The 'EU money' we have lost (again)

I suppose I ought to cover these signs of growing nagging in the Remainer camp. There have been a few of them lately.

This one is fairly easy to deal with, beginning with the old myth that the EU gave us money.It also begins with a big scarey headline although the story gets much more complicated for anyone with the stamina to read on:

UK ministers pledged to match EU funds after Brexit. How’s that going?

Delays to new programmes have affected support for vulnerable people, ‘throwing the baby out with the bathwater’

In recent years, two flagship EU programmes were a lifeline for communities across the UK. The European regional development fund (ERDF) and the European social fund (ESF) poured €10.8bn (£9.26bn) into roads, factories and social inclusion projects including further education colleges and into places such as Wales, north-east England, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly – paying for everything from carpentry workshops for blind people to an upgrade of Hayle harbour in Cornwall to facilitate an offshore windfarm.

The ERDF sank capital into everything from new roads to university facilities, business hubs and sports centres in economically deprived regions, while the ESF skills training, back to work schemes and other projects helped those “furthest” from jobs.

...ministers pledged to match EU funding for the duration of the parliament, setting up the UK shared prosperity fund (UKSPF) last December promising that the government, rather than Brussels, would choose where money was spent – part of the Brexit dividend.

But it hasn’t turned out like that; in Wales, people speak of a cliff edge in funding that has caused “despair” and “disappointment” [Wales and Scotland seem to be the main complainers -- funny that]

Hundreds of voluntary organisations have had to shut up shop or end support programmes for the most vulnerable in society because of government delays in replacing EU funding, it has emerged.

Getting to details, though:

the EU-funded £15m sports centre is still an eye-catching monolith in the former steel town of Ebbw Vale, where 62%, the highest percentage in Wales, voted to leave.[but] They wanted jobs, not sports centres, the town lamented back in 2016. 

The government pledged to keep splashing the cash to replace the EU programmes until 2025 and in December announced £2.6m had been earmarked for its long-awaited replacement scheme, the UKSPF, which would “turbo charge levelling-up” and give “local leaders greater say in how the money is spent”.

But the announcement, welcome as it finally was, was too late for “hundreds of organisations”.... the problem that we have with the UK shared prosperity fund is that all that experience is being lost.”[because] the eight-month delay is crippling projects 

And, right at the end of a fairly long article:

The UK received the equivalent of £1.35bn a year under the old system. ['received back' that should be,of course] December’s announcement accounts for just under £870m on average a year, but the government has pledged to ramp up the UKSPF funding to £1.5bn by 2024-25....The UKSPF was the only fund that explicitly replaces EU funding, but Cornwall, for instance, reckons it is getting the equivalent of EU funding when two other government funds are included....

Analysis of the UKSPF allocations by local authority and nation shows there is money for everywhere, not just the deprived areas.

“Every place in the UK has been allocated a share of the UKSPF, with even the smallest places receiving at least £1m. This recognises that even the most affluent parts of the UK contain pockets of deprivation and need support,” the government said in its prospectus....It added that under the spending plans, “England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are all receiving at least as much as they did before”, while “local councils and local partners will have the opportunity to adapt each plan to reflect new economic priorities over the period to 2025”....The big advantage of the post-Brexit scheme, said Gardner, is that it is the council, not a Brussels deprivation metric, that determines where the money goes.

 

 

Did Brexit cause Megxit? Does anyone care?

 More details in the Times

Although the couple do not talk about Brexit in the Netflix documentary, commentators in the programme make the link between racism and the vote to leave the EU. Harry talked about “unconscious bias” in the royal family and “racist undertones” in media coverage.

The imagery used in the programme includes clips of a Brexit protest and Boris Johnson promising to “take back control of the country”.

The historian and author David Olusoga provides commentary that the pair’s relationship was “embedding itself in a nation having a pretty toxic debate about the European Union”. James Holt, executive director of their Archewell Foundation, called the 2016 referendum a “perfect storm that gave credence to jingoism and nationalism”.

Lord Frost, who was Brexit minister under Johnson, said the link “resurrects the tired old criticism that our decision to leave the EU was driven by racism and even asserts that such attitudes worsened the pressures on their marriage”. He added: “This smear just does not stand up to examination.” He told the Daily Mail the couple were “either ignorant of the real facts or making deliberately incorrect claims for political reasons”.

Elsewhere

Serving as their proxy, Hirsch rejected the established purpose of the modern Commonwealth since its founding in 1949 as “the free association of its independent member nations” to promote good government, education, economic development, environmental policies and human rights. Instead, she offered a malevolent and wholly inaccurate view. The Commonwealth was nothing less than a “privileged club” that she called “Empire 2.0”. She said its purpose was to extract wealth from former colonies and keep them “inter-generationally poor”. It was an astonishing repudiation not only of Charles but the legacy of his late mother.

