Re: Brexit Consequences
Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2021 8:55 am
Brexit: this is not just a protest vote. It's a dirty protest vote.
d'eau!Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑Thu Sep 09, 2021 8:55 amBrexit: this is not just a protest vote. It's a dirty protest vote.
https://twitter.com/GetBrexit_Done/stat ... 41348?s=19Unfortunately, we can no longer buy sewage treatment chemicals because of Brexit, so we will now be dumping untreated sewage into your drinking water... What? Don't look at me like that! You were quite happy to swallow my sh.t when I put it on the side of a bus!
This has resulted in the last watercress farm in the Chilterns closing. The section of the river Chess around the cress beds also supports close to the entire Chiltern population of water voles, and so is of considerable ecological significance.Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑Wed Sep 08, 2021 10:05 amGood news everyone - water companies are now allowed to dump (even more) raw sewage into surface and groundwater!
https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... lure-rps-bNormally, you need a permit under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 to discharge treated effluent from a waste water treatment works (WwTW) to surface water or groundwater. Permits contain conditions that control the quality of the effluent you can discharge.
You may not be able to comply with your permit if you cannot get the chemicals you use to treat the effluent you discharge because of:
the UK’s new relationship with the EU
coronavirus (COVID-19)
other unavoidable supply chain failures, for example the failure of a treatment chemical supplier
If you follow the conditions in this regulatory position statement (RPS) you can discharge effluent without meeting the conditions in your permit.
Brexit Britain is literally up sh.t creek.
Given that the government is deliberately liberalising water quality regs to allow water companies to dump more sh.t without getting caught and fined, I don't think I'm being overly cynical suggesting that the long-term intention is to grandfather this kind of relaxation into permanent regs.
If you care what's printed on your glass, you're clearly drinking the wrong thing.Brightonian wrote: ↑Sun Sep 12, 2021 9:40 pmBrexit triumph as crown stamp FINALLY returns to pint glasses after 15 years
I suppose it speaks a lot for how well integrated the EU common market was that you could export a fresh sandwich from Britain in time for it to be eaten on the continent. I can't imagine the market was very large though.
Indeed, it was predictable, and much predicted. The French have form when it comes to this kind of thing.We are getting about 80% of our product through, less than that in France because the French, predictably, are draconian.
The interesting thing about watercress farms is that they also cause pollution downstream, e.g. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/T ... d006e14e58IvanV wrote: ↑Thu Sep 09, 2021 12:37 pmThis has resulted in the last watercress farm in the Chilterns closing. The section of the river Chess around the cress beds also supports close to the entire Chiltern population of water voles, and so is of considerable ecological significance.
The farm traditionally grew cress in the water of the river Chess, which (mostly) rises about 8km away from some large springs on the west side of Chesham. About 3km downstream of the source is Chesham sewage works, which also serves the north side of Amersham, and which has long discharged treated water into the river. In prolonged dry conditions, the aquifers become less productive, and the output of the sewage works can provide more than half the river's flow downstream of the works. In conditions of heavy rain, the sewage works can become overwhelmed and they are permitted to overflow untreated sewage into the river "in exceptional conditions". 5km downstream, and somewhat cleaned up by what it passed through on the way, the watercress farm has grown and sold cress using the river water since 1886, and throughout the period when the sewage works were built, probably in the early 20th century, and properly operated
A few years ago, growth in water use in the area led to overflow conditions occurring more often. By the time it was overflowing on more than half the days of the year, and generally almost every day in the wetter half of the year, Thames Water pleaded guilty to charges of making illegal discharges, conceding that this was far beyond any reasonable interpretation of "exceptional conditions". An investment plan to increase the capacity of the sewage works and get its overflows back to "in excepional conditions" was agreed, and presumably therefore fundable through the regulated price of sewage treatment permitted by Ofwat. But the condition of the river remained bad for an extended period until this was carried out. And many local people consider the funded expansion insufficient to get the river back to a good condition, given its ecological significance.
Meanwhile, downstream, the relevant regulators prevented the cress farm from selling its cress, while the water it was grown in was so sewage laden. Initially they held off harvesting it hoping it would be sorted out in a few months. When they saw this wasn't going to happen, they built a borehole and used this to irrigate their cress. But about 3 years later, they have been unable to satisfy the inspectors, and have been closed down.
They complain that the various regulators just ignore their needs to be able to get back into production. I think this lies somewhere between cleaning up the river properly and getting a sufficiently large abstraction permit. When the river is high, as it has been for much of the last couple of years, it will infiltrate unless they pump enough water to keep the level high in the beds. But they don't have a sufficient abstraction permit to do that.
Who would have guessed that being outside a customs union is more awkward and bureaucratic than being within the same customs union?IvanV wrote: ↑Tue Sep 14, 2021 12:11 amI suppose it speaks a lot for how well integrated the EU common market was that you could export a fresh sandwich from Britain in time for it to be eaten on the continent. I can't imagine the market was very large though.
Indeed, it was predictable, and much predicted. The French have form when it comes to this kind of thing.We are getting about 80% of our product through, less than that in France because the French, predictably, are draconian.
I'm already astonished anyone was ever exporting fresh sandwiches from Britain to France, and even more astonished they are still trying. I suppose there must be some kind of special satisfaction that comes from succeeding in exporting fresh sandwiches to France after Brexit, that makes it worth losing over 20% of them from being held up too long on the way.
The pandemic is proving incredibly useful for hiding the problems with brexit. If one were conspiracy-minded one might wonder if the government f.cked up its response so badly in order for it to provide that cover. Though that would require them to recognise how bad the trade deal was going to affect us and I'm not sure anyone in a position of power did.Brightonian wrote: ↑Tue Sep 14, 2021 11:12 amUK delays implementing post-Brexit border controls on agri-food imports from EU. No surprise it's been kicked down the road again, but eight months??? Of course, it's all because of the pandemic.
Probably not if that meant Channel 4 didn't show it. I wouldn't have paid Amazon Prime to stream it, that's for sure.
Given that electronic scales will do any system, it hardly matters nowBrightonian wrote: ↑Thu Sep 16, 2021 6:44 pmBack to pounds, ounces, hundredweights, roods, bushels... https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/scal ... -638vfn655
It's a barrier to trade, and barrier to anyone under the age of 55.Trinucleus wrote: ↑Thu Sep 16, 2021 6:57 pmGiven that electronic scales will do any system, it hardly matters nowBrightonian wrote: ↑Thu Sep 16, 2021 6:44 pmBack to pounds, ounces, hundredweights, roods, bushels... https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/scal ... -638vfn655
When I sell something on eBay perhaps I'll give the weight in adult badgers...Brightonian wrote: ↑Thu Sep 16, 2021 6:44 pmBack to pounds, ounces, hundredweights, roods, bushels... https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/scal ... -638vfn655