The Brexit Thread

[Ginger Yellow]

Zing:

https://twitter.com/MarkDiStef/status/996769130958278658/

[Tubby Isaacs]

Global Britain latest.

Three and a half thousand scientists, engineers, health and technology specialists from outside the EU were refused UK employment visas between December and March, as government immigration restrictions on skilled workers intensified.

Releasing the results of a Freedom of Information request to the Home Office, the Campaign for Science and Engineering said 6,080 applications from skilled overseas workers living outside the EU and wanting to take up UK jobs were refused visas over the four month period.

This was because a cap on the number of so-called tier 2 visas — granted by the Home Office based on a points system designed to measure qualifications — had been reached.

https://www.ft.com/content/a61d908a-...2-d6ceb45fa9d0

[ad hoc]

Absolutely superb

https://twitter.com/mc_hankins/status/996453017737187330?s=19

Click through the thread

[Diable Rouge]

Foster leaving the door open for the Customs Union?

https://amp.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/n...mpression=true

[ad hoc]

Pride in a UK which ended the slave trade

Is this a thing now? "One of the reasons why the UK is so great is because we behaved like cunts for centuries and then decided to behave a bit less like cunts"

[Lang Spoon]

It’s definitely a thing. Wiberforce is all over BBC type Britain’s Greatest shite, I’d imagine he’s a tedious glory praise assuage white guilt part of the school curriculum in England as well. Fuckin Denmark abolished it first. The slaves stayed slaves in the Colonies. Tonnes of even relatively modest means Scots has part shares in slaves well past abolition of the trade. Britain can fuck off.

[hobbes]

What do you expect from a country that keeps voting an alcoholic genocidal maniac their greatest ever person?

[Diable Rouge]

Latest proposal - CU alignment until 2023, the Border backstop would be "time-limited" - no dice, Theresa:

https://mobile.twitter.com/DarranMar...63206395170817

[Tubby Isaacs]

2023?

You'd think we ought to have kept Article 50 back till 2021 or something.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

That's just amazing. what do they think will be different about the border in 2023?

[anton pulisov]

I paraphrase somewhat:

Nigel Dodds at PMQs: "when will her majesty's government pay attention to us?"
PM May: "of course we will pay attention to the paddies in due course, now settle down and lets get back to talking about england"

Propping up a government that couldn't give a shit about them.

If they want to extract money and favours from government then it would be much better for them if they joined a true banana republic. Imagine how shiny and smooth the Dungannon motorway could be.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

That was the thing that struck me as so funny about the DUP conservative deal. Everyone in the UK was so upset that the DUP got a whole billion pounds over five years, and the DUP were so proud. That's just such a pathetically small sum of money. That's about 0.01% of uk GDP a year. I mean fucking hell.

[Diable Rouge]

Leo's patience is on the brink of snapping:

https://www.independent.ie/business/...-36916170.html

[Ginger Yellow]

FT saying BoJo is on board with this prolonged customs union plan, which is described as continuing to apply the common external tariff across the UK. No mention of what happens re regulatory alignment. Also not clear if this is time-limited (with time-limited backstop) as previously suggested.

[Ginger Yellow]

Meanwhile, the European Ombudsman has some things to say about the Council. I did think this was rather quaint though:

“This hopefully will get us away of the blaming Brussels culture,” she added. “I don’t think any of us can imagine a minister in our own member states going on to a TV or radio station and being asked directly about a measure they were taking in domestic setting, and the minister replying ‘No I’m not telling you, I’m keeping it secret.’”

Clearly she has not met David Davis.

[Diable Rouge]

May: UK to leave customs union in 2020, and have independent trade policy then. Will also publish "own fallback position" on Irish border:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics...-politics-live

[Ginger Yellow]

FT now saying it's official. The "independent trade policy" seems to basically be a lie, if you believe the article.

Mrs May, speaking at an EU summit in Sofia, suggested that the UK would still be able to have its own “independent trade policy”, though it will be unable to negotiate different tariffs with countries that already have a deal with the EU.

On the most generous reading, this is one of those "we won't do X because we'll have a trade agreement which obviates the need for it" comments.

[Diable Rouge]

That's paywalled, but presumably this RTE article is broadly similar - Varadkar has gently nudged them towards CU alignment, and is now attempting the same with the Single Market:

https://www.rte.ie/amp/964206/?__twi...mpression=true

[ad hoc]

I know Tubby hates Chakrabortty, but this is article succinctly nails it for me https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...yths-austerity

[Nefertiti2]

How can anyone hate Chakrabortty?

[Ginger Yellow]

Eurosceptic Tory MPs on Thursday demanded a briefing. “It’s just one delay after another and no one’s telling us what’s happening,” said one.

Now they know how the public feels.

[Guy Profumo]

Owen Patterson "Rats < Brexit < Badgers"


Official: https://www.spectator.co.uk/2018/05/...n-do-anything/

[Crusoe]

For some time now I've suspected May would actually quite like to be voted out of power just so she doesn't have to deal with any more with this monumental mess. That she's just hanging in and going through the motions until her government or her personal tenure ends. Wouldn't solve the problem for anyone else in the country, of course.

[E10 Rifle]

I dunno. Seems like she's determined to cling on come what may.

[Tubby Isaacs]

She's hardly clinging on seeing she's just done quite well in the local elections and Labour have led one poll out of the last eighteen.