In the Daily Mail (sorry),Lord Frost is quoted at slightly more length:

'All opinion surveys show that Britain is an unusually welcoming country to people of all backgrounds, has among the lowest levels of racism in Europe, and is most positive about diversity [certainly the EU's own one does -- see Briefings for Brexit or this blog passim]

He went on: 'Polling at the time of the Brexit vote shows that the real reason for the decision to leave was a wish to restore self-government and the sovereignty of our institutions, concepts about which one might have expected members of our thousand-year-old Royal Family to have a greater understanding and empathy.'

Megxit and Brexit

 Among the guests on the Harry'n'Meghan Netflix lovein were Graun stalwarts Afua (call me Afwah, you racist!) Hirsch and D Olusoga. Both have appeared in this specific blog, Hirsch most spectacularly for saying in the run up to the Referendum that one(!) black man she had spoken to had predicted the return of Teddy Boys running through the streets beating up black people .

Olusoga has produed some very good work on the history of slavery in the UK and traced the massive amounts of compensation paid to British families after the trade was stopped. Since then he has been an enthusiastic member of the lobby that sees racism as everywhere, in all sorts of subtle and covert forms, in microaggressions like raised eyebrows, nods, winks, glances and questions like 'Where do you come from?'  It has been developed by Black Lives Matter and its academic wing Critical Race Theory and is currently very popular, strong enough to affect the content of some academic journals in fact. 

The Netflix documentary was apparently awash with that perspective although I didn't watch it. As a supporting act on the Netflix piece, Olusoga's remarks concerned British racism. The Graun misses the specific chance to link the two issues, and the only item I coud find on Hirsch's contribution was a piece by Olusoga in the Graun in 2017) on the phrase 'Empire 2.0' which Hirsch used in the documentary ( but did not invent -- they just take in each other's washing):

 Whitehall officials had described plans for Britain’s post-Brexit trading relationship with the Commonwealth as “Empire 2.0"

The Graun today offers a general review, which follows most of the British press in seeing the 3-hour documentary as overblown, but recommends:

3. David Olusoga and Afua Hirsch should present a show about the British empire

By far the most enjoyable parts of the series have been the bits where Harry and Meghan leave David Olusoga and Afua Hirsch to give us a potted run-through of the British empire. In these parts, the weird reality-show pity-party vibe gives way to something much more meaty. We hear about British slavery, and how much of it was controlled by the royal family. We hear about the Commonwealth, and how it’s really just a last-ditch effort to cling to past glories. We see old colonial relics that line the palaces of the UK. What’s fascinating is that Harry doesn’t seem to be entirely onboard with the notion; there are times where he speaks fondly of “travelling halfway across the Commonwealth” as if he thinks it’s the entire world. But anyway, a whole show like this, unvarnished and contemporary, would be tremendous.

Returning to the missed links with Brexit, according to the Spectator:

Probably the most amusing part of the series is the insinuation that somehow the vote to leave the EU in 2016 was linked to criticism of the couple. A grim-faced Harry says the series is not ‘just about our story’, adding: ‘This has always been much bigger than us’.

Academic David Olusoga then says, unchallenged, that the ‘fairy tale’ of Harry and Meghan was ’embedding itself in a nation that is having a pretty toxic debate about the European Union.’ He continues that ‘immigration was at the absolute centre’ of that debate, and that ‘immigration is very often in this country a cipher for race’, followed by a series of clips of Brits making racist comments.

 

 

 

Remainerism still breathing...

Latest Graun prod in the creeping campaign to do something Remainerish -- Swiss deal? Norway again?Full rejoin?

Brexit has worsened shortage of NHS doctors, analysis shows

Exclusive: More than 4,000 European medics have chosen not to work in NHS since Britain left EU, data reveals

 

Official figures show the NHS in England alone has vacancies for 10,582 physicians.[That is,overall] ...Britain has 4,285 fewer European doctors than if the rising numbers who were coming before the Brexit vote in 2016 had been maintained [NB!] since then, according to analysis by the Nuffield Trust health thinktank which it has shared with the Guardian....a “slowdown” in medical recruitment from the EU and the EFTA quartet [NB!] of Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Lichtenstein....longstanding [NB!] doctor shortages – anaesthetics, children, psychiatry, and heart and lung treatment – failing to keep up with a demand for care heightened by Covid and an ageing population [NB].

Not just EU medics then, but a general shortage, a 'slowdown' which includes EFTA countries, a background of 'longstanding shortages', and a 'heightening' due to Covid and an ageing population.

