[Closed] EU Referendum - are you in or out?

All hail the killfile.

I like Chewkw - an advert for why Brexit is idiocy.

I suspect I’m going to like Ling on the same basis.

I was assuming Ling was just another of [s]Fred[/s] chewkw's personas.

[quote=deadlydarcy ]All hail the killfile.

THIS for both of them - no sense to be had from either

Graham - you may well be right.

Edited - ignore.

Dear Chris Heaton-Harris,

We were wondering if you could send us any documents you have on the effects of Brexit on Britain.

Thanks for this.

Yours sincerely

Parliament

I particularly like the suggestion that the motion may be non-binding 🙂 Just like the referendum then...

On the plus side all Brexiteers should be rejoicing too - a truly excellent example of 'power being returned to our great Parliament'.

its great isnt it
Cannot wait to hear the brexxies rejoicing at the return of control and how lucky we are to not be ignored by unelected bureaucrats

I dont understand why they wont publish it its not like the EU dont know it will be bad for us, everyone knows, it but some deranged Brexiters

Wouldn't surprise me if they try to publish redacted versions saying it is a national security risk or some tosh.

you mean they will lie to us

TBH i dont even see what the point is of not releasing the facts

We all know what they will say

According to a telegraph journo

Tory MP tells me: ‘Releasing Brexit impact reports would only cause distress. Like watching Air Crash Investigation while on a plane.’

😆 ^^

Some top remoaning here

https://www.ft.com/content/3eea8e9f-3049-39ea-bd62-708abe10f51a

The ultimate problem of Brexit is delusion. The delusion is that something complex can be treated as if it were simple.

Also it seems like the opposition are dictating everything at the moment

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/nov/01/government-may-bow-to-pressure-to-release-brexit-impact-studies

Wouldn't surprise me if they try to publish redacted versions saying it is a national security risk or some tosh.

Elgin marbles seems to have been quoted in relation to the one on museums and such like...

You can see where this is going, Greece won't veto EU deal in exchange for Marbles, Spain won't veto in exchange for Gibraltar etc etc.

Who is taking back control???

Keir Starmer seems to be the only grownup in the Brexit Playroom at the moment. A snap election cannot come soon enough.

This may have been mentioned before but NFU advise food is rotting in the fields. Where's the Daily Heil on that one, along with the 90% reduction in EU nurse applications and the government being too scared to publish the 58?

I love James O'Brien. 🙂

I had not considered that angle but the [s]elgin[/s]Parthenon marbles should be returned we would be displeased if they had Stonehenge and rightly so. Its their heritage/culture we took/bought/appropriated.

This may have been mentioned before but NFU advise food is rotting in the fields. Where's the Daily Heil on that one

They'll be French Beans. treacherous Enemies of the People!!

This may have been mentioned before but NFU advise food is rotting in the fields

Dont forget the Brussel Sprouts bet they are in on it as well....and the swedes

This may have been mentioned before but NFU advise food is rotting in the fields

they wanted out but to keep CAP subsidies and the cheap foreign labour they depend on to harvest- the full cake and eat it was what they voted for.

Ah well, their members must be happy though. They wanted out didn't they?

Yeah, well - they fell for the lies, now it's coming home to roost. What's the way forward?

Well, the BBC was reporting that they are going to sell milk to Qatar and everything will be rosy as a result.

According to one of the experts (the ones we're all sick of) most hill farmers will be bankrupt within about ten minutes of their EU subsidies ceasing.

But at the same time, under the WTO rules it looks like we're inevitably headed for, the price of European food imports will rise by 30%

As any Brexiteer can tell you 'The Market' is all powerful and automatically compensates for everything, so in a couple of years we'll surely be seeing the Welsh Valleys and Lake District fells lined with citrus groves

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20% on UK animal exports to the EU, in contrast the UK can raise the same on imports, or it can scrap them. There is no halfway house, Tariffs have to be the same for all countries if we use WTO.

As a stauch remainer, and a farmer, I feel the need to stand up a little for the industry and the poor press it has over Brexit. In a large poll of a few thousand on the largest Farming Forum running up the referendum the remain/leave vote was running at about 40-60. So yes, clearly more farmers DID vote for leave. However, in terms of numbers there are only just over 200K registered farms in the UK and a large number of them will be either larger agri-businesses or small hobby farms. As a guesstimate I reckon there are no more than about 150 thousand proper farmers in the UK that the man on the street would recognise as such. So even if 60% of them voted for leave it still only represents a figure of about 90 thousand votes. And by the very nature of the industry these will have been spread very thinly over the whole of the UK so hardly of great consequence in the larger scheme of things.

What I do recognise though is the fact that agriculture has long been the pillar on which the EU was based with upto 50% of the monies going in coming back to the industry in some form. What that really means is that for the past 40 years there has not been a single aspect of farming life that hasn't been influenced by EU policy, for good or for bad. The subsidies coming out of Brussels have been used as a stick to push the direction of farming for so long that many feel they no longer have any control over their businesses and were promised that would change if we left. Many farmers feel they cannot even take a pee in their own fields without fear of reprimand from some unseen bureaucrat. It is easy to understand the reasons many were unhappy with the status quo, especially in the absence of any meaningful information about the benefits to the single market. If it is of any consequence I have spoken to many farmers who feel they were lied to in the run up to the referendum and would vote remain if given a second chance.

