IF YOU ARE A FAN OF HORMONE-FED MEAT AND DUBIOUS ANIMAL WELFARE
I apologise for the appearance of the butcher’s apron on this blog.
Liz Webster is chair of Save British Farming. They campaign to join the Single Market in Europe to Save British Food.
She is worth a listen and I think it’s worth signing her petition.
EU/EEA/EFTA food standards are very high. Elsewhere in the world the hygiene, animal welfare and phyto-sanitary standards are lower. So this is important from a human health and animal welfare point of view.
It also makes no sense to ship food around the world when there is, or should be, absolutely excellent food available on our doorsteps, here in Scotland and across the EU.
If we join a trade organisation situated in Asia, we may not be forced to adopt their lower standards ourselves, but we will be forced to accept their much cheaper food produced to and at their standards. Liz Truss’s deal with Australia has already done that.
Oh, that is what raw food looks like, before the servants being it to ones table. And what is it you do? Are there always seven of you to see to your customers’ needs?
Of course, the well off will still be able to afford to buy good quality meat, but many people won’t, particularly with food inflation currently at 17.5%. And of course, who can be sure when you eat in a restaurant that you will be getting the standard that you have been used to.
Lots of cheap food flooding in from Asia, coupled with much reduced grants for farmers (compared with what they got from the EU), and I suspect that many British farmers will have to give up.
That would seem to me to present an opportunity for factory type farms to buy up small farms (just as happened with fishing) and for the government to relax the standards in Britain, including in our country… making it harder for us to move back into any arrangement with Europe.
And that means we will no longer be able to trust Scottish produce to be up to the high standards which we’ve been used to.
And who is in charge of farming in England and will have the final say on farming matters in the British Single Market?
None other than the Rt Hon Thérèse Coffey MP who was appointed Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 25 October 2022.
I have the impression that all these cards we held were jokers.
MUNGUIN'S NEW REPUBLIC 
OT… Lee Anderson, all 30p of him belongs to this flag, apparently.
Even if it’s upside down and backside fore.
Is there ever a day when he doesn’t make a dick of himself?
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Photo is in Sheridans the Ballater butcher.
Very very good quality meat…
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Yes, it looks like it is, although I’m sure it was the very best being put out for their visitor. The place was probably painted too.
But seriously some of these Scottish butchers are absolutely fantastic.
I hope that they can survive all this cheap meat that will be flowing in.
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I think it was Sir William Connolly who said that Queenie-poos thought that the whole world smelled of fresh paint.
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Q: Pheeleep, why is it everywhere one goes there is a smell of fresh paint, whereas none of one’s hieses smell of it?
P: “Well, m’dear, I expect these people spray their places with paint to keep down the smell of working class sweat, chip fat and stale cigarettes or whatever.”
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😄
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I dare say they are, although the queen looks sceptical don’t you think? Maybe she has concerns about the chicken being displayed so close to the mince.
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LOL…
I think it’s just the first time in her life she has been in a shop.
She thought thing just miraculously appeared on her table straight form the Duchy of Cornwall
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The UK state is not strong enough to stand on it’s own so needs to be part of a larger trading bloc.
Their holy trail was to be part of the North American bloc but that is not going to happen any time soon,especially if violence kicks off again in NI.
The USA will hold them accountable for that as a direct consequence of Brexit.
They should have learned from recent events that having extended supply chains,especially over these sort of distances,puts them in a very vulnerable position.
What food security?
Sheridans will be getting their insect delicacies from the Pacific and their customers will just have to suck it up.
Ha ha.
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Take back control fro Europe and give it to Asia. And for what?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65124741
And even with some gains in trading the government only estimates it will add 0.08% to the size of the economy in 10 years. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which provides forecasts for the government, has previously said Brexit would reduce the UK’s potential economic growth by about 4% in the long term.
So +0.08% gain… 4% loss.
I thought the Tories were supposed to be good at figures?
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That photo of Truss & Coffey looks like one of those ‘I’m not a robot’ checks – “How many pigs can you see?” I make it 8 🐷
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Nothing wrong with your arithmetic there, Andi.
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6 nice pigs and 2 effing awful ones
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Yep, more accurate.
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One other thing is that given Greater England’s track record of throwing it’s weight around and exercising vetoes etc,how welcoming will the Pacific countries be to their overtures?
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Well, they are accepted and I suppose the advantage for the Britgov is that instead of making trips to various European capitals do for their negations about changes to the terms, they will get to fly to more exotic places.
I dare say that it won’t be long before the other members realise just what a pain in the butt the Brits will be.
