Brexit. Why do Brits want Out of the EU?

Ongoing rows over the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol puts the region at risk of becoming a “permanent casualty” of Brexit – unless compromise is found urgently, a House of Lords committee has found.

Peers today published a report on both the problematic trade arrangement, as well as the EU and UK’s “fundamentally flawed” approach to resolving the dispute.

The group, which includes nationalist and unionist members from NI, said the UK approach had been characterised by a “lack of clarity, transparency and readiness” while the EU had demonstrated a “lack of balance, understanding and flexibility”.

Any policy allowing imports that do not match UK animal-welfare policies simply props up an industry the public has firmly rejected,’ says critic

The government’s Australia deal could lead to a similar trade pact with South America, where tropical forests are increasingly being razed for intensive farming, driving the climate crisis, environmentalists fear.

And concerns have been raised that UK schoolchildren, hospital patients and restaurant and canteen customers could eat products from animals that have been treated in ways that would be illegal in the UK.

The EU reached a deal in principle two years ago with the so-called Mercosur bloc of Latin American countries, covering tariffs and trade barriers.

And ministers say the government’s trade deal with Australia will boost UK attempts to join the CPTPP trade alliance, which covers Pacific nations from Japan to Mexico.

The UK Eurogroup taskforce – a coalition of animal-protection representatives – has warned the UK will follow the EU and end up funding ecologically damaging and cruel practices.

The RSPCA sounded the alarm over the UK supporting lower standards when the Australia deal was imminent earlier this year.

The Animal Equality organisation said a South America deal would “trigger further deforestation, put greater pressure on Brazilian biodiversity, and create an increased likelihood of zoonotic diseases arising and a significant reduction in the standards of imported products into Europe”.

In the Amazon, swathes of land are routinely cleared to rear cattle for beef exports and to plant soya to feed them. The deforestation, biodiversity loss and human-rights violations in Brazil have prompted the UK, the EU and the US all to consider legal action.

The forest loss creates even more of the emissions driving the climate crisis, because trees and vegetation soak up carbon.

Last year figures showed a football pitch-size area of forest was lost every six seconds.

Cornelia Maarfield, trade and climate project manager at the global Climate Action Network coalition, said the current trade pattern, even before any agreement, was already driving deforestation, and that future deals could make the problem even worse.

She pointed to a report commissioned by the French government on the EU-Mercosur trade agreement showing that the growth of beef production in South America due to the EU-Mercosur deal would accelerate tree loss by at least 25 per cent a year and destroy 36,000 sq km of forest a year.

“The report concludes that taking deforestation into account, the climate costs would outweigh the economic benefits,” she said.

Intensive animal agriculture has repeatedly been linked to the risk of pandemics, with the world’s leading scientists calling for a worldwide cut in meat consumption.

Claire Bass, executive director of Humane Society International/UK, said intensive farming practices in south and central America risked creating new diseases, and warned that any UK deal would go against the standards the public wanted.

“The EU and UK have made significant progress in reversing some of the most egregious production practices in intensive animal agriculture such as confining hens in battery cages so small they are unable to even stretch their wings,” she said.

“However, hundreds of millions of hens, pigs and other animals endure miserable lives of perpetual confinement in countries like Mexico and Brazil, including battery cages and sow stalls which have been banned in the UK for many years.”

As well as being cruel, intensive confinement of farm animals was also linked to the generation of more virulent diseases because of the sheer number of animals crowded together in insanitary environments, she said.

“Any trade policy that allows the import of animal products that do not comport to the animal welfare policies of the UK and EU simply prop up an industry that the public has already firmly rejected, and further undermine the science behind those decisions.”

In Mexico sow stalls - banned in the UK since 1999 – are still legal, and most hens both there and in Brazil are kept in battery cages, banned in the UK since 2012 on welfare grounds, she said.

EU experts last year in a report described Brazil’s regulations on slaughter and transport as “insufficient”.

The World Animal Protection charity grades the country only as D – on a scale where A is the best and G the worst.

It noted that the EU’s Food and Veterinary Organisation found Brazilian authorities “cannot guarantee that meat products exported to the EU have been produced in accordance with EU requirements”.

Some substances are authorised in cattle that cannot be used in the EU, it reported.

As far back as last year, a Compassion in World Farming briefing warned that Brazil was increasingly moving towards the use of feedlots, which “would completely undermine our farmers if these products were imported into the UK”.

A spokesperson for the Trade and Animal Welfare Coalition, part of the Eurogroup for Animals, said: “The UK should be using its trade policy to promote better welfare internationally, not to further incentivise or outsource lower welfare and unsustainable production systems in other parts of the world, impacting wild animals as well.”

A government spokesperson said: “In all of our trade negotiations, we will not compromise on our high environmental protection, animal welfare and food standards,” the wording contained in the Conservatives’ manifesto.

