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Simon Fraser

@SimonFraser00

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Co-founder and managing partner @FlintGlobal . Former UK diplomat and civil servant.

Joined November 2012
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
6 years
David Davis was a terrible #Brexit Secretary. He could hardly be bothered to go to Brussels & rapidly lost respect there. Preposterous for him now to suggest that EU deliberately delayed negotiations. They spent months waiting for him to engage..
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
2 years
Once this crisis is stabilised we need to break the #Brexit omertà in British politics & openly accept that after six long years this mis-sold & mishandled project has resulted in political & economic chaos. That’s an essential first step towards repairing the damage.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
4 years
It now seems more likely that #Brexit will lead to the break up of the United Kingdom than of the European Union.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
3 years
Had to go urgently to France last week. PCR test in UK to go there cost me £120. PCR test in France to return home cost me £0.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
2 years
This is a shout out for the unsung men and women of the Foreign Office Protocol Department who will have cheerfully been working literally night and day to make today’s state funeral events run like clockwork. @FCDOGovUK
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
2 years
You may blame the French for understaffing their passport controls at Dover. You cannot blame them for the fact that enhanced formal passport checks are now required at Dover.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
2 years
Emily Maitlis @maitlis is right. Yes #Brexit is done, but #BBC and wider media reluctance, for whatever reasons, objectively to address and analyse its consequences, is damaging their credibility and our political culture.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
4 years
So predictable.... Dysfunctional self-styled weirdos and misfits create a huge mess then walk away leaving boring losers like the civil servants they have serially abused to clear up after them.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
6 years
One of many sad things about this destructive, humiliating #Brexit fiasco is that people with knowledge & experience clearly explained the technical & political complexities from the start. But we allowed zealots & opportunists to subvert inconvenient truth.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
5 years
As we breathlessly pore over the hour by hour, deal or no deal, do or die, get it done, tactics of a possible phase one endgame, are we losing sight completely of what a lousy long term strategic choice #Brexit is for this country?
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
4 years
I’d prefer it if our government talked more more about joining up with the world and less about beating the world.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
6 years
I recall @DominicRaab with @michaelgove pressing me to agree in the first ever meeting of the @CommonsEUexit Select Cttee that #Brexit could be successfully done in 6 months. I note that almost 2 years on he is Minister in charge of stockpiling essential goods.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
3 years
If we have an “old broken economic model” in the UK of low wages, low skills, low growth and low productivity, presumably the party that has been in government for 29 of the last 42 years bears the main responsibility for that?
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
2 years
It really doesn’t matter much whether minor criminal offences have been committed. It really does matter that we have a full and uninhibited report on the honesty, integrity, judgement and basic common sense of the people at the heart of running our country.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
5 years
It is a shocking failure of our government and our parliament, and a national humiliation, that as we start this week, 19 days before we are due to leave the EU, nobody has a clue what is going to happen. Why is there not more outrage?
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
2 years
If UK was still in the #EU we would now be imposing more far reaching sanctions on Russia, it seems.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
4 years
What is the difference between a sovereign #UK blocking a #Brexit deal because it feels its national interest is not met and a sovereign #France blocking a Brexit deal because it feels its national interest is not met?
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
3 years
This may be very “20th Century” of me, but I do worry when politicians start getting obsessive about flags...
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
3 years
I see the Home Office has been obliged to extend (and expand) the seasonal visa scheme for up to 40,000 overseas agricultural workers for a further three years..
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
4 years
Twenty years into the 21st century we are preparing to deploy the Navy against our major European NATO allies (and our biggest seafood export market) over fishing rights in the Channel. Madness.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
3 years
Leave a deeply integrated trade zone in Europe (45% of your trade), built to serve your interest, then try to join a thinner agreement between US, Canada Mexico (under 25% of your trade) designed to serve America’s purposes. Interesting choice.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
5 years
When Conservative PM Harold Macmillan decided in 1961 to apply to join the EEC he said he feared that outside it “we shall run the risk of losing political influence and of ceasing to be able to exercise any claim to be a world power”. He was right and he is right.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
4 years
Might the Prime Minister have understood more about #coronavirus sooner if he had chaired those early cabinet office briefing meetings?
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
6 years
I agree with @LordRickettsP , my predecessor as Permanent Secretary @foreignoffice . Whatever you think about #Brexit , shocking failure of judgement for British Foreign Secretary to compare European Union with Soviet Union....
