Tag Archives: Brexit v EU – Negotiations.

THE BEADY EYE ASKS DOES LIVING IN ENGLAND NOW SUCK.

02 Saturday Oct 2021

Posted by in England departure from the EU., England.

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(Twelve-minute read) 


It is fair to say that Britain now no longer rules the waves and it is a country on the point of breaking up because it spent most of its past industrial wealth on an image rather than on its people.

Indeed it has been going downhill long before Brexit with Margaret Thatcher’s legacy, which created a society blighted by poverty, wages, and despairs.

For the sake of short-term profit, she crushed the trade unions’ movement marginalizing workers’ voices, sunk an obsolete Argentine Cruiser the General Belgrano, and her growing hostility to Brussels inspired the Euroskeptics, the Brexit delivery machine.

” There is no such thing as Society”

You could say that’s all in the past, but is it really.  According to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, all is well in the sunny uplands of ‘Global Britain’, as he recently told us from a New York rooftop that he “does not believe” that anyone in Britain will struggle to put food on the table this winter.

Instead, he believes that the labor shortages he has engineered, by slamming up the shutters on 40 years of freedom of movement between Britain and the EU, will cause wages to rise, and that people will consequently be fine.

He might be right but at a cost, England cannot afford it in a world that is beginning to resist the catastrophic cult of cash, the export potential of thousands of British companies is now looking more than bleak.

Given the huge Brexit hit there future is now not an opportunity to make a quick buck, but rather an opportunity for the fundamental civil right of organized workers to be heard.

This is now becoming the vital foundation to build back towards a sustainable future

It is increasingly evident, combined with the avalanches of huge and intractable global problems as the story of Brexit unfolds, that he is living in the clouds.

Rather than actively seeking it out, he needs to correct the national addiction to poverty wages, not by clapping the NHS or raising the national insurance stamp or dumping the £20 covid assistance but by shaking off the shackles of an outdated system of surfs versus the monarchy.

Yes, culture-wise the Monacry should be preserved for the sake of history and tourism.

In this day and age to have to ask permission of a person that is only entitled by the accident of birth to be designated royal when a leader who is elected by the people to power has to ask permission to form a government is a joke.

Not to mention that this person owns all of the seabeds up to 12 kilometers of the countries coastline, which was recently discovered by a new seaweed farm when they had to get royal assent to establish a new carbon zero producing farm on the coast of Scotland.        

All of which raises a vital question about what exactly the UK has become, over the last few decades.

England which was once notorious across the planet for its destructive short-termism is trying to live an ideology reverting to its past glory.

Though, its disregard of climate change during the Industrial Age, and its recent departure from the EU it now faces outcomes regardless of its fine words, that are highlighting its inability to value either humanity or nature as highly as money.

In a world that is driven by unregulated technological advancement, nobody will ever persuade me that Brexit was a good choice.  

                                           ————————-

If one takes a look at England from back in the sixties to the present day, the barometer on what is socially unfavorable could not be starker. 

A country that is ranked as the fifth richest in the world now has approximately 2.5 million people using food banks (run by groups of volunteers, churches, and charities) with 14 million ( 4.5 million children) living below the breadline. That is 12% of the total population of the UK and they have been living like this for the last four years with over 4,000 people sleeping rough on the streets and almost a murder a day it’s no wonder that is women folk feel unsafe on the streets.   

While spending nearly $8 billion building two new large, conventionally-fueled aircraft carriers not to mention HS2 which is already billions over budget costing 307 million per mile.

The cost of replacing Trident is estimated at £31 billion. The cost of operating, maintaining, and renewing the nuclear deterrent is substantial. 

The national lottery raises around £8,373.9 million out of which since 2008 a total of £100 million a year has been spent on winning medals in the Olympics/ Para Olympics worth around £540 (Gold). 

                                         ———————-

The ‘Swinging Sixties’ remains the defining decade for Britain.

It was the period that finally allowed people the liberty and individuality people had fought for and what we take for granted nowadays. Indeed it would be fair to say England was only just forgetting the troubles of the Second World War. In just ten short years, London was transformed from the bleak city into the capital of the world, full of freedom, hope, and promise.

By the end of the decade, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin achieved the impossible by becoming the first men on the moon in 1969.

England, on the other hand, had not grasped that people outside London were struggling.

Not everyone lives/wants to live in London.

It has taken all of this time to the present day for recognition of this fact.

Why?

Because Brits are notoriously passive-aggressive and avoid conflict, and this can sometimes come off as very fake and superficial. It can also be very counterproductive and time-consuming to jump around a subject instead of being direct with it.

And people just don’t understand until it’s directly affecting them.

The worst part is that too many British people still don’t realize how their economy is tanking and still refuse to acknowledge it and never talk about it. Which is frustrating in and of itself.

One of the worst legacies in its class system is Council Tax. 

I am not talking about the weather which for the most part is consistently grey and mentally draining and depressing in Britain.

I fundamentally disagree with tax that is not income-based. I think how much tax you pay should always depend on how much money you’re making—otherwise, it’s not fair.

Council tax is a local tax, usually done by the city or county you live in.

The Council is responsible for all of the local things—streetlights, garbage collection, libraries, police and emergency services, etc.

It’s not a normal tax—you have to pay it separately, it’s not automatically deducted from a paycheck. This is because it is not technically income-based—how much council tax you pay depends on where you live and the size of your residence. So even if you aren’t employed and aren’t receiving paychecks, you still have to pay council tax. (Students are exempt from paying council tax, and in theory, if you are on welfare/benefits you won’t have to pay either.

