Post-Brexit News and Discussions

[Time_Traveller]

What will the EU’s new entry-exit system mean for British travellers?

12 minutes ago

After the UK voted to leave the European Union, Boris Johnson’s government negotiated for British travellers to become “third-country nationals subject to a range of restrictions. British passport holders must now have their travel documents inspected and stamped.

The next step, set to be introduced on 10 November 2024, will involve more red tape.

The European Union will launch an “entry-exit system” (EES) that will record the movements of non-EU visitors to the Schengen Area (comprising all EU nations except Cyprus and Ireland, as well as Iceland, Norway and Switzerland).

The good news: passport stamping will end. The bad news: every traveller must, in theory at least, be fingerprinted and provide a facial biometric.

Assuming the introduction of EES goes smoothly, six months later – in May 2025, according the latest plan – the Electronic Travel Information and Authorisation System (Etias) will be launched.

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/ne ... 86171.html

[Time_Traveller]

UK ministers rule out joining youth mobility scheme with EU

Thu 22 Aug 2024 12.50 BST

Ministers have reiterated their opposition to any deal with Brussels allowing young people to live and work in EU countries, after a report said some elements of this could be agreed as part of a wider set of negotiations.

The Times on Wednesday cited unnamed government sources as saying UK ministers accepted they would have to “give ground” over parts of a proposed mutual youth mobility system if they were to get agreement in other areas, such as a reduction in checks on UK food entering the EU.

“If we are serious about resetting relations with the EU then we need to be prepared to give them some of the things that they want,” the source told the paper.

But a government spokesperson said this was not being looked at. “We are not considering it, there are no plans for this, or any work being done on it,” they said.

Asked whether the issue might come up in future talks with the EU, they said: “Our negotiating team has very clear red lines, and none of the preparatory work involves this.”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ar ... ent-scheme

[Time_Traveller]

Starmer accused of lacking ambition as he launches Brexit reset in Germany

1 hour ago

Sir Keir Starmer has been criticised for lacking ambition in wanting to reset the UK’s relationship with the EU after he rejected free movement for under-30s even before talks got underway.

The prime minister made it clear he was not open to a deal on making it easier for young people from the UK and EU to travel when he held a joint press conference with German chancellor Olaf Scholz today.

Despite describing the renegotiation as “a once in a generation opportunity” there were concerns that he was not willing to be flexible on a proposal which is strongly supported in the EU.

Sir Keir was having his fifth meeting with Scholz since becoming prime minister as the two opened talks on a Germany/ UK bilateral deal to be completed by the end of this year.

The prime minister made it clear that the deal with Berlin was the first step in an overhaul of Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal which has created visa and trade barriers for the UK since it departed the EU in 2020.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/p ... 03110.html

[Time_Traveller]

Starmer under pressure as support mounts for anti-Brexit youth travel scheme

1 hour ago

Keir Starmer is under growing pressure to relent on his opposition to introducing the Youth Mobility Scheme to allow under-30s to travel freely between the EU and UK and rejoin the Erasmus scheme for students.

A petition launched by the pro-EU European Movement supporting both schemes has hit 50,000 signatures, piling pressure on the Labour government to agree to it.

The new prime minister has vowed to renegotiate the flawed agreement made by Boris Johnson with the EU and began work this week by launching talks for a new bilateral deal with Germany to be concluded in six months.

The prime minister was on a whistlestop tour of Germany and France meeting chancellor Olaf Scholz and French president Emmanuel Macron.

But at the press conference in Berlin, Sir Keir also made it clear that he would not agree to the Youth Mobility Scheme and insisted he would stay within his own self-imposed red lines on not reversing Brexit, not reintroducing free movement of people or entering the single market or customs union.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/p ... 04628.html

[Time_Traveller]

‘A la carte’ new Brexit deal with EU not on table, Micheál Martin warns

Sat 7 Sep 2024 06.00 BST

The UK cannot have an “a la carte” reset of the Brexit agreement, Ireland’s deputy prime minister has said just hours before Keir Starmer heads to Dublin for his first official visit to Ireland.

The tánaiste said that the EU wanted to see an improved EU-UK relationship but that the UK could not “cherrypick”.

Micheál Martin said Brexit had also shown how Anglo-Irish relationships could easily be torpedoed by political decisions. A succession of Irish leaders have described relations during the Conservative government as the worst in more than 50 years.

