H/T @PatHarrison2
A decent report from the NY Times...
"As the new year made Brexit a reality, Tony Hale encountered the pitfalls of Europe’s redrawn geography. Specifically, he confronted the need to extricate 53 tons of rotting pork products from administrative purgatory

a port in the Netherlands.
For more than two decades, Mr. Hale’s company had shipped pork to the European Union without customs checks, as if the United Kingdom and the continent across the water were one vast country.

With Britain now legally outside the bloc,
exporters suddenly had to navigate inspections, safety regulations & a bewildering crush of paperwork.
For Mr. Hale, incorrectly prepared documents meant sending five containers full of pork to an unplanned final destination : the incinerator.
“It’s a new game,& we have to learn”
Mr. Hale said. “We are having to double- and triple-check every document.”
In the early days of the post-Brexit era, Britain is struggling to adapt to its new position in the global economy — its fortunes still tethered to the European Union; its companies now on the outside.
The trade deal Britain struck late last year with the European Union stopped tariffs from being imposed on goods exchanged across the English Channel, but did not prevent the revival of customs procedures, health and safety checks, value-added taxes on imports, and other
time-consuming, commerce-limiting hindrances.

Businesses across Britain are now contending with paralyzing confusion and unfamiliar bureaucratic hurdles. Paperwork snafus, customs horrors and other expensive disruptions are intensifying the strains on an economy
that was already reeling from the pandemic.
....many companies — especially small- and medium-sized firms — lament what feels like a new normal.
The European Union has traditionally purchased nearly half of Britain’s exports.
However the volume of exports crossing the channel
in January *collapsed by more than two-thirds* compared with the previous year. Some producers of fish, shellfish, meat and dairy have been cut off from markets in Europe, suffering a catastrophic plunge in sales.
Transport firms are so wary of the complexities of sending goods
from Britain to Europe that many are avoiding the business. Roughly half of all trucks bringing goods from the French port of Calais to the English port of Dover are now returning empty, transporting nothing but thin air.

Britain’s lucrative finance industry has seen trading in
the stocks of European companies shift abruptly to the continent, as Amsterdam has displaced London as the primary market for such shares. Growing volumes of the exotic instruments known as derivatives — especially those denominated in euros — are abandoning London for New York.
Manufacturers are contending with grave disruptions to their supplies of finished products, components and basic materials.
And the changes imposed by Brexit are only beginning, as London & Brussels continue to renegotiate the rules governing future commercial dealings ...
“We are going to be living with Brexit for the rest of our lives,” said Jeremy Thomson-Cook, London-based chief economist at Equals Money, an international money manager. “The coronavirus is an acute condition.
Brexit is *chronic.*"
During the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign, those in favor of leaving Europe promised businesses liberation from the suffocating regulations and time-sucking bureaucracy that supposedly prevailed across the Channel. James Wilson was dubious. He harvests mussels from the seabed of
the Menai Straits in northern Wales. Traditionally, such mollusks are unloved by Britons, making him dependent on Europe for 98 percent of his sales. Mr. Wilson anticipated extra paperwork.
but he was unprepared for the shock he received last month
Under EU rules, imports of live mussels were permitted from outside the bloc only if harvested in waters deemed of highest quality. The Menai Straits fell short — *not because of European perfidy, but under Britain’s own classification system*.
He's locked out of his sole market
A couple of hundred tons of mussels that would have previously fetched about 160,000 euros ($194,000) now lie in the muck, not worth harvesting. Mr. Wilson has furloughed three of his six workers.
Even those who can reach European markets have discovered that the promised
bonfire of regulations is actually a burning hell of paperwork. In the southwest of England, a few miles from the village that gave its name to Cheddar cheese, one cheesemaker, Lye Cross, anticipates spending an extra £125,000 ($173,000) a year to comply with the admin
that have accompanied Brexit. A transaction that last year entailed seven steps, including paying and invoicing, now runs to 39, said Ben Hutchins, the company’s sales and marketing director.
During the first week of January, Hartington Creamery sent about 40 small packages
of its Stilton cheese to Europe. Collectively, they were worth about £1,000 ($1,383) The courier affixed a post- Brexit surcharge of around £5 each, or about £200. Customs authorities in Europe rejected the shipments, primarily because they lacked required health certificates.
Preparing such documents entailed hiring a veterinarian for about £180 per shipment.
Hartington refunded its customers, and paid the courier again to return the cheese to England.
“You feel pretty sick,” said Robert Gosling, the company’s majority shareholder.
“When you’ve got it back, you have to throw it all away because it has taken five or six days to get there and come back.” Before Brexit, a truck loaded with 25,000 liters of cream from a dairy plant in northern Wales could travel overnight and reach France by morning.
Now, that same journey can take five days, complained Philip Langslow, director of County Milk Products.
The dairy must alert the authorities of export at least 24 hours before departure, and must supply a weight — something it can't know for sure until the tanker truck is loaded
If its weight differs from what is reported on the paperwork, the shipment may be rejected on arrival. Mr. Langslow’s company has cut its exports by half.

