[EU] Brexit negotiations at a standstill

[dribbles]

Normal fiscal and economic policy is out of the window at present and the cost of extending the transition period - which would most likely be political rather than financial - is a drop in ocean compared the stimulus has been announced so far.

Even if it is from a purely selfish point of view once this is all said and done we might end up bailing out an EU nation or two. But you never know they might be the ones keeping us afloat.

Anyway that's interesting that you would support a vote on rejoining a looser style EU. If you don't mind me asking - if the the EU did decide to go in this direction and we were offered a referendum - how would you vote?

It depends on the timing, prior to the transition end in December or later if extended, I would vote against. After possibly for.

The 2016 referendum result must be honoured first, it cannot count for nothing.

[Mormolyce]

That made me laugh harder then I should have. But.. where is Dribbles anyway?

Dribbles you okay buddy? Hope your alright!

I was a little worried the Boomer Doom got him for a minute there. Presumably he's a coronavirus denier too, would go nicely with the rest of his nonsense.

[Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang]

Holy Moly!

The Pound is down to 1.15 Swiss Franc... remembering the days it was 2.7....

[Pann]

It depends on the timing, prior to the transition end in December or later if extended, I would vote against. After possibly for.

The 2016 referendum result must be honoured first, it cannot count for nothing.

Interesting, thanks.

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David Frost is self isolating with mild symptoms.

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Holy Moly!

The Pound is down to 1.15 Swiss Franc... remembering the days it was 2.7....

It is not far from parity with dollar but it did pick up a little from yesterday's low against the Euro although seems to be falling again.

But this probably one for the Coronavirus thread rather than this thread.

[Noradin]

Do you not think that there might be a slight clue in the words "Canada style deal" as to what a "Canada style deal" might entail? I can assure you that having read what's in the Canada/EU agreement the idea that it is an 'everything else' situation is complete and utter nonsense. Quite frankly what you've written is embarrassing!

I'm pretty sure the UK can print out the EU-Canada deal any time they like and sign it as many times as they want, it just won't do anything for them as it refers to the EU and Canada, not the EU and the UK, but maybe Boris' supporters won't notice?

[LeGin Tufnel]

David Frost is self isolating with mild symptoms.

No more That Was The Week That Was, then.

[Pann]

No more That Was The Week That Was, then.

Damn! This staying in business gets worse by the minute!

[Teleros]

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has dismissed suggestions that the Brexit transition period will have to be extended because of the coronavirus.

B-b-b-but you can't expect video-conferences in this day and age!

And this is nothing to do with whether we can continue these negotiations or not. Of course Skype and the like exists. Rather it's a question of whether we should be wasting effort on them when frankly we have far more important things to worry about. I would rather we focus all our efforts on managing the impact of the virus, and ensuring our country and the people in it are damaged as little as possible.

Different government departments. Bringing a bunch of FCO civil servants in to get in the way of the Home Civil Service is unlikely to do much good TBH.

If - and this is a big 'if' which I am not saying it will happen - the EU decided to reverse some of it's integrated policies and return to something similar to the EEC what would your thoughts on Brexit be then?

Still worth it. The thing is, if the EU reverted to something more like the EEC, I think we all know that the Eurocrats would still remain in charge, and that they'd view it as a temporary setback. A big one, to be sure, but they'd still be trying to push for a more federal Europe. I'd much rather see a Europe of many independent, sovereign nation-states. By all means have bi- or multi- lateral trade agreements, defence agreements (eg NATO) and more (eg Visegrad bloc etc), but burn the EU to the ground.

[dribbles]

Dominic Raab is a brainless cunt. I wouldn't trust him to tell me the ingredients in a glass of water. Anything he says can be readily dismissed as "probably, in fact almost certainly, wrong"...

I guess you must be hoping and praying nothing happens to our Boris then as...

Dominic Raab appointed ‘designated survivor’ if Boris Johnson catches coronavirus

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/uknews...ated-survivor/

Good to see we are all Boris supporters now and kudos to the Tories for finding a way to unite the country wholeheartedly behind him. Could have been worse for you, could easily have been my choice one Dominic Cummings...

