Tag: Brexit
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Jab Well Done
Interesting that when the UK approved the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, EU honchos scoffed that the approval process had been rushed. Well, they’re not scoffing now, are they? In fact, as of this morning (28 January 2021), they had still not formally approved it. On the commercial front, the UK signed its contract three months before the…
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Inevitabubble
Queues, higher costs, dissatisfied populations, and aggravation. Looks like post-transition Brexit has followed its inexorable path to misery. Or has it? The specific logic arguably suggests otherwise. Millions of EU citizens losing their rights in the UK was not a certainty of Brexit. Additional customs checks at the border with Continental Europe were not set…
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The Wheels on the Bus
While playground politics trundle on, let’s revert to an old favourite and arguably where the present penchant for political misdirection started to grow arms and legs. You’ve got it – the big, red, Brexit bus and those now infamous words: We send the EU £350m a week / let’s fund our NHS instead When Vote…
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Sovereign Notions
Frustrated by the circular arguments of the Brexit debate? Get a rum old sovereignty chaser down your neck for some unrestricted 2020 retrovision and a banging trade deal hangover cure. OK, cure is over-egging it, but it might help with the nausea. While it has been lazily punted about like a scuffed, old, patchy ball,…
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Party Games
A parliamentary vote on the UK-EU trade deal is imminent. If it gets voted down, the UK leaves without a deal. In the real world, a vote means a firm choice. You either want one thing or the other. And if you have no particular desire for either, you go with the lesser of the…
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Pass the Parcel
Well, we didn’t have to wait too long for more hysteria from the bitter ex. The ink is barely dry on the Trade Deal, and the Euro-fringe is frothing. Nobody likes being dumped, particularly the unhinged ones. Erasmus getting kicked to the kerb is neither ‘spiteful‘ nor ‘cultural vandalism’, to quote some of the more…
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Wiping the Slate Clean
The ferocious war of words on the merits of the EU deal has already been gathering pace. A pointless one because the concept of ‘good’ is wholly relative to subjective perspectives and values. But as certain as death and taxes, the mouth-froth preceded any meaningful analysis. Yes – at the point that the crass crescendo…
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Base Graft
We’ve had backstops, level playing fields, hard & soft Brexits and a veritable shower of various other petals of EU word-confetti. The UK has of course added its own: oven-ready, Canada-Plus and Australian terms. All of them designed to label something that their patrons never progress to articulate beyond a one-liner. And now, there is…
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Far Cycle
If there is one concession to be made in these so-called EU negotiations, it is that both sides have an act that they could take on the road. What a masterclass in double-speak and spin-tastic melodrama. Both camps have known for years how this was all going to play out, and it has been one…
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Abstained Character
Now, I do get the concept of abstention. It is a signal to express disdain for both options of a Hobson’s choice. In other contexts, it is a luxury; a risk-free gesture when a vote one way or another changes nothing. It is used as a ploy to avoid confrontation with opposing, warring factions, but…
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