Before Brexit, Fashion Enter, with a pair of factories in Britain, could place order for high-quality thread made in Germany
and receive it in perhaps five days.
A recent order now took more than three weeks. It also incurred a handling charge of £44 pounds (more than $60) to cover the preparation of customs paperwork.
Without the thread, the company had to postpone work on a crucial order —
10,000 protective gowns for frontline medical workers at the National Health Service.
The thread supplier now imposes a minimum of £135 ($185) on orders from Britain, cognizant that a lower amount would require it to register to pay British value-added taxes,
said Jenny Holloway, Fashion Enter’s chief executive officer.
Like many fashion businesses, her company aims to keep its inventory lean, allowing it to adapt to changing customer demands. But the new minimum order has forced the company to stock up more,
lest it run out of something that it cannot quickly replenish.
“It’s going to tie up our cash,” Ms. Holloway said.
“This is the new business that we find ourselves in.”
The auto industry is especially vulnerable, given that parts frequently cross and recross the Channel multiple times for specialized processing before landing in finished vehicles.
FULL REPORT https://t.co/rlu0VZGut5

More from Michael M. 🇨🇭🇳🇴🇮🇸🇱🇮🇬🇧

Whatever the analyses, I'll never understand the efforts, taxpayers money & substantial pain to come to make the disunited or broken apart UK, face so many more difficulties in trading with its neighbours; even within its own territory & to be so much poorer & less secure

with fewer rights for Brits in their own country & across the EU/EEA.
And that there is not a lot more official opposition/media attention & anger about it
.
Even more so when I read the following from 2010 by the "Taxpayers Alliance"

@bakerstherald Thanks for bringing this to my attention when the MSM - for whatever reason - is so noticably reticent to expose these would be quickly evolving (sounds better/less sinister)


From 2010
"As long as anyone can remember, Britain's old industrial heartlands have been a disaster area. Once they'd lost their traditional industries like steel and shipbuilding, something very bad happened to them - they seemed to lose the will to live. And as we've blogged

many times (eg here), despite decades of political promises and billions of tax-funded support, they have never managed to leave the high dependency unit. For example, when last sighted - in 2007-08 at the height of the biggest economic boom the world has ever seen -

More from Society

The Nashville Operation - A Battle in the War

A thread exploring the Nashville bombing in the context of the 2020 Digital War (via SolarWinds) against the United States perpetrated by our enemies, likely China, Iran and/or Russia.


SolarWinds Hack

A digital "Pearl Harbor" moment for the United States, whoever was responsible had access to the keys to the kingdom for months during 2020, including sensitive military infrastructure. This is war!

SunGard + SolarWinds

SolarWinds software company is owned by same company that owns SunGard, which essentially provides data center services. A secure place to host internet servers with redundant power and "big pipe" data connections.

https://t.co/U3P3SrrkM1


SunGard Data Center

In Nashville, around the corner from their "big pipe" connection, AT&T. Like any data center, highly secure. Only authorized personnel can enter, and even fewer can access the actual server rooms. Backup generators are available in case of power failure.