@LordRickettsP
Peter Ricketts
6 years
This rubbish is unworthy of a British Foreign Secretary. The EU isn’t a Soviet-style prison. Its legal order has brought peace and prosperity after a century of war. Our decision to leave was always going to leave us worse off. The only punishment is the self-inflicted variety
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
4 years
I guess you have to feel sorry for the millions of Germans who must wake up every morning wishing they lived in a properly independent country where they were free to organise an effective national response to #Covid19 ...
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
3 years
Boris Johnson’s speech on British foreign policy at the Munich Security Conference mentioned #EU just twice. Both were implicitly negative; neither suggested EU has any international role or value. Trying to airbrush EU out of world affairs is a bad policy that cannot work.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
3 years
The idea, you may recall, was that we would replace #EU membership with stronger bilateral relationships in Europe...
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
3 years
We need more information on the process by which Ms Coladangelo was appointed as an independent non executive director in DHSC. Who did the screening and due diligence?
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
2 years
Can someone clarify why either the US or the EU would now think they should take their lead from the UK on Russia and Ukraine?
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
4 years
The nub of it for us Brits is that a #Biden administration will be good for the interests of our country, but not an obviously compatible partner for our government.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
4 years
For the record, the #Brexit trade deal, although welcome, is not the biggest-ever free trade agreement. That is the EU #singlemarket , which we designed and will remain part of until next Friday.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
3 years
Just to close an old loop, my prediction that #Brexit would mean a big increase in #trade red tape in the #UK , made in Nov 2016 to the very first meeting of the now defunct House of Commons Brexit Select Cttee, and contested at the time, is now established fact.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
5 years
As I recall, the original argument for #Brexit , all those moons ago, was that it would restore sovereign powers to the British Parliament.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
4 years
1/6: A short #Brexit retrospective as we enter the last month. Four and a half years ago we started down this path with little understanding of the route or the destination, pushed by ideologues who exploited the diverse and often reasonable grievances of many people.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
2 years
The UK is not alone in facing a tough recession. But unlike other major European countries we do so with an economy still smaller than before the pandemic. #Brexit is a major reason for this difference.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
3 years
I guess David Frost has discovered what happens when trivial ideology comes up against reality.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
6 years
I’ve not argued for a 2nd referendum as we already had one & it will be divisive & perhaps inconclusive. But now we know for sure how much any available form of #Brexit will damage UK economy, sovereignty, unity & influence, a #PeoplesVote is the responsible & least bad choice.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
6 years
It’s a real mess. But let’s not forget the core problem is not @theresa_may and her unsatisfactory deal: it’s that, despite the false promises & unreal expectations on which it was sold to us, there is no good version of #Brexit .
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
3 years
Not to mention the further £210 charged for the obligatory day 2 and day 5 tests after return and the further £120 for the optional day 5 quarantine release test. Making total cost of UK tests £450! Who is regulating this market? (And by the way I’m double vaccinated).
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
2 years
Just to remind, the main reason we have French passport controls in #Dover is so that we can have UK ones in Calais to stop migrants arriving unchecked. This was a UK request. What if Paris reconsidered?
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
4 years
The British government is arguing that being a member of the European Aviation Safety Agency #EASA is incompatible with being an independent country.... Seriously?
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
4 years
It’s always good to see talent being appropriately recognised...
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
3 years
Last week I noted some UK ministers shifting the post Brexit line from we have become an “independent” country to we have become a “self-governing” country. Equally disingenuous and puerile. So no prime minister between 1973 and 2020 actually governed this country?
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
4 years
Surprised to learn that UK is no longer expecting to conclude a world beating comprehensive trade deal with US this year. Who would have thought it?
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
4 years
Why is anyone remotely surprised that Michael Gove is now saying that a hard #Brexit will mean new trade frictions and border checks?
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
6 years
Today seems a timely moment to retweet this exchange with @DominicRaab from 2016 in which he challenged my very gentle suggestion that #Brexit would require more civil servants and bureaucracy....
@PropertySpot
Islander
6 years
@SimonFraser00 @DominicRaab @michaelgove @CommonsEUexit This is staggering. In 2016, Dominic Raab was "jarred" and "bemused" by the idea that leaving the customs union could increase the burden of bureaucracy, despite @SimonFraser00 's clear explanations. (h/t @RocketRacer69 ) (1/2)
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
4 years
Hastily scribbled letter on a Sunday from the PM to Sir Mark Sedwill shows the former had not planned the timing of today’s announcements. So who organised the No10 briefing of lobby journalists yesterday?