The average person in England needs to earn 20 days’ worth of wages to cover the cost of their council tax bill, while in some areas the average employee would need to work for a full month to pay the bill.

People working or not in England on visas have no access to public funds or the NHS National Health Service through their visas. 

Racists have been emboldened since Brexit, and the attitude to foreigners is appalling. Murdering an Indian” is not a racist act of violence but voraciously eating curry, and cheers is a catch-all phrase that can mean thank you or fuck off depending on the tone of voice.

Most jobs pay monthly, so you just get one lump sum and need to budget it out throughout the month. This is opposed to in the US, where paychecks are generally bi-weekly. Oh, and if you work two jobs, your second job can be taxed nearly 50%. Good luck trying to pay rent with a tax return in April. 

All transportation is insanely, painfully expensive ludicrously expensive. 

The end result has been a mixed-race with diverse skin and hair colors, statues and builds, gastronomy, and cultural habits. Numerous museums, galleries, and parishes testify to Britain’s admirable past.Portrait of Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria ruled Britain for over 60 years. British soldiers in fact fought wars in almost every year of Victoria’s reign.

The country’s often archaic political system and ways of organizing itself are once again coming under immense strain, now in the throes of limited reform thanks to a revolutionary expansion in communications.

England is now once more a society in the grip of more convulsive, complex, and disturbing change than had been experienced by any previous culture in human history. From a blood-soaked glorious empire to a pawn shop. 

All human comments are appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.

 

 

 

 

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THE BEADY EYE ASKS. THESE DAYS WITH TECHNOLOGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE ARE TREATIES OR TRADE DEALS WORTH THE PAPER THEY ARE WRITTEN ON.

16 Tuesday Mar 2021

Posted by in 2021. The year for change., Climate Change Summit Scotland 2021, Climate Change., POST COVID-19., Trade Agreements., Unanswered Questions., What Needs to change in the World, World Trade Organisation

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( Fifteen-minute read) 


Countries can do whatever they choose and there is no organization in the world with any authority over any country’s government.

An anxious, frightened nation desperately turns to the government for leadership in managing and overcoming emergencies. This does not mean that momentous events like COVID-19, which tap into our deepest feelings of insecurity and mortality, ought to rule out the airing of legitimate differences of opinion.

This is how for all intended purposes the Good Friday Agreement was arranged not Brexit and subsequent Northern Ireland Protocol. 

The burdens of office are momentous but the actions we take are a great source of information about ourselves but underestimating the significance of platforms like social media for debate has its own consequences. The Arab Spring, Donal Trump’s election, Brexit, the handover of Hongkong, and now the Northern Ireland Protocol (designed to protect the Good Friday Agreement) a debate triggered by an online petition launched by the Brexit supporting DUP. 

Perhaps it’s time that trade deals and treaties were arranged by independent third parties because I believe that the detached self is able to paint the most accurate picture of who we are and how we work.

Brexit as I predicted is a good example of the unforeseen effort and costs involved when exiting a deal that is not properly understood in the first place. 

Northern Ireland voted to stay in the European Union.

Outside the EU a border inside the EU no border. 

Any trade deal or treaty comes with rules and regulations agreed to by all parties prior to the agreement any changes must to agreed upon by the signatures to that deal before implication.  Any unilateral actions nullify the deal as there is no point in agreeing on something that is not going to adhere to.   

                                      ——————–

Trade always takes the line of least resistance.

The implementation of the protocol on Northern Ireland was always going to be difficult – Brexiters have never accepted the need for the Irish Sea border that they have nonetheless created, arguing right up until the protocol was signed, that a mixture of technology and “mutual enforcement” by both sides could obviate the need for a trade border in Ireland.

As far as the Unionist in the north of Ireland choosing to put a trade border in the Irish Sea, Boris Johnson unsettled the fundamental constitutional ambiguity at the heart of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement peace deal as the price of delivering a fully “sovereign” Brexit for the rest of the UK.

The Good Friday Agreement functions (however imperfectly) because it enables the people of Northern Ireland “to identify themselves and be accepted as Irish or British, or both”, but the protocol means the Unionist community now feels that its identity is threatened.

Alas, this week’s row — in which the UK government unilaterally granted itself more time to phase in burdensome bureaucracy, sparking a threat of legal action from the European Commission — shows how far trust and communication have broken down between both sides, obscuring the practical requirements noted above.

Government is not perfect — no human institution can be without trust.

To just exist without following any of the pre-agreed treaty clauses or simply for political gain is bad form. It also is a sign to the rest of the world that a treaty with a particular country and government in power that breaks it outside of those planned options isn’t trustworthy.

With that deadline gone and both parties have ruled out any extension to the transition period, it is now clear that there is no longer time for parliamentary approval on the EU side.

So where are we? 

The EU  which includes some large member states is not yet fully confident that a Johnson government will implement the agreement it signed — and yet in demanding demonstrations of UK willingness to implement the deal fully, it is at serious risk of testing the protocol to destruction. 

Does this mean that the UK will crash out without a deal?  

Not only the Council and the European Parliament have to ratify the agreement, but also the legislatures of all 27 member states by qualified majority voting or unanimity, depending on the scope of the agreement.

In the meantime the pandemic has flung the world into a maelstrom, we’re still not quite sure how to get out of it never mind climate change. 

We can’t build back better if we don’t know what building back better looks like.

So a good starting point is to think of the problems we have now, and what we can do to find solutions to help build back better.

With the astronomical cost of the pandemic yet to be determined radical economic or social change is the last thing governments want right now.