If the SunGard hardware was being used to "host" critical command and control software related to SolarWinds, the US powers would be very interested in gaining special access keys that are stored on the hard-drives of specific servers.
Tomorrow, January 6th, MAGA chuds, Proud Boys, and white supremacists are planned to descend on Washington D.C. to contest the election. Among them will be NSC-131, a New England based neo-Nazi organization. Let's welcome them by saying hi to one of their members, Eddie Stuart!


Edward Stuart, from Chester, New Hampshire, has been a member of Nationalist Social Club (NSC) since the very beginning and is a staple participant in their actions. He is known in NSC chats as "Carl Jung" and is well connected in the New England Nazi scene.
2/


NSC-131 is a neo-Nazi group that was started in Massachusetts in early 2020 by Chris Hood. You can learn more about NSC and it's members in these threads:


Eddie describes his ideology as "Esoteric Hitlerism" which is an occult form of Nazism that literally worships Adolf Hitler as a god, or, specifically, as an incarnation of the Hindu God Vishnu. Here is Ed holding the RigVeda with some of his occult Nazi pals. Interesting Ed!
4/


Much of this ideological insight was gained from Eddie's Twitter, where he originally used his "Carl Jung" persona and reposts explicit neo-fascist content and racist memes. In one edited picture, Eddie can be seen at an NSC event in late June 2020 holding a Nazi Sonnenrad flag
5
Two things can be true at once:
1. There is an issue with hostility some academics have faced on some issues
2. Another academic who himself uses threats of legal action to bully colleagues into silence is not a good faith champion of the free speech cause


I have kept quiet about Matthew's recent outpourings on here but as my estwhile co-author has now seen fit to portray me as an enabler of oppression I think I have a right to reply. So I will.

I consider Matthew to be a colleague and a friend, and we had a longstanding agreement not to engage in disputes on twitter. I disagree with much in the article @UOzkirimli wrote on his research in @openDemocracy but I strongly support his right to express such critical views

I therefore find it outrageous that Matthew saw fit to bully @openDemocracy with legal threats, seeking it seems to stifle criticism of his own work. Such behaviour is simply wrong, and completely inconsistent with an academic commitment to free speech.

I am not embroiling myself in the various other cases Matt lists because, unlike him, I think attention to the detail matters and I don't have time to research each of these cases in detail.

You May Also Like

Ivor Cummins has been wrong (or lying) almost entirely throughout this pandemic and got paid handsomly for it.

He has been wrong (or lying) so often that it will be nearly impossible for me to track every grift, lie, deceit, manipulation he has pulled. I will use...


... other sources who have been trying to shine on light on this grifter (as I have tried to do, time and again:


Example #1: "Still not seeing Sweden signal versus Denmark really"... There it was (Images attached).
19 to 80 is an over 300% difference.

Tweet: https://t.co/36FnYnsRT9


Example #2 - "Yes, I'm comparing the Noridcs / No, you cannot compare the Nordics."

I wonder why...

Tweets: https://t.co/XLfoX4rpck / https://t.co/vjE1ctLU5x


Example #3 - "I'm only looking at what makes the data fit in my favour" a.k.a moving the goalposts.

Tweets: https://t.co/vcDpTu3qyj / https://t.co/CA3N6hC2Lq
1/“What would need to be true for you to….X”

Why is this the most powerful question you can ask when attempting to reach an agreement with another human being or organization?

A thread, co-written by @deanmbrody:


2/ First, “X” could be lots of things. Examples: What would need to be true for you to

- “Feel it's in our best interest for me to be CMO"
- “Feel that we’re in a good place as a company”
- “Feel that we’re on the same page”
- “Feel that we both got what we wanted from this deal

3/ Normally, we aren’t that direct. Example from startup/VC land:

Founders leave VC meetings thinking that every VC will invest, but they rarely do.

Worse over, the founders don’t know what they need to do in order to be fundable.

4/ So why should you ask the magic Q?

To get clarity.

You want to know where you stand, and what it takes to get what you want in a way that also gets them what they want.

It also holds them (mentally) accountable once the thing they need becomes true.

5/ Staying in the context of soliciting investors, the question is “what would need to be true for you to want to invest (or partner with us on this journey, etc)?”

Multiple responses to this question are likely to deliver a positive result.