BREXIT

[#1]

@nozzer My original comment was regarding the petition in your link.  If it gets millions of signatures, will we then be arguing that the people who signed it, didn't really understand what they were signing?

[#2]

More than 40 former British ambassadors and high commissioners have written to Theresa May  warning her that Brexit has turned into a “national crisis” and urging her to delay proceedings until the government has greater clarity about Britain’s likely future relationship with Europe. 

Such people should know what they are talking about, more than some with agendas or bees in their bonnets

[#3]

A national crisis?  So 1939-45, and all the other events during the last century alone, were just blips, rehearsals for 2019?

[#4]

More like the Suez Crisis - another Brit fiasco.

[#5]

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@Jonpe wrote:

So 1939-45, and all the other events during the last century alone, were just blips....

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I think you'll find you are the one making that comparison, so you are expecting possibly 450,000 deaths due to Brexit, that the UK will have to borrow large sums of money and have to be supported by something similar to the Marshall plan.

You expect there to be food rationing, poor housing et, interesting. 

Sounds like you are going to be using Brexit as an excuse for the UK woes for the next 70-100 years.

[#6]

Meanwhile, what's Brexit got to do with the price of fish?

A recent documentary about the West Country showed how the introduction if the Brixham Trawler devastated fish stocks.

Today a radio programme was from the fishing port of Peterhead, Scotland, it produced some interesting facts.

That the fishing industry is worth £1bn, it employs 15,000 people, more people work in processing than as fishermen.

Most of the fish landed by British fisherman is exported at a premium price, mainly to Europe.

90% of the fish sold in fish & chip shops doesn't come from UK waters, they come from Iceland, Faroe Islands & Norway because the method used, frozen aboard ship, makes them about half the price of the fresh exported fish.

It confirmed my suspicions that most fish consumed in the UK comes from foreign waters.

[#7]

The spokesperson for Scottish offshore fishermen sounded extremely political 'our waters, our fish' and made demands rather than sought solutions.

Although wanting out of the EU he demanded the following was vital access to EU markets, ease of transporting to the EU and a continued supply of labour.

If we leave the EU the spokesperson's answer to a lack of local labour was to think more global and look to countries like the Philippines, I believe a significant number are already from such countries. Why go all the way to the Philippines for labour when there people on the doorstep in Europe?

Despite talking global he complained in the EU he was allowed to catch fish "we don't eat here", why not export it to EU countries that do eat such fish? 

Meanwhile the inshore fishermen's spokesperson repeatedly stated her organisation was non political and had her section of the industry had lost business with Eastern European countries.  

[#8]

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@christmas wrote:

Meanwhile, what's Brexit got to do with the price of fish?

90% of the fish sold in fish & chip shops doesn't come from UK waters, they come from Iceland, Faroe Islands & Norway because the method used, frozen aboard ship, makes them about half the price of the fresh exported fish.

It confirmed my suspicions that most fish consumed in the UK comes from foreign waters.

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So that's why we've secured that vital trade deal with the Faroe Islands!

But potatoes are going to be a problem.

[#9]

Let them eat French Fries, qui?

[#10]

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@christmas wrote:

French Fries

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And quiche, oui?

[#11]

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@Jonpe wrote:

@nozzer My original comment was regarding the petition in your link.  If it gets millions of signatures, will we then be arguing that the people who signed it, didn't really understand what they were signing?

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@Jonpe

IMHO that petition is just the petitioners attempt at an unofficial, de facto referendum.

[#12]

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@RobC wrote:

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@RobPN wrote:

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probably the majority of Leave votes were based on the fundamental reasons for wishing to leave, not the persuasive efforts you Remoainers like to refer to.

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You mean fundamentals like

* 350 million a week extra for the NHS?

* Easiest deal in history, we have all the cards - all the benefits non of the costs?

* All sorted long before Exit day with international deals twice what we get from the EU? 

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@RobC

Not at all, you've got that a** about face.  The examples you've given are what I was referring to as 'persuasive efforts', the fundementals are such things as sovereignty, the four freedoms, and constantly subsidising other countries, etc.

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@christmas wrote:

Meanwhile, what's Brexit got to do with the price of fish?

[Snip]

Most of the fish landed by British fisherman is exported at a premium price, mainly to Europe.

90% of the fish sold in fish & chip shops doesn't come from UK waters, they come from Iceland, Faroe Islands & Norway because the method used, frozen aboard ship, makes them about half the price of the fresh exported fish.

It confirmed my suspicions that most fish consumed in the UK comes from foreign waters.  

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 @christmas

I take it you are aware that there are different species of fish?

A lot of the fish exported to the EU is shellfish and species that the UK market doesn't have a taste for.

The preferred species for UK tastes which comprise the vast majority of fish sold in UK fish & chip shops consists of species such as Cod, Haddock etc., and those species prefer the colder waters to the north of the UK and beyond.  Ah, that's why they're imported! 

[#13]

@christmas's post 1358.

Please do not attribute unintended meaning to my post(s).  I was merely pointing out the hyperbole in the former British ambassadors' and high commissioners' warning.

If I'm still around in 70-100 years, I'll invite you to my birthday party.  My birthday is not at Christmas so maybe christmas will be at my party .  My staff pass at work expires when I'm 115 so perhaps my employer knows something I don't.

[#14]

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@Jonpe wrote:

@christmas's post 1358.

Please do not attribute unintended meaning to my post(s).  I was merely pointing out the hyperbole in the former British ambassadors' and high commissioners' warning.

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The diplomats talk of a "national crisis" it was you who bizarrely drew a comparison with World War 2, not them.

Yesterday the government lost yet another vote, previously the government lost a vital vote by the biggest margin in Parliamentary history and claims the only alternative is no deal, that is surely a 'national crisis'.

It's a national crisis because we have a government that can't govern, tied itself up in knots. As companies see no deal as more likely many are partly or fully moving out of the UK,  foreign money coming into the UK appears to be buying up British companies on the cheap.

Due to a new IT system not invented yet British citizens will from next year live to the ripe old age of 500.

[#15]

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@RobPN wrote: 

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 @christmas

I take it you are aware that there are different species of fish?

A lot of the fish exported to the EU is shellfish and species that the UK market doesn't have a taste for.

The preferred species for UK tastes which comprise the vast majority of fish sold in UK fish & chip shops consists of species such as Cod, Haddock etc., and those species prefer the colder waters to the north of the UK and beyond.  Ah, that's why they're imported!   

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Of course I know there are different types of fish, cakes, prawn rings & fingers for example.

I believe I had already indicated certain types of fish caught in UK waters aren't to the liking of the British palette.

I also split the fishing industry into Inshore & Offshore to indicate their is a difference.

You fell into a trap, the 90% of fish that ends up in our fish & chips is the same species as the premium fish that I mentioned being sold to our EU cousins. The difference is the method used to catch, process and store the fish, Brits prefer cheap and not so fresh fish.

When the government announced a 200 fishing zone & leaving the 1964 London Convention the MP Neil Parish repeatedly asked the Fisheries Minister; "...but will there be more fish"....it was asked in a jokey manner but it made a point.