What’s needed is stability, to allow the economy to recover. A radical shift in policy seems unlikely when we’re in the midst of an economic crisis. It would be like taking the air supply away from a sick person fighting for their lives. It is quite literally, the last thing you would do.

We need to remember governments tend to react to problems, rather than proactively create radical reform, and herein lies one of the greatest challenges in dealing with the climate crisis never mind the No Nay Never Unionists. 

Under International law a border there must be till either Northern Ireland is reunited with the South or England rejoins the EU. 

England could leave the customs union with the EU,  Northern Ireland could not. 

                                             ——————— 

When it comes to Climate change to be sure, the governments have gotten a lot of things wrong.

Yes, we’re already in a crisis. A problem of breathtaking proportions. But does it feel like a problem? Not really.

From the perspective of people who have bills to pay, screaming children, stressful jobs, how does the climate crisis impact their lives?

For the majority of people, the climate crisis isn’t that high up on their list of priorities.

Things are going to have to get really bad for people to take notice.

It’s only when the climate crisis starts to feel like a problem affecting people’s lives that they’ll start demanding change.

At that point, it will be too late for governments to do anything about it.

The problem with government is that we are unable to make it work-work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back.

With public sentiment gripped by anxiety and uncertainty as we race to rationalize and intuit what COVID-19 will mean for how we live, the last thing anyone wants to see is politicians and other leaders bickering over the many prescriptions needed to address what is going to put Coivd -19 in the shade – the climate.  

To date, we’ve largely been spared that fate.

However, as technology turns climate into a product the climate movement needs to wake up to the uncomfortable realization that we need to be patient and let the system implode, but be damn sure to be ready when it does.

Lockdowns that ground society to a halt have given the environment a break. Governments would be well served to anticipate this next phase.

If they don’t accommodate what will become a loud chorus demanding, not without justification, regular demonstrations of accountability in the face of the most far-reaching encumbrances on personal liberties we’ve seen in our history.  

Climate is what shapes and defines our lives in various ways, and it is an indispensable resource during times of hardship and sacrifice.

All the “solutions” to the government’s problems promise to speed, streamline, standardize and modernize, but they rarely address the organizational changes required to actually make them effective, or the organizational changes that result.

The climate will take no prisoners so those attending the next climate change summit need to understand what is now their starting position is with economies being crushed by the Pandemic and the forthcoming Depression.

Global climate is projected to continue to change over this century and beyond. 

These meetings have been vital to find a global consensus on an issue that requires a global solution.

Among the many elements that need to be ironed out is the financing of climate action worldwide. (  See previous posts )

Because the clock is ticking on climate change, the world cannot afford to waste more time: we must collectively agree on a bold, decisive, ambitious, and accountable way forward.

This cannot be done by written agreements that are non-binding. It can only be achieved by rewards like non-repayable grants funded by placing a 0.05% World Aid Commission on all profit-seeking activities. ( See previous Posts)  

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE BEADY EYE SAYS. HERE IS THE REAL BREXIT DEAL.

30 Wednesday Dec 2020

Posted by in Brexit v EU - Negotiations., Brexit., EU_UK relations for the foreseeable future.

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( Seven minutes read with eleven-minutes listen) 

This blog has on several occasions addressed the subject of England leaving the European Union. In doing so I have held that there could be no deal that is piecemeal or offered benefits to a nonmember that current members do not have. 

After years of haggling and political maneuvering, we have a one thousand two hundred page document that is supposed to define EU_UK relations for the foreseeable future.

It contains a deal of the agreed nature of Protectionism (by both sides) with dozens of talking committees, groups, and others, all with powers and functions to make a recipe for disputes, constrictions, and contradictions of interpretation, all leading to the one and only deal that is waiting in the wings –  WTO.

Why?

Because any deal that is not watertight is a deal or agreement without end and is destined to collapse.

What do these trade laws, rules, and regulations actually mean in practice other than Protectionism? ‘

Protectionism’ is an economic policy that strives to restrict foreign imports to protect local businesses competing with the import sector, although this very same policy can (and very often in today’s world is) be down to an insular, inward-looking, rather than outward-looking trade policy.

The UK outside the Single Market and Customs Union has profound and immediate implications for every business who moves goods to, from, or through Great Britain.

Regardless of the outcome of the ongoing negotiations between the EU and the UK,  at the end of the transition period, it will bring significant and lasting change. 

We know with certainty that there will be new customs formalities and new regulatory requirements and for the moment a hard border on the island of Ireland is avoided while preserving the integrity of the EU Single Market and Ireland’s place in it, but the first new tariff whether it is electronic or not will stir up the hornet’s nest. shipping-containers-trade

We also know that the UK whether it like it or not is still a highly regulated and taxed economy.

As for state aid.

UK state aid is to be governed by what is called a level playing field.  Even if EU laws don’t apply EU laws form the basis for any leveling.

When it comes to services no protection has been secured. 

As for the fish. 

If the UK reduces the EU’s quotas without the EU agreement –  hay presto a new fish arrives called tariffs.

On page 405 either party with 12 months’ notice can unilaterally terminate the agreement.    

So why all the hype?

By the very nature of a trade deal, it entails an agreement between two trading ‘partners,’ on either side of the negotiation.

What does it all mean; what do global trade deals actually entail and how does it all actually work?

As Hayley Edwards says,

“We’re not talking about trade, we’re talking about rules. We’re talking about global rules, global standards, and what kind of world we want that to be…The rules that we pass and that we embrace are the rules of the game that we live in.” 

