularity of these webinars is not surprising, despite the pandemic. Our members are facing a dual threat to their businesses. Clear sector-specific guidance on how Brexit is changing the business landscape is essential. Weve partnered with Loch Associates to produce this webinar for our members, explaining how Brexit affects employee status, how the points-based immigration system works and what changes to expect when travelling for work and recruiting within the EU.

Apply for a place at the webinar here.

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ESSA to host Brexit Webinar - EN - Exhibition News