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
5 years
This evening I actually feel physically sick thinking about what is happening to this country.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
5 years
So... UK is now proposing a European naval protection mission in the Gulf with France, Germany and others. Once again real life reveals how important European cooperation is in our foreign policy.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
4 years
6/6: So far we have seen no tangible benefit from #Brexit . I hope we make it a success, but we are making huge sacrifices on the altar of a facile notion of #sovereignty and independence. Deal or no deal, the #Brexit we are getting is not what we were sold in 2016.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
5 years
I dream of a day when we stop banging our heads against the brick wall of #Brexit & focus on real problems damaging our society & the lives of British people. Leaving the EU is irrelevant to solving them, other than that it would make it harder. #threewastedyearsandcounting
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
3 years
Ironic, to say the least, that as a consequence of hard #Brexit UK remains subject to US steel and aluminium tariffs longer than EU.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
4 years
Just to keep things in perspective, the countries of the #EU are our close friends and allies with whom we share values and have deep and abiding common interests.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
2 years
Welcome to our parallel universe, in which the Minister for #Brexit Opportunities sermonises on the benefits of free trade and the self-harm of introducing controls at borders.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
4 years
One thing Ministers seem content to delegate to senior civil servants is their own accountability.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
2 years
Perhaps worth recalling at this point that Kwasi Kwarteng and Jeremy Hunt are in the same political party and working from the same manifesto.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
5 years
One of the more objectionable and shameful themes in our squabble about #Brexit is the idea, peddled on @BBCr4today and elsewhere, that it is somehow up to the Irish to sort it out for us.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
5 years
1/10: Following is a thread of ten about #Brexit phase 2. If the Conservatives win a majority on 12 December there is very high likelihood UK will legally leave EU on 31 January. Far from “getting Brexit done” this would kick off another long & even more complex negotiation..
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
3 years
Still figuring out how cutting your overseas aid budget by almost 30% makes you “a force for good” in the world and a “soft power superpower”. #GlobalBritain
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
3 years
Journalists should think twice before simplistically labelling pro #Brexit ministers pursuing minor #trade deals as “free traders”. The reality is they have significantly & deliberately reduced British trade & increased the bureaucracy & red tape it involves.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
5 years
Dear @Fox_Claire could you please clarify which EU institutions were “imposed” on the UK? I’m having trouble finding them.
@Fox_Claire
Claire Fox
5 years
But KEY issue, we get to decide, with crucial caveat of democratic accountability for all decisions. Many EU rules/institutions may be admirable; we may or may not emulate/adopt them as our own. But they will no longer be imposed but chosen. Sovereighty makes ALL the difference.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
4 years
Is he referring to #Covid or #Brexit ?
@ChrisMasonBBC
Chris Mason
4 years
Boris Johnson says it is “absolutely vital as a country we don’t delude ourselves that somehow we’re out of the woods or this is all over, because it isn’t all over”.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
4 years
1/6: Word on the street is that common sense is breaking out & government may be privately recognising that #Brexit negotiations now need to be postponed & transition extended beyond end December. This was always the right answer: here are 5 reasons why it is now doubly right...
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
4 years
Today, fully four years after the #Brexit referendum, all UK and EU negotiators could do was agree to “intensify talks” with a view to “if possible finding an early understanding on the principles underlying any agreement”. No comment required.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
6 years
Have read entire #BrexitWhitePaper . Too complex & wd leave us half in half out. Plus a chilling list of things that need sorting. Clear proof that there is no good form of #Brexit . @JustineGreening correct: vital to have a public vote before March 2019 with option to stay in.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
3 years
The Westminster government, which prioritised an idea of national identity over economic common sense, wants the people of Scotland to prioritise economic common sense over an idea of national identity.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
6 years
By the way, those who are suggesting the EU will dig us out of this hole by offering concessions on backstop etc have really lost it.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
3 years
A 40% drop in UK goods exports to #EU is nearly a 20% drop in UK exports to all world markets. If half of that turned out to be a lasting, structural consequence of #Brexit it would be the equivalent of permanently losing all UK exports to all Commonwealth countries..
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
5 years
We will now divert ourselves for a few weeks with the Theresa May succession, only to discover later this summer that changing the person does not change the facts and choices on #Brexit .
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
5 years
Spent three hours queuing in Paris today to get on Eurostar. French customs were working to rule because of concerns about the impact on them of #Brexit . As one of the UK team who first negotiated the ground-breaking “juxtaposed” Eurostar border controls it was a sad day for me.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
4 years
Matthew Parris on the “sad disgrace” of those in power pursuing a project they don’t believe in and which they know will damage the nation they lead....
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
5 years
Just wondering: would ministers asking another EU member to block extension of Article 50 count as “colluding with a foreign power”? (Not that it will happen).
