The actual words British politicians use to describe their magic borders using special fairy dust oxford wands: flexibility - think creatively - imaginatively. Borders: Now you see it. Now you don't.

sevenair wrote:

Lemme guess. They want it paid other away. Whereas they’re rather silent on Ireland’s rotten Apple deal. Hmmm.

Last I read, Apple agreed to pay 13 billion Euros to Ireland.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-agre ... counts-wsj

Has that changed?

frmrCapCadet wrote:

The actual words British politicians use to describe their magic borders using special fairy dust oxford wands: flexibility - think creatively - imaginatively. Borders: Now you see it. Now you don't.

Seems a lot of Brexiters are under the impression that the US-Canada border isn't a hard border. It's manned by armed border guards and is not always a pleasant experience. But I guess it is as efficient as any hard border can be.

ElPistolero wrote:

sevenair wrote:

Lemme guess. They want it paid other away. Whereas they’re rather silent on Ireland’s rotten Apple deal. Hmmm.

Last I read, Apple agreed to pay 13 billion Euros to Ireland.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-agre ... counts-wsj

Has that changed?

"Agreed to pay" is not fully accurate. Apple and Ireland agreed on an escrow set-up so the money is officially paid to Ireland but is secured separately from use until Apple's appeal to the EU GC is completed. Basically Apple (and Ireland) expects/plans to have the money returned once they are exonerated. .

Tugg

sevenair wrote:

Lemme guess. They want it paid other away. Whereas they’re rather silent on Ireland’s rotten Apple deal. Hmmm.

Irlands rotten Apple deal is taking away money from the Irish budget, and you can piss away your own tax revenue however way you like, unless it violates some very few EU regulations. It was ultimately ruled against them.
UKs rotten customs practice is taking away money from the EU´s Budget and by detour giving it to the UK budget, as UK importers could realize higher profits, which lead to higher tax revenue for the UK budget.

If you did that to your company as an employee, you´d be facing fraud charges from your company and tax evasion charges by the state procecution, not just having to pay back what you creatively got into your own pockets.

best regards
Thomas

Tugger wrote:

ElPistolero wrote:

sevenair wrote:

Lemme guess. They want it paid other away. Whereas they’re rather silent on Ireland’s rotten Apple deal. Hmmm.

Last I read, Apple agreed to pay 13 billion Euros to Ireland.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-agre ... counts-wsj

Has that changed?

"Agreed to pay" is not fully accurate. Apple and Ireland agreed on an escrow set-up so the money is officially paid to Ireland but is secured separately from use until Apple's appeal to the EU GC is completed. Basically Apple (and Ireland) expects/plans to have the money returned once they are exonerated. .

Tugg

Considering how EU courts are consistently ruling against the likes of Netherlands and Luxembourg they can consider that money as good as paid.

They might be hoping for a settlement, though.

Back to Brexit, the mythical impact assessments have sort of been released, and they're not pretty.

https://www.parliament.uk/documents/com ... iefing.pdf

Just a quick look on the figures says the government is looking at an extra £90bn borrowing required by 2033/34 under a FTA agreement.

"Brexit will cost us 1,7bn a week, let's fund our NHS instead."



Everything above the 0 are gains from Brexit, everything under are losses (sovereignty not included).

JJJ wrote:

par13del wrote:

Reinhardt wrote:

The government has no mandate to leave the single market and they don't have a commons majority to do it either.

Help me with this one, the UK government gave its people a choice of in or out of the EU, how can one be in the Customs Union without being in the EU, or do you see a difference between being a voting member and someone who has to follow all the rules of the EU?

British voters were given a choice: in or out the EU, but those advocating leave also said they would still be in the single market (or something amounting to pretty much that).

Yup exactly.

JJJ wrote:

So either they were knowingly misleading them or they didn't have the slightest idea of how the whole thing works.
I honestly don't know which one is worse.

It's difficult to tell. One is unbecoming of an MP, the other just incompetent or plain not intelligent enough to research and understand. The other thing of course is the fact many MP's have more than one other job, so other interests come into play which can sway their opinion, especially the likes of Rees Mog.

frmrCapCadet wrote:

The actual words British politicians use to describe their magic borders using special fairy dust oxford wands: flexibility - think creatively - imaginatively. Borders: Now you see it. Now you don't.

Yet another magic simile, this one via an official in Gibralter: a rainbow of opportunities. Somehow this causes me to think of a song, Somewhere over ........

LAH1 wrote:

Redd wrote:

par13del wrote:

...don't worry, help is just around the corner in a new Labour Government, who knows better how to run utilities like rail, power and NHS than the government.....

Rail costs in France are 2% of the average salary, in the UK they're 14% of the average salary. 60€ monthly in France, 390€ in the UK. French rail is state owned, UK is private. France has a good, on time, reliable, comfortable, high speed & modern rail system. UK doesn't. Do you really think privatization of rail is a good thing?

That must be apart from the high speed once an hour train I took from Edinburgh to London yesterday then, you know, the one with 4 stops on the way taking under 4 1/2 hours and doesn't have a fancy name as it's just a "normal" train. Every country has its slower, less comfortable trains. Been on them in France as well as the superb TGV but your comment is OTT. Remember, UK is a small island with hardly any room left for new rails, unlike France for instance.

Granted, and it would be forgivable if it wasn't for the price. There is no way to justify the price people are paying to travel on UK rail.

sevenair wrote:

Lemme guess. They want it paid other away. Whereas they’re rather silent on Ireland’s rotten Apple deal. Hmmm.

What if Apple had made that same deal with the UK? Would you still consider it as a rotten deal?

LAH1 wrote:

Redd wrote:

par13del wrote:

...don't worry, help is just around the corner in a new Labour Government, who knows better how to run utilities like rail, power and NHS than the government.....

Rail costs in France are 2% of the average salary, in the UK they're 14% of the average salary. 60€ monthly in France, 390€ in the UK. French rail is state owned, UK is private. France has a good, on time, reliable, comfortable, high speed & modern rail system. UK doesn't. Do you really think privatization of rail is a good thing?

That must be apart from the high speed once an hour train I took from Edinburgh to London yesterday then, you know, the one with 4 stops on the way taking under 4 1/2 hours and doesn't have a fancy name as it's just a "normal" train. Every country has its slower, less comfortable trains. Been on them in France as well as the superb TGV but your comment is OTT. Remember, UK is a small island with hardly any room left for new rails, unlike France for instance.

If the proposed UK high speed train network is to be completed, then travel time from Edinburgh to London will just be a bit more than 2 hours