“Trade deals aren’t really about trade, not in any conventional sense of the word. They’re not about tariffs, they’re not about quotas, they’re not about GDP growth, they’re not even really about jobs.”

Protectionism has been a contributing cause of economic crises within countries across the globe.

These policies can actually have an adverse effect on a country’s consumer population whilst also further damaging the production and export industry within the country as reciprocal tariffs will usually be applied by other countries subject to import tariffs.

Tariffs can also be used as a retaliation tactic often referred to as a ‘Trade War’

With England no longer in the EU’s Customs Union, you can rest assured that it won’t be long before we see Tariffs.

Countries in the EU are part of the Customs Union, are not free to negotiate their own trade deals and relationships with countries outside of the EU, as these deals are decided as a collective, with rules for global trade applying to every EU country.

After leaving the EU the UK is aiming to do its own trade deals around the world and is now already claiming to have secured over 65 new deals ( Most of these are rollover deals that already exits with the EU) 

Such is usually achieved by reducing or eliminating tariffs – taxes or charges by governments for trading goods across borders. So what’s to stop a country doing a trade deal with England as a back door tariff-free entry into the EU. 

One way or the other the next five years will be a pivotal period, with challenges going much deeper than conventional consumerism or GDP. 

Because technology is playing and will play a major role in ensuring that societal, environmental, financial factors can be no longer be examined in isolation.

With Pandemics or Climate Change World trade or that matter, any form of Protectionism/ Sovereignty is going to be academic in the eyes of people. 

Both are already impacting everyone everywhere. 

Therefore unless we realize that any deals must start with the people and for the people, to form new relationships with trade deals – not profit and tariffs, the words happy new year will be consigned to a myth. 

Happy New Year. 

 

 

All comments appreciated. All like click and abuse chucked in the bin.

THE BEADY EYE ASKS. ARE ABOUT TO WITNESS THE BIGGEST FUGUE EVER WHEN IT COMES TO THE FINAL DRAFT OF A TRADE DEAL BETWEEN THE UK AND THE EUROPEAN UNION.

14 Monday Dec 2020

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(Two-minute read) 


After a large helping of verbal diarrhea about the level playing field, fish, sovereignty, red lines, cliff edges, etc are we arriving at WTO or a massive fugue?

The question facing the European Union does an Organisation with rules and regulations allow a non-member to operate within its Organisation against the benefits bestowed by being a member in the first place. 

Of course, this question would not have to answer if after the Referendum ( On whether England should stay or leave) had England not instigated Article 50 but remained a member while negotiating the terms of leaving. 

Now it’s a totally different kettle of fish. 

Even if a fugue is agreed it will be can be vetoed by any one of the remaining members.

It does not take any political genius to say that there can be no level playing field with non-members no matter what is agreed legally or otherwise. 

You are either a member with full membership or you are not. 

It also goes without saying if the European Union is to remain a Union it must uphold on all fronts what this means otherwise there is no point in being a member. 

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.

 

 

 

 

 

THE BEADY EYE SAYS; HERE ARE SOME HARD FACTS CONCERNING BREXIT AND ITS AFTER EFFECTS.

07 Monday Dec 2020

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(Three-minute read) 

Britain has left the European Union after 50 years of membership.

It will occur on Jan 31st characterizing as a backward step into nationalism and no longer a global force.
The old virus of Brexit polemicism will long outlast any trade deal as it is an Island.

As such the recurrent theme in British mythology, with all its sieges, invasions, noble defeats, and begrudging collaborations will haunt its decisions into the future as it once more attempts to redistribute power. The forthcoming referendum on Scottish Independence and Northern Ireland.

The exploration of the working classes and the stratification culture has been exposed by the only world power as a pandemic.

In the wake of the betrayal of Brexit, it will see a resurgent working class as they realize that they have being stabbed in the back.

This will happen because of the emergence of global online communication platforms which provides a glorious digital brewery in which discontent and division fester.

There is no place for a centralized system that seeks to protect the hierarchies that can hide to serve those at their summit.

The days of being quarantined by covid lockdowns and individualism are at an end. 

So if the European Union does not want to b entangled with an Island of discontent for the next 50 years there is only one course of action.  To trade deals other than WTO.

The penitentiary of WTO with no faith or care for anything other than the fleeting fulfillment of wayward wants ultimately will decide whether it is the island of self that must change or remain trapped within. 

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.

 

 

 

 

 

THE BEADY EYE ASK’S IS ENGLAND ENTERING A GOLDEN ERA IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE?

17 Friday Jul 2020

Posted by in 2019: The Year of Disconnection., 2020: The year we need to change., Brexit., COVID-19, Disconnection., Donald John Trump, Economic Depression., European Union., Heredity Monarchy., homelessness., Human values., Modern Day Communication., Modern Day Democracy., Modern day life., Nigel Farage., Pandemic, Politics., Populism., Post - truth politics., Post-Covid-19, President of the USA., Reality., Refugees., Robot citizenship., Sleeping Rough., Sovereign wealth fund, Technology v Humanity, Telling the truth., The common good., THE NEW NORM., The Obvious., The USA., Trade Agreements., Truth, Truthfulness., Unanswered Questions., VALUES, WHAT IS TRUTH

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    (Four-minute read) 

Here is a country that is losing its marbles.

In an interconnected world where there is no such thing as sovereignty because globalization means that nation-states submit themselves to international treaties and international agreements that are not always in their best interests.  

The recent economic crisis that started in 2007 and now the coming economic depression and the continuing pandemic will prove that sovereignty of nations being subsumed by international bodies cuts both ways as the global economy is tightly interconnected and hence, cannot be regulated by nations in isolation.

