UK parliament approves Brexit trade deal as both sides look to future

Boris must feel a sense of history - he's combed his hair.

Kempt, clownish Johnson ceremoniously signing the EUUK TACA might possibly be signing, symbolically speaking, his own party's death warrant: in the end Brexit could well be an expression of the Tories' "death wish" because all that's not well won't end well.

If Boris Johnson has read or even suggesting he interprets/grasps, 2000 page EU UK partnership agreement contents, then I'm Pope Joan II.

Tomorrow, UK will have the ability to forge, not only a new relationship with EU member states, but will also have a willing global community to forge innovative new trading relationships.

It is essential that UK takes an early opportunity reform/restructure the countries stale economic business model.

Monetary/fiscally moving toward a balanced model, to grow the economy. And create a society that can benefit from focused open policies to promote equal opportunities, and social justice.

This will require direct tax payer investment.

The Common Agricultural Policy must be fully dismantled, to be replaced with a policy that protects the environment, ceases to give vast amounts of subsidies to land owners, and supports growers and farming communities.

Time for much needed change.

Question is, can this Government rise to the occasion, or in any future Government for that matter?

Look at the state of the current political establishment? Not encouraging, certainly does not inspire confidence.

The leavers won

A glorious victory!

(Terms & conditions apply. Refer to 2,000 page agreement for details)

@itsonlyrocknroll: And create a society that can benefit from focused open policies to promote equal opportunities, and social justice.

Social justice - are you kidding? That idiocy is what leaving the EU is meant to avoid. Social justice promotes racism and other forms of discrimination while constricting freedom and self determination.

I predict this will become seen as the biggest ever economic self inflicted disaster for any country ever seen in industrial history.

And politically it will lead to the break up of the UK.

I completely agree the UK has every right to auto determine their faith. I am also a proponent of euthanasia so, I show consistency in my thinking.

I Do wish nothing but good luck and good life onto the UK but wishes and facts often do not meet

It sounds like this is just a framework around which more negotiations will be done. Anyone understandably sick of hearing about it is going to keep on hearing about it. Trade in goods will continue to be tariff free, but even there, the new paperwork is a non-trade barrier. This will disproportionally hit small businesses without admin staff.

Apparently you will need to file a customs form to take the equivalent of 10,000 euros from England to Northern Ireland, to buy a second hand car for example. That is within the UK.

Kier Starmer was put in an awkward spot, but I think he was right to whip a vote for the deal while suggesting some amendments. We can't turn back the clock, unfortunately.

Stated, strait faced, without conceit. Wolfpack

UK would never except membership of a Federal European Union.

To create a genuine democracy, dedicated to equality, in every aspect of day to day life within communities, in education, job career opportunities, irrespective of gender or race and yes dedicated to social justice.

This goal can only be achieved by hold our Member of Parliament directly to account.

Sovereignty, at least from my position on the subject, means being able to hold UK Parliament it members directly accountable, face to face, eye to eye.

Now is the time, Governments come and go, Brexit creates as Einstein stated “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change”.

I find is sad and frankly disappointing that UK to decision to forge a new relationship with EU member states has been and will continue to be such a struggle to accept.

The toxic win/lose, the Remainers v Brexiters.

Every aspect of UK decision to take a different path/approach to global community in the throes of perpetual political and economic evolution has been met with derision demands and threats.

In some quarters loathing, abhorrence, and hatred.  

Look, I hope if the people of Scotland vote for change, I also hope the people of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, can find it within there hearts to offer the People of Scotland a fighting chance to succeed.

Despite the ghastly Nicola Sturgeon posturing nationalist politicking.

Why does Independence have to bring division?

Did it not occur to political establishments, it devolves power closer to the people?

This is the debate the EU commission refused to entertain. The Commission, fell back, in an attempt to give UK a political and economic punishment beating.

End of Brexit, a done deal. The leavers won so the country must change the way it lives and trades with the EU.

Yes. I was a reluctant remainer but the country voted out. Out it is. Now it’s time for the people of Scotland and NI decide what they want for their futures.

My biggest fear is having this incompetence at the top during this crucial time.

Brexit finally euthanised the myth that England's place in the UK was merely primus inter pares.

Apparently you will need to file a customs form to take the equivalent of 10,000 euros from England to Northern Ireland, to buy a second hand car for example. That is within the UK.