The background is the general campaign to reintroduce cheap migrant labour from the EU that has bubbling under for a while:

The findings come amid calls from business leaders for ministers to rethink how immigration into Britain works to help overcome economy-wide labour shortages. These have deepened in recent years, partly as a result of the UK ending automatic free movement for EU nationals. The Confederation of British Industry has been particularly vocal in that demand.

While we are here:

Brexit has had a far more damaging effect on the NHS’s ability to hire nurses from the EU. While 9,389 nurses and midwives who had trained in the bloc came to work in Britain in 2015-16, only 663 did so in 2021-22, data released by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) in May showed. However, that dramatic drop has been offset by a huge rise in the number of those professionals coming from the rest of the world, notably India and the Philippines, the regulator said

This has been discussed before,and another factor was the increased number of jobs available in the bloc as their economies picked up

Research published in March 2021 * found Brexit had left many European doctors already in the UK feeling unwelcome, alienated and insecure about their future working lives in Britain....A spokesperson said: “This analysis is inaccurate and we don’t recognise or agree with its key conclusions. We are making significant progress in training and recruiting a record number of nurses, doctors and healthcare professionals. There are over 9,000 more nurses working in the NHS and there are over 26,000 more hospital doctors now than in 2016.”

 * The research is a beauty:

Fifty-nine doctors participated in the questionnaire with 52 (88.1%) providing one or more responses to the three free-text questions. Twenty-seven doctors provided answers to all three free-text questions (51.9% of included sample). Thematic analysis was used to analyse this qualitative data. 

Brexit was reported by the majority of participants to have a profound impact, although some respondents felt it was too soon to assess the potential consequences. Five themes emerged including: feeling unwelcome in the UK, Brexit as racism, uncertainty on legal ability to work, strain on relationships, and in contrast, a current lack of concern about Brexit.

It seems that those who reported feeling unwelcome etc were picking up on rumours and bad news circulated by, among others the BMC,who announced that:

The Leave campaign ran heavily on anti-immigration messages that consequently resulted in legitimising existing xenophobia and an increase in hate crime around the time of the referendum [34, 35]. Such sentiments, by both the population and politicians such as labelling Europeans as ‘queue jumpers’ [36] has created a sense of othering and hence threatens the cultural component of national identiy [12, 37, 38].

Looking at the actual data

Most of the respondents were pro-Remain '96.1% reported having the position for Britain to Remain in the European Union at the vote in 2016'

The most commonly expressed perspective across the sample was no longer feeling welcome in the UK (n = 20/52; 38.5%): “Got the message- I am no longer welcome here”. This included description of a change in mentality within the British over time against Europeans:

39% overall expressed this perspective -- not even half of this miserable sample of Remainers

Doctors (n = 7/52; 13.5%) explicitly described Brexit as indicative of racism within the UK where Brexit was perceived to reflect racist ideology

14% then. Seven overall! That doesn't stop the authors saying that

Although our study did not pose specific questions on racism, we found that respondents discussed the link between Brexit and racism, unprompted by us, suggesting that further research in this area is necessary

And

Some doctors (n = 9/49; 18.4%) described their future working life in the UK to be insecure and uncertain.

A slightly larger number -- still a minority:

A common theme (n = 11/52; 21.2%) was the strain that the Brexit vote and its’ aftermath had taken on doctors’ relationships. 

Perhaps like many Remainers they were shocked and upset that the working classes had not listened to them? Meanwhile:

eight participants (n = 8/52; 15.4%) described themselves as not being concerned on the effects of Brexit on their lives 

Even by these pathetic results, this is still a larger percentage than described Brexit as indicative of racism, yet there seems to be no call for necessary further research in this area.

Presumably, they got their headline claim -- that 'Brexit was reported by the majority of participants to have a profound impact', by adding up the minorities reporting seperate impacts to sum to an overall 'profund impact'.

 

A Will Hutton Observer column turns back the clock as if it were still ticking

Will Hutton in the Observer never lets go ...

Whisper it, but it was the folly of Brexit that paved the way for Truss’s crazy libertarian zeal

Instead of a stimulus to growth, Britain faces intense economic and social dislocation and ongoing stagflation. Austerity is back, this time on an epic scale....Whisper it – this is where Brexit has inexorably led. There is no Brexit that can work congruent with deeply held British values, beliefs and economic interests. [known only to the right sort of people, of course].  A democratic vote has transmuted into a rightwing coup, culminating in a destructive libertarian programme, an attempt to shrink a state the right considers bloated, to eliminate the last remnants of regulation, to try to drive taxes down, however vital to sustain public services. All in the name of “liberating enterprise” and forcing “self-reliance” on what the Brexit right consider a lazy, cushioned workforce. The line from Brexit to last week’s debacle is straight and obvious.