Here is a country that on 30 June 1997,  the final embers of its empire came to an end with the 99- years lease on Hong Kong’s New Territories.

Never before has a country passed a colony directly to a communist regime that does not even pretend to respect conventional democratic values.

However the British Empire – for all its messy crimes and misdemeanors – was equally praiseworthy.

The empire was and is not just a story of domination and subjection but something more complicated: the creation of novel or hybrid societies in which notions of governance, economic assumptions, religious values and morals, ideas about property, and conceptions of justice, conflicted and mingled, to be reinvented, refashioned, tried out or abandoned.

The question is are we now to witnessing the final act. 

The non-recognition of England is already being used by its national broadcasting company the BBC referring to England as the four nations.  

In fact, England is already fragmented.

English nationalists if such a thing exists appear to be blind to the breakup of England.

Today, a hundred years on, the world is witnessing remarkable self-destruction in England.

An uneasy transition has or is taking place, from a decaying colonial legacy to a country that sees life through platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram lies, manipulation, in every area…..with a global crisis forming, which is not just a Pandemic but an Economic depression with mass unemployment.

The question now is whether British people can continue to play their part in the development of the modern world. 

It has to pump trillions of quantitative easing money into its banks at the cost of ten years of Austerity. Dumping the EU its largest market on the results of a non-legally- totally false informed non legally binding referendum while building two Aircraft carriers and replacing worthless nuclear submarines, while 8.4 million its people alone are living in sub-standard housing with 400,000 people are either homeless or at risk of being homeless relying on foodbanks. 

The people themselves – about half who no longer give a rat’s a— about England, who are now hellbent on their smartphones, Ipads, creating an unrealistic, relativistic, melting pot utopia.

These people will be living on the English purse for some time, not the stuff of which national pride is made. They have other priorities dedicated to its demise. 

One would have to wonder why migrants risking life and limb to get here. 

Perhaps it because all the servants are leaving. 

These are the strange things happening, that demonstrate quite clearly what is wrong with Britain – and, probably, the rest of the ‘developed’ world, both devotion to business and profit, not people. 

“We convinced many countries, many countries – and I did this myself for the most part – not to use Huawei because we think it’s an unsafe security risk,” the US president Donald Dump said.

(This is a man who seems to wake up every morning wondering what controversy he can provoke, what headlines he can create.

Diplomacy, or the lack of it, can be a complicated business. We’ve learned that from observing Donald Trump.

Both his campaign and presidency is marked by bursts of false and outrageous allegations, personal insults, xenophobic nationalism, unapologetic sexism and positions that shift according to his audience and his whims.

This is a man far more consumed with himself than with the nation’s well-being.

From that moment of combustion, it became clear that Mr. Trump’s views were matters of dangerous impulse and cynical pandering rather than thoughtful politics.)

With the UK now becoming the US junior partner, (one of the most unreliable partners for any country) who cares when a phenomenal’ trade deal beyond Nigel Farage is promised, providing it sends its new aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth to the South China Seas with American warplanes, and supplies the Arabs with bombs to finish off Yeham.   

It’s one thing to get rid of the Chinese firm Huawei and its 5G infrastructure and in return to sour the world’s second-largest economy behind the US, which has more money in the bank than any other country. 

Indeed three of the world’s 10 biggest sovereign wealth funds are Chinese, together holding more than $1.5tn (£988bn) in assets.

Not too long ago the UK was one of China’s favorite places to invest – not anymore. 

Beijing’s ambassador to London, Liu Xiaoming, warned: “China wants to be UK’s friend and partner. But if you treat China as a hostile country, you would have to bear the consequences.”

 China operates an Authoritarian form of capitalism against Anglo – American capitalism which is the root of the problem. Global supremacy.

China’s investments may well be subordinate to its National Development and reform commission, but the staggering truth of Huawei is that the US does not want China to be a superpower when it comes to technology.

With the pandemic being used to push the protection of businesses the world population will eventually be tracked.  

Both the US and England might well end up as viewed as failed states due to the handling of the COVID-19 with both countries ending up with up distant and withdrawn people far from enhanced by COVID-19.

Not too long ago, the UK did a 79 million deal to import pig semen from China for stemcell research.

Its not stemcell research it needs. It needs a lot of fixing but isn’t that what the next four years are going to be about?

What is needs is some Face Recognition and a written constitution.  All human comments appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.

THE BEADY EYE SAYS: BEFORE ENGLAND LEAVES THE EU ON WTO TERMS IT IS NOT TIME TO CALL A SPADE A SPADE

23 Sunday Feb 2020

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Fifteen-minute read.

The world cannot wait and will not wait for the fog of geopolitical and geo-economic uncertainty of England’s departure from the EU to lift.

If countries concentrate on immediate geostrategic advantage and fail to reimagine or adapt mechanisms for coordination during this unsettled period, opportunities for action on key priorities that we all face may slip away.

Powerful economic, demographic and technological forces are shaping a new
balance of power.

The result is an unsettled geopolitical landscape—one in which states are increasingly viewing opportunities and challenges through unilateral lenses.

Geopolitical and geo-economic uncertainty—do not abide by sovereignty.

Geopolitical and geo-economic uncertainty—technology governance framework and
cyber insecurity all pose significant risk.

Two-thirds of the global population owns a mobile device.

While digital technology is bringing tremendous economic and societal benefits to much of the global population, issues such as unequal access to the internet, the lack of a global technology governance framework and cyber insecurity all pose significant risk.

