Brexit

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Pe.A
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Re: Brexit

Post by Pe.A »

jhopgood wrote: Fri Jul 02, 2021 12:11 pm
scrub wrote: Wed Jun 30, 2021 5:21 pm
jhopgood wrote: Wed Jun 30, 2021 11:42 amNever brought Marmite etc from the UK, but at the time of writing, PG Tips, my Costa Rican wife's favourite tea, is still available on the shelves of the local Carrefour etc, here in the Valencian community.
If I've got my geography right, Valencia is a fairly big city and has a busy port, so it should be saved some of the distribution problems that other places have.

The thing I missed most about Oz when I was back in the UK was fruit that tasted like fruit. I don't have that problem in France.
You are correct except that in Valencia itself PG Tips are difficult to come by, but we have a house on the Costa Blanca, where there are a fair number of Brits, and their tastes are catered for in the local Spanish supermarkets (Mas y Mas, Carrefour etc). So far I have yet to see a shortage of specifically UK products.
Not available in Mercadona, which is a very successful Valencian chain of supermarkets, selling predominantly own brand products.
I have always used local products, and apart from pork pies, which are not available here, don't miss many UK products.
Surprised you're happy with the milk (if you drink cow udder milk). Spanish milk is generally rubbish. My dad (near Marbella) regularly raids Iceland stores for British milk - that and Yorkshire Tea - makes all the difference.
Pe.A
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Re: Brexit

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eucsgmrc wrote: Wed Sep 29, 2021 9:12 pm
scrub wrote: Fri Jul 02, 2021 6:29 pm Very few countries understand hot water suet pastry. France understands the concept of "cold meat in a pastry wrapper", but while the meat texture is OK, the pastry isn't.
I have enjoyed some exceptionally delicious patés en croute, and the pastry has been good. Not, it's true, actual hot water suet pastry, but it has come close to the style and texture. The meat has been luxurious, and the overall effect has been every bit as good as a fine pork pie. Mind you, it has been sold for a gourmet price, not a pub food price.

But what has this got to do with anything?
Something about that last question made me chuckle...
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jhopgood
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Re: Brexit

Post by jhopgood »

Pe.A wrote: Wed Sep 29, 2021 9:40 pm
jhopgood wrote: Fri Jul 02, 2021 12:11 pm
scrub wrote: Wed Jun 30, 2021 5:21 pm
If I've got my geography right, Valencia is a fairly big city and has a busy port, so it should be saved some of the distribution problems that other places have.

The thing I missed most about Oz when I was back in the UK was fruit that tasted like fruit. I don't have that problem in France.
You are correct except that in Valencia itself PG Tips are difficult to come by, but we have a house on the Costa Blanca, where there are a fair number of Brits, and their tastes are catered for in the local Spanish supermarkets (Mas y Mas, Carrefour etc). So far I have yet to see a shortage of specifically UK products.
Not available in Mercadona, which is a very successful Valencian chain of supermarkets, selling predominantly own brand products.
I have always used local products, and apart from pork pies, which are not available here, don't miss many UK products.
Surprised you're happy with the milk (if you drink cow udder milk). Spanish milk is generally rubbish. My dad (near Marbella) regularly raids Iceland stores for British milk - that and Yorkshire Tea - makes all the difference.
Buy fresh milk which is very palatable and much better than the UDT stuff they used to sell.
For a while we got fresh goats milk from a friend in the village but used it to make “cajeta”.
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time please
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Re: Brexit

Post by time please »

Lets do a deal!

I have food, petrol, easy travel, can send and buy goods anywhere in Europe ( not meaning England here ) without problem.

I want tea and Marmite.

Any Brexiters wishing to deal?
loringa
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Re: Brexit

Post by loringa »

time please wrote: Thu Sep 30, 2021 8:02 pm Any Brexiters wishing to deal?
I am not sure that there are too many Brexiteers around, at least not who would admit to it, on this forum or elsewhere.