Note how we unconsciously use England as shorthand for Great Britain. It's not our fault, it's in the system.

Politically, the UK never was and never could be a partnership of equals. All roads lead to London, the nation's wealth, power and cultural output is predominantly concentrated in the Home Counties, and parliament's chambers always magically empty when the fringe nations are discussed.

It was precisely this unconscious majoritarianism - more indifferent than malevolent - that created a border in the Irish Sea. Northern Ireland is now a different customs area to Great Britain, so just as you need to declare bringing ¥1,000,001 to Japan, so it is with €10,000.01 to NI from GB, though not from the EU.

Scotland might leave the UK first, although Ireland has been in a slow continuum to reunification for the past 99 years. The Union's demise will be swift for Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, whereas in Belfast, Derry and Newry, the death by a thousand cuts began in 1921.

How many years of soul searching, hand wringing and bickering? There was no perfect solution, but what a relief that this bundle is finally off our backs and minds, and dumped into the deepest ocean somewhere!

Now we can get on with more important things, like our lives. Thank goodness none saw to torpedo this last chance, at the very last hurdle, (well, 73 did) and send it back to hell in another xxxxxxx handbasket. Phew!

Bring on 2021, and let's deal with the virus, and everything else for a change.

The UK's long, slow decline into a dystopian, neo-liberal hellhole continues. The next step will be to privatise education and the national health service. Still, the money-launderers in the City, Russian oligarchs and the Americans who funded Brexit have got what they wanted, so it's all good.

I love reading the comments from the sore referendum losers! Even now, so bitter!

Politically, the UK never was and never could be a partnership of equals. All roads lead to London, the nation's wealth, power and cultural output is predominantly concentrated in the Home Counties, and parliament's chambers always magically empty when the fringe nations are discussed.

As you pointed out, and I’ve had to point out to some people from NI and Scotland, many English people, particularly northerners, feel as disengaged from the London/southern centric central government as many Scots, Irish or Welsh. I remember Gideon Osbourne driveling on about creating a ‘Northern Powerhouse’ in the past...

Speaking as someone from Liverpool, I’ve always felt more at home in Glasgow than London.

The UK's long, slow decline into a dystopian, neo-liberal hellhole continues. The next step will be to privatise education and the national health service. Still, the money-launderers in the City, Russian oligarchs and the Americans who funded Brexit have got what they wanted, so it's all good.

The NHS is dead centre in the Global Health Insurance Card crosshairs.

What a gift Covid has been to George Monbiot's warlord capitalists.

...what a relief that this bundle is finally off our backs and minds, and dumped into the deepest ocean somewhere!

Bring on 2021, and let's deal with the virus, and everything else for a change.

Not so fast! Methinks the Tory Brexit virus will still be around long after Covid has disappeared because the cap-doffing electorate continues to drink the right-wing Kool-Aid of the rabid gutter press, vote against its own interests and doggedly refuses to take the only vaccine that can put an end to the plague of pernicious neo-liberalism that has blown over from across the pond.

Good riddance euro socialist tyranny.

Good riddance euro socialist tyranny.

Says someone who knows nothing about the U.K., it’s politics, culture and society.

Good riddance euro socialist tyranny.

The most persuasive Eurosceptic of my lifetime was the late, great socialist Tony Benn. The socialist former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn spent a lifetime opposing the European project until he was forced into half-arsed support of it for tactical reasons.

Many socialists are strangely against this ‘socialist tyranny’.

Good riddance euro socialist tyranny.

Take it to Parler Randy.

Speaking as someone from Liverpool, I’ve always felt more at home in Glasgow than London.

Yer gorrit right there La! And that just goes to show how deep the cultural and social divide runs between the Kingdom's "neglected" Northerners and the hoity-toity "Normans" in their well-feathered nests down south. Brexit won't fix this.

I love reading the comments from the sore referendum losers! Even now, so bitter!

That’s what it’s been about all along. In the end everybody lost. Including you.

Bungle:* I look forward to Scotland leaving the U.K. and joining the EU as a net contributor!*

You must be having a laugh.

 I remember Gideon Osbourne driveling on about creating a ‘Northern Powerhouse’ in the past...

Little did George Osborne realise how badly his brutal austerity to bail out the bankers - at the same time as a cut in the highest income tax rate - would backfire, with the historical England neglected for decades rallying behind...