Coordinated, multistakeholder action is needed.

So I often wonder when one hears the rhetoric coming out of England is it just me that understands that it was England that voted to leave the EU and not the other way around the EU to leave England.

It makes no sense once you have the chance to look at the society from a distance.

Yes the UK is now not a member of the EU club, and no-one now understands what the UK is.

However, there is no such thing as a free lunch, multilateralism is turning into unilateralism, equality into hegemony, sovereignty into dependency and recognition into xenophobic immigration to foreigners, the “other” into disrespect for the dignity of other nations.

Having travelled extensively anyone who loathes an entire country or people is not worth listening to.

“Make America Great Again” “Take back control.”

With leading politicians spouting such nonsense both of these slogans are a realistic reflection of two culture in disarray.

The English have too many hang-ups, empire fantasies, a mixture of both inferiority and superiority complexes.

There is this reality disconnect that it can do better out of the EU because we’re bold and British. When in fact it is a screwed up country, with problems on so many levels, including wealth unbalances, that now seems willing to tank its economy and reduce England even more to a tiny island nation with barely any industry and nothing to offer the world except delusions of grandeur, visa points, for as long as it stays United.

How much pull on the world stage do you think this little island is going to have once Scotland goes its own way and then – inevitably – Ireland becomes one?

The Kingdom of England & Wales, oh boy.

Right now, England is in the wilderness and could be looking at a perpetual state of economic insecurity for some years to come.

It isn’t the EU’s doing.

Oh, sure, far-right leaders like Farage will work their supporters into a real lather over the “undemocratic” EU, but it’s all just cover.

The trivialisation of matters of national and international importance lend a kind of surreal quality to what are real questions requiring real solutions.

All the old certainties about Britain, its general pragmatism and tolerance, its inclusiveness and diversity, its compromise and common sense, are gone.

The problem now is that the common good could be lost in the pointless trading of abuse and insult before any new trade talks or deal takes place.

What’s at stake is a whole way of life, and internationalism rejected, not to mention the inward investment of around 5 billion a year by the EU into the UK or for that matter the whopping 927 billion euro- worth of the Euro-denominated contracts a day, representing 3/4 of the global market.

Which raises the question, should the UK still have such an important role when it will be no longer be covered by EU rules?

Sad.

Perhaps the EU is better off shot of the spoilt, belligerent British (English) and now has at least some chance of succeeding.

Apart from immigration one of the main arguments to leave was that the EU is undemocratic.

As the saying goes “One should not throw stones in a glasshouse”

How democratic is a Royal Monarchy?

How democratic is the ‘first past the post system’, where politicians can win with a minority vote?

The effect is that the UK in the main elects a series of parliamentary dictatorships in which a group supported by less than half the electorate gets to impose its policies and choices for the period of the government more-or-less unimpeded.

How democratic is it to buy the votes of the DUP for 1 billion pounds?

How democratic is it that the DUP, with only 300.000 votes gained 10 seats, while for example, the LibDems gained 12 seats with 2.3 million votes?

How democratic is the second house of parliament in the UK the so-called house of lords? Many in this house sit there not by merit but because of the great or great, great, great, grandparents were land or slave owners during the days of colonial plunder.

Brexit has now afforded the Tories a spurious ‘will of the people’ rationale for a number of profoundly undemocratic measures whose sole purpose is to consolidate power in their hands before damaging effects are too palpable to be denied and the public mood swings against.

Brexit is, in other words, a coup.

On the other hand the EU, by creating a level of governance, a voice of authority and a court of justice above the nation-state, has in fact supported and encouraged minority groups to express their identity against the nation-state.

A great vision never fully realised.

Imperfect, but like democracy, so much better than all of the alternatives.

Until UK politicians understand that the EU model is based on seeking negotiated agreement between groups with different priorities and ideological inclinations rather than magnifying a small percentage advantage of the largest minority into the unchallengeable ‘will of the people’, they will always be at odds.

Pretty much every country in Europe has internal tensions and secessionists of one sort or another.

Just how ironic is the latest Tories slogan “Connectivity.”

On an Island called by no less than six different names, England, Britain, Great Britain, the British Isles, the United Kingdom and, in very exalted moments, Albion.

Even the differences between north and south England loom large.

There is a bit of a problem here, that sings a slavery song at International Rugby matches, its called an identity crisis. Everything that has happened since the recent general election, culturally, politically and economically points to the country needing a major reboot.

We all, b EU citizens, have a great opportunity now to construct a more positive vision of the relationships between independent sovereign nations and the citizens in those nations.

One size has never fit all people. Power has always created inequality and redistribution has always been the goal of philosophers for developed nations.

The one great result of globalisation is that increasing numbers of citizens around the globe are coming out of poverty. However, we seek to change social, political and environmental and economic outcomes we should not seek to change this outcome or the appreciation of diversity in London and Europe.

Do we simply want strong economies with strong social safety nets and redistribution for citizens and regions?  NO

The Europe we now have will not be able to survive in the risk-laden storms of the globalized world under threat from the Climate to technology.

The EU has to be more than a grim marriage sustained by the fear of the chaos that would be caused by its breakdown.

It has to be constructed on something more positive: a vision of rebuilding Europe bottom-up, creating a Europe of the citizen.  No one likes change and it is resisted until the need for change is internalised.

The evolution of the human organisation from wandering groups of 150 hunter-gatherers to the vast nation-states of today is simply not going to stop.

The EU is a manifestation of that process.

In a world that is rapidly moving to be dominated by four major platforms, Google Microsoft, Appel,

We got to grow up fast-moving to merit-based society that protects the values that are common to all of us, not Profit for profit sake.

