A Genuine Brexit Benefit

[Hymie]

Along with signage at imperial distances in the Dartford Tunnel – you will soon be able to buy Champaign in pint bottles, rather than 750ml (1.3 pints).

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12902647/Brits-soon-buy-pints-champagne-wine-supermarket-post-Brexit-freedoms.html

Hooray !!!!!

[Cloverjo]

I expected to see 'The Onion' on the masthead of the article. 
 

We're regaining our freedom, folks! Pints of champagne. So important.

[ToraToraTora]

None of that has anything to do with the EUSSR, we have always been able to buy pints of anything if a supplier wants to supply it. The only proviso is that the metric measure must also be present, eg 568ml. Anything could be sold in any measure as long as the metric equivalent was quoted. Nothing to see here.

[barry1010]

We have always been able to buy beer in pints and half pints in bars in EU countries - those that want to cater to the Brits 

[ToraToraTora]

...in 2001 I had a pint of Guiness in an English crown marked pint glass in an Irish Pub in Rotterdam. The price list was all in imperial with metric equivalent alongside. The barman explained the legalities. You are over 20 years late hymie me old china.

[Ellipsis]

> Brussels' preference for metric measures meant EU red tape has prevented alcohol being sold in pints – apart from an opt-out for draught beer and cider.

That's the new bit, apparently.

> Yet before the ban around 60 per cent of champagne sold in the UK was by the pint

Well, DM, that makes no sense ...

[Hopkirk]

I'll have a pint of champagne please 

[Hymie]

It has been some time since I published my extensive list of Brexit benefits – so here it is, updated with pints of Champaign.

 

Each benefit on its own is well worth the £40 billion in lost tax revenue to the UK exchequer each year, and the 15% reduction in the UK economy, both as a direct result of Brexit.

 

-          Blue passports

-          The Crown Mark on pub glasses

-          Mobile phone companies able to make roaming charges
(when using your phone in mainland Europe)

-          Killing our honey-bees with EU banned pesticides

-          Not having to insure ride-on lawnmowers (and other self-powered vehicles) used on private land

-          Signage within Dartford tunnel spaced at yardage distances (in round numbers)

-          The freedom to release as much raw sewage as we like into our rivers and coastal waters (and doing so), without fear of being prosecuted by the European Commission

-          Un-capped bonuses permitted to be paid to our bankers

-          Not having to declare millions of pounds you have in secret off-shore tax havens

Soon being able to buy Champaign in pint bottles, rather than 750ml (1.3 pints)

[Peter Pedant]

T can see you have our best Brexut interests at heart.

thank God there is ONW amongst all the impostors

[Hymie]

So good is this Brexit benefit, it continues to make the Daily Mail (on a daily basis).

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-12904933/PETER-HITCHENS-Let-return-champagne-pint-strike-blow-against-metric-commissars-loathe-traditions.html

[Hymie]

If in 2016 I had said that at the end of 2023, a major British newspaper would be hailing us being able to sell Champaign in pint bottles as a major Brexit benefit – people would simply have not believed me.

[davebro3]

Anyway - what has Dartford tunnel got to do with it?

[davebro3]

I thought all our road signs were based on miles/yards.

[Hymie]

Do keep up with these Brexit benefits – after all they are costing £40 billion per year in lost tax revenue.

[Dartford Tunnel]

https://www.indy100.com/politics/jacob-rees-mogg-brexit-benefits

[naomi24]

Hymie, how is the Dartfurd Tunnel losing the country £40 billion a year in lost tax revenue?  

[Hymie]

As a result of leaving the EU, we can now place signage in the Dartford Tunnel at imperial distances; as a result of leaving the EU the annual tax revenue to the UK exchequer has fallen by £40 billion.

[naomi24]

I haven't checked your figure, hymie, but I can't see the connection between that and the Dartford tunnel - which in my experience works whatever signs are used.  It's a couple of tunnels going one way and a bridge going the other so you can't go far wrong really.  You seem to be all over the place scratching around for something else to moan about.  Frankly you're sounding a bit desperate.

[New Judge]

“I haven't checked your figure, hymie,…”

I wouldn’t bother if I were you, naomi because I have.

The figure of £40bn loss to the Exchequer as a result of Brexit is often quoted by Hymie. It is not a fact, it is conjecture. Although he’s never cited the source of his claim, as far as I can see it stems from a study sponsored by the “Centre for European Reform” (CER). This describes itself  as “…an award winning independent think-tank devoted to making the EU work better, and strengthening its role in the world” (so no conflict of interest there then).

The study was compiled by John Springford, CER’s Deputy Director. He estimates that the UK’s economy is now 5.5% smaller than it would have been had the UK not left the EU (from which he calculates the loss of tax revenue). The problem with his study is that it is based on a “counterfactual” argument. This is one which considers what did actually happen and compares it to an artificial construction explaining what might have happened given a hypothetical scenario (in this case, one where the UK did not leave the EU). 

This is not a sound basis for argument when it is difficult – if not impossible – to extract the effect of Brexit from the myriad of other influences which have taken place both since the vote in 2016 and the UK’s final departure in 2020. What can be said as a fact is this: in the 2015/16 financial year—the last full tax year before the referendum—HMRC’s total tax revenues were £536.8 billion. By comparison, in the most recent complete financial year (2022-23), total tax revenues were £731.1 billion. This is an increase of 36%. Inflation between April ’16 and April ’23 was 29.5%, so revenue (adjusted for inflation) has actually increased since the referendum.

Of course Hymie will say that (according to Mr Springford’s report) they would have been much higher still. But that’s like comparing deaths due to Covid when the country had lockdowns imposed with those that may have occurred if there were no lockdowns. This is another counterfactual argument because the latter figures can only be estimated. But he expects us to accept that his quoted figure of £40bn in tax loss is fact – and it isn’t. It is (at best) an educated guess made by the Deputy Director of an organisation which is profoundly pro-EU. Anyone accepting such a guess as fact needs to be aware of that.

[Hymie]

It must be obvious to any Brexiteer with more than two working brain cells that Brexit is a disaster for the UK; given that arch-Brexiteer Nigel Farage has admitted it has failed, and the No. 1 Brexit benefit national newspapers can find after 7 years since the leave vote, is being able to sell Champagne in pint bottles.