Brexit and its implications for British, HU and any other citizens

I've just done the deed and as she doesn't have a vote here, and she cares much more than I do, I gave my wife my vote, it will leave a bad taste in my mouth, but it's done.  Particularly galling when I switch on my PC and this pops up in my mailbox.Not sure about this supermajority, when Johnson won the last election, he had a majority of 80 and could have done the same, the problem was they didn't agree much about anything except being called a Tory.        -@Cynic

I simply don't believe Starmer.  I reckon he's just talking up his Brexit credentials to satisfy the Brexiteers just for today.  He'll go the other way during the EU reset.  Perhaps not this coming parliament but maybe the next one, we'll get a proper referendum where expats can vote us back in. That's assuming we're not all Putinistas speaking Russian and marching around like fascists or it's a wasteland of nuclear fallout.

Super majority is a bane here. Orban had the same and he had the power to change the constitution. It's not a good situation but he does pretend to be a democrat to have referendums which he inevitably fails in but he spins them the other way.

BTW,   I was watching CNN or something with the auto-generated subtitles and Sir Kier Starmer came out as Circus Tamer.   What's not to like!?  AI perhaps knows more than us.

Came through Dover earlier today and what a mess. Heavy queues for passports and only 2 French passport checkers for cars. Signs say large scale building work is ongoing for EES. We got our ferry with just minutes to spare. At least 45m queueing. Just time wasted for us. Another Brexit success for BoJo.

@fluffy2560

Which direction?

Into the EU.

Going to the UK from EU was seamless other than multiple border checks.

First it was Frontex, then UK and then French Customs and once in Dover, UK Customs.

BTW, fuel is cheaper in the UK than Germany or France. Cheapest is Luxembourg. Motorway fuel could be as much as Euro 2.10 per litre.

Just made the trip both ways (Hull/Rotterdam and back), no problems either way.

    Just made the trip both ways (Hull/Rotterdam and back), no problems either way.        -@Cynic

It's not the same scale of operations at Hull/Rotherham.  The Dover to Calais ferry lower deck was maybe 25% empty. All the queueing was for French passport checks.

Discount fuel stop around Nuremberg was 1.79 Euro for E10/95.  Directly on the Autobahn, we saw 2.30 Euro for same..outrageous!

   
    Just made the trip both ways (Hull/Rotterdam and back), no problems either way.        -@Cynic

It's not the same scale of operations at Hull/Rotherham.  The Dover to Calais ferry lower deck was maybe 25% empty. All the queueing was for French passport checks.

Discount fuel stop around Nuremberg was 1.79 Euro for E10/95.  Directly on the Autobahn, we saw 2.30 Euro for same..outrageous!
   

    -@fluffy2560

Quite, there is also the manning issue; having worked at all of these ports (albeit some time ago now) it's almost as if the French deliberately under-staff their end, they show no interest in controlling what they are doing.  Hull this morning was a perfect example of how to offload a ship, and they lost the quarter ramp last night, so had to bring everything down the ship's internal ramps to offload over the stern-ramp.

Quite, there is also the manning issue; having worked at all of these ports (albeit some time ago now) it's almost as if the French deliberately under-staff their end, they show no interest in controlling what they are doing.  Hull this morning was a perfect example of how to offload a ship, and they lost the quarter ramp last night, so had to bring everything down the ship's internal ramps to offload over the stern-ramp.
   

    -@Cynic

They seemed to not care about the mess they were  causing but in fairness to them, many lanes were closed because of the EES building work. I think Dover Port has suspended work on it due to uncertainty over its implementation.

Austrian E10/95 149.9 euro.  That's 30ct cheaper than DE.

    Quite, there is also the manning issue; having worked at all of these ports (albeit some time ago now) it's almost as if the French deliberately under-staff their end, they show no interest in controlling what they are doing.  Hull this morning was a perfect example of how to offload a ship, and they lost the quarter ramp last night, so had to bring everything down the ship's internal ramps to offload over the stern-ramp.        -@Cynic

They seemed to not care about the mess they were  causing but in fairness to them, many lanes were closed because of the EES building work. I think Dover Port has suspended work on it due to uncertainty over its implementation.