The old hatreds are still there even though Truss hardly represents the upper classes: 

the EU became a source of law that did not originate in the House of Commons, which exists in rightwing circles to confer prerogative power to the English upper class via the Tory party. 

The old elements can be stirred in again as well, slightly updated to include beastly striking unionists

This was a minority preoccupation – until immigration jumped in salience. Suddenly, the prospect emerged of an alliance between English libertarian toffs and an elderly, white working class. Add the malevolent genius of Nigel Farage, together with plausible Brexiters on the left, like the charismatic RMT boss Mick Lynch, and the rest is history.

No mention of Boris. One new input appears in the mix: 'American libertarians, so influential on the British right'

Hutton wants to remind us what we have missed, as if nothing has happened:

EU membership was an unacknowledged boon ...Our regions were propped up by generous EU funding [Still! That old myth!! The original Brexit lie!!]

So what can be done? Well, we must elect Labour next time but also:

The UK must join the customs union; and it must align with EU rules and regulations in sector after sector...Truss will attend the first meeting of the European Political Community in Prague this week, championed by President Macron, to discuss European defence and energy security...The long, slow march back to where Britain belongs now begins – into the heart of Europe.

 

New PM, old threats

 In the graun today, an old refrain:

EU warns next PM unilateral action on Brexit deal is of ‘great concern’

European Commission vice-president, Maroš Šefčovič, says it is ‘legally and politically inconceivable’

Truss and Sunak have both committed to carrying through with the Northern Ireland protocol bill in their leadership campaigns, despite the threat of a retaliatory trade war with the EU.

Šefčovič said the two agreements the UK has with the EU were founded on “trust” and depended on “legally binding commitments being respected”....He added: “This is simply legally and politically inconceivable. The clear breach of international law is extremely damaging to mutual trust and respect between the EU and the UK.”

 For we nostalgics, there is a familiar argument again:

 Šefčovič said the UK had failed to engage with proposals the EU made in October or the prospect of further compromises beyond those plans. “In short they were dismissed without consideration. The UK has not even engaged in any meaningful discussions with us since February,” he said.

The Northern Ireland secretary, Shailesh Vara, indicated on Friday that there would be no pulling back.

 

Liz rallies Brexit faction, says Graun smear

I doubt if she needs the support, if the polls are right, and the Graun may only be making a last bid to prop up Sunak with this:

Liz Truss may trigger article 16 days after becoming PM, amid Brexit row

Tory frontrunner understood to have received new advice about emergency clause as Northern Ireland legal deadline looms

 

The foreign secretary and Tory leadership frontrunner is understood to have received fresh advice from trade and legal experts about invoking the emergency clause contained in the post-Brexit deal...The deadline for doing so is 15 September – 10 days after the next prime minister will be announced...With a lengthy parliamentary battle expected over the Northern Ireland protocol bill, a senior Truss ally quoted in the Financial Times described the triggering of article 16 as a “stopgap” until the legislation is passed.

Truss’s antipathy towards the protocol has grown in recent days, after British steel producers were told they would have to pay a 25% tariff to sell some construction products into Northern Ireland....The UK government [also] claimed the EU was causing serious damage to research and development in both the UK and EU member states, with Britain frozen out of the science research programme Horizon; Copernicus, the Earth observation programme, which provides data on climate change; Euratom, the nuclear research programme; and space surveillance and tracking

 The GHuran turns to a well-known Parliamentary democrat for a counter:

the Sinn Féin MP for North Belfast, [who] said “reckless threats” to trigger article 16 were evidence of the UK government’s “total disregard for the democratic wishes of people and businesses here”.He said the protocol was supported by most people, companies and elected politicians in the Northern Irish assembly, but the Conservatives had tried fiercely to undermine it. Finucane urged Truss to “get back to the table with the EU to give certainty and stability to our businesses".

 

Ancient Remainer urges Labour U-turn on its U-turn

The Observer today carries an item from a real Labour yesterday's man, one R Hattersley, perhaps to serve as a Starmer kite?

Brexit is a flop, and the voters know it. So why can’t Labour call for a closer bond with Europe?

There was, Hattersley says, a recent suggestion that:

a Labour government should attempt to negotiate some form of customs union with the single market – a prospect of economic expansion so exciting that even the announcement that talks were being considered would stimulate a sudden surge in capital investment.

But Starmer rejected it: 'Labour pronounced Brexit wrong in principle one year and promised “to make it work” the next.'