It just indicates how difficult it is to see daylight.

I just feel sorry for all those who don’t have that option who are being stripped of their EU citizenship on the basis of a referendum campaign full of lies and bankrolled by the worst members of our society.

The only encouragement for the future is that most of those under 40 in England can already see the folly of Brexit and will eventually help to lead it back into Europe.

The forthcoming negotiations will be a war, the chaotic state of being that the European project was designed to prevent.

Perhaps all that is happening is that England is once again legitimising that “You can’t have a club where one member has special terms.”

The EU has been nothing but transparent and incredibly clear since England triggered A50.

It’s hardly their fault that, despite all the talk of how the EU referendum would finally put Tory EU divisions to bed, it’s done nothing but drive that wedge even deeper.

You can’t move forward as a nation until you have a better understanding of where you really are in the World.

Let’s hope we don’t pay too high a price finding out!.

Should the EU agree on a deal?  Yes. But not a piecemeal deal. The full monty or WTO.

These days ‘Fake news’ is called out and debunked quickly and thoroughly on social media.

“The EU is threatening sanctions to stop Britain undercutting the continent’s economy after Brexit…the bloc wants unprecedented safeguards after the UK leaves to preserve a “level playing field” and counter the “clear risks” of Britain slashing taxes or relaxing regulation. Brussels…wants…to enforce restrictions on taxation…and employment rights. …the EU negotiators highlight the risk of Britain ‘undermining Europe as an area of high social protection’…the UK is “likely to use tax to gain competitiveness” and note it is already a low-tax economy with a “large number of offshore entities”. …On employment and environmental standards, the EU negotiators highlight the risk of Britain “undermining Europe as an area of high social protection”.

Something is coming to England and it is not HS TWO.

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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THE BEADY EYE SAY’S: TO DAY WE WILL WITTINESS A HYPOCRISY ON A HISTORICAL SCALE.

30 Thursday Jan 2020

Posted by in 2020: The year we need to change., England departure from the EU.

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(Four-minute read)

We are all guilty of hypocrisy in our lives and will continue to be, but there is no excuse for practising it on a historical scale.

A ‘wet’ and overprice country situated on an island in North-Western Europe that was for over forty years a superficial member of the EU will now be eternally sorry about Brexit. (A word they invented, then voted for in the same way that one might knock over a milk bottle.)

“Mad dog and English men come out in the noonday sun” so today the 31 January 2020 at 23:00 GMT can only be described as one of those national “whoops” moments, so ironic and so painfully British.

The Bulldog runs with its tail between its legs.

Perhaps the only uniting element in the UK is the weather, useful only in that it influences every daily decision and can be blamed for just about everything, even 1066.

(Since most of them – the British – are foreign, particularly the aristocrats, many of whom owe their lands and titles to the events of 1066, the date at which foreignness began in Britain.)

If the British seems complex it’s because they don’t know each other too well. Things take a lot of time to be understood and actioned, upon, sometimes, decades.

Culturally diverse, great inventors, a nation is deeply divided, by region, country and class unless it is threatened (Ironically, the British love the nations that they invaded, particularly those that retain the Queen’s head on their stamps) are now after two world wars to create peace in Europe and the world turning their backs to return to 800-year-old book of democracy the Magna Carta which was recently saved by two Americans.

From the “Sunshine Empire to Shrinking Nation” a disunited kingdom, then, can seem a little obtuse with their national identity now on a weak wicket.

In a world that must come together to tackle its problems, its departure from the European Union can only be described as pathic.

In a world that is not immunity to external factors, that is “Paradoxical and contradictory” a stiff upper lip has no place nor does tea and crumpets with an American comes first.

In a country that invented the national lottery, enabling poor people (those who buy lottery tickets) to fund sportspeople where someone says and what he or she actually means is often the complete opposite or very difficult to decipher.

We can only hope that the 71% of 18-24-year-olds who voted to stay in the EU come of age to engage and actively reform the EU.

To realize that a Nigel Farage waving a tiny Union Jack plastic flag is all the man ever was.

He couldn’t quite make it to the end of the EU parliament’s debate on the EU withdrawal agreement. “There is a battle going on, in the west and elsewhere. It is globalism against populism. And you may loathe populism, but I’ll tell you a funny thing, it’s becoming very popular” he told them.

“Many people will argue that it is time to accept Brexit.

I disagree: now is the time, to tell the truth about it and populism which has short-term gratification at its heart.

As Remainers, we have an obligation not to fear the future, but to shape it.

The EU is a project that not only brings prosperity but also brings unity and peace through collaboration and intercultural dialogue. It has given us a common inheritance and common purpose and established a reciprocal obligation between all of its citizens.

It is a united Europe built upon, not only an economic market but also on shared ideals; a political space in which to strive for social and economic justice.

The EU will continue to be that beacon, even after the UK has left it.

“A politician thinks of the next election. A Statesman of the next generations.” Micheal Collins.

Unfortunately, the world is lacking Statesmanship.

Being fond of their myths British roots now belong to only monarchy and nowhere for themselves.

It is not the leaving or joining of anything that we need, it is regulation of who owns us- AI algorithms or us.

Footnote: Negotiations on a trade deal were helped inversely last night with a BBC program called Travels in Euroland with Ed Balls, a former cabinet minister, highlighting the Right-wing parties in Europe.

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks chucked in the bin.