[LeGin Tufnel]

Could have been worse for you, could easily have been my choice one Dominic Cummings...

I hear on the grapevine that Cummings' days are numbered on account of him suggesting that the death of a significant proportion of Tory voters would be an acceptable tradeoff to mitigate the economic catastrophe that is ensuing. Herd immunity and all that.

On the subject of said economic catastrophe: if you or any other similarly-inclined poster on this forum thinks that forging ahead with no deal at the end of this year would be a sensible, rational response to this disaster, literally, I will hunt you down and force you to eat Lincolnshire's finest brussels sprouts for 48 hours non stop until you fart so much you eventually leave the ground a la BFG.

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Ironic that the austerity the elderly wanted to inflict on the young is now eating them alive.

But you can be sure as hell, we'll be "in this together" for the next 20 years. The cost of this, once it's over, will be yet more of the same.

What bugs me is the lack of support for the self-employed. Those poor fuckers on McDonalds zero hours contracts, the uber drivers, fucking piano teachers, whatever.

There is a divide growing between those employed by the State / on PAYE and those who aren't.

[Crandwich]

But you can be sure as hell, we'll be "in this together" for the next 20 years. The cost of this, once it's over, will be yet more of the same.

What bugs me is the lack of support for the self-employed. Those poor fuckers on McDonalds zero hours contracts, the uber drivers, fucking piano teachers, whatever.

There is a divide growing between those employed by the State / on PAYE and those who aren't.

I'm self-employed and to be honest I'm doing alright, at least right now, especially now that stupid advanced payment thing has gone.

I got mixed feelings about Uber drivers etc...on the one hand your heart goes to hard working struggling people. On the other...no union, collectivization, no rights...how did you think that would work out? There are so many more ways to make money independently nowadays it is not like you have to accept all that shit.

[LeGin Tufnel]

How's it going @dribbles?

Are you fucked, lol? 'coz I know I am.

Or have you been saving in anticipation of this pandemic? Clearly, the chancellor thought I should be.

[dribbles]

How's it going @dribbles?

Are you fucked, lol? 'coz I know I am.

Or have you been saving in anticipation of this pandemic? Clearly, the chancellor thought I should be.

Not as bad as I would be if Corbyn was in power can you just imagine him Mcdonnell and Diane Abbot in charge of the purse strings? They would use this snuffly flu thing going around to make a permanent police state in the UK rather than the temporary one we must suffer.

Fingers X when Trump opens up the US again at Easter in a few days we will soon follow suit, you'll be glad then we have left, things are back to normal and aren't still stuck in the EU.

One good thing is all of the pointless transition talks are over and still all on course for December, at least we won't be bailing out the EU again, they are much more fucked than we are. Someone is going to pay bigly, it won't be you or me this time.

Thank heavens for Brexit rescuing us all in the nick of time from disaster.

[Acidbaron]

Anyone believing that everything will be back to normal soon is in for a rude awakening. It is going to take a year till everything is back to how we know it.

[Kronik85]

How's it going @dribbles?

Are you fucked, lol? 'coz I know I am.

Or have you been saving in anticipation of this pandemic? Clearly, the chancellor thought I should be.

Good luck out there man. Been wondering how badly you would be effected by this and I hope you fare well through it.

On a personal note I'm currently a Warehouse Operative so I'm considered to be a key worker. So on Monday I'll be helping to spread the virus for the sake of moving lamp shades from one end of a warehouse to another. Truly important stuff.

[tarjwarp]

Not as bad as I would be if Corbyn was in power can you just imagine him Mcdonnell and Diane Abbot in charge of the purse strings? They would use this snuffly flu thing going around to make a permanent police state in the UK rather than the temporary one we must suffer.

I can imagine them in power actually. I can also imagine the UK being prepared for the virus with the vast amount of extra resources Labour wanted to give the NHS. I can imagine many, many fewer people dying. I can also imagine the streets being safe because of the extra police on the streets, I can imagine the economy taking a significantly reduced hit due to Labour's free broadband program. I can imagine the spread of the virus being slowed without numerous homeless people on the streets. I can imagine us recovering quickly with the vaccine manufacturing facilities Corbyn wanted to set up.