Let's face it, we are a long way from those sunlit uplands and, whilst Covid has clearly exacerbated a number of problems, we are hardly alone in that! Everything pretty much seems to be worse post Brexit; we have a far bigger problem with a shortage of HGV drivers than elsewhere, we have food rotting in the fields, shortages in our supermarkets and no diesel or petrol to be had for love nor money. We have a near war with France over fishing rights, an influx of refugees and economic migrants from the same country, a shambles in Northern Ireland, vastly diminished status in the world and the complete inability of any of us to explain to overseas friends and comrades why it is 'we' voted to leave.

Even where the UK has done 'better' than some EU nations as in the vaccine rollout, had we remained in the EU we could almost certainly have used our influence, financial clout and, above all, our veto to have made things better for everybody.

Nope - not so many Brexiteers nowadays.
Last edited by loringa on Fri Oct 01, 2021 8:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
sejintenej
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Re: Brexit

Post by sejintenej »

time please wrote: Thu Sep 30, 2021 8:02 pm Lets do a deal!

I have food, petrol, easy travel, can send and buy goods anywhere in Europe ( not meaning England here ) without problem.

I want tea and Marmite.

Any Brexiters wishing to deal?
From previous posts I suspect that you live in France. I lived there for 18 years so I have some knowledge.

The two countries are very very different. The people think in different ways, customs are different.

Tea; UK brands available in supermarkets, cafes and restaurants. OK so the water is different so the taste is different. Marmite - Yeuch but I think I saw it in SuperU (which is their equivalent of Tesco)
de Gaulle complained about 2500 different cheeses - yes we often found some which we liked but after a month they were never available again.
Restaurants are open for short and fixed hours - if you are half way through a meal when they shut you do not get the next course.
Language - every commune has its own patois. We lived 100 metres from the next commune and the two have different patois. It took me 2 years to fully understand my next door neighbour and official notices were in occitan - yet another language.
Law; the mayor is king/queen; you stay on their right side or they can make life interesting. OTOH they can ease the way - planning permission can take months until her secretary put me in touch with their planning department - a quick meeting, re-draw the plans and it took 5 days. (The planner wanted a room name change to overcome a potential delay later!)
Poverty; there was plenty around but the underground helped those who needed it. Don't believe statistics; for example unemployment does not include anyone who worked for even a week in the year and the Aude was a tourist area for July and August. !!% unemployment ?- my guess is 40%
Rail transport; any one journey within Languedoc Roussilon in the holiday season.was one euro! Using my car I could be in the Med in 65 minutes or skiing in a tax-free country in 90 minutes.
The French medical arena is excellent - I am deemed chronically ill but no doctors appointments needed - simply a wait of up to 40 minutes., 5 days delay to see a consultant with all scans, tests etc done when I arrived so he had the fresh details on his desk. My wife had an accident - 40 minutes in A & E to sort out cuts (they avoided stitches to her face "because ladies are concerned about their appearance" and an xray fro a minor fracture. Cheap but refunded by Newcastle the French are insured automatically.
Law - different but not generally intrusive. My hamlet had 4 occupied houses and one day the Gendamerie raided in force - about 6 of them, armed of course. Very polite and friendly but they were searching for an Englishman named Nick Quinton. I was not quick or cheeky enough to tell them that some of his anti-smoking patches were in my medical drawer
Education is "different". In our area a lot of young kids were forced to go to boarding school; a contributor here was teachers' assistant at a local school and suggests the girls .....CH legal cases come to mind as a comparison. A friend had the choice of a school in Paris or Toulouse for her speciality whilst she was a young teen and her school tried to require her to go to a specific employer as a cheap apprentice. In medicine it is claimed that the state decides how many passes shall be given and after that everyone fails the exams.