Clearly if they thought themselves superior to Germany and France, they are going to think themselves superior to Canada and Australia, Malaysia and Vietnam.
I wonder how long it will be before some of the rednecks are worrying about “all them foreigners telling us wot to do”.
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Strange that they are promoting this CPTPP agreement, having made such an issue of taking back control. As I understand CPTPP dispute resolution, if the UK makes legislative change, for health or environmental standards or a UK company makes labelling change (eg, hormone, GM) that the producing company or country deems that it would have a negative effect on their sales, then they have the right to sue through. This is carried out through a CPTPP arbitration scheme.
Seems like less control than when we were in the EU.
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Yep, I kinda thought that.
Took back control in 2019 and gave it away in 2023.
They probably think that as a lot of the countries used to be in the Empire, they will kowtow to the motherland.
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This illustrates the leverage that the DUP has/had;
https://www.politico.eu/article/inside-the-deal-how-britain-joined-cptpp/
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They are still celebrating winning a TINY improvement in the trading situation, while they bury a huge loss (0.08%+ and 4%-) and forgetting the absolutely massive other costs we’ve already had (far smaller grants in every discipline).
They are also skipping ove3r climate change issues like the comparative distance between Chile o=r Japan and the UK… and between Germany or Estonia and the UK.
If they think this is a good deal I’m glad they don;t do my shopping.
The DUP recently said that the atmosphere in the North of Ireland is very tense.
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Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) is a system of biased tribunals where corporations pack the ‘court’ with its own people or allies. What it amounts to in practice is that democratically-elected governments can be over-ruled (and they – that is to say, the people of their states – be punished by ‘comepnsation’ or sanctions) for implementing policies for which the people have voted. It is a complete denial not only of sovereignty but of democracy itself.
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Well when folks get food poisoning and such things, and England’s NHS is no more, it’s more cash for private ‘healthcare’ companies, as happens in the US where I’ve heard that food poisoning is a huge problem. It’s all part of the bigger picture, EngUkBrexit is going to plan.
We vegetarians won’t be immune to lower/no food standards though, that’s if we can get any veg in the first place. I did see lots of swedes in the reduced basket other day, no peppers, onions or courgettes though, and definitely no cabbage. Bloody marvellous eh.
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Aye, I had food poisoning once A.H, my own fault, and it was agony. Like you, I’m a vegetarian, so probably the lowering of food standards won’t affect me too much, I hope, but of course that isn’t the point. It’s just one of the symptoms of a catastrophic Brexit.
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I wonder how many Scottish and British farmers will go out of business, though, Alex.
I wonder too if we will have to imports veg from Asia as opposed to Europe…
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Wouldn’t bet on that, check maximum pesticide residue levels before making statements like that
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I’m pretty sure that they have lower phyto sanitary standards too, Hetty.
I wonder what the labelling regulations will be like.
I already look for “Produced in Scotland” on stuff I buy. I’ll be redoubling my efforts now.
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I’d like to do something like that, Tris. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to find where something was actually grown because it’s always in small print half-hidden behind the large Butcher’s Apron on the packaging. I do choose Scottish strawberries and Irish mushrooms wherever possible, but ethical consumerism is difficult if not impossible here.
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Fair comment, Nigel and of course the labelling is often incorrect.
I’ve seen (I think in Tesco) Scottish potatoes which had come from England. Possibly because they thought saying they were Scottish (possibly grown with Scottish seed potatoes) would be more popular here.
Where possible I like to buy stuff that hasn’t come from too far away… but labelling is undependable.
I prefer not to buy stuff with a Bucher’s Apron on it, although I’m quite happy to buy something with a George Cross or Dragon.
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Phytosaniry standards are only applied to seed or plants for further growing, not for food. That would come under food standards
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Still, surely bringing in plants? Or seed potatoes, etc?
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Totally different threat, if you are regrowing the plants/seeds then you can spread invasive pests, weeds or viruses/bacteria, rather than possibly harming humans when they ingest the plant or seed. That could make it difficult to successfully grow the imported species, e.g. your quoted example of seed potatoes. If seed potatoes with a new and untreatable trait of blight/rot were imported it could make it impossible to grow potatoes
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Reports that the new trading block deal will increase GDP by £2b in TEN years. Probably another poor prediction by the government.
Love the wee clip from the Independent today.
The department run by Fox Green Shapps, Department for net zero is called Disney by the staff.
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Brexit cost 4% and this is going to boost the economy by 0.08% (both in the long term).
