Brexit discussion thread XIV (Please read OP before posting)

There's no suggestion in the BMF statement that they have less money for lobbying or other purposes; just that, post-Brexit, they now think their lobbying money is better spent elsewhere than in lobbying the EU.

In one sense they have a point. Now that the UK has left the EU, people in the EU will care less about what the UK thinks or wants on any matter. Why spend money presenting your views in the EU when those views have less relevance, and less influence, than they used to?

On the other hand, diverting the money to presenting your views in Westminster isn't necessarily going to achieve very much. As Hotblack points out, there is no point lobbying Westminster to make changes that, realistically, it is not sensible or rational for the UK, as a relatively small player, to make. If you want to lobby in relation to, say, emissions standards for motorbikes or standards for electrically-powered motorbikes (both things that FEMA is currently addressing) you have to lobby in the EU. Even if the UK were to adopt its own standards for these matters, few manufacturers would produce to them.

The bottom line is that the views represented by the BMF are simply less influential than they used to be. This is an outcome of Brexit. Reducing expenditure on lobbying may be a rational response to that — when your views are unimportant, why spend money publicising them? But the pressure at work here is not so much financial pressure as, um, political pressure. The UK's political choices have marginalised the BMF in Europe.

A more positive announcement here , the UK is to re-join the Horizon program.

I imagine this wll be welcomed by the whole scientific community

At 2b a yr for 7yrs it's a bargain. Brexiteers heads will explode, but alot of uk press are leaving that detail out. Sky put it that the UK were being let back in after being kicked out. Making it sound like the EU decided they should leave.

It's 2.6bn (according to the Guardian article). Or 50M a week.

Was that part of the original £350m bandied about (or actually 280m after rebates). If it is, it's nearly 20% of what they used to pay.

Something odd in those UK media reports: they're all saying that the agreement is effective immediately, get your funding applications in now.

But the EU press release https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/qanda_23_4373 says it only comes into effect on 1st Jan 2024, and the whole deal still has to be approved by each individual EU member state. I'm sure that'll be mostly an exercise in rubberstamping, but still plenty of time and opportunity for things to go wrong.

3 1/2 months is a very short time to put an application agreed and getting it in.

Horizon is a multinational program. This will not make the application process any faster

Lars 😀

Anyone who has tried this knows it’s impossible in that timeframe.

Minor stuff in the greater scheme of things. But another sign that leisure/sporting pursuits (cycling, pigeon-racing, music gigs, motor-bikes) are somewhat surprising victims of 'taking back control'.

Tour of Britain race director blames Brexit and funding crisis amid criticism | Tour of Britain | The Guardian

“Just to give you an example,” he added, “it took some teams that rode the world champs [in Glasgow] five hours to get their vehicles, technical teams through customs at Dover, and that was only three weeks ago. And they go, ‘Hang on. You know what? It’s not worth it’. So they didn’t, but that’s purely and simply down to Brexit.”

The problem is not just fuelling inflation with these checks. In the worst case scenario, EU suppliers will simply not supply the UK, as additional bureaucracy and costs associated with thee checks will be seen by too burdensome.

And the UK is only about 65% self sufficient, meaning , if they didn't import food from the EU ( and other countries) they would face a real food shortage (unrealistic i know, but someone posted that, without imports, they would exhaust this years food supply around now ) . Not something any government could countenance.

Ironically, he's actually giving a very truthful version of what happened back then (unusually for a Brexiteer, as they are normally pathological liars trying to deceive everyone).

The EU (Barnier & co) negotiated, in good faith, with Frosty & co. They, in reality knew what they were dealing with, but kept the high ground. Ireland will be forever grateful to Barnier.

Can't remember the name of Barnier's second, a German lady I think, she was brilliant.

Thanks for that. Heard her once and she was really able. The EU hire the brightest.