I loved France and was almost sorry to return to UK. It is very very different and I have seen too many Brits in foreign countries who are simply incapable of accepting local mores. My immediate boss in London was one such - he simply could not go to to Head Office even after 2 years of language lessons. I was fortunate in having lived and worked in four other countries with three foreign languages before retiring so it was easy for me to assimilate.
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Pe.A
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Re: Brexit

Post by Pe.A »

sejintenej wrote: Fri Oct 01, 2021 2:30 am
time please wrote: Thu Sep 30, 2021 8:02 pm Lets do a deal!

I have food, petrol, easy travel, can send and buy goods anywhere in Europe ( not meaning England here ) without problem.

I want tea and Marmite.

Any Brexiters wishing to deal?
My immediate boss in London was one such - he simply could not go to to Head Office even after 2 years of language lessons. I was fortunate in having lived and worked in four other countries with three foreign languages before retiring so it was easy for me to assimilate.
"Good moaning" springs to mind :D
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Re: Brexit

Post by Mid A 15 »

Brexit is not the cause of the lorry driver shortage but provides a convenient excuse for a remaincentric incompetent Establishment and a media that loves to fan the flames of discontent in any way possible. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6260516.stm. The linked article is from 2007 long before Brexit actually happening became a 'thing.'
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sejintenej
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Re: Brexit

Post by sejintenej »

Pe.A wrote: Fri Oct 01, 2021 8:34 am
sejintenej wrote: Fri Oct 01, 2021 2:30 am
time please wrote: Thu Sep 30, 2021 8:02 pm Lets do a deal!

I have food, petrol, easy travel, can send and buy goods anywhere in Europe ( not meaning England here ) without problem.

I want tea and Marmite.

Any Brexiters wishing to deal?
My immediate boss in London was one such - he simply could not go to to Head Office even after 2 years of language lessons. I was fortunate in having lived and worked in four other countries with three foreign languages before retiring so it was easy for me to assimilate.
"Good moaning" springs to mind :D
.
Me moaning? I was the one saying that i loved living in France (and Norway and Brazil. Accra was difficult and Gib - apart from Belen Imossi,- very tolerable).

I am only moaning if you are a politician - see my recent list of truths about politicians!
What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.
What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
loringa
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Re: Brexit

Post by loringa »

sejintenej wrote: Fri Oct 01, 2021 1:09 pm
Pe.A wrote: Fri Oct 01, 2021 8:34 am "Good moaning" springs to mind :D
Me moaning? I was the one saying that i loved living in France.

I am only moaning if you are a politician - see my recent list of truths about politicians!
No one is saying anyone is moaning; it is an allusion to the British cultural icon of the 1980s that is 'Allo 'Allo. 'Good Moaning' is the inverted Franglais employed as a greeting by the British agent masquerading as a French Policier. Just a little plaisanterie by Pe A.
loringa
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Re: Brexit

Post by loringa »

Mid A 15 wrote: Fri Oct 01, 2021 11:20 am Brexit is not the cause of the lorry driver shortage but provides a convenient excuse for a remaincentric incompetent Establishment and a media that loves to fan the flames of discontent in any way possible. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6260516.stm. The linked article is from 2007 long before Brexit actually happening became a 'thing.'
This was an interesting article and there is no doubt that Brexit is not the sole cause of the HGV driver shortage by any means but it is, along with drivers leaving the industry, by far the biggest: bbc.co.uk/news/58772169. It was also the most foreseeable and, at the time, the easiest to resolve though, as the Government is finding, much harder now!

I think that at the root of this is the fact that there are very large numbers of jobs that were done by EU citizens from overseas that simply are not being done now. HGV driving is but one of them, along with fruit, vegetable and even flower picking, hospitality, abattoir working etc. Whilst the Government may want firms to replace these overseas workers with British workers, this is not happening. Let us be honest, a considerable number of the long-term unemployed are effectively unemployable, and wages are often too low, and conditions not acceptable, to attract those who can and do want to work. Gordon Brown's disastrous policy of 'British jobs for British workers' in which the minimum wage was set artificially low and topped up with supplementary benefits and tax credits enabled employers to pay less than they should and transferred large numbers of jobs to EU workers. For a start, let's pay everyone at least the 'real living wage' which is still only £9.50 ph outside London; if an employer cannot afford to pay the workers at this rate then maybe they shouldn't be in business.
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Re: Brexit

Post by time please »

If there was a new vote regarding Brexit I wonder what the result would be this time round. What a mess the country is in.

