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Brexit - or Article 50: the Phoenix!

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Seems you prefer 'one-liner' replies to explanations!



In my post, 1st para provides the background to the 1st part of the 2nd para - the summary! Surely you noticed the word 'quality' in there. And while that report may have been produced in 2019, the cars in that report are, generally, not 2019 ones! So 'in the past' is totally relevant - at least 5+ years!

Yaawwwnnnn
 
Again - “why will it be cheaper from outside the EU “ - it’s just a simple question.

If something is cheaper to import from outside the EU why wouldn’t we be doing it already ? Food , clothing , medicines etc.
...
Perhaps I could try to explain...

If the cost of production is 'naturally' more expensive in EU than in another country, then EU is likely to use quotas and tariffs to 'protect' EU producers. This is a legitimate exercise used in most countries and the EU as a bloc. If the 'protection' is not relevant for UK producers, then UK would not need to apply any tariffs on 'more efficient producing' countries, which could result in the cost to import being cheaper!
 
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Based on Mercedes?
Chrysler is, after all, owned by Mercedes (Daimler-Benz)!

Generally though, 'traditional' US cars don't 'transfer' well to the European market! US's spacious, easy driving, cheaply fuelled style doesn't fit with Europe's more restricted approach!

My Chrysler was indeed based on a Mercedes. It took every thing that was good about the Mercedes driving experience, and replaced it with Chrysler. But it was reliable. And cheap to run, fuel excepted.
 
My Chrysler was indeed based on a Mercedes. It took every thing that was good about the Mercedes driving experience, and replaced it with Chrysler. But it was reliable. And cheap to run, fuel excepted.
C300? Or the diabolic back-ended (probably the only rear end that looked worse than my 2000 A6) Crossfire! Never saw a Roadster in UK (and the A6 was infinitely improved by a spoiler!).
 
Now how about Wine, we can get pretty good stuff from outside the EU.

Yes there are some very nice new world wines (Lidl do a cracking Argentinian Torrentes at around 6 quid which is an absolute steal) but don't try and take my Alsace Gewürztraminer away from me or I won't be happy.
 
Now how about Wine, we can get pretty good stuff from outside the EU.
Indeed! I'm currently partaking of a Kiwi 'homage' to 'the Right Bank' (Merlot Cab-Franc blend from Hawkes Bay)! Far better imo and superior value too!

@HK..Try any Kiwi Gewurtz then! The can't, generally, compete with the Vendage Tardive or Selectian de Grains Nobles - Ned does a great attempt though - but for 'ordinary' wine they are much better value im(biased)o!
 
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Now how about Wine, we can get pretty good stuff from outside the EU.

Yes there are some very nice new world wines (Lidl do a cracking Argentinian Torrentes at around 6 quid which is an absolute steal) but don't try and take my Alsace Gewürztraminer away from me or I won't be happy.

Off tangent, can I mention the cost of wine? A bottle of red Rioja Baron De Ley in Tesco at Xmas was £12 a bottle:eek: I buy it here in the local local supermarket for €6 = £5.30... a round of golf at a decent golf course, inc buggy is less than €50.

Friday night's meal in a top local restaurant for 4 people inc. drinks was €92. And as for the weekly food bill, its coming in around €50 for 2 of us.

Don't blame the EU for the cost of goods in the UK.
 
Sorry to go off topic from cars and wine, but really enjoyed Laura Kuenssbergs Brexit programme the other night. Found it fascinating from her effectively coaching Bojo to seeing Steve Baker in tears when he said he'd vote against Mays deal.

Whilst I think parliament have not covered themselves in glory, after listening to Brexitcast and watching this I do have a better understanding into just how hard this whole process has been for them, especially those MPs whose personal beliefs on Brexit contradict what their constituents voted for. I imagine there will be a lot of MPs who come out of this very mentally scarred.

Well worth a watch https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0003wxb/the-brexit-storm-laura-kuenssbergs-inside-story
 
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If we had a leave parliament we would be gone

100% agree this to be true.

I think we would have had to make some serious compromises and would likely be out in a “name only” arrangement.

How ever much we would have liked it, I doubt they would have been able to take a no deal route.
 
If we had a leave parliament we would be gone
But we haven't!

So there has to be a way found around the 'clashing' issues of (both parties being committed to) applying 'the will of the people' and the (common sense in their view) Remainers in Parliament! And neither a 2nd referendum, nor a General Election is the way to do it imo! Far better to simply leave with 'No Deal' and negotiate satisfactory 'mini-deals' as required!
 