Starmer will be in Dublin for all-day meetings with the taoiseach, Simon Harris, and a series of business leaders including representatives from Primark, Dawn Meats, the dairy company Ornua and Glen Dimplex, one of Ireland’s most successful exporters known for its oil heater manufacturers.

Ireland was in favour of a veterinary deal to ease paperwork and checks on its huge exports of cheese, butter and other farm produce to Britain, said Martin. But he added the UK could not just present a list of demands to the EU.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/artic ... rtin-warns

[Time_Traveller]

Ed Davey accuses Keir Starmer of ‘mistake’ over refusal to rejoin EU single market

1 hour ago

Sir Keir Starmer has made a mistake by ruling out Britain rejoining the EU single market, the leader of the Liberal Democrats has said.

Piling pressure on the Labour leader to u-turn on UK membership of the single market, Sir Ed Davey said “if you’re going to rebuild our economy and get growth, you have to go further”.

The prime minister has embarked on a reset of Britain’s post-Brexit relations with the EU, after years of acrimony under successive Conservative PMs.

But, despite vowing to rebuild ties with the UK’s nearest neighbours, Sir Keir has ruled out a return to the single market, which allows the free movement of goods, services, capital and people within the EU.

And the PM has gone as far as saying he does not think the UK will rejoin the single market in his lifetime.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/p ... 13464.html

[Time_Traveller]

Talks on UK rejoining EU could start in 10 years’ time, says Peter Mandelson

Fri 11 Oct 2024 12.47 BST

Peter Mandelson has suggested the UK could start talks on rejoining the EU in 10 years’ time, much earlier than Keir Starmer believes.

Lord Mandelson told an audience in Edinburgh the “truth is that [reversing Brexit] could be a conversation which starts in 10 years’ time”, but only if EU member states were willing to consider it.

He said that in the meantime it was essential for the UK’s productivity and growth to reduce the damaging impact of the Brexit deal struck by Boris Johnson “as best we possibly can”.

Mandelson’s remarks, at a lecture for the thinktank Reform Scotland, are in contrast to the prime minister’s prediction before the general election that the UK would not rejoin the EU, or the single market or customs union, in his lifetime.

That appeared to rule out re-entry even if Labour wins a second term but Mandelson, a former European commissioner, made it clear he believed the economic damage caused by Brexit meant the prospect of rejoining the EU remained relevant.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... son-brexit

[Time_Traveller]

EU delays biometric border plan again as demand for fingerprints could be scrapped

Friday 11 October 2024 19:56 BST

The much-delayed entry-exit system (EES) has been postponed – and possibly watered down – just eight weeks after the EU home affairs commissioner declared it would come into force on 10 November.

Ylva Johansson said the ambitious Schengen area border plan, requiring “third-country nationals” – including British visitors – to provide fingerprints and facial biometrics on entry, would launch at every frontier post from the Arctic to the Aegean.

But in yet another blow for the troubled digital border project, it now appears a pilot programme is expected to begin some time in 2025, and a subtle change of wording from the European Commission suggests the demand for fingerprints may be quietly dropped.

France, Germany and the Netherlands had expressed alarm at plans to go ahead with a system that had not been tested on “live” border crossings.

The travel industry, which has invested hundreds of millions of pounds preparing for the launch, is relieved that possible chaos has been averted – but furious that the decision has come so late.

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/ne ... 27645.html

[Time_Traveller]

Labour to legalise harmful practice of carrying chickens by legs, say charities

Fri 18 Oct 2024 13.00 BST



Labour is using its first animal welfare policy since entering government to dilute standards by legalising the harmful practice of carrying chickens by their legs, charities have said.

European transport regulation 1/2005, which still applies in the UK, prohibits lifting chickens by their legs on farms and during loading and unloading, but the government is going to change the law to permit the widespread but illegal method, according to the Animal Law Foundation.

This comes despite the animal welfare committee of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) having previously said that it caused distress and injuries such as fractures and dislocations.

Edie Bowles, the executive director at the Animal Law Foundation, said: “It is shocking that the Labour government has chosen a dilution of welfare protections as its first animal welfare policy. It is especially surprising given it is the first dilution of an EU animal welfare protection since Brexit.

