The Brexit referendum thread: potential consequences for GB, EU and the Brits in CH

[JackieH]

Prof Dougan is the most experienced and knowledgeable International Law Expert, from Liverpool University, and he is absolutely right.

'' Amid the howls of Brexitist outrage about the EU's commencement of enforcement action against the UK for latter's clear breach of its international legal obligations (there's no "alleged" about it...) - let's recall a couple of basic but rather important facts:
Protocol = fundamental compromise. UK accepted [ie Johnson proposed] border down Irish Sea, in order to deliver Hard Brexit demanded by Tory Leave Extremists. EU agreed [a major concession, made for sake of peace in Ireland] that a 3rd country would police its external frontier.
So HMG's actions aren't just an affront to rules-based international order & destabilising intervention in already tense situation in NI - though they are both those things. HMG's actions also directly abuse trust vested in UK, to act as a responsible guardian of EU's own border.
Thanks to Johnson's choices, approved by Parliament, NI's border with GB is now part of EU's border with world. UK offered to enforce it. So EU is right to be furious at UK reneging on its word. Johnson didn't care about UK territorial integrity. Now he's compromising that of EU. ''

[bowlie]

The EU needs to send in border police to patrol the IE/NI border. Do a few spot checks. Ask for some ID, particularly those with UK license plates.

Perhaps that will get Boris’ attention.

[Mikers]

	Quote:	bowlie
	The EU needs to send in border police to patrol the IE/NI border. Do a few spot checks. Ask for some ID, particularly those with UK license plates. Perhaps that will get Boris’ attention.

I don’t think he’s watching. Like most of the rest of the world they are looking on with horror as the EU behaves like a banana republic with its banning of exports of corona vaccines by overruling agreed and signed contracts between private companies and governments.

[komsomolez]

How the British became the new Turks.

https://www.economist.com/europe/202...-the-new-turks




I am apparently not allowed to paste the text here, so ...

[JackieH]

Just watched this again- I love this other Leicester girl

https://fb.watch/4mPWQxiLxC/

[marton]

	Quote:
	Whisky, cheese and chocolate producers have suffered the biggest post-Brexit export losses in the food and drink sector, new figures from HMRC have shown. Analysis of the figures by the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) shows that cheese exports in January plummeted from £45m to £7m year on year, while whisky exports nosedived from £105m to £40m. Chocolate exports went from £41.4m to just £13m, a decline of 68%. Exports of some other goods such as salmon and beef almost stopped altogether, with declines of 98% and 92% respectively, but by value they were the 7th and 4th biggest losers of the top 10 exports to the EU. Overall, trade in fish, thanks partly to a complete ban on the exports of certain live shellfish, dropped by 79%.

A lot more detail in this link including country by country analysis.

I had hoped February would be better but

	Quote:
	Co-founder of Cheshire Cheese Company, Simon Spurrell was told by the environment minister, Victoria Prentis, to look at US and Canada markets rather than EU after his cheese export business collapsed.

Simon was hoping for advice on how to recover his EU trade.

[bowlie]

	Quote:	marton
	A lot more detail in this link including country by country analysis. I had hoped February would be better but Simon was hoping for advice on how to recover his EU trade.

Simple, move his production to Europe.

[marton]

	Quote:	bowlie
	Simple, move his production to Europe.

I imagine it is difficult to label cheese as Cheshire cheese when it is produced in mainland Europe.

[bowlie]

	Quote:	marton
	I imagine it is difficult to label cheese as Cheshire cheese when it is produced in mainland Europe.

Just spell it Tzeshire, nobody would notice.

[st2lemans]

	Quote:	marton
	I imagine it is difficult to label cheese as Cheshire cheese when it is produced in mainland Europe.

Why?

Most Emmental is not made in Switzerland!

Tom

	Quote:	st2lemans
	Why? Most Emmental is not made in Switzerland! Tom

And a heck of a lot more Champagne is made outside France than inside.

[JackieH]

Well yes, but AOC and IGP rules are complicated.

We have a 7 generation Champagne House here, originally came from Alsace to produce Champagne in an old Clunisian Abbey where monks were thrown out at the time of Reformation. All made with the proper Champenoise method and they win many international prizes. For a long time, they could put 'Méthode Champenoise' on the bottle, but not call their produce Champagne. They are no longer allowed to do that even. Well worth a visit btw. Mauler is in Môtiers, NE-. https://www.mauler.ch/fr/ you can buy their very basic bubbly in Denner and other retailers, but they also do much better Champagnes, white wine, Oeil de Perdrix, Pinot Noir, etc.

On the other side of the mountain, on the Vaud side - there is a village which has been called Champagne for hundreds of years (very close to another village called 'Provence') - it produces excellent white wine (no Champagne btw) - but the word Champagne cannot be mentionned anywhere on the bottle! Not even 'Produced in Champagne, VD, Suisse'. Just ridiculous.

Guryères has much better protection with AOC than Emmental. It cannot be made with cows fed on silage, and all sorts of other regulations. But the French actually also produce some 'Gruyères' cheese - and the ridiculous rule is that it has to have holes! Gruyères production does not produce holes- so they have to use a small spoon to artificially make holes in the French Gruyères, to make it legal. Nosnsense.

[st2lemans]

	Quote:	JackieH
	the French actually also produce some 'Gruyères' cheese - and the ridiculous rule is that it has to have holes! Gruyères production does not produce holes- so they have to use a small spoon to artificially make holes in the French Gruyères, to make it legal. Nosnsense.

That's because the French think of Emmenthal and Gruyere as the same thing (at least, they did in 1975 when I lived there).

Tom

[Island Monkey]

	Quote:
	And a heck of a lot more Champagne is made outside France than inside.

Sparkling wine maybe - not Champagne. Even sparkling wine made in France outside of the Champagne region cannot be called Champagne.

[st2lemans]

	Quote:	Island Monkey
	Sparkling wine maybe - not Champagne. Even sparkling wine made in France outside of the Champagne region cannot be called Champagne.

It can in the US, and probably some other countries.

Tom

[marton]

	Quote:	st2lemans
	It can in the US, and probably some other countries. Tom

it is illegal for an American winery to create a new wine label using the word Champagne, due to a 2006 trade agreement between the U.S. and the European Union.

[st2lemans]

	Quote:	marton
	it is illegal for an American winery to create a new wine label using the word Champagne, due to a 2006 trade agreement between the U.S. and the European Union.

Perhaps, but there are plenty already!

Tom

[bowlie]

	Quote:	st2lemans
	Perhaps, but there are plenty already! Tom

Perhaps, but a lot of it is crap. The US government being much more interested in campaign contributions than honesty. Even when it’s US consumers that are being lied to.

	Quote:	Island Monkey
	Sparkling wine maybe - not Champagne. Even sparkling wine made in France outside of the Champagne region cannot be called Champagne.

Precisely my point.

[st2lemans]

https://vinepair.com/wine-blog/looph...ampagne-legal/

Tom