C300? Or the diabolic back-ended (probably the only rear end that looked worse than my 2000 A6) Crossfire! Never saw a Roadster in UK (and the A6 was infinitely improved by a spoiler!).

W210 E class in drag. I had a W210 before, so buying was no surprise, except the handling was dog awful.
 
Been away for the weekend and looks like this thread gone to the Petrol heads..

On another note, here is a possible solution from the tech world.. (I have no idea who he is or how credible this is)

mail

Pindar Wong is the chairman of VeriFi (Hong Kong) Ltd and a member of CoinDesk’s advisory board.

There is a crisis in governance. I’m not talking about bitcoin, but Brexit.
Britain’s exit from the European Union (EU) is not so much a technical crisis between a ‘hard fork’ and a ‘soft fork’ but a legitimacy crisis. Yet the solution to its core dilemma -- politically deciding between a ‘Hard Brexit’ and a ‘Soft Brexit’ -- may actually lay in harnessing blockchain technology’s great potential as an economic governance system for the digital age.
One thing’s clear: the current system is failing. The impasse in Britain requires a radical rethink. Unless even more time is requested by the UK, and unanimously granted by all 27 member states of the EU, the default option is for the UK to chaotically crash out from the European trade bloc, by leaving without a legal agreement, on Friday April 12th. As laws have borders, this lack of ‘legal certainty’ is particularly troubling as it risks disrupting cross-border supply chain networks which would be bad news for everyone.
Nations vs networks
Where blockchain can help is that its ‘cryptographic certainty’ avoids the need for bordered thinking in the borderless world created by the Internet, a world where laws are difficult to enforce and collaboration difficult to incentivise. Could thinking harder about what we mean by a ‘border’ be the key to unlocking the current political deadlock?
Let’s consider the 500km border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and the failure to find a suitable ‘Irish Backstop’. No one -- not in EU-exiting Britain nor in EU-remaining Ireland -- wants to return to the troubled times of physical checkpoints that might place lives at risk. All agree this insurance policy should be honoured regardless of the outcome of future EU-UK trade negotiations. Even though it is never supposed to be called upon, the ‘backstop’ - a last resort to maintain the island’s open border - risks creating a regulatory border in the Irish Sea, which is unacceptable because Northern Ireland would be treated differently from the rest of UK.
Yet Brexit is supposed to be what the acronym implies: an exit from the EU rules and self-determining the free flow of goods and services across international borders. How can policymakers come up with a solution that honors that change, reimposing tariffs and controls, while still protecting human lives?
The solution lies in rethinking the very idea of a border.
A border in time
In the Internet age, the governance borders that matter most are not bound along geographical or political lines. They are based on time, an invisible metric that is fairer and arguably the hardest of hard borders. You can’t go back in time. And, if you get down to it, this concept of “border in time” is what a blockchain represents.
That is why today I’m calling for the UK and EU governments to participate in a bottom-up process to establish a ‘Brexit Blockchain’: where customs authorities use a blockchain architecture to take the friction out of tariff enforcement by agreeing on the provenance of economic activity on a temporal, not geographic, basis.
The key would be to use a government recognized stablecoin to lock/unlock product delivery, to incentivise deployment and to complement existing solutions for digitizing international trade from firms like the UK’s Provenance, Denmark’s Maersk and France’s Carrefour .
Individual per-product tariffs could be implemented, with automated payments made as products move back and forth across national borders. The tariffs could be dynamically adjusted as political demands dictate; with as many borders in time, and currency-pair stablecoins, as needed. Initially only a Euro/Pound stablecoin would be used with nominal or zero tariffs enforced. This would result in a ‘Customs network’, not a ‘Customs Union’, though initially it would behave like one.
Don’t trust, verify
When the Withdrawal Agreement doesn’t mention the Internet (a big zero), where does one even start a multi-stakeholder process? I would start the coordination game by listening to industry at next month’s Consensus conference (May 13-15) and learn from existing international governance organizations. Then I’d take any output to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)/ TC307 Blockchain meeting that will be held in Dublin, Ireland on May 27-31. Then I’d cross my fingers!
To be sure, for Britain and the EU to view governance in this manner is a pipe dream, but it’s my hope that the seemingly inevitable train wreck that lies ahead for Britain will lead to some more enlightened thinking about the real problem at hand: scaling governance.
I might not get my Brexit Blockchain next month, but in the spirit of “failing fast,” perhaps the powers-that-be will learn from this crisis and realize that they need to rewrite the rulebook -- quite literally. The top of this rulebook should read: ‘No one is above the Law, No Nation below Mathematics’.
-- Pindar Wong
 
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