Brexit January 2020

[Albert Davis]

Update Daily Brexit News...................

The UK is on the verge of a "new chapter" in its history, Boris Johnson has said, as he promised to "finish the job" by delivering Brexit within weeks.

In his new year message, the prime minister said he hoped the country would "move forward united" after it leaves the EU on 31 January.
He vowed to govern "for everyone", not just those who backed him at the polls. And he said he wanted more prosperity and fairer opportunity to be the hallmarks of a "remarkable" new decade.
Boosting resources for the NHS, improving the UK's infrastructure, tackling violent crime and protecting the environment were among his government's other main priorities for the year ahead, he said.

[Albert Davis]

Brexit and EU enlargement will be priorities during Croatia's six-month presidency of the bloc, Foreign Minister Goran Grlic Radman said Wednesday.

Croatia, the youngest European Union member, has a "lot of work and an important task that we have to do in the best possible way in the interest of all EU members, first of all organization of the relationship between the Union and the United Kingdom," Grlic Radman said.

[Albert Davis]

PM's Senior Aide Dominic Cummings Calls For Civil Service Changes


The PM's senior adviser has called for changes to how government works, saying there are "profound problems" with how decisions are made.
In a blog post, Dominic Cummings said the civil service lacked people with "deep expertise in specific fields".
He said he wanted "weirdos and misfits with odd skills" to apply to work in Downing Street.
But a civil servants' union said the recruitment of experts had been hampered by "pay restraint".

[Albert Davis]

Brexit News


With Brexit now certain to become reality, the UK as we know is sure to undergo significant transformations. On the political front, the recent British elections exemplified a clear split in British society. Although the pro-Brexit Conservative Party of Boris Johnson won the day, the anti-Brexit camp remains considerable but divided. Take the example of Scotland where the anti-Brexit Scottish National Party won by a landslide. This potentially sets up another Scottish referendum.
Then, while Johnson has negotiated a new Brexit arrangement for Northern Ireland, the effectiveness of the plan to prevent a hard border between the British Irish territory and the Republic of Ireland is yet to be tested. What all of this means is that psychologically the UK is no longer one entity. Brexit has fundamentally challenged Britain’s projection of itself in the world. UK can no longer claim to be a champion of liberal values as Brexit was primarily driven by a desire to keep out foreigners and take back control of immigration and UK’s borders.

[Albert Davis]

New year, New Deal And What it Means For NI



The UK will have legally left the EU, but will immediately begin a transition period.
All parts of the UK will continue to follow EU rules and contribute to the EU budget. The trading relationship between the EU and UK will be unchanged during this period.

After Brexit, Northern Ireland will be outside the EU while the Republic of Ireland will remain inside.

But the UK and EU agreed this should not lead to new checks or controls on goods crossing the border between the two parts of Ireland.
To achieve this Northern Ireland will continue to follow EU rules on agricultural and manufactured goods, while the rest of the UK will not.
Additionally, the whole of the UK will leave the EU's customs union but Northern Ireland will continue to enforce the EU's customs code at its ports. This will all mean some new checks and processes for goods moving between Northern Ireland and other parts of the UK.

[Albert Davis]

Boris Johnson to open trade talks with Ursula von der Leyen


Boris Johnson will host the president of the European Commission, Ursula Von Der Leyen, in Downing Street this week as he prepares to take Britain out of the EU at the end of this month, kicking off a race against time to secure a free trade deal.

The prime minister will use the comfortable majority he won at last month’s general election to press his Brexit bill through the House of Commons in three days when MPs return to Westminster on Tuesday.

He is expected to use his meeting with Von Der Leyen to underscore the government’s determination not to extend the transition period, which will mean the UK remains subject to many EU rules and structures until the end of December.

[Albert Davis]

MPs to resume scrutiny of PM's withdrawal deal


MPs will resume scrutiny later of the legislation needed to implement the prime minister's Brexit deal.

Boris Johnson's election victory means the Withdrawal Agreement Bill is set to get through Parliament comfortably, MPs having overwhelmingly backed it at its first stage last month.

The bill covers "divorce" payments to the EU, citizens' rights and customs arrangements for Northern Ireland.
The UK is set to leave the EU on 31 January.

[Albert Davis]

Johnson to tell EU chief that trade deal won't be based on 'alignment'


Labour MPs are currently listening to candidates for the deputy leadership speak at a private hustings organized by the parliamentary Labour party (PLP). One of the candidates is Richard Burgon, the shadow justice secretary, and according to extracts from his speech released by his office, he is saying that he would like to be a campaigning deputy leader in the style of John Prescott.

[Albert Davis]

Why Brexit Stage Two may turn into a rocky ride




"Only as true friends can, I want to be very honest about what lies ahead of us." The words of the new European Commission president as she headed to Downing Street and her first face-to-face meeting with Boris Johnson on Wednesday.

What lies ahead of the EU and UK might, on the surface, appear relatively straightforward.
By the end of this month, both the European and the UK parliaments will have ratified a negotiated divorce deal. As of 1 February, the UK will no longer be an EU member and by the year's end, says Boris Johnson, an ambitious new trade deal will have been negotiated and signed off by both sides.

[Albert Davis]

How people reacted to Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal being passed by MPs



Last night, Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal was finally passed by MPs by 330 votes to 231.

After the result, anti-Brexit activists took to Twitter to react to our country being royally shafted by the Tories.

Former Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron had a very, erm, unique way of describing our political mess – responding to a tweet from Brexiteer Tom Harwood.