 

 

 

THE BEADY EYE ASK’S. WHAT TACTICS WILL THE UK USE IN THE FORTHCOMING NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE EU

29 Wednesday Jan 2020

Posted by in Brexit v EU - Negotiations., Brexit., Uncategorized

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(Twenty-minute read)

When it comes to negotiating we all negotiate in notable different ways.

By definition negotiating involves conflict.

It would be complacent to think that either Mr Johnson or the EU will be pushovers.

However, the nature of Brexit will ultimately be decided by the governments of the 27 remaining EU nations and the UK.

So if we look at the present rhetoric on both sides what will be the tactics?

The Uk rhetoric is that because we have been members of the EU for the last four decades a new bilateral relationship with the UK should not be difficult to complete.

The signs of that happening are not promising with Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, setting out a sequence with the first phase of talks to include only goods and fishing.

Therefore it stands to reason that a trade deal cannot be concluded quickly for obvious reasons.

With no such thing fast-track deal, the negotiations on both sides will have to find a way to extend the transition period.

And the longer the negotiations go on despite Johnson’s wish to de-dramatise the negotiations, they will inevitably hit turbulence with a domino-like effect on both sides.

As for tactics the EU has hard power and will deploy it to pursue its interests and safeguard itself when faced with an existential threat like a tax haven on its doorstep.

These negotiations are for the UK to achieve a continuing relationship with the EU, not the other way around.

The UK will be accommodated but never prioritised above the collective

the interest of the EU.

So both sides will start with extreme positions, ignoring deadlines, making small concessions to establish a relationship.

Because the UK power position is lower relative to the EU it is extremely likely that the EU will set deadlines. Take it or leave it.

Without deadlines accurately communicating becomes more difficult across the European Union.

Why should the EU deploy a take it or leave timeline?

Because people from different cultures within the EU perceive, interpret and evaluate not just the EU but the world differently.

So we have a single-culture against multicultural EU. The very reason it took so long for England to join the EU in the first place and now the very reason its departure will also take time.

Self – Interest against collective interest.

Through the eyes of the UK asking for the moon, the EU will have to ask the following questions.

What do they want? What is important to them? Who has the power? What is at stake? What is the time frame? What is their bottom line? What is the best alternative to a negotiated solution?  Should the negotiations take place in a neutral location? Who should be present at the negotiations? Should the press be present?

Nobody known’s (or even now knows) what agreement, if any, will be reached.

The combination of uncertainty about the outcome with minimal time for adjustment is grotesquely irresponsible.

One way or the other in getting to yes the EU will end up with a more distant relationship with the UK with both sides inventing options for mutual gain.

Is the UK going to abandon current regulations over the environment, product standards, financial soundness and so forth?

If it is the strategic goal of US President Donald Trump to drive a wedge between Britain and the EU, this would be an ideal opportunity.

The consequences would be devastating for both the Uk and EU. The EU is then likely to be more inward-looking than it would otherwise have been.

Such discord could well take on a life of its own, driving Britain and the EU further apart.

If there is no trade agreement with the EU or one that proves disruptive, a blame game is sure to ensue.

In such a world, reliance on multilateral institutions is likely to prove futile.

Again and again, Britain will face choices over which side to choose in struggles, perhaps over technology or standards, that are occurring far over its head.

Already evident with 5G insulation by Huawei not to mention the ongoing evolution of the single market and EU trade and climate policies that will affect any future trade deals with grim implications for the Uk government revenue and spending.

It is deciding to go its own way in a world dominated by rivalrous superpowers.

It is doing so on the promise of greater control over its own destiny.

It is, not least, acting against the wishes of the majority of its own young people.

Brexit may eliminate many excuses but it will not solve any of these problems.

We can only hope that the separation will not endure? Nobody can know.

In my own view, it is a huge blunder.

But the moment is now upon us, a sad day.

We must all live with its consequences.

The direct influence of British political choices on those of the neighbours will also vanish.

Insisting that one should not have both a British and European political identity is for the birds.

Anyway in the days after Brexit Day, when the European Commission publishes its “negotiation directives”. These will be the commission’s proposals for the negotiating mandate that must be approved by the 27 member-state governments.

The European Council does not undertake negotiations itself.

The Brexit transition period is scheduled to expire at the end of 2020. At that point, Mr Johnson will still have four more years in office ahead of him, longer than any other EU leader maybe knowing what the cost of walking away he will have come to his senses.

 

As negotiations progress what concessions are likely to be given, and how will they be achieved?

Unfortunately, all negotiators spend the vast majority of their time on short term issues.

Any concessions have to be viewed as relative to the overall agreement.

Brexit

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.

 

THE BEADY EYE’S. OPEN LETTER TO MICHEL BARNIER.

22 Wednesday Jan 2020

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Dear Sir

22/01/2020.

I know that you have a lot on your plate, and probably will never read this blog.

So I keep it short. 

As you have said, “we are entering uncharted waters” with the British government still wracked by internal disagreement over what kind of deal they want.

This is the very reason that any forthcoming agreement cannot be fragmented into piecemeal negotiations.

Rather each and every area negotiated upon and agreed must become watertight. Non-renegotiable -and binding in an overall agreement.

If cherrypicking is to be avoided it must be the whole package or no package, otherwise, the agreement will be subject to legal confirmation for years to come.

If not we will witness the simultaneous unravelling of both the UK and the EU.

The EU cannot wait for a crisis to erupt in full force before we start looking for answers.

We had better understand our mindes before algorithms make our minds up for us.

Both the EU and any future Uk government must not have the right to scrap, tamper with the agreement without mutual agreement from all the EU members states.

Yours Truly

Robert de May Dillon