Brexit discussion thread XIV (Please read OP before posting)

Obviously yes, but now there's two distinct queues for EU/eea citizens entering schengen, and the other new queue for everyone else.

They had scanners in the other lane I hadn't seen before whereas we passed through with just a quick scan of our passport card as before.

From what I could see the UK queue had to scan their passport and wait for photo scan of their face to match.

I've seen them before entering Australia and it can be a slow process.

He very pro EU before and after the vote. Its definitely an over the top play for the red wall.

He is right that there is no going back to the SM any time soon at least so that then makes it hard to say going back is good at the same time.

Historians will have a field day with the last six years.

My own theory is that the archaic UK political system and lack of a constitution simply couldn't cope with all the bad players that emerged : that spiv Cameron and his utter sham of a referendum, Boris Johnson, the Brexiteers in general, the right wing press and their billionaire owners. The system was dependent on there being decent and honourable people in politics : once the frauds and the shysters came along with their right wing populism and xenophobia, the whole thing fell apart.

Indeed, saying that the Single Market would not boost economic growth is a downright lie and very hard to justify.

Also, there is a danger that even if he was to try and pivot towards Europe if he was PM, people could say "Hang on, you said such and such before the election i.e. that were no benefits to Single Market access and no benefits to freedom of movement". That's why I'm puzzled at those who say it's quite okay for Starmer to lie for the next two years and pretend to be a hardcore Brexiteer to get elected and then somehow magic all this away once he's in power. Wouldn't that mean him being elected under false pretences in fact?

I totally get the strategy and the reasoning behind it all. But it still strikes me as a tad risky - if he says for two years flat that the Single Market has no benefits at all for the UK and that he's opposed to freedom of movement, he may be creating a rod for his back. The right wing media can simply play back these clips and claim he was a liar who was elected under false pretences.

The difference is that the EU is a huge market for EV batteries, much larger than the UK. So, despite state subsidisation, the EU is unlikely to end up with a single battery producer in a monopoly position; there are already (I think) four battery producers in the EU, and there is scope for several more.

…and then, in a Brexit context, this happened, perhaps to the surprise of not many on here:

So, err, that’s pretty much that, where UK EVs and batteries are concerned - and FDI prospects for same.

What a load of absolute shte.

The only people who wanted to exclude the UK are the people who voted for Brexit. They literally officially voted to exclude themselves.

Nice to play the China angle. I suppose you will be lumping us in with the Putin supporting nurses next 🤣

How does the UK becoming a leader in Batteries help us or anyone else in the EU? They are as outside the EU as China and as they showed during Covid are not in the mindset of working with the EU on anything.

If the UK become the leader in that, you can be certain that they will use that to get advantages over the EU (and quite rightly too). So it is imperative that the EU look internally and not be reliant on China, the UK or anyone else. The recent Ukraine invasion has shown up the danger of relying on Russia for Gas, it leads to having to make some very uncomfortable decisions.

What the EU has done very successfully over the last 40 years is use the combined power of all the countries to give them greater power and security than the individual countries would have.

What's the difference between the UK and China for the EU ?

I have been a reader of this thread since Moses came down the mountain with his i iPads (sorry,tablets) and I haven’t seen anywhere the EU wanting the UK back as a member.