Hattersely is still, er, unrepentant:

Brexit is a flop. And the voters know it. The opinion polls show both increasing regret that we left the EU and mounting disapproval of the way the government has managed withdrawal. This is not the time for Labour to talk of making Brexit work. It is time to expose its failure and to offer a radical alternative – a closer working relationship with the EU.

Then some excellent weaselling to try to do a KitKat! Will they never tire?:

That is not to argue that the outcome of the 2016 referendum can be ignored. Democracy demands it be respected, notwithstanding the fraudulent claims made by Brexiters. But the decision of a one-day referendum cannot determine a nation’s long-term destiny, as Brexiters must agree. Otherwise, they would have accepted that the argument ended in 1975, when Britain voted by more than two votes to one to remain in the Common Market. In any event, today the European argument is about partnership, not membership.

God save us!

Britain would have to give something in exchange and the first concession would have to be agreement to a measure of European immigration into Britain... It is taken for granted in every negotiation, as it was in the discussion of the deal with India.

 'A measure' -- but that would mean full rights of entry again, the 'four freedoms' and all that, with all that that implies?

Anyway, let's end with a good old hurrah:

It falls to the Labour party to keep the flame of European unity burning bright in Britain. Fortunately, it is possible to combine support for that noble aim in partnership with a hard-headed economic policy of promoting trade and increasing growth.

 

Still unsure about travel but a new appeal -- to the shootin' set

The Observer recycles the earlier Graun story with the same indecisive results:

Travel chaos is ‘the new normal’ after Brexit, British tourists are warned

...a fierce diplomatic row erupted with France over the lengthy tailbacks affecting Dover....Former chancellor Rishi Sunak said the French “need to stop blaming Brexit and start getting the staff required to match demand”. Foreign secretary Liz Truss said she was in touch with her French counterparts, blaming a “lack of resources at the border”.

However, diplomats, French officials and border staff warned that the delays were a result of post-Brexit border arrangements struggling to cope in their first major test since Britain left the EU.

And then the story repeats what we were told earlier in the Graun (post below) about the possibility of passport checks being automated but biometric checks requiring people to step out of their vehicles etc

Elsewhere in the Observer, they seem to be really scraping the barrel and appealing to a constituency they have never engaged before, surely:

Game over for UK shooting season as bird flu and Brexit take a heavy toll

At least 93 gamekeepers have been made redundant so far this year and some shoots are likely to go bankrupt, according to Dominic Boulton, former chair of the Game Farmers’ Association and now its policy adviser....The initial signs of disruption came at the end of February when the first case of bird flu was discovered in the Loire valley.

After avian flu is detected on a farm, the birds are culled and 30 days later the farmer can start trading birds domestically – which for French farmers means within the EU. But international exports must wait for 90 days, under World Organisation for Animal Health guidelines adopted into UK and EU law.

The National Gamekeepers’ Organisation (NGO) campaigned for the government to create special licences allowing imports before the 90 days were up. After weeks of negotiations, ministers reached an agreement with the EU for a “bespoke arrangement”, but not France.

But then the Observer dries its tears for gamekeepers and owners of shoots (sorry --game farmers) and notes, in another curiously Freudian admission of doubt (I can't believe it is 'balance'):

“Even if we were still in the EU and operating under the 30-day rule, we would still have been in trouble,” Boulton said

 

 

 

Guardina nearly back to old liberalism -- ie can't make its mind up

An unusual seemingly non-dogmatic (or was it indecisive) headline in the Guardian today, but the rest of the piece looks like it was written by two people,one an optimist and one  apessimist

Kent travel chaos: is there a fix and should Brexit take the blame?

What is to blame?

In short, the big increase in post-pandemic travel combined with Brexit passport checks...

What happened at the weekend?

The port of Dover experienced a fivefold increase in car numbers year on year....on Friday it said it handled 11,000 cars, up from 1,200 on the equivalent Friday in 2021....On Saturday it handled just under 12,000 cars, compared with 2,400 this time last year, and 10,000 cars on Sunday compared with 1,900 on the equivalent Sunday in 2021....

Was Dover prepared?

Yes. The Dover chief executive, Doug Bannister, told LBC it was “absolutely true” that Brexit was to blame for the extreme delays caused by a new requirement to stamp British passports....The port had been preparing for months for the increase in traveller numbers but said it was let down by unexpected French border staff shortages....The French said there was a technical issue in the tunnel, which delayed their staff getting to Britain....By lunchtime on Friday the full complement of French staff were on site but by then the queueing had got “out of control” and Dover had a huge task to make up for lost time.

Back to normal at the foot of the column though:

Is Brexit to blame?

