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And so it begins..
Who’d have thought it eh :rolleyes:
Does this mean that the headquarters of British Airways will move back to the UK from Spain now? And that Easyjet and Ryan Air will move back, as well? Now that the UK doesn't "have to" follow EU regulations, while other member nations "chose not to?"

Will this mean an end for the extraordinary three million Brits who are "self-employed" to avoid the EU regulations on "employment rights?" A return to the old 1970's and 1980's idea of careers with one employer ?


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The long and short of it is that if we can’t compete with the EU on an equal footing then we are not as good as we like to think.
The US accepts GDPR as a consequence of doing business for example but there will no doubt be areas where we can implement our own regulations without affecting the trade deal.
 
So do the French.

At the moment people seem to be too inclined to treat the whole Covid thing as somesort of international competition.

The French are very good at moaning (most of the time) and protesting, when the moaning is ineffective.

They are mightily effective at the latter, though.

Before moving to live over here I used to tell the joke about "For sale ... genuine WW1 and WW11 French army rifle".

"Never fired ... dropped twice".

However, the reality is of a proud (some would say arrogant) and fiercely patriotic people. Macron has a tough year to come if he pushes the lockdown further.
 
Before moving to live over here I used to tell the joke about "For sale ... genuine WW1 and WW11 French army rifle".

"Never fired ... dropped twice".

While the WW2 defeat to Germany was a shocker - the French fought hard in WW1 and the UK and US tend to forget that.
 
They took much of Europe and beyond under Napoleon until he pushed too far into Russia in 1812.
 
So do the French.
At the moment people seem to be too inclined to treat the whole Covid thing as somesort of international competition.
1,500,000 Brits have been vaccinated over these last two weeks.

13,000,000 Brits will have been vaccinated by mid-February: the elderly and at risk.

The Gilets Jaunes in France won’t be thinking that this has been "Jeux Sans Frontiers"


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They took much of Europe and beyond under Napoleon until he pushed too far into Russia in 1812.

And they were responsible for the last ground invasion of UK mainland... (Fishguard 1797).
 
However, the reality is of a proud (some would say arrogant) and fiercely patriotic people.
I have an irrational dislike of most things France - and I’ve never been able to really work out why - but I really do admire their devotion to “the republic” and to all countries that utilise that type of democracy; shame it’ll probably never happen in England now but you never know..!
 
And so it begins..


Who’d have thought it eh :rolleyes:
He is just a Tory politician mouthing off. It's not Government policy .. yet.

anyway, we should make decisions on what suits us best, not rely on EU rules designed for 27 different countries.

The reality is that those who fear the loss of EU rights are those who fear that they will be unable to win the argument in a UK election so that they can have the policies they want.

Remainer politicians who rant about loss of EU protections are really admitting that they have no hope of winning a UK election so they can preserve or extend these wonderful EU rights. Or that they think the UK public should have EU type protections irrespective of whether the UK public want them, as these politicians know best.
 
OK, it's The Guardian:


But why are people still ordering goods from the EU? It's not like they were buying essential stuff or raw materials for manufacturing.
 
I have an irrational dislike of most things France - and I’ve never been able to really work out why
Parisian waiters? ;) 🤣

More seriously, there have been centuries of animosity between the French and the English, It's a sort of "inbuilt from birth" thing - and bi-directional - but largely irrational.

My personal experience is that most are lovely people and much of the country is beautiful. Some are even willing to speak English nowadays, too ;)
 
But why are people still ordering goods from the EU? It's not like they were buying essential stuff or raw materials for manufacturing.

Well some of us had got a bit used to just getting stuff from whereever.

And the normalisation of VAT provessing in the EU meant you didn't have to worry about extra charges as a consumer - or for that matter a business.

In reality if it's VAT then the prices charged to UK consumers by EU suppliers should be ex-VAT with UK VAT being charged on the import. So prices shouldn't change much. The problem is that consumers in the UK have to be aware that it should be an ex-VAT price as VAT will be collected. The other issue is that if VAT is collected by the courier / delivery service then admin fees added by them to process the VAT will eat into benefits.

This is where the likes of Amazon and Ebay may well stand to gain over the longer term by offering consumers and suppliers a means of handling these transaction overheads at lower cost / hassle.
 
Parisian waiters? ;) 🤣

More seriously, there have been centuries of animosity between the French and the English, It's a sort of "inbuilt from birth" thing - and bi-directional - but largely irrational.

My personal experience is that most are lovely people and much of the country is beautiful. Some are even willing to speak English nowadays, too ;)
In response to their willingness to speak English I am happy to attempt French in return or rely on Memsahb who is fluent 😂
 
More seriously, there have been centuries of animosity between the French and the English, It's a sort of "inbuilt from birth" thing - and bi-directional - but largely irrational.

Well some chap called William turned up in the 11the Cenury and imposed himself and his pals on England. Subsequently there has been quite a bit of legacy and strategic friction between both - which the UK inherited from England.

However the current setup is more recent than that. It's all a bit odd because Germany managed to mess things up. As Germany established itself in the late 1800s it should really have grown closer to the UK but instead got involved in a stupid naval arms race that spooked the UK into becoming closer strategically with France as WW1 approached. And really from that point on we've been rather caught up in this situation where the UK and France have been allies and spilled blood together and sort of get on but don't see eye-to-eye on a lot of cultural stuff.
 
The problem is that consumers in the UK have to be aware that it should be an ex-VAT price as VAT will be collected. The other issue is that if VAT is collected by the courier / delivery service then admin fees added by them to process the VAT will eat into benefits.
As I understand it - and I'm happy to be corrected - from Jan 1 2021, UK HMRC requires VAT to be charged at the point of sale by the EU seller, not at the point of importation. This means that EU sellers need a UK VAT registration and need to account for / remit UK VAT, which all sounds like a new burden on the seller - which it is.

HMRC say it has adopted that stance to make the import process consistent across EU and non-EU countries (which I don't understand), and also to eliminate avoidance (which I do understand). My suspicion is that it's also to discourage BtoC transactions from EU companies to UK consumers, but I have no evidence to support that.
 
but don't see eye-to-eye on a lot of cultural stuff
A good embodiment of that is our totally incompatible legal systems. We don't understand theirs, and they don't understand ours.

The Norman influence, and their ability to assimilate into new populations they conquered and effectively "disappear" is a fascinating point for discussion, but not relevant to this thread.
 
...This is where the likes of Amazon and Ebay may well stand to gain over the longer term by offering consumers and suppliers a means of handling these transaction overheads at lower cost / hassle.

Aren't you still liable for import taxes if you purchase an item from Amazon on eBay that is shipped from abroad, e.g. China or the US? I don't think the seller can pre-pay the tax.
 

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