I can also imagine the taxpayer redistribution program the Tories are rolling out going to people instead of businesses.

I can also imagine that things would be better if we didn't have an impotent, indecisive, village idiot in charge of the country and literally any one else then the country would have been locked down a month ago.

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Fingers X when Trump opens up the US again at Easter in a few days we will soon follow suit, you'll be glad then we have left, things are back to normal and aren't still stuck in the EU.

OK you are trolling right? The US currently has more infected than anywhere.

Unless something dramatic happens to slow the growth of the disease the US will be a failed state within weeks. Trump is going to be seen as the worst ever US president, the man that took them back to the dark ages.

[Xarkan]

OK you are trolling right? The US currently has more infected than anywhere.

The whole absolute numbers thing is silly

If you want to say who has the most cases at a given moment it must be per million citizens or similar

Otherwise San Marino could be completely annihilated, everyone dead, and you would say "Well it was not as bad as the US"

San Marino has not been completely annihilated as far as i know, it was just an example

So if we go by that we can go to
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

And see that.. strangely.. San Marino tops the list at 6130 cases per million citizens where the US is at 239.. Granted the UK is lower than the US (but seems at a glance most European countries are not)

[Huehuecoyotl]

The whole absolute numbers thing is silly

If you want to say who has the most cases at a given moment it must be per million citizens or similar

Otherwise San Marino could be completely annihilated, everyone dead, and you would say "Well it was not as bad as the US"

San Marino has not been completely annihilated as far as i know, it was just an example

So if we go by that we can go to
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

And see that.. strangely.. San Marino tops the list at 6130 cases per million citizens where the US is at 239.. Granted the UK is lower than the US (but seems at a glance most European countries are not)

You can't just look at the number per million. You need to understand how many tests are being carried out, and who they are testing. The US at the moment are carrying out very few tests per capita compared to some countries, but they are only testing people that they are virtually certain have the virus (or people that are rich/famous). Both have an impact when trying to evaluate what the infection rates really are.

But I can guarantee you with the current President that even if they could get a proper infection rate, they wouldn't be telling anyone. They'd be playing it down as much as possible as the DOPUS tries to avoid political damage.

[dribbles]

The whole absolute numbers thing is silly

If you want to say who has the most cases at a given moment it must be per million citizens or similar

Otherwise San Marino could be completely annihilated, everyone dead, and you would say "Well it was not as bad as the US"

San Marino has not been completely annihilated as far as i know, it was just an example

So if we go by that we can go to
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

And see that.. strangely.. San Marino tops the list at 6130 cases per million citizens where the US is at 239.. Granted the UK is lower than the US (but seems at a glance most European countries are not)

That website is pretty crappy and indicative at best. The most important figure is not stated to allow a useful comparison. That would be the number of people tested per million.

Even the deaths per million isn't really useful. Under normal circumstances a death might be recorded as from a heart attack, but oh no they test positive for Covid it must be that that killed them. Someone gets run over by a bus, but test positive, it wasn't the bus etc etc

Some countries with a government, record and an agenda of a future police state, like many in the EU, will record deaths one way, others another.

[LeGin Tufnel]

Good luck out there man. Been wondering how badly you would be effected by this and I hope you fare well through it.

On a personal note I'm currently a Warehouse Operative so I'm considered to be a key worker. So on Monday I'll be helping to spread the virus for the sake of moving lamp shades from one end of a warehouse to another. Truly important stuff.

Cheers - you too. Yep, all work has disappeared completely but, no, it'll be ok for a period. Have some savings so am more fortunate than a lot people. Got rid of anything unnecessary (the wife's cross I've cancelled Netflix etc.). Just don't know what will happen if this goes on for 18 months. Tap on / tap off doesn't really work in my industry. Was thinking about shutting up shop and getting a temp job. Hope yours is bearable.

But, yep, the importance of financial stuff does pale in comparison to the plight of those poor fuckers who are dying and those who are treating them.