Brexit red tape is putting UK manufacturing at risk of serious disruption as vital parts for British goods such as cars and fridges could fall into legal limbo, it has emerged.

The UK government has failed to devise an acceptable replacement for the EU’s safety standards system, meaning components needed for use in the UK will not have a suitable “kitemark” to guarantee a product is safe, according to leading figures.

During Brexit negotiations, ministers failed to secure an agreement with the EU to recognise one another’s safety standards, known as conformity assessments.

David Cameron’s government backed the idea when it was floated by the European Commission in April 2016, three months before the EU referendum, when few foresaw the €7 (£5.95) fee would one day hit British travellers.

Brexit supporters reacted with fury this week when the commission said plans for a European travel information and authorisation system (Etias) were on track to come into force for travellers in late 2022.

Despite claims of “Brexit punishment”, the idea, which is intended to increase border security, long predates Britain’s EU divorce and applies to citizens from about 60 countries.

Modelled on the US Esta scheme, non-EU citizens who do not require a visa will have to fill out a form and pay €7 before entering Europe’s passport-free Schengen zone. In 95% of cases approval will be given within minutes. If travel is allowed, the €7 fee – which applies to adults between 18 and 70 years, – covers multiple visits over three years.

The former Labour MEP Claude Moraes said the government had been keen on the idea. “The UK government was one of its biggest supporters, obviously prior to the referendum, and [Etias] was seen as part of the digital securitisation of borders that the UK wanted to lead on in the EU.”

Moraes chaired the European parliament’s home affairs committee, which was responsible for negotiating the Etias regulation with EU interior ministers.

The then home secretary, Theresa May, was understood to have supported the concept although she never expected to join, because the UK was outside the Schengen zone. If the UK had remained an EU member state, British nationals would be exempt from the form filling and charge – a special status that non-Schengen Ireland has today.

Boris Johnson has come under fire during his visit to Scotland from fishing leaders, who told him that his Brexit deal had “fallen short of expectations”.

Fisheries leaders warned of a “haemorrhage” of foreign workers in the industry in the wake of the UK’s departure from the EU’s single market and customs union on 1 January.

And he heard complaints about new red tape and delays resulting from Brexit which have hit the industry north of the border.

The prime minister was joined by business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, Scotland Office minister David Duguid and Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross for a meeting with heads of a number of fishing organisations in Fraserburgh on Thursday.

Scottish Seafood Association chief executive Jimmy Buchan challenged Mr Johnson over the number of staff lost to the industry as a result of Brexit, which has dramatically reduced the number of seasonal workers in Scotland and had an impact on the seafood sector.

Following the meeting, Mr Buchan said: “I sought an assurance that the government would work closely with us to resolve the critical shortage of labour.

“He agreed that a campaign was required to encourage young people into the industry and on the need for direct action to stem the haemorrhage of overseas workers that has occurred since 1 January.”

Mr Buchan was also among the sector leaders to tell the PM his EU trade deal, which allowed EU fleets largely unchanged access to UK waters until 2026, had fallen “far short of expectations”.

Brexit is to blame for the shortages of fast-food chicken that have shut some Nando’s stores, the industry says – accusing ministers of refusing to help.

EU workers returning home and a lack of lorry drivers able to come to the UK lie behind the problems that have also hit KFC and other outlets, the British Poultry Council said.

“When you don’t have people, you have a problem – and this is something we are seeing across the whole supply chain. The labour crisis is a Brexit issue,” said chief executive Richard Griffiths.

He lashed out at Priti Patel for failing to respond to a plea for poultry meat supply chain workers to be included on the shortage occupation list, to allow in more EU staff.

A letter was sent to the home secretary earlier this month, but Mr Griffiths revealed: “We have had no reply as yet.”

Boris Johnson has already rejected an identical plea to boost the number of HGV drivers, with ministers deciding to relax driving test rules instead.

Trade between Northern Ireland and the Republic has soared this year, while life for British exporters looks set to get grimmer

It was supposed to be a deal no UK prime minister could ever agree to, an Irish sea border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Half a year on from Boris Johnson doing exactly that, while denying the fact, the economic consequences are becoming clearer.

Figures published by the Irish government last week indicate that a heavy toll for British trade can be added to the political turmoil unleashed by Johnson’s signing up to the Northern Ireland protocol. The data shows evidence beginning to emerge of deeper economic unity on the island of Ireland, at a time when shipments between Britain and Northern Ireland have been disrupted by the Brexit border checks the prime minister promised would never happen.

With Northern Ireland effectively remaining a member of the EU’s single market, the value of goods sent to the republic soared to €1.8bn (£1.5bn) in the first six months of 2021, an increase of 77% over the same period in 2020. Irish goods exports to the region rose by 40% over the same period, reaching almost €1.6bn.

