Brexit discussion thread XIV (Please read OP before posting)

The good old Great British imperialiasm - play nations like the chess pawns, scheming , and gunboat diplomacy and also starve populations while exporting food (Ireland, India, Burma...).

Looks like Britannia is coming back. Thankfully this current Great British idiotic lot can't pull it off, it's not 1850 anymore. UK is largely irrelevant now.

Actually on the topic of weapons to Ukraine from the UK, has there been any solid figures for all the dick waving of military support by the different countries to Ukraine? I remember a lot of articles of the UK showing Ukraine military a bunch of stormer AA and other equipment very early in the war, but most media covering the actual fighting has mostly been highlighting the use of Turkish Drones, American stingers and Javelins (of course those could be British bought american javelins).

I'm trying not to go full conspiracy, but Johnson's government is well known for getting the photo op of them achieving before they actually do it. For example the UK Australia Trade deal was announced as a done deal in June to save Boris from the disaster that was the G7 summit at the time, but the actual deal didnt happen til December.

And like I said a lot of news stories tend to be framed in terms of what the UK 'will' send to Ukraine X or Y, or will give Poland challenger tanks so they can give Ukraine their T 72 tanks.

Not the right thread, but.

There is a lot of anecdotal but consistent (and verified) evidence on social media (Telegram, Twitter mostly) of UK hardware in Ukraine, from the most-publicised NLAWs to much more obscure armoured 4x4s and, most recently, state-of-the-art Brimstone AT systems. I do believe that the Brits are delivering on the hardware front. Most others as well, e.g. Australian and Dutch APCs, US M777 howitzers, Swedish AT launchers (…)

As ancapailldorcha just posted, the real-life combat-use data accumulating in Ukraine for each of these weapons and other khaki hardware must be worth its weight in solid platinum, for weapons manufacturers and dealers. Sod politics, for them it’s worth sending the stuff over free of charge just to see if and how well it works, then how to tweak it better.

Sales reps at weapon exhibitions will be having the time of their commercial life in months and years to come…well, for western arms manufacturers, that is.

It wouldn't matter how many ukrainens we shelter or how hard the Brits make it- ukraine thinks more of the Uk- thanks to British weapons - than us

The view from Washington:

A welcome contribution which will hopefully concentrate minds in London.

The big whole in their entire argument is that they are arguing that the new border is creating these massive problems, which in the case of NI will lead to instability. But of course that raises the very question of what the raising of barriers across the entire economy will do? If it is so bad going from GB to NI, aren't the same problems (paperwork, form filling etc) going to be replicated agains the whole of the UK?

The screws can be turned by compliance, for example if a NI company decides to act as a conduit for passing GB goods into the EU without the proper certs then they risk permanent access if they're caught by spot customs checks along the border. Retailers in the republic who try to sell on this contraband risk penalties too.

So overall it's probably just going to be low scale smuggling for car boot sales in the republic. Customs checks don't just happen at borders.