Brexit discussion thread XIV (Please read OP before posting)

Thats probably the rising cost of living and the catastrophically high house prices and rent costs... people simply cannot afford to live in London on crappy low wages

What other countries in the world have a taskforce to secure food supply chains headed by a man who has spent years spearheading a push to degrade the country's food supply chains?

I've noticed on Twitter and with some UK ministers than when somebody says Brexit is an issue they respond with.

"Brexit is not 100% the problem." I think they're hoping that the less mathematically savvy will just hear "Brexit is not the problem"

I agree (with the 100% bit) and I think most people agree but they slightly deflect their understanding of the issue to come out with that line. I think there are few, if any areas where Brexit is 100% the problem. Maybe it's 40% for the haulier problem, 70% fishing, 20% hotel & retail staff etc. etc. etc.

Is there any situation that benefits from Brexit (I mean for the general UK population and not just some rich Tory benefactors)

One of the huge failures with the vote to leave, perhaps the biggest failure of all, is that it failed to take into the account that circumstances in the UK might change in the near future. It assumed that everything would remain the same as at June 23rd 2016, EU immigration would carry on abated : the reasons for leaving the EU in 2016 would still apply in 2021, 2025 and 2035. Covid-19 is exactly the type of unanticipated event that would render Brexit a disastrous decision. But nobody was even factoring in such a possibility : all they wanted to hear was Farage's slogans.

You could argue it was predominately a failure of the political system. If the UK had a proper system for holding referendums with numerous checks and balances built in, the whole shambles could have been avoided. Yes, the shysters like Farage, Vote Leave and the Telegraph would still have been there spouting the same nonsense, but they would never have been able to subvert the system and hijack a referendum.

FPTP contributed hugely to the 'winner takes all' mentality (another reason why an advisory referendum was a quite disastrous idea).

This 'was' allowed by the EU in fact. I'm afraid we're back to the lies and gaslighting by the Brexit media again. The EU were on record as saying they would have no issue at all with a crown symbol on pint glasses just as long as the 'CE' symbol was displayed somewhere else, even underneath.

Things getting a bit surreal - Johnson to announce the return of Imperial weights and measures and that decimal ones are no longer required or mandatory

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/scales-of-justice-tilt-towards-the-metric-martyr-638vfn655

It does appear there was no reason why Britain could not have a crown (as well as a CE mark), its not entirely clear why it was dropped.

Imperial weights were never outlawed by the EU. They were just required to use Metric measurements alongside imperial for consumer goods

Where imperial was not used, it was because they were not needed or wanted.

“I’d like a box of 50mg capsules of ibuprofen please”

”we don’t sell them here, I’ll give you some 0.00000395 qrt capsules instead”

Brexit was in my opinion a vote against the current and perceived future immigration situation in Britain,without that issue it would never happened.So all these stories regarding EU lorry drivers going home and the swathe of other similiar stories regarding other industries experiencing similiar issues with staff np longer around is exactly what a proportion of the Leave voters wanted to happen so to them these headlines are proving Brexit is working and delivering on it promise.Far from admitting its a disaster they will feel its very much a success.

Ironic. Blames it on the EU "red tape".

Yes, red tape, red tape that the country you base your business out of willingly and voluntarily voted to subject yourselves to.

To paraphrase a certain cohort, "You won, get over it".

For quite a while now, the UK pub trade has mostly sourced its glassware from the Czech Republic. Czech manufacturers were happy to manufacture glasses with a crown stamp if asked, but very few purchasers asked because, well, why would you? The reason it largely fell out of use is basically because there was no reason to use it, and nobody cared whether it was used or not.

There are plenty of older glasses still in use that have the crown mark, and any publican who wanted new glasses with the crown mark could have them.

Whilst I fully understand the thinking behind the latest announcement regarding weights and measures and the crown stamp as it feeds directly into the headlines and feel good factor, like blue passports, that continues to throw crumbs to the masses whilst hiding the disaster happening in front of them I do question whether the government has thought this through (thats not true, I'm not questioning at all, I know they haven't).

Whilst annoucements like this will undoubtedly sell well into Brexitland, it comes on the same week the Frost is demanding that the EU negotiate and, in relation to NI, ease up on the regulations since they are the UK are sure aren't standards the same.

This highlights have quickly and without any real consideration the UK will change regulations and that the EU cannot possibly trust the UK not to make rash changes in the future. In the discussions, what answer can the UK reps give when the reasonable question from the EU side comes as to how to protect the EU when standards change? The UK position seems to be that leave everything as is and only worry about it if something changes.

But in reality, that means that the EU needs to pay constant attention to UK law and UK policies in case anything changes, shifting the responsibility, and risk, from the UK to the EU.

Weirdly I think we still have only half a metric system. Most people are more familiar in Ireland with body weight in stones even if kilos is used for everything else.

Granted I am not sure what this did? I mean we can still order things in imperial in the EU. I have occasionally ordered using imperial in the butchers. You still get a "quarter pounder" in mcd.

I can’t get to grips with kilometres and still think in miles. Most people still quote miles when describing distance.

I can't help thinking this is meant as a distraction from the total failure of Brexit. They can't offer up any 'wins' so they retreat into flags and symbolism. It's truly desperate stuff....as if blue passports, crowns on glasses and pounds & ounces will do anything to improve people's lives.

The ludicrous thing is that the Brexiteers are trying to spin this as some sort of 'anti-EU' thing, when virtually the entire planet uses metric and decimal, including the Commonwealth countries.

I work in a scientific field that involves weighing people on a reasonably regular basis. The scale gives the weight in kilos. Every single Irish person, of any age, without fail, asks me “What’s that?” Meaning “what’s that in stones and pounds?” And without fail, I answer “I have no idea,” and I punch it into my computer to translate it for them.

I don’t get it. I would get it for older people who learned imperial measurements in school, but how many decades have we been teaching metric now? I’m in my mid thirties and can obviously visualise a pint, and I know a mile is 1.6km. After that, I haven’t a notion what imperial measurements are.