Meanwhile, Britain was subject to the full gamut of EU border checks for the first time in four decades, and trade fell accordingly. Exports to Ireland slid by 32% in the first six months after Brexit, while sales of Irish goods in the other direction rose 20%, in a sign that the republic isn’t suffering as much as had been feared from disruption with its largest trading partner.

At this stage, it is difficult to say conclusively that leaving the EU and the Northern Ireland protocol will have a lasting impact on trade flows around the British Isles. The coronavirus pandemic is having a substantial impact, and isolating the Brexit effect is difficult as firms gradually adapt to the new rules amid a period of flux.

Official UK-wide trade figures show that after a cataclysmic fall in trade in January, exports and imports with EU nations have been steadily climbing closer to normal levels, as both Brexit and Covid disruptions abate.

However, the early evidence remains uncomfortable for the government. If it is sustained, Northern Ireland’s deepening economic ties with the republic – and weaker ones with mainland Britain – will raise questions over the region’s relationship with the rest of the UK. It is an issue unionist politicians are sure to keep raising.

What is more, serious questions should be asked about how well informed the British political debate can be. There are no official UK government figures – at least not in public form – for trade between Britain and Northern Ireland. For the region’s trade with the republic, the most up-to-date UK government data is for 2019.

Embarrassingly, the figures published by Dublin offer the best insight. Without official data to inform the debate, Britain must proceed in the dark.

While much of the damage of Brexit is self-inflicted, the snapshot from Ireland does suggest another imbalance is at play, as a result of actions by Brussels.

British exporters have been hit harder by Brexit because they faced border checks from 1 January on shipments to the EU, while Irish and EU exporters to Britain have benefited from a phased approach to checks the UK government opted for over a 12-month transition period.

Peer who attacked ‘dying EU’ gets top job – as fellow Brexiteer Kate Hoey appointed to Ghana

English cricket legend Sir Ian “Beefy” Botham has been appointed the UK’s new trade envoy to Australia, the government has revealed.

International trade secretary Liz Truss said the Brexit-backing sports star would do a “brilliant job” drumming up trade for Britain as one of 10 new envoys around the world.
[...]
Several other Brexiteers have been handed top jobs with Ms Truss’ department. Baroness Kate Hoey, the former Labour MP who was given a peerage in 2020, has been appointed trade envoy to Ghana. DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has been handed the equivalent role for Cameroon.

Meanwhile, Tory MP David Mundell has been made trade envoy to New Zealand, and Labour MP Stephen Timms takes up the same post for both Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

John Woodcock – the former Labour MP who endorsed the Conservatives at the last general election – has been appointed to Tanzania. There are also roles for Tory MPs Mark Eastwood (Pakistan), Marco Longhi (Brazil), Conor Burns (Canada) and Felicity Buchan (Iceland and Norway).

“Trade envoys are parliamentarians appointed by the prime minister, drawn from both Houses and across the political spectrum,” said a spokesperson for the Department for International Trade. “The roles are unpaid and voluntary.”

George Brandis, Australia’s ambassador in the UK, said he was delighted by Sir Ian’s appointment. “Marvellous news Liz and what a fantastic appointment!” he tweeted.

He added: “Australia looks forward to welcoming Lord Botham down under – and to working with him to strengthen the trading links between our two countries.”

Criticising the appointment, SNP MP Angus MacNeil, chair of the international trade select committee, said: “An Australian trade deal can only recover £2 of every £490 that Brexit costs. Spin, bowlers or otherwise, won’t change this.”

Former civil servant and anti-Brexit campaigner Siobhan Benita added: “If you didn’t already think Global Britain has become a laughing-stock on the world stage, the appointment of Ian Botham as the UK’s trade envoy to Australia really should start ringing some alarm bells.”

The government has pushed back a deadline for the launch of post-Brexit product safety standards by allowing companies to follow EU rules until 2023, in the latest climbdown amid concerns over the economy.

Businesses will have an extra year to start using the new UKCA mark, which is planned to replace the EU’s CE mark used to certify that a wide range of products meet safety standards, including electrical goods and construction materials.

In the latest delay to post-Brexit reforms as firms struggle with disruption caused by the pandemic and leaving the EU, the government said firms would be given more time to adapt.
[...]
CE markings are required for a wide range of consumer products, from laptops to table lamps and hairdryers.

Ministers argue the UKCA mark will allow the UK to control its goods regulations while maintaining high safety standards. However, many businesses say the changes will force them to fill in reams of additional paperwork or make changes to their production lines, as manufacturers selling goods in both the EU and the UK will be forced to follow two regimes.

Cricket legend Ian Botham named UK’s new trade envoy to Australia
[...]
English cricket legend Sir Ian “Beefy” Botham has been appointed the UK’s new trade envoy to Australia, the government has revealed.
[...]
International trade secretary Liz Truss said the Brexit-backing sports star would do a “brilliant job” drumming up trade for Britain as one of 10 new envoys around the world.
[...]
Criticising the appointment, SNP MP Angus MacNeil, chair of the international trade select committee, said: “... Spin, bowlers or otherwise, won’t change this.”

