This week we laid off most of the rest of our staff.
TL/DR: It's down to Brexit. Not Covid. Not the war in Ukraine. We've got the figures. We know our business. Brexit did this.
'If this is the intellectual underpinnings of the pro-Brexit crowd, its terribly worrying. They have no evidence for their main contentions ...'
22/06/2022
If this is the intellectual underpinnings of the pro-Brexit crowd, its terribly worrying. They have no evidence for their main contentions, dont understand things that they quote in support, and have no realistic understanding of Britain's place in the world.
'Now we really have reached the witch-burning stage of Brexit, which makes no pretext of needing evidence'
22/06/2022
'Now we really have reached the witch-burning stage of Brexit, which makes no pretext of needing evidence to make its cases or explain why the policy is failing. I give you this report by the Centre for Brexit Policy attributed to a wide range of figures.'
"This gov't couldn't run a sweet shop. ... hamstrung by a gov't so desperate to show Brexit has been a success, when it's been an abject failure..." - O'Leary
21/06/2022
Boss of @Ryanair, O'Leary: "This gov't couldn't run a sweet shop. We are fully staffed. But we are hide-bound and hamstrung by a gov't so desperate to show Brexit has been a success, when it's been an abject failure, it won't allow us to bring in EU workers to do these jobs."
"It represents a form of economic vandalism on Northern Ireland" - Taoiseach Micheál Martin [2 mins]
19/06/2022
Taoiseach Micheál Martin says legislation that has been published on the Northern Ireland Protocol "would effectively be very damaging to the NI economy".
Adam Posen shows how Brexit has curtailed UK trade, FDI inflows, & immigration growth in a series of charts
27/04/2022
@AdamPosen shows how Brexit has curtailed UK trade, FDI inflows, & immigration growth in a series of charts presented at @UKandEU's The Economics of Brexit conference 2022. #PIIECharts
“You’re running a natural experiment in what happens when you run a trade war on yourself” - Adam Posen
27/04/2022
@AdamPosen is speaking with @lizzzburden about food prices and inflation at #EconafterBrexit
'it now takes an extra 3 minutes for a vehicle to clear the border and check-in before boarding ship'
02/04/2022
In January, the port’s chief executive told me that, since leaving the EU, it now takes an extra 3 minutes for a vehicle to clear the border and check-in before boarding ship. / This makes Dover more susceptible to clogging-up when things get busy and queuing is more commonplace.
"The law that P&O are allegedly relying on was introduced as a result of EU directives..." Ireland & Spain banned fire & rehire. Both are in the EU.
23/03/2022
"The law that P&O are allegedly relying on was introduced as a result of EU directives... He [Starmer] would have kept us unable to change it... He would have made it impossible to protect UK employees" (Johnson). / Ireland & Spain banned fire & rehire. Both are in the EU.
'After the Brexit deal was signed, Boris Johnson infamously claimed that there would be "no non-tariff barriers" on trade with the EU.' - Hilary Benn
13/02/2022
'After the Brexit deal was signed, Boris Johnson infamously claimed that there would be "no non-tariff barriers" on trade with the EU. It wasn’t true.'
The Benefits of Brexit doc is out. What do I think on its space sections? TLDR: membership of the EU would not have prevented the major space policy actions championed in this document. When it comes to 'bringing govs together', leaving the EU has actually made it harder.
The Government say massive delays at Dover this week are nothing to do with Brexit, while banning staff from giving interviews. / One customs agent took us inside to speak to drivers who had been waiting up to 24 hours. / Every single one of them blamed Brexit.
(Footage of lorry queues into the Port of Dover.)
“I just cannot accept it, we are seeing our industry slowly being destroyed” - @neil_parish quizzing Home Office minister Kevin Foster at @CommonsEFRA committee on labour shortages in food and farming.
We don't want to become a musical Galapagos, with our musicians locked out of the cultural partnership which is so important for creative development."
18/11/2021
"We don't want to become a musical Galapagos, with our musicians locked out of the cultural partnership which is so important for creative development." - @HarrietHarman at today's Westminster Hall debate on visas for musicians touring in the EU.
Michael Heseltine tells an audience in Nottingham tonight that they should they should never give up trying restore Britain's position in the European corridors of power
03/11/2021
Michael Heseltine tells an audience in Nottingham tonight that they should they should never give up trying restore Britain's position in the European corridors of power...and says it's the young generation who will push for a reversal of Brexit.
This is how New Zealand TV is reporting the Brexit trade deal with the UK / They visibly can't believe their luck that British farming has been made the "sacrificial lamb" for a deal hugely beneficial to NZ with "negligeable benefits for UK farmers who get nothing in return"
The one that was so much better than the EU-Japan deal because the names of 70 British products would now be protected?
'The message must go out to all countries... that this is a British government that doesn't necessarily keep its word,' Tánaiste Leo Varadkar
13/10/2021
'The message must go out to all countries... that this is a British government that doesn't necessarily keep its word,' Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said in the wake of 'alarming' comments by Boris Johnson's former aide Dominic Cummings.
The protocol is being attacked not because it doesn’t work, but because it DOES - strengthening north-south economic links [2 mins]
04/10/2021
Quite the admission on the @Policy_Exchange’s Brexit panel. The protocol is being attacked not because it doesn’t work, but because it DOES - strengthening north-south economic links. And the urgency to dismantle it flows from the speed with which business is adjusting to it.
As BP closes sites ... the Road Haulage Association's Rod McKenzie says issues are down to Brexit, the pandemic and a historic shortage
24/09/2021
"#Newsnight was the first TV programme to highlight this in the summer... the government could have acted then." / As BP closes sites due to a lack of lorry drivers, the Road Haulage Association's Rod McKenzie says issues are down to Brexit, the pandemic and a historic shortage
'Sir Roger Gale (Tory MP) says one farming business in his constituency has had to trash £320,000 worth of produce due to no pickers and no drivers.'
15/09/2021
Sir Roger Gale (Tory MP) says one farming business in his constituency has had to trash £320,000 worth of produce due to no pickers and no drivers. / There are cries of “Brexit, Brexit” around the house… and the Govt front bench looks nervous.