To a large degree, yes....[but read what you just said above fer Chrissake!] Criticising the French, as Truss did, was to deny the consequences of the hard Brexit the UK Conservative government fought for and won.

 But what of the future, assuming we do not rejoin?

Was the bottleneck caused by passport checks preventable?

Yes. The government rejected the port of Dover’s request for a £33m chunk of a Brexit infrastructure fund in 2020 to, among other things, double the capacity for French passport checks. It got just £33,000 instead.

Will passport checks be automated in future?

Yes. And there are plans in place for an electronic visa waiver system, called the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS), similar to the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) in the US

However:

Biometric checks could require passengers to get out of their cars to go through an airport-style facial recognition barrier or fingerprint checks....Both Eurotunnel and the port of Dover warned that this was both a danger for drivers and passengers but also that there was no room for the extra biometric booths.

However again, and flip-flopping back once more

John Keefe, the head of public affairs at Getlink, the owner of Eurotunnel, told the BBC that one of the issues was that all the traffic was coming down one motorway, the M2, but significant improvements could be made if the A2, the old road to Dover, was upgraded to a dual carriageway to the port.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Queues? Bien fait por vous!

 According to the Observer:

Travel chaos is ‘the new normal’ after Brexit, British tourists are warned

Anger over lack of cash for Dover upgrade as Tory candidates vie to blame France for delays

Both Tory leadership candidates rushed to blame a shortage of French border staff for delays that saw some travellers waiting for hours....However, diplomats, French officials and border staff warned that the delays were a result of post-Brexit border arrangements struggling to cope in their first major test since Britain left the EU...New rules require all passports to be checked – a pressure that a series of experts regarded as the biggest factor that could not easily be fixed. Clément Beaune, the French transport minister, said yesterday that he was cooperating with transport secretary Grant Shapps to ease the issues, but added: “France is not responsible for Brexit.”...Pierre-Henri Dumont, a Les Républicains MP whose constituency includes Calais, told Sky News: “Because of Brexit, we need to have more checks on passports. We need to stamp every passport. We need to have checks on who is coming into the European Union.

“The shortage of French border force officials is a short-term, tactical problem,” said [a former ambassador to France] . “The long-term, serious issue is that this is the first time we’ve seen the full pressure on the border after Brexit. Even if it was a full complement of the French border force there would still be massive delays, because Dover port can’t cope with the volume.

There are now warnings that delays could become even longer with the planned introduction of biometric checks, under the EU’s new Entry/Exit System.

 I am sure French business will welcome the hsotility that will be felt by British tourists in turn.

Meanwhile in another story, a businessman writes:

Hermann Hauser, founder of Arm: ‘Brexit is the biggest loss of sovereignty since 1066’

Hauser is in big negotiations at the moment over the location of hisvarious important hi-tec concerns, and there have been several occasions on which Arm has appeared in stories about the Government and Brexit:

 [Arm's] future is deeply uncertain, amid concerns it will list on New York’s stock market, loosening its UK roots. The company has halted work on a dual listing in the UK, the Financial Times reported last week. That would be a major blow to Downing Street, which has lobbied hard for a London listing.

Hauser, now a venture capital investor in a series of UK tech companies, sold his shareholding in Arm in 2016 when it was bought by Japan’s SoftBank, but he is an outspoken advocate of it retaining its status as an independent company, and a UK tech champion.

American chip designer Nvidia tried to buy Arm in 2020, which “would have been an absolute disaster”, he says, speaking from his Cambridge office. He is in favour of an initial public offering that allows a diverse shareholder base to take minority investments and keep Arm as the “Switzerland of the semiconductor industry”, able to work with anyone....Arm is actually a great national asset. And probably the only company in the UK that has global relevance in the technology space.”

 

 

 

Boris has gone - but not struggles with the EU

For a while there was hope that Boris's defenestration would end proper Brexit because he was seen as the majopr impetus behind it (not Little Englandism or racism after all). That went with the return of the sly creeping 'wisdom' that all along everyone really knew that hard Brexit was an impossible dream and now we would just have to get on and negotiate a more sensible arrangement with the EU -- Norway, say, or even Rejoin.Poor old K Starmer had announced the abandonment of Labour commitments to either just the day before Boris mounted the windowsill.

There might be a slight setbck with that after the election contest for a new leader, which let the Brexiteers flex their muscles, since there seems to be renewed determination to scrap the Northern Ireland Protocol, not good news for the sly realists:

Truss vows to scrap remaining EU laws by end of 2023 risking ‘bonfire of rights’

Hundreds of laws covering employment and environmental protections could disappear overnight if Liz Truss becomes prime minister after she promised to scrap all remaining EU regulations by the end of 2023....Her Brexit plan would mean each remaining EU law and regulation would be “evaluated on the basis of whether it supports UK growth or boosts investment”, with those deemed not to do so replaced. Any EU laws not replaced would simply disappear at the end of 2023, just 15 months after Truss potentially takes power in September.