Sounds like the kind of deal that these idiots would boast about.
Imagine buying our cheese from Vietnam when there is perfectly good cheese in France or Ireland?
Has anyone worked out how much this deal will affect the Brits’ net zero?
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Even 0.08% seems wildly optimistic. Given all the FTAs already in place, the only advantage is cumulative rules of origin but how many will redirect their supply chains through Vietnam? One thing I learnt at the start of Brexit is that product managers like to be able to visit their entire chain in the smallest time possible. This obviously leads to regional networks. Which region is the UK in?
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LOL Which is closer? Chile, Vietnam? Canada?
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The whole supply chain nonsense has really come back to bite the arses of those companies which sought to gain from offshoring.
Back in about 2007 or so, I used to buy fish products made by a ‘British’ firm who had a processing plant in Galloway somewhere. The prawns were harvested from the Irish sea, taken to the plant to be processed and packed and then sent out to the shops. The company then decided that – for the sake of a few more quid on their ‘bottom line’ – they were going to put the prawns into refrigerated ships, send them all the way to Thailand to be processed and packed and then ship them all the way back here. Not only taking away jobs here and exploiting cheap labour there, but helping to further knackerise the environment. I’ve not bought any of their products since, and a fat lot of effect that has probably had on them.
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I remember hearing about that.
It all goes back to Mrs Thatcher’s incredibly stupid assertion that, if other places could do things cheaper (because of slave labour and hideous conditions) then we should profit from that and concentrate on the things that we excelled at, like banking and insurance. (although 2008 suggests to me that we, along with Ireland, Iceland and the USA actually weren’t that good at banking.)
It also neglected to take into consideration that not everyone was temperamentally or intellectually suited to banking and insurance.
Or, indeed, the fact that we would in time become utterly dependent on other countries for our basic needs.
OK, in these days I suspect very few people bothered much about global warming, but what a waste… Irish prawns been half way round the world and back to save a few Euros.
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Is that because it Disney do anything?
(Sorry, someone had to say it)
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It’ll be something like that; I’ve heard of workplaces being referred to as “Disneyland” because this disnae work, that disnae work (etc.). Origin is Glasgow, I believe.
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🙂
Sounds like the senior management team at Munguin International!!!
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Bing sings, Walt Disney.
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🙂
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…and Emmanuel Kant…
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ha ha ha
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But Genghis Khan!
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LOL… Is this gonna last all weekend 🙂 ?
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I expect Theresa May.
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And possibly Mike Wood.
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Maggy May ; and Dinah Might, but Natalie Wood.
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BOOM BOOM 🙂
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Don’t worry about the trade deal helping the Disney department.
The Mild Cheese will Very Mature Cheese when it takes ” months from manufacture until it’s on the shelves of your local.
Just listened to the minister for women on lbc talk about the benefits of the new deal, give Ferrari his wee due, he asked about how much the deal would actually be worth, the reply was wonderful, you see you can’t trust forecasts on the economy as they are never correct, This after using a forecast.
The idea is that the Pacific Basin is the Fastest growing Block of 500 million people as so their needs for our products will rise.
Strange people who can ignore a similar block right next door.
Our man asked the cynic ‘When did you have this ‘Road to Damascus’ moment for Northern Ireland’. Wouldn’t Southern uk have a similar advantage as the Channel is but a small piece of water closer to the EU that Scotland is to Northern Ireland and does Huge Business with the EU.
Answer was utter drivel, reasons.
Report this morning that a GP practice in Aberdeen area going Private.
No mention of a big medical company, BUPA, closing down dentistry in englandland.
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Don’t believe figures unless it’s the British government which gave you them. Then of course they will be as true as… erm, true can…erm …. be, no matter what anyone else says.
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Even Sky is raising the effect on de-forestation by palm oil producers, seems it’s a trade off by the uk, a 12% import duty reduced to Zero. Won’t have much effect on the forests in Indonesia as we only take 2% of their production.
Our friends the orangs will be in more trouble.
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Yes. The first thing thought about when I read that was the orangutans.
And for what really? A few favourable headlines in the Spectator, Telegraph, Mail, Express and the comic you use to line the cats’ litter boxes?
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Latest info on GP practice closing, it will be taken over by the local health executive from September and the service will continue.
Probably a deal required for premises.
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I hope they charge them for it.
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A video of the intellect of Liz Truss.
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Yep. That sums her up… and yet the Tories chose her.
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https://news.sky.com/story/donald-trump-indictment-stormy-daniels-says-legal-process-will-spark-violence-injuries-and-death-12846685
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