However, it gets worse, a lot worse.
Scotland is a small country which has to exist economically by having strong exports (and we have always *had* strong exports).
Here are the figures for some of Scotland's strongest food export sectors:
fish & shellfish down 83%
meat down 59%
dairy down 50%
EU exports in general down 63%
The worst of it is that voters will probably pretend nothing's happening, or just blame it on Covid-19.
@fitheach I saw that too https://lite.poandpo.com/economy/uk-exports-to-eu-plummet-by-41-percent-in-january/
Also an overall shrinking of the economy.
@gemlog
The economy was bound to shrink due to covid, but the disastrous Brexit agreement will result in far longer damage.
@SuperDicq
Yes, I hope so.
😺[Norway
@fitheach That sounds like a wise choice.
@fitheach I do not believe Spain will let you in?
That was back when we were part of the EU, and the case for Catalan independence was running strongly.
All of the nationalist "independence from the EU" movements in EU countries are looking at the shitshow in the UK, and saying "Nope!" :))
Also Spain has explicitly said that as the UK is now a third country, they aren't worried about the UK splitting up.
And the other EU countries have already said that they would welcome Scotland joining. :D
@fitheach What a visionary cartoon.
@d3rfr4nk
I'm hoping it is prophetic.
What Germany thinks about Johnson, #Brexit, #scotland and #indyref2
https://www.thenational.scot/news/18260537.germany-thinks-johnson-brexit-scotland-indyref2/
@pandora
Was that article about this year's Rosenmontag? I can't find a date on the page.
The float (linked to in the article) depicting Theresa May shooting herself in the mouth was a classic.
Due to the lockdown there were no big Rosenmontag parades this year. Both the picture and the article are from 2020. But the attitude towards Scotland and the Brexit hasn't changed 😀
@pandora
Aye, thought so.
It's nice to be wanted. 😃
@fitheach
You mean this one?
Yes, it's great - like most of the floats designed by Jacques Tilly
@fitheach
The float from the 2017 parade with Theresa May shooting herself was received with very mixed feelings: http://www.katyjon.com/theresa-may-brexit-suicide-float-provokes-mixed-feelings-in-norwich/
@pandora
Yup, that's the one.
I wonder if he considered her shooting her foot, instead of in her mouth?
@fitheach
In the German idiom you shoot yourself in the knee ("ein Schuss ins Knie") rather than in the foot. But both images wouldn't have been as drastic and wouldn't have implied the political suicide she actually did commit.
@pandora
From an artistic (sculpture) point-of-view it is more difficult to represent someone shooting themselves in either the knee or the foot.
@fitheach
I had the same thought, especially with moving floats where the scultpure has to be reduced to the bare minimum so that even in a crowd the onlookers can grasp the gist instantly.
@pandora
Exactly!
@fitheach Does the relative success of the vaccination programme in the UK in comparison with the EU affect people's perception of the EU?
@mpjgregoire
I shouldn't think so. Views about the EU are very entrenched, on both sides.
Is the vaccination programme relatively successful in the UK, compared to the EU? I don't know.
@fitheach @mpjgregoire Afaik, its slightly better than in France.
But it would be very hard to do worse, so not sure how much this means.
@Meandres @fitheach The UK has managed to vaccinate almost 40% of its population, the EU about 10%. See https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations
(The US is almost as good as the UK, Canada is worse than the EU.)
I'm surprised this is not well known; this is arguably the most important chart in the world at the moment.
@mpjgregoire
I'm not aware that this is a particular talking point in the UK (or the press), although I might not have my finger on the pulse, currently.
@fitheach @Meandres Interesting. Maybe the #Tory press talks about it?
It's also true that the UK has had a bad pandemic overall, with high per capita fatalities in comparison with your neighbours; vaunting the vaccination rate would be short-sighted and churlish.
Still there's reason to hope the pandemic will effectively come to an end in the UK in a few months.
@mpjgregoire
By any measure 125k dead (in the UK) is a terrible statistic.
@fitheach @Meandres Terrible indeed. Looking at #OurWorldInData, cumulative per capita deaths, it may yet be that more countries catch up with that sad result.
@fitheach I saw those numbers in the news... and I figured the same thing - the Brexiters are hiding their disastrous results behind Covid.
@tsturm
To be fair, even the Brexiters can't be blamed for covid.
@fitheach True, but a minor argument against leaving was that if something bad happens, Britain would be alone.
We all probably thought of climate change impacting the food supply while making that argument, not realizing that Covid would lap climate change.
@tsturm
Right up until the last minute of negotiations, the UK could have secured a deal, with the EU, which wouldn't (much) change the economic situation. A wave of xenophobia and (English) exceptionalism scuppered any chance of that happening.
@fitheach Maybe even hurting more deeply in the long run is the amount of goodwill on the EU side that was destroyed with the UK attitude towards the end of the negotiations.
From everything I've been hearing from my friends in Germany, they were done talking about Brexit in a very teutonic/stoic/pissed-off kinda way. German politicians will follow the mood of the people if they value re-election.
@collappsar
We didn't even need to adopt the Euro, but, yeah.
@fitheach @tsturm Maybe, but the Brexit mentality can be the source of handling it much worse: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/13/uk-missed-three-chances-to-join-eu-scheme-to-bulk-buy-ppe
@fitheach Aye, we miss all the good British boat part suppliers, but it's now far too difficult/expensive to order anything from them anymore.
The Irish seem to be picking up the slack. There's marine parts stores with .ie domains springing up everywhere - no customs hassle and we can pay in EUR. Still featuring the best thing the UK has given the EU - a common language (English) 👍
That 40% figure, in combination with the effects of covid, is a portent of a coming catastrophe. The EU was the UK's largest export market. The Lockdown is probably just masking a terrible economic collapse.
#politics #Brexit