[Even] Sunak has previously said he will appoint a new Brexit minister to go through the remaining EU laws, with instructions for the first set of changes coming within 100 days of him becoming prime minister.

Opposition seems quite justified in some ways -- trade unionists fear it will be an excuse to further scrap rights, civil servants say it will be impossible in the time, or a massive distraction, given the huge number of laws still tor review. Responses naturally  include EU reaction.

EU launches four more legal cases against UK over Northern Ireland protocol

On Wednesday, the Northern Ireland protocol bill cleared the House of Commons at its third reading – the final stage in the Commons – by 267 votes to 195, and will arrive at the Lords in the autumn....

The EU court has the power to impose multimillion-euro daily fines on the UK and its judgments could be the first step towards the bloc taking punitive action through mechanisms within the Brexit deals.

Maroš Šefčovič, the EU’s Brexit commissioner, has not ruled out tariffs being imposed on British goods sold into the EU, describing the terms of the Northern Ireland protocol bill as “illegal”.

Said a Brit spokeserson: 

“It is disappointing to see that the EU has chosen to bring forward further legal action, particularly on goods leaving Northern Ireland for Great Britain which self-evidently present no risk to the EU single market,” the spokesman said.

“A legal dispute is in nobody’s interest and will not fix the problems facing the people and businesses of Northern Ireland. The EU is left no worse off as a result of the proposals we have made in the Northern Ireland protocol bill.

“We will review the EU’s arguments and respond in due course.”

 

 

Johnson stands against new axis

 The Observer tries hard to keep up the momentum:

Germany and Ireland denounce Boris Johnson’s bid to ditch Northern Ireland protocol

Rare joint declaration indicates hardening of EU position on plans that more than 70 Tory MPs failed to vote for

I love the last bit -- more than 70 failed to vote for it, later rephrased as 'more than 70 Tory MPs abstained or were given permission to miss the vote'.

an extraordinary joint denunciation by the Irish and German governments....[nay]...a rare joint statement condemning the UK for “unilaterally breaking an international agreement” [appears]  in the Observer 

Gosh! Unprecedented! On with the arguments...

recent elections to Northern Ireland’s assembly, which delivered a majority of members who back the protocol, showed support for the current arrangements.  

Actually, I am not sure that is so. Certainly the largest party supports the protocol.I'll have to check.

While the UK’s proposals passed their latest parliamentary vote last week, more than 70 Tory MPs abstained or were given permission to miss the vote...Some MPs are already plotting ways to stop the government from deploying the plans, which effectively override the existing agreement. One plan, drawn up by Sir Bob Neill, the chair of the justice committee, would hand parliament a veto over whether or not the new powers in the bill could be deployed.

There is the familiar moral background:

“unilaterally breaking an international agreement”....risks undermining the “rules-based international order” just as the continent is attempting to confront Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine....the EU and UK must stand together as partners with shared values and a commitment to uphold and strengthen the rules-based international order....the UK government’s actions were disrespectful [the last from Varadkar]

 And the usual claims to sainthood:

the EU had been and would continue to be “flexible and creative” to deal with issues that have hampered trade between the region and Great Britain....show the same pragmatism and readiness to compromise that the EU has shown. By working together – in partnership and with mutual respect – common ground can be found and challenges, no matter how difficult, can be overcome.”

 

Softer Brexit now Johnson has gone?

The Guardin is really on an up! Johnson has gone and so no-one supports a 'hard Brexit' any more (or will tell devilish lies to support one).

Collapsing public support suggests Brexit is anything but done

Most people think Brexit has gone badly, a UK survey finds, and Johnson has left behind a mess of problems for a new PM

...recent polling suggests support for Brexit in the UK has collapsed – and the outgoing prime minister’s critics might confidently argue today that Johnson leaves a mess of issues behind rather than the “certainty and stability” that he claimed to have secured 18 months ago.

For all of the talk in 2019 of having struck a great deal, the government has in recent weeks threatened to unilaterally rip up a hard won and crucial agreement over the post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland if the EU does not agree to a fundamental overhaul – despite the Conservative manifesto on which Johnson formed his government committing to no renegotiations.