[admin]

Brexit will soon have cost the UK more than all of its payments to the EU over the last 47 years put together
Irish society would struggle to contain a decade of centenaries marking significant events that occurred between 1912 and 1923 including the suffrage movement, the 1913 Lockout, the Easter Rising of 1916, the Irish war of independence, the Irish civil war and the foundation of the Irish Free State, was appeased somewhat by the successful commemorations that took place throughout 2016.

[owenmarsden]

Wall Street’s London Outposts Are Braced for Brexit

Wall Street titans have come to dominate London finance. Now they have the most at stake as they face Brexit’s final reckoning -- and with less influence than they are accustomed to.

Banks such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. use London as their base for doing business with European Union clients. Now, they are torn between the impulse to keep a big presence in the financial hub and their frustration at the U.K.’s go-it-alone approach as it prepares to leave the bloc on Friday.

The big U.S. banks have been regularly meeting with officials from the U.K. Treasury to emphasize the importance of winning so-called equivalence from the EU, which would allow them to largely keep their current structure, according to half a dozen bankers who spoke on condition of anonymity. But the U.K. government has expressed determination to forge its own path.

[owenmarsden]

Brexit Officially Unstoppable As European Parliament Ratifies Boris Johnson's Deal.

Nigel Farage’s final speech as an MEP saw him reprimanded for saying his party “just hate the EU” in the wake of a discussion about Auschwitz. His jeering colleagues were told to “put your flags away – you’re leaving” by the chair of the proceedings. Meanwhile mourning Remainer MEPs sang Auld Lang Syne and held aloft scarves bearing the words “always united” as the European Parliament ratified Boris Johnson’s deal in Brussels and Brexit became officially unstoppable.The display came after the parliament marked 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz. Farage described the vote as “the point of no return”. Widely anticipated after Westminster backed the withdrawal agreement earlier this month, it means the UK will leave the EU at 11pm on Friday and British MEPs will effectively lose their jobs. The historic moment, which ends 47 years of Britain’s membership of the bloc, led to emotional scenes in the chamber. Remainers voiced hopes that the UK would rejoin the EU in future and broke into a rendition of the farewell folk song Auld Lang Syne as the vote was declared. Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, led the debate and paid tribute to Britons to the EU, adding “we will always love you and we will never be far” as she bid UK MEPs farewell.“No new partnership will bring back the benefits of being part of the same union but we have the duty to seek the best for the British and for the European people in a post-Brexit world,” she said. “To our British friends and many – perhaps not all – but many of our British MEPs here in the room, I want to use the words of the famous British poet George Eliot.

[Amelie Barrett]

Brexit: What is the transition period?

The UK left the European Union at 23:00 GMT on 31 January, but that is not the end of the Brexit story.That's because the UK has now entered an 11-month period, known as the transition, that keeps the UK bound to the EU's rules. The idea behind the transition period is to give some breathing space to allow new UK-EU negotiations to take place.
These talks will determine what the future relationship will eventually look like. Both sides have already outlined their broad aims, in a 27-page document known as the political declaration.

[Amelie Barrett]

Brexit: What happens now?

The UK left the EU on 31 January 2020 and has now entered an 11-month transition period. During this period the UK effectively remains in the EU's customs union and single market and continues to obey EU rules.

Future trade deal

The first priority will be to negotiate a trade deal with the EU. The UK wants as much access as possible for its goods and services to the EU. But the government has made clear that the UK must leave the customs union and single market and end the overall jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice.

Time is short. The EU could take weeks to agree on a formal negotiating mandate - all the remaining 27 member states and the European Parliament have to be in agreement. That means formal talks might only begin in March.

[rosiebaxter990]

BREXIT FURY: Uk Fishermen ‘first Thrown Overboard’ If Boris Serious About Eu Trade Deal

BRITISH fishermen have been warned they will be "first thrown overboard if Boris Johnson seriously wants to pursue a trade agreement with the EU", as huge pressure grows on the Prime Minister not to sell out the UK fishing in exchange for a favourable post-Brexit agreement with Brussels. Professor Alex de Ruyter, director of the Centre for Brexit Studies at Birmingham City University, warned: “The EU will insist on access to UK fishing waters in addition to level playing field provisions and precursors to any trade agreement.

“The most likely result of failure would be tariffs on UK fishing exports which (unless the UK public discover a vastly increased appetite for langoustines and smoked salmon) would bring the fishing industry to its knees. “Expect UK fishermen to be the first thrown overboard if Johnson seriously wants to pursue a trade agreement with the EU." If the Prime Minister does sacrifice UK fishing in exchange for a more favourable trade deal with the EU, other member states would still have access to UK waters.

[owenmarsden]

EU decision to scrap clock changes after Brexit could affect UK business


An EU decision to scrap seasonal clock changes after Brexit could have implications for the UK, a report has warned. The report, published on Tuesday by a House of Lords sub-committee, said it could leave UK businesses out-of-step with European counterparts. The policy would create time differences of up to three hours with certain EU countries, it pointed out. “From the evidence we heard,” it read, “it was clear that non-alignment could lead to an increase in the time differences between the UK and its EU trading partners, reducing the number of common operating hours for businesses. “Academic studies and anecdotal evidence… suggest that this could pose an obstacle to trade in some sectors.” The Clock changes study, by the Lords’ EU internal market sub-committee, comes ahead of the 1 April deadline for EU member states to decide whether they want to abolish summer and winter clock changes from October next year. The UK government has rejected the prospect of the following suit. However, the report warned the government would be ill-prepared to deal with the changes.

[tracym]

The effects of Brexit will in part be determined by the EU

[tracym]

Then, while Johnson has negotiated a new Brexit arrangement for Northern Ireland, the effectiveness of the plan to prevent a hard border between the British Irish territory and the Republic of Ireland is yet to be tested. What all of this means is that psychologically the UK is no longer one entity.