
Project fear - a media friendly term which at one stroke, mocked the expertise of those at many of the coal faces of Brexit and dismissed it with a sneer. Yet, just 9 days in, it looks very much like project fear predictions were true and should have been heeded.
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Yep, it was yet more “keep ‘em sweet until it’s signed” bollocks
https://t.co/T26mrTdUd0
More from Brexit
31 liars & hypocrites who facilitated brexit
Some are mad, some are bad
All are millionaires, some are billionaires
They’ll profit from UK companies failing, keep their money abroad to avoid UK tax and travel freely with their EU passports
#RejoinEU

https://t.co/mZRr9u1RPb
A brexit advent calendar to count down to loss of our EU rights
— European Unity #FBPE \U0001f1ea\U0001f1fa\U0001f4b6\u2b50\ufe0f (@EuropeanUnity1) December 31, 2020
Box 31: Boris Johnson told us:
\u201cI\u2019m in favour of the single market\u201d
\u201cThe cost of getting out will be virtually nil\u201d
\u201cWe have an oven ready deal\u201d
\u201cThere is no threat to the Erasmus scheme\u201d
\u201cF**k business\u201d pic.twitter.com/w8KxDJYV4x
https://t.co/BY6hKloR9d
A brexit advent calendar to count down to loss of our EU rights
— European Unity #FBPE \U0001f1ea\U0001f1fa\U0001f4b6\u2b50\ufe0f (@EuropeanUnity1) December 30, 2020
Box 30: Nigel Farage told us:
\u201cIn a 52-48 referendum this would be unfinished business by a long way\u201d
\u201cI never promised brexit would be a huge success\u201d
\u201cIf brexit is a disaster, I will go and live abroad\u201d pic.twitter.com/UfO9gzoUPD
https://t.co/NdC0ltLeSM
A brexit advent calendar to count down to loss of our EU rights
— European Unity #FBPE \U0001f1ea\U0001f1fa\U0001f4b6\u2b50\ufe0f (@EuropeanUnity1) December 29, 2020
Box 29: Andrea Leadsom told us:
\u201cI don\u2019t think the UK should leave the EU. It would be a disaster for our economy & lead to a decade of uncertainty\u201d
\u201cMy expectation is that there will not be an economic impact\u201d pic.twitter.com/SMSQ6ruG2h
https://t.co/BLnRLotso7
A brexit advent calendar to count down to loss of our EU rights
— European Unity #FBPE \U0001f1ea\U0001f1fa\U0001f4b6\u2b50\ufe0f (@EuropeanUnity1) December 28, 2020
Box 28: Andrew Bridgen told us:
\u201cAs an English person I have the right to go to Ireland, I believe I can ask for a passport can\u2019t I?\u201d
\u201cWe won\u2019t be crashing out, we\u2019ll be cashing in\u201d pic.twitter.com/jFINFu8xNe
Important story on what a “tariff-free” deal means in practice and why it’s not enough for two economies as closely integrated.
Tariffs are removed on goods that meet rules of origin. This is a complex and nuanced area of customs.
/1
\U0001f6a8\U0001f6a8\U0001f6a8\U0001f1ea\U0001f1fa\U0001f1ec\U0001f1e7\U0001f69b\U0001f692\U0001f1ea\U0001f1fa\U0001f1ec\U0001f1e7\U0001f6a8\U0001f6a8\U0001f6a8 serious #brexit story alert - companies now starting to see penny drop on what rules of origin does to supply chains (food for example) but Brussels seems deaf to both EU & U.K. pleading. A bellwether? \U0001f62c Stay with me. 1/
— Peter Foster (@pmdfoster) January 6, 2021
https://t.co/HoDSDxhKaL
Important to remember that trade deals (FTAs) weren't designed with such a high degree of economic integration in mind.
So some of the standard RoO provisions will seem incredibly restrictive under the UK-EU deal.
/2
Minimal operations or insufficient processing is a standard part of an FTA. Most, if not all FTAs, include a provision on minimal processing – processing not considered sufficient to confer originating status even if rules of origin have been met.
/3
It is standard procedure not to apply cumulation when goods have only been subject to minimal processing.
To be able to cumulate origin and consider the final product of UK origin, the processing carried out in the UK needs to exceed minimal operations.
/4
The level of integration between the UK and the EU means that this will have significant consequences for a number of industries.
For example, in supply chains where goods are brought into the UK from the EU and reassembled, sorted or repackaged and re-exported to ROI.
/5
The Commission’s view, according to several sources, is that Brexit means existing distribution networks and supply chains are now defunct and will have to be replaced by other systems.
Brexit reality bites: The new dawn of trade friction via @RTENews https://t.co/p6VdlhZUAN
— Tony Connelly (@tconnellyRTE) January 9, 2021
Of course, this was never written on the side of a bus. And never acknowledged by government. Everything was meant to be broadly fine apart from the inevitable teething problems.
It was, however, visible from space to balanced observers. You did not have to be a trade specialist to understand that replacing the Single Market with a third country trade arrangement meant the end of many if not all of the complex arrangements optimised for the former.
In the absence of substantive mitigations, the Brexit winners are those who subscribe to some woolly notion of ‘sovereignty’ and those who did not like freedom of movement. The losers are everyone else.
But, of course, that’s not good enough. For understandable reasons Brexit was sold as a benefit not a cost. The trading benefits of freedom would far outweigh the costs. Divergence would benefit all.
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Some random interesting tidbits:
1) Zuck approves shutting down platform API access for Twitter's when Vine is released #competition

2) Facebook engineered ways to access user's call history w/o alerting users:
Team considered access to call history considered 'high PR risk' but 'growth team will charge ahead'. @Facebook created upgrade path to access data w/o subjecting users to Android permissions dialogue.

3) The above also confirms @kashhill and other's suspicion that call history was used to improve PYMK (People You May Know) suggestions and newsfeed rankings.
4) Docs also shed more light into @dseetharaman's story on @Facebook monitoring users' @Onavo VPN activity to determine what competitors to mimic or acquire in 2013.
https://t.co/PwiRIL3v9x