Meanwhile, the trade deal has left Britain’s fishing communities screaming betrayal, unhappy with their paltry gains and facing expensive barriers to export what they have caught...There has been a “steep decline” in the number of trading relationships Britain has with the EU as small businesses have become bogged down in the new red tape, according to a study by the London School of Economics. The Office for Budget Responsibility, the government spending watchdog, said earlier this year that Brexit “may have been a factor” in the UK lagging behind all other G7 economies in its post-pandemic recovery.

most worrying of all for those who are protective of Johnson’s Brexit legacy is the changing face of public opinion. The latest YouGov poll has found that every region of the UK now believes Brexit was an error, with 55% of those questioned believing that Brexit has gone badly compared with 33% who say it has gone well.

Steady on a bit though...

Few in Westminster, beyond the Liberal Democrats, are suggesting that the UK is poised to rejoin the EU. But the very manner in which Brexit was “done” appears to have left it brittle, the polls suggest. Britain’s relationship with the 27 EU member states remains a stubbornly open question. For those who believe that Britain’s destiny remains as free-wheeling country outside the EU’s single market and customs union, there can be little confidence that anything on that front has been settled.

 

It was always Johnson's fault though:

Those who worked alongside Johnson in government, and in opposition to him at the negotiating table, point to the cause of this mess of issues being not only the substance of what was negotiated but that it was done with a misplaced boosterism....

“He certainly pushed the boundaries of what one could expect a British prime minister to do very, very far,” Riekeles [diplomatic adviser to M Barnier] said. “He negotiated, signed an international agreement and had the House of Commons ratify it one day, only to walk back on it the next.”

Riekeles added: “If the objective was to satisfy an important part of the Conservative party and to tick boxes in terms of Brexit rhetoric, then of course they got that. But not if the aim was to have the best possible relations with the EU and properly get Brexit done – get it done and start a constructive relationship where one works together in a neighbourly way, to address common and global problems. Instead, relations are very complicated, and the cost of that is bigger for the UK than the EU.”

[Barwell,former Chief of Staff for T May]  saidJohnson was the least willing to compromise of all the Brexiters and refused to acknowledge the difficult choices that had to be made over Northern Ireland’s special circumstances, describing the problem as the “tail wagging the dog”....[and he] would be surprised if we rejoined in the medium term but I would be equally surprised if a future government didn’t negotiate a closer deal.”

Brexit, he [Barwell] suggested, is far from done.

Rejoice, rejoice! Hang on though...misery arrived for Graun readers today:

Hummus supplies to dip as weather and Ukraine war cause chickpea shortage

Growers are warning of a global chickpea shortage, endangering supplies of hummus just as barbecue season gets into gear...The price of a range of hummus products in the main British supermarkets has risen by up to 100% since January, according to data supplied to the Guardian by the research group Assosia. 

To be fair (why?), the rag also reports that

Chickpeas are a key source of protein in India and the Middle East, where households are already struggling to cover rising costs of food imports such as wheat.  ...a development which could have serious consequences for countries that rely on the pulses as an essential source of protein.

 

 

Remainer hopes rise as Johnson seems doomed

The media has its cocks in a hoop over the internal collapse of confidence in Johnson, of course, and we might expect to see Remainerish themes re-emerging in any leadership contest. One such might be a vintage kite in the ever-ready Graudian:

UK food exports to EU fell 19% in 15 months after Brexit, show figures

The £2.4bn fall driven by decline in exports of perishable goods due to red tape and costs

The fall was driven by a decline in exports of perishable goods, from British strawberries to cheese.

My God -- we export British strawberries? No wonder there are shortages in Islington when Winbledon is on [see blogs passim]!

The value of food exports to the EU dropped by £2.4bn in the first 15 months after Brexit, according to analysis of HMRC data...Data tracking exports since 1 January 2021, when the Brexit transition year ended, show UK food exports dropped by 19% to £10.4bn in the 15 months to 31 March 2022..This was down from £12.8bn in the previous 15 months, according to the review of the detailed commodity data by Hazlewoods chartered accountancy firm.

I am sure everyone now knows that those 19 months were also months of other serious interruptions to trade, but maybe some people are still likely to  fall for it. However, even el GHraubn comes clean as early as the second para:

However, overall exports, which were hit by the double whammy of Brexit red tape as well as decreased demand in hospitality due to the pandemic in 2021, recovered in the first three months of this year, the figures show....

There might be bad news for Remainers too: 

HMRC official commentary on the first three months of data indicates that exporters are adapting their operations to the new barriers.

And

In the first three months of 2022, exports to the Republic of Ireland jumped by 67% while exports to France rose by 28.5% and the Netherlands 40%....The increase in export to the Netherlands and Ireland could be linked to the energy crisis and the war in Ukraine, with a 50% month-on-month jump in March in exports of mineral fuels to those countries... up £548m (to more than double the value) and £435m (to more than three times the value) respectively.”