And I still here in Scandinavia cannot buy either PG tips or Marmite. I ordered four books from a bookshop the other day. A total of forty pounds and postage 32 pounds. Then when they arrived I had to pay another 378 skr ( 33 pounds ) in customs duty. Brexit was and is shere stupidity.
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Re: Brexit

Post by Ajarn Philip »

time please wrote: Sat Oct 02, 2021 5:50 pm If there was a new vote regarding Brexit I wonder what the result would be this time round. What a mess the country is in.
It would be interesting to find out, but of course we won't. Sadly, I wouldn't be surprised if the outcome was the same, only more decisive...
And I still here in Scandinavia cannot buy either PG tips or Marmite. I ordered four books from a bookshop the other day. A total of forty pounds and postage 32 pounds. Then when they arrived I had to pay another 378 skr ( 33 pounds ) in customs duty.
Have you tried on-line shopping? E-books? I'm a bibliophile, but my kindle has been a revelation (once you get used to it...). I particularly recommend z-library at https://b-ok.cc/ And likewise, over the last couple of lockdowns I've been using Amazon quite a bit, which has been handy for all sorts of things - in particular Amora Dijon mustard.

I'm slowly entering the 21st century...
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Re: Brexit

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Mid A 15 wrote: Fri Oct 01, 2021 11:20 amBrexit is not the cause of the lorry driver shortage but provides a convenient excuse for a remaincentric incompetent Establishment and a media that loves to fan the flames of discontent in any way possible. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6260516.stm. The linked article is from 2007 long before Brexit actually happening became a 'thing.'
Driver shortages are well publicised all over the continent (Poland has a shortage of about 100k if I recall correctly) and for at least a decade or so people in the industry have been warning of this critical shortage because of (amongst other things) poor conditions and an ageing workforce with a lack of new blood coming through.

So, given that driver shortages are a continent-wide problem, why is it just GB (NI is not as badly affected for *some reason*, he said with his tongue firmly in his cheek) that has such noticeable disruptions to its food and fuel supply chains? Have they perhaps done something recently to adversely affect supply chains whose fragility has been talked/complained about by the industry for a decade or two?

Brexit didn't cause the driver shortages, but the implementation of this form of Brexit has unquestionably exacerbated their local effect.

The UK government commissioned the Operation Yellowhammer report in what? 2018? This scenario was predicted then and despite having years to prepare for and avoid this exact outcome, they did nothing. In 2019, the Torys won an 80 seat majority to implement this exact form of Brexit. And still they did nothing. They dismissed any and all warnings as "Project Fear" and carried on. Doing nothing.

Also, remain centric establishment? Have you seen the current government or read anything from the Sun/Express/Mail/Independent/Spectator over the last ... er 40 or so years?
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scrub
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Re: Brexit

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Ajarn Philip wrote: Sat Oct 02, 2021 6:49 pm
time please wrote: Sat Oct 02, 2021 5:50 pmIf there was a new vote regarding Brexit I wonder what the result would be this time round. What a mess the country is in.
It would be interesting to find out, but of course we won't. Sadly, I wouldn't be surprised if the outcome was the same, only more decisive...
Not sure it'd be the same, but I don't imagine it'd be a big swing. Anyone who was 12-17 in 2016 would now get the chance to vote, plus a lot of the technicalities are now known quantities, rather than "details to be examined at a later date".
Maybe the 20 or so million people who didn't cast a vote would turn up for it this time, which might also have an effect.
That said, there's a lot of people for whom this was a vote cast purely on emotion and that decision is not the sort of thing that's going to change, no matter how many facts or evidence you might have.
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