(Sorry, can someone explain the tangible, economically long-trousered benefits of Brexit?)

This pandemic has had devastating monetary and fiscal consequences for all European economics. Debt has spiraled to a level unseen in post war history.

So, to calculate any tangible economic benefits from UK departure, and do so with confidence, that this pandemic will not continue to bring continued hardship, with further declines in economic activity is unpredictable, putting it mildly

One benefit will give UK Parliament more power to make substantial changes to support the development of cutting-edge business models incorporating and supporting wider global economic developments and trading partners

However, this will require diverse innovative processes and the willingness to deregulate.

Also, a comes with substantial risks.

UK contributes approx., £12.7 billion into EU multinational framework structure, while receiving back just £4.9 billion.

The most tangible benefit for both the EU and UK, is political.

Brexit has provided all and sundry a long overdue kick up their collective complacent backsides.

One area that has been mentioned is Scottish independence.

Brexit has brought this issue to a head.

If UK wants to focus on creating an economy that will compete within a global market place.

Then Westminster will have to lead the way. An initiative calling a second Scottish Independence referendum early 2021.

This will allow Westminster to focus on moving forward. The SNP will never support any Brexit policy.

Time to draw a line under the whole Scottish independence movement.

UK contributes approx., £12.7 billion into EU multinational framework structure, while receiving back just £4.9 billion.

Not unpredictably, the backfiring protest vote that was Brexit has birthed a proper Eton Mess.

Importantly - but of little apparent concern to Boris - the free trade deal covers only goods, an area where Britain ran a 2019 deficit of £97Bn.

The UK exported £125Bn in services to the EU in 2019, recording a surplus of £18Bn. Service imports included travel at £32.7Bn (Brits holidaying/doing business in the EU) and transportation at £17.8Bn (getting there).

.

(data source: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-7851/)

.

Happy New Year, everyone!

(Sorry, can someone explain the tangible, economically long-trousered benefits of Brexit?)

This pandemic has had devastating...

Not you!

So, to calculate any tangible economic benefits from UK departure

Balderdash, codswallop and piffle.

Mickelicious, must move beyond, Balderdash, codswallop and piffle. Eaton mess and protest votes

Your perusal of the Parliamentary commons’ library research documents and briefings, quoted sections raise a number of interesting points.

Let state clearly, Boris Johnson is not and never has been responsible for UK departure from the European Union.

That accolade, if such an acknowledgement of merit is warranted, lies solely with Nigel Farage, and strategist Dominic Cummings.

Your comments dwell on services, the question is.

What do those deficits and surpluses indelicate to the logic and reasoning as to why London maintains and sustains the 2nd most prominent global financial center.

London manages over 30 % of the world forex market.

London, should and must be defined by a unique financial litigative/legislative structure, and how that equates to quality decision making for investor confidence. and is the reasoning for why UK financial district remains robust.

In reality, London financial center is not British at all, never has been, unlikely ever will be. Its home to a litany of foreign investment banks and global institutions.

Shifting more capital out of London than is quantifiable, would cause unnecessary/punitive costs, and lead to market fragmentation.

Services, financial or otherwise are already subject to on-going negotiation, and will continue to be until March/April 2021.

Services have never been subject or part of the EU-UK partnership agreement at the UK insistence, and for good reason.

Must move beyond, Balderdash, codswallop and piffle

OK. Let me double click on some of those claims, then:

Boris Johnson is not and never has been responsible for UK departure from the European Union.

『Some of my most joyous hours have been spent in a state of semi-incoherence, composing foam-flecked hymns of hate to the latest Euro-infamy: the ban on the prawn cocktail flavour crisp; the ...』

Boris Johnson 17/10/2002

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3582944/Im-no-longer-Nasty-but-please-stop-lying-about-Nice.html

『It is perhaps fitting that it ends with the same two men without whom it would never have begun.

In February 2016, Michael Gove went for dinner at Boris Johnson’s house to decide whether to back Brexit. Throughout the referendum campaign they fought together, a trade deal with the EU was a given. Four months later, they emerged, blinking with shock, to address the press as Vote Leave triumphed.』

"Hard Brexit looming for the architects of Vote Leave" Time Shipman, Political Ed., Sunday Times 13/12/2020

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/hard-brexit-looming-for-the-architects-of-vote-leave-q8fs0b8bg

 the reasoning for why UK financial district remains robust.