As an anecdote (and to illustrate the way in which the mindset of a more simple farmer might work), my overriding memory of the referendum was a couple of days after the vote I was dropping off some sheep in the market when one of the farmers came storming out, Feffing and Blinding, that he could not believe they still wanted him to have ear tags in his sheep (an unpopular policy blamed on the EU). I can't believe it he was saying. I thought that was the end of all that ***locks when we won the vote to leave!

Yet another anecdote highlighting the ignorance displayed during and after the vote.

It's the agri-version of 'why are all these foreigners still here? We won the vote'.Morons

On the other hand JRM voted with Labour yesterday. 😆

The problem isn't the people who voted leave (or, at least, not all of them), it's the campaign of lies that we were flooded with in the build up. Welshfarmer's anecdote illustrates pretty well the lack of understanding that people had pre-referendum.

Many farmers feel they cannot even take a pee in their own fields without fear of reprimand from some unseen bureaucrat. It is easy to understand the reasons many were unhappy with the status quo

The thought that this would change, that our good old Tory government would subsidise British industry, that's the most ludicrous thing. Cos they looked after miners so well didn't they?

that he could not believe they still wanted him to have ear tags in his sheep (an unpopular policy blamed on the EU). I can't believe it he was saying. I thought that was the end of all that ***locks when we won the vote to leave!

The idea that people might want traceability and a way of finding out who supplied food obviously is of no concern? Or would he be happy with a return to feeding sheep sheep and cows cows? Of selling horse as beef etc. and I am sure people want to return to Alum laced bread etc.

No system will be perfect but if you want decent food and no short cuts then systems will be put in place. Ear tags will be one of them.

Mind, i seem to remember one of the ex NFU execs(i think) being done for cattle abuse a few years back, something out fallen stock being put through the system and sending more animals to slaughter than he had declared, reusing tags etc.

The thought that this would change, that our good old Tory government would subsidise British industry, that's the most ludicrous thing. Cos they looked after miners so well didn't they?

Trouble it was a long time ago ...I’m a galaxy far...

But they did generously bail out the banking system when it all went pop thou

@welshfarmer.

Ta for the farmers perspective on this very interesting.

I live in and have links to Farming and the following is going to boil farmers piss..

As a community they are highly insular, poorly educated and don't consider CAP payments as benefits/subsidies.

They have raised debt and continued to survive on land valued at £10k an acre.

I have had a local farmer in the last few weeks at parish council meeting wanting a pat on the back for cutting hedges and maintaining the countryside? That we all enjoy while doing his best to get footpaths removed?

They are the only subsidised industry in the UK and it needs to end. Anyone else on here get a nice tax free lump each year based on the number of bricks you have in your house?

But they did generously bail out the banking system when it all went pop thou

Well they had to, to save the country. They didn't give a crap about saving South Wales though. They decided we could all import coal and the miners could go **** themselves.

We can also import food, and the farmers.. well, let's see shall we?

Anyone else on here get a nice tax free lump each year based on the number of bricks you have in your house?

Being serious for a minute - it's a touch more complicated than that.

And I don't get a lump sum based on the size of my house, but I do earn a lot more than a typical farmer for doing far less work, and in a job on which no-one's life depends. So if you look at it like that, who's got the easy life?

Actually it's no more complicated than number of acres.... the argument for subsides which only support/benefit a very small number of people is complete bollocks. Subsidised public transport would help more people by comparison.

Food is strategically important. So we need to make sure we keep enough farmers in business even if it's uneconomical, otherwise we'd all starve if there's a war.

That's why it's not subject to the same market forces as say, high end razor manufacturers.

They are the only subsidised industry in the UK and it needs to end

We may well need to look at a better method but we are in deep trouble without any farming here

The argument for maintaining the countryside is valid, the argument for food production is complex and cheap imports will always over ride more expensive home grown products.

We are in deep trouble due to lack of industry but no one seems to view that as an issue and happily buys from the rest of the world.

We currently wouldn't starve if food imports ceased but we would be hungry so the CAP has not resolved that issue.

[quote=oldmanmtb ]Actually it's no more complicated than number of acres.... the argument for subsides which only support/benefit a very small number of people is complete bollocks. [b]Subsidised public transport would help more people by comparison.[/b]

You mean like giving free bus passes to OAPs? Good idea.

How about a subsidised health system where no-one has to pay for basic treatment. And while we are at it how about free education and a free police and security force. Perhaps we could even subsidise childbirth by paying everyone some free money just for having children?

Having had a life outside of agriculture I can assure you that there are very few industries in the UK that are not subsidised by the tax payer in some form or another. It is also said that we are only ever a couple of missed meals away from revolution. Strategically a functioning agricultural industry is easily the most important that any society can have.

We currently wouldn't starve if food imports ceased

I dont think we can remove all that without malnutrition being factor

You mean like giving free bus passes to OAPs? Good idea.

Strategically a functioning agricultural industry is easily the most important that any society can have.

just checked 505 of our food is imported