Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’m not personally opposed to a reentry at all. Even after all the abuse my friends there have suffered from Brexiters (and I have, but only online) for their sake and ours I would take a (reformed) UK back in a heartbeat. It’s just that the political reality is that for now Brexit has happened. It can’t be stopped anymore because it has already happened at the beginning of the year. Now it’s just a question of the transition period ending at the end of this year and us finding a new relationship with them.
Absolutely. Though as long as there isn’t a clear majority that wants to rejoin (and not just a majority that now thinks Brexit was a mistake; Unfortunately those two aren’t the same question) there is not much we can do. This is very much an internal UK problem. They desperately need a voting system reform and deal with their unresolved issues around devolution. Until then all we can do is look on, take the abuse in the press and in the pubs and wait.
I can’t say i’d blame them either when they are dealing with these spivs in power who are quite happy to trample all over international law in order to appease all the little englander farage wannabes. Get a crushing defeat from the House of Lords? No problem! Just ignore it and do it anyway.
The government said it would reinstate the clauses when the bill returns to the House of Commons next month.
The diesel-soaked Valhalla may not be so shiny and chrome afterall.
Of course. And I think that has real ramifications in the immediate term, no doubt. But I’m just trying to say that this is all a human construct, meaning it can be done or undone.
Probably not, but then again, who knows.
That’s entirely true. Much like here in the US, the UK has real internal problems that need addressing, but which some subset of people refuse to do.
But this is true of the entire “west” right now. The same rifts and divisions are found in the all of the developed world, which are an outcome of colonialism, internal racism, and capitalist civilization. We need to deal with our internal contradictions and address the world we’ve made, or the entire planet is really fucked.
I really don’t want to come across as too much of a pedant but I feel I haven’t quite made clear what I was trying to say. Brexit has happened. On January 31st 2020 the United Kingdom formally left the European Union. There is absolutely no doubt about that in the same way there is no doubt about the fact that Trump has been impeached even if many people will say he hasn’t because he hasn’t been removed from office. There might be an (infinitesimally small) chance that the UK just continues to prolong the transition period and de facto enjoys the benefits of EU membership but that is so unlikely it isn’t really worth thinking about. It would require a complete overthrow of the UK government in the next month and a half. I have long since reached the acceptance stage of grief over this.
But even in this scenario (which would basically require Al de Pfeffel and his entire odious menagerie to disappear in a puff of smoke tomorrow) the UK wouldn’t be able to stay in the EU because they have already left. They also wouldn’t be able to rejoin in anything under a few years to a decade. Unlike the UK, the EU has been working on getting ready for Brexit for a long time now. It has already changed in ways that make it impossible to simply slot the UK back in for at least the current parliament’s and commission’s terms.
You know all this of course, as I said I really don’t want this to come across as patronising, I just feel we have not been talking about the same thing. I was talking about the actual legal fact of Brexit having happened de jure while you have been expressing hope it can be neutralised de facto.
The thing is, this is how the UK behaved whilst it was in in the EU. We had the absolutely best deal in the entire EU, all the upsides, and as few of the costs as we could bully and argue out way out of.
If the UK rejoins the EU we won’t get such a good deal, even if the rest of Europe doesn’t decide to give us a hard time for causing so much fuss.
As for what will happen on Jan 1st though, who fucking knows? It’ll be a shitshow though, and I’m not looking forward to who the tories try to blame.
There’s this awesome bit of misery they slipped in too - Which they seemed to have designed to be as miserable as possible for consumers and retailers alike.
The new arrangements will also involve the abolition of Low Value Consignment Relief, which relieves import VAT on consignments of goods valued at £15 or less.
Online marketplaces (OMPs), where they are involved in facilitating the sale, will be responsible for collecting and accounting for the VAT.
For goods sent from overseas and sold directly to UK consumers without OMP involvement, the overseas seller will be required to register and account for the VAT to HMRC.