『LONDON (Reuters) - Around 10,000 finance jobs will be shifted out of Britain or created overseas in the next few years if the UK is denied access to Europe’s single market, according to a Reuters survey of firms employing the bulk of workers in international finance.』

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-jobs-exclusive/exclusive-10000-uk-finance-jobs-affected-in-brexits-first-wave-reuters-survey-idUSKCN1BT1EU

Services, financial or otherwise are already subject to on-going negotiation, and will continue to be until March/April 2021.

『"On financial services, UK voices suggest that Brexit does not mean Brexit. Brexit means Brexit, everywhere,” Mr Barnier told the Centre for European Reform.

“The legal consequence of Brexit is that the UK financial service providers lose their EU passport."』

Michel Barnier, 20/11/2017

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/brexit-passporting-rights-eea-explained-what-does-it-mean-banks-economy-pound-euro-a8065131.html

Services have never been subject or part of the EU-UK partnership agreement at the UK insistence, and for good reason.

『The UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) is typical of free trade agreements and does little to facilitate access to the EU’s single market for UK financial services from 1 January 2021. In a document stretching to over 1200 pages, ‘financial services’ appears six times (‘fish’ appears sixteen).

The TCA does not (and was not intended to) make provisions for financial services firms in the UK to access the single market. As a result, from the 1 January 2021, UK financial services firms will lose their passporting rights. Passporting has allowed firms to sell their services into the EU from their UK base without the need for additional regulatory clearances.』

https://ukandeu.ac.uk/what-does-the-brexit-trade-deal-mean-for-financial-services/

『Boris Johnson admits Brexit deal is limited for financial services』

https://www.ft.com/content/3c07d219-b20a-4315-9f17-badb10a5279b

Happy New Year, everyone! 

Financial services regulation under the uk-eu brexit deal. 28/12/2020

https://www.shearman.com/perspectives/2020/12/financial-services-regulation-under-the-uk-eu-brexit-deal

Mickelicious,

ECB and UK, FSA, BOE, have been conferencing this very subject since October 2020.

All outside of the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA).

The issue is not and never has been an issue to shut out London financial capital markets, or any loss of access to EU financial institutions, all parties want to maintain the status quo.

Thanks for your link (giving more rope to hang your argument by):

『It is perhaps easiest to explain the new U.K.-EU regime by reference to what it does not do:

The current passporting arrangements, which allow U.K. firms access to EU markets, and vice versa, will end.

There is no extension of the current “transitional period” for financial services.

There will be no new mutual recognition regime. Indeed, a carve-out for financial services equivalence determinations is introduced from the obligation to provide mutual recognition on a most favoured nation basis.

 The obligations on the parties to review their legal framework and work together on non-conforming measures do not apply to financial services.

 The obligations on both parties for service industries, for example to facilitate licensing processes and provide a single regulatory interface for U.K. to EU access, do not apply to financial services.』

(https://www.shearman.com/perspectives/2020/12/financial-services-regulation-under-the-uk-eu-brexit-deal)

Have a smashing 2021!

Not putting too finer point, review the financial services regulation under the UK-EU Brexit deal again, pay particular attention to…….

 What Is Yet to Come—Enhanced Equivalence?

2. Both Parties will, by March 2021, agree a Memorandum of Understanding establishing the framework for this cooperation. The Parties will discuss, inter alia, how to move forward on both sides with equivalence determinations between the Union and United Kingdom, without prejudice to the unilateral and autonomous decision-making process of each side.

Enhanced cooperation and coordination including in international bodies as appropriate.

The Council of the European Union, has been briefed on an enhanced cooperation decision-making process, and the lobbying agenda completed.

https://www.coe.int/en/web/cdcj/activities/lobbying

All in secret, outside of any political interference, or any negotiation in accordance with either the withdrawal agreement or, EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement.

I have posted a link to European Ombudsman report (2017) that states recommendation on the question of transparency.

Not a single guideline or recommendation have been adopted or considered. Not one.   

Special Report of the European Ombudsman in strategic inquiry 01/2/2017/TE on the transparency of the Council legislative process

https://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/special-report/en/94921

Good luck for 2021 Mickelicious

Hopefully your won't need it.