Austrian E10/95 149.9 euro.  That's 30ct cheaper than DE.
   

    -@fluffy2560

We always stay near where we lived in Holland which is on the German border; we tend to fill up in Germany when there as it's much cheaper than Holland these days, which was not always the case.

We just paid 150.4 Euro/litre at  an Aldi petrol station near Vienna. 

Jet is the cheapest station.

It's about the same price in Hungary so there's no monetary advantage to filling up.

Last time I was in NL, it was very expensive to buy fuel so we've avoided going for some years. Shame as I like there. Mrs Fluffy is a real fan of the place.

Nothing new or even new dates as we have known about this for a while but its been all over the UK media today. I am amazed that people are still unaware of this. Have they been sleeping?

UK citizens will need to pay a €7 visa-waiver charge to travel to Europe from next year after the EU revealed its timeline for the introduction of new entry requirements for some visitors.

The additional charge, which is similar to the US ESTA, is part of a series of new border checks and entry requirements the EU is bringing in.

They'll apply when entering the Schengen area, which includes 27 EU member states, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

The waiver will last for three years or until your passport expires.

Its official title is the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS), and its implementation will follow the introduction of the EU Entry/Exit System (EES). The latter will require people to have their fingerprints registered and their pictures taken on arrival to airports.

Addressing the rollout, EU home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson said the EES will enter into operations on ­10 November while the ETIAS will follow shortly after that in 2025 - likely May.

The UK has known about it ever since it was first raised in the EU (they were part of the formation group).  I think the difference now is that it has been put off several times by the EU for varying reasons, but they now appear to have something that works well enough for all the member states to endorse it; let's see how it goes.

I don't care about it, it can happen tomorrow or next year. It won't cost me a cent or any paperwork as we are all exempt.

    Nothing new or even new dates as we have known about this for a while but its been all over the UK media today. I am amazed that people are still unaware of this. Have they been sleeping?
UK citizens will need to pay a €7 visa-waiver charge to travel to Europe from next year after the EU revealed its timeline for the introduction of new entry requirements for some visitors.
.....
Addressing the rollout, EU home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson said the EES will enter into operations on ­10 November while the ETIAS will follow shortly after that in 2025 - likely May.
   

    -@SimCityAT

People don't know because people only check their passports and documents etc when they are about to leave for their holidays on the Costa Bravo.   They are bonkers. I have scans of everyone's passport and I have reminders set up in a calendar on the laptop for 6 months before renewal date.

On, EES, it's not clear if those with RPs should queue up at the EU window or the non-EU one.   Or there's no difference? Or there's a visa-exempt queue?  And they check the receipt or it's just a QR code and it's scanned at an automatic barrier.  I dunno, it's a mystery what it will look like on the day. 

I expect it's the non-EU queue as fundamentally that's national competence. 

I was surprised in France on exit, it was EU Frontex checking passports, not the actual Gendarmes.

One thing which is odd in Dover is that there's a queueing system to get on to the port.   The left hand lane is for HGVs.  Cop stopped us at the roundabout saying the lane was only for HGVs. I said, there are no signs for that and he said there were signs all along.  Absolutely there were no signs I could see.   There were traffic management people in hi-vis jackets but they were just standing around talking to each other.

Anyway, what would he do about it?  I was driving a Hungarian car, there's no way to fine a foreign registered driver now.  I learnt that - I probably already said -  when I got caught accidentally speeding in the UK and had to give my licence details which I did.   And I admitted the offence and was prepared to pay.  They just said, OK, forget it - no way to record the offence or add some points.   There's no exchange of information now. Yet another Brexit benefit.

People don't know because people only check their passports and documents etc when they are about to leave for their holidays on the Costa Bravo.   They are bonkers. I have scans of everyone's passport and I have reminders set up in a calendar on the laptop for 6 months before renewal date.



    -@fluffy2560

People should know about it, because it was voted in 2016, and its been in the news since 2021 constantly.