“The British people do not want this. They want animal welfare standards high and enforced. The decision to legalise the inhumane handling of chickens in the UK is a stark reminder of the lack of care for animal welfare at the highest level.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... -charities

[Time_Traveller]

Scheme to boost French school trips to Britain ‘at risk’ under new UK entry rules

Sun 27 Oct 2024 12.44 GMT



A scheme designed to boost the numbers of French children able to travel to Britain for school trips is reportedly in peril as a result of an overhaul of entry requirements in the UK.

New rules for French school trips were introduced in December last year after a meeting between the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the then UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak.

The pair struck a deal to allow French pupils to travel to Britain using national identity cards, and for their non-EU classmates to enter without the need for a visa, in an attempt to address a decline in visits after Brexit.

However, the Financial Times reported that the scheme was at risk because of the UK’s new electronic travel authorisation (ETA) scheme, which is due to come into force on 2 April 2025 and will require all EU visitors to register before travelling to the UK, a process that requires children to have a passport.

The FT cited a letter written by Valérie Boned, the president of Les Entreprises du Voyage, the main trade body for travel agencies in France, to the UK home secretary, Yvette Cooper, on 8 October asking whether the programme for French school groups would be retained. The group said it had not received a reply from the Home Office.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... les-brexit

[Time_Traveller]

Don’t take Trump bullying ‘on the chin’, Starmer warned after senior adviser issues EU Brexit trade threat

Saturday 16 November 2024 10:17 GMT

Don’t take Trump bullying ‘on the chin’, Starmer warned after senior adviser issues EU Brexit trade threat
A top trade adviser for Donald Trump has demanded that the UK ditches the ‘socialist’ EU in favour of US ‘freedom’ and a trade deal or suffer the consequences with tariffs

A senior economic adviser to Donald Trump has warned the UK that it needs to ditch the “socialist” EU and embrace a trade deal with the US instead or face tariffs.

The intervention by Stephen Moore appears to be an attempt to force the hand of Sir Keir Starmer in the latest sign that the relationship with the incoming White House administration is going to be painful.

But the prime minister has been urged not to “not take the threat on the chin” and continue to pursue closer ties with the European Union, Britain’s largest export market.

Earlier this week The Independent revealed that president-elect Trump plans to veto Sir Keir’s deal to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius in a move which could humiliate the prime minister because of concerns over the joint UK/ US airbase on Diego Garcia.

Now his team is pushing the Labour government to ditch its biggest foreign policy objective of resetting the EU relationship in favour of a trade deal with the US.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/p ... 48247.html

[wjfox]

Only 29% would back Brexit now — poll suggests tables have turned

Saturday August 02 2025, 11.40pm

Less than a third of Britons would vote to leave the European Union if the Brexit referendum were repeated, according to a poll.

An exclusive survey for The Sunday Times found that 29 per cent of people would vote to leave the EU, compared with 52 per cent at the time of the referendum in June 2016.

The tables have turned, according to the poll by the think tank More in Common, which found that this figure, 52 per cent, was now the percentage that would vote to remain.

Almost half of respondents, 49 per cent, thought there should be a referendum on rejoining the EU in the next five years, including many who voted to leave but would now vote to remain.

https://www.thetimes.com/article/dc1ddf ... e9b8c55b82

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[Yuli Ban]

I remember Brexit's lead up on the old forum and how unthinkable it was just because of how blatantly, unambiguously stupid it sounded even to someone who had never been to Europe, and the sheer shock and awe of it actually going through. Same year as Trump's first victory no less.
How it was so shocking that Jeremy Corbyn losing that one election by less than what was expected was still portrayed as a massive upset for the Tories, and people were starting to regret the whole thing within months before the worst effects even started hitting

I think everyone expected that the whole thing would have to be overturned eventually, even though it couldn't possibly be overnight.
But it would be something if opposing Brexit becomes the central factor for the next UK elections, and the Tories manage to pull an upset literally becomes Labour refuses to oppose it, as if everyone would forget it was the Tories and UKIP that even put everyone in that position in the first place
Or conversely, Reform remains Eurosceptic, and that's what causes them to lose.

[firestar464]

Britain to rejoin EU’s Erasmus student exchange program in Brexit reversal

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/economy ... r-AA1Sx693