I am conscious of the irony of an Irishman making a cricketing joke to a German given that neither of our nations are exactly hotbeds of the sport!.

It’s easy to find out when Ian Botham last played cricket, because there is Wisden, but it’s hard to find out when John Cleese was last funny. Some people think he had some moderately amusing lines in A Fish Called Wanda (1988). There was a period in the 2010s when he had an idiosyncratic vendetta and went around town saying “Michael Palin’s travel show” and then yawning, which a small niche found rather tickling.

It would be fair to say it’s not a recent body of comic work that has recommended Cleese for a Channel 4 show about “cancel culture”, any more than it is Botham’s sporting career that equips him to be the trade envoy to Australia for “global Britain”. They have been drafted in for the vibes.

Those vibes in full: they are outspoken gentlemen who refuse to be cowed by convention into staying silent on their sub-saloon-bar bullshit. They are fearless crusaders for freedom, so long as by “freedom” we mean the liberty to tell gags about male superiority that would have been too tired for Les Dawson. It is safe to assume that both men like golf, being such reliable club bores, but only Botham chose a second home for its proximal links, Cleese being more likely to relocate for a low, low tax regime.

They are fiercely patriotic, the ex-cricketer in the sense that he yearns for control over our “laws, trade and borders”, the “comedian” in the sense that he finds London “not really an English city any more” (really, though, John: what does a truly English city look like to you, from hilarityville? If you could spell it out, I’m sure we would all find it really funny).

They are not the same job, making a programme in a light-but-hard-entertainment format about wokeness and acting as a trade envoy, but they seem to have an identical set of competencies. So, never mind what Channel 4 is thinking (we can always choose not to watch it, after all); you have to wonder: what exactly are we trading?

Most of the system that puts food on the 21st-century table is a mystery to the consumer, who is usually happy in ignorance. If the complex logistics – picking, processing, packing, and distributing – make headlines it is because something has gone wrong.

Currently, two very big things have gone wrong, leading to gaps on supermarket shelves. One is the pandemic, which has slowed the movement of goods and people across borders, while raising shipping costs. Any broken link in global supply chains causes a cascade of disruption which affects many countries. But Britain has a second, aggravating condition to contend with – Brexit.

Being outside the EU single market and customs union imposes bureaucracy and friction at borders that British businesses did not previously face. Ending freedom of movement for EU nationals has drained the labour pool from which many industries recruited. Without agricultural workers, food rots before it can get to market. Without hauliers, goods sit unshipped in depots.

This was all predictable, and predicted. Ending free-flowing EU migration was an advertised benefit of Brexit. The theory was that foreigners were taking jobs from British-born workers or depressing their wages. The gaps should, in that view, now be filled with eager locals. One problem, as businesses warned well in advance, is that migrants were not generally working in dream jobs, surrounded by unemployment. The tasks they did, and the conditions under which they worked, might not appeal to British workers. There might not be slack in the labour market to be taken up. In some fields – haulage, for example – there are also limits to how quickly new recruits can be trained and licensed.

Pay is going up in some sectors, but not by much, and it is too early to identify a sustainable boost to workers’ power in negotiation with bosses. One-off bonuses to lorry drivers do not yet presage that overdue rebalancing of industrial relations. Low pay, antisocial hours and insecure contracts are entrenched features of Britain’s economy that cannot be upgraded overnight. It is a model that relies on a workforce that is insecure and financially precarious – conditions that generated the craving for control that was so deftly exploited by the leave campaign.

That same campaign belittled or flatly denied the benefits of single market membership. The value of frictionless borders with the continent should now be self-evident. It will become clearer still when grace periods and waivers expire and another layer of bureaucracy is applied to imports from the EU.

The pandemic functions as political camouflage for Brexit-related problems. The two issues are interlinked and ministers steeped in Eurosceptic mythology are motivated to highlight the Covid dimension. But the excuses will run out before any upside to life outside the single market materialises. It is still unclear what that bounty might be.

Businesses also have incentives to downplay logistics problems. Supermarkets do not want to trigger panic buying and suppliers do not want to advertise their commercial vulnerabilities. But sparsely stocked shelves and unfilled orders cannot be hidden from consumers, nor will it be feasible for the government to pretend that they are accidents of nature. Covid is part of the story but, as so often, the pandemic has exposed structural weaknesses in Britain’s society and economy. Some of those flaws have developed over generations. But not the hard Brexit that is sabotaging Britain’s recovery. That was a choice, sold energetically – and dishonestly – to the public by the current prime minister. The financial costs might be borne by consumers and businesses, but the blame belongs to Boris Johnson.