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
4 years
I assume the bizarre phrase “reasonable worst case scenario” really means “there is a much worse one we don’t want to talk about”.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
5 years
Just left a meeting in Washington of US EU & NATO foreign policy thinkers on the international challenges we face. Very valuable. But two things sadly clear. 1 UK’s best friends see Brexit as a terrible mess. 2 It is greatly weakening our voice among them.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
3 years
Nobody should be surprised that there will be no early post Brexit UK - US #FTA . Many of us have been patiently explaining why not for the last five years.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
5 years
Seems to me this story should be getting more attention....
@FT
Financial Times
5 years
Business fury at UK failure on post-Brexit trade deals
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
7 years
In fact EU has concluded more free trade agreements with more countries than either US or China.. @BBCNewsnight
@BBCNewsnight
BBC Newsnight
7 years
“The EU doesn’t have a great track record on getting trade liberalisation” says @LiamFox #newsnight
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
5 years
This dismal saga of #Brexit is already a textbook study in how not to govern an internationally open democratic country in the complex global political economy of the early 21st century. Fascinating.. except that it happens to be our country.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
6 years
New #EU #Singapore free trade agreement being signed today in Brussels. Result of years of negotiation. Follows recent EU agreements with Japan and Canada. UK benefits from these because we are an EU member. #Brexit
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
5 years
Where are we? I sense more & more people have quietly reached a view that leaving EU is not what UK should do. And crab-wise we are collectively edging towards reconsidering the question. Further extension of Article 50 essential for this democratic process to happen.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
4 years
New Year’s resolution... think before you tweet....
@BrandonLewis
Brandon Lewis
4 years
The unique position that Northern Ireland business now have, as an integral part of UK market & able to trade with EU, opens huge opportunity for inward investment, business & job growth. Globally unique opportunity.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
6 years
Oh dear. I thought it was only 52%...
@BBCNews
BBC News (UK)
6 years
Three in five British adults say miracles are possible
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
5 years
Are we really back to this??
@LeaveEUOfficial
Leave.EU
5 years
WATCH | "My father, Reginald Francois, was a D-Day veteran. He never submitted to bullying by any German. Neither will his son!" 👏 Mark Francois nails the "Teutonic arrogance" of Airbus' anti-Brexit boss Support us at
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
5 years
That’s great. But as many of us have been inconveniently pointing out for the last three years, Australia accounts for under 2% of UK trade....
@trussliz
Liz Truss
5 years
First call with Australian Trade Minister @Birmo and it's clear we are on same page. Both totally committed to getting a free trade deal done ASAP. Will be visiting Australia soon to get the ball rolling. #ReadyToTrade #TradeDownUnder #FreeTradeUK 🇬🇧 🇦🇺
Tweet media one
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
2 years
Is not being able to get away on your holiday considered to be one of the benefits of #Brexit ?
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
6 years
I can’t see the point of the Norway option. OK it is less economically harmful than other versions of #Brexit . But it impairs our sovereignty, surrenders control, and is obviously a worse outcome for UK than staying in the EU.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
4 years
3/6: With #Brexit we have created uncertainty for millions of #British and #EU citizens, weakened our #NHS , overlooked the arguments of our scientists, reduced opportunities for our young people and brought the unity of the UK further into question.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
4 years
I worked alongside @PhilipRutnam for several years. I always found him to be an extremely able and effective colleague and a model of probity and integrity. A very fine civil servant.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
4 years
Just trying to remember if there was ever a weekend that I and other senior staff did not work when I was a high level civil servant...
@Telegraph
The Telegraph
4 years
The top ranks of the civil servants at the Home Office are to be shaken up in the wake of claims of bullying by Priti Patel
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
4 years
1/10: We are 12 days from legal #Brexit . What will happen on 31 Jan? What will it feel like on 1 Feb? More important, what will happen after that? In a nutshell, nothing will change & everything will change. And harder choices lie ahead. Thread of 10...
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
6 years
Anyone who thinks UK will get a sweetheart trade deal with US after #Brexit should watch how Washington strong-arms Canada in #Nafta renegotiations this week. This is reality.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
4 years
2/6: Over 4 years #Brexit ideologues have driven us inexorably to more extreme forms of separation, losing the good will of European allies, sidelining our globally successful #services industries, bringing cost & uncertainty for manufacturers & farmers, putting #jobs at risk.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
6 years
We’ve blown more than two years of our national political and social energy on the futile pursuit of #Brexit & more wasted years lie ahead. So many useful things we could have been doing...the opportunity costs will keep growing.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
4 years
4/6: Now, with no #Brexit trade arrangement in place with our biggest market one month before the deadline, a UK government that aspires to leadership in a high-tech global economy says it is ready to abandon the deal over the sharing of fish stocks.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
5 years
29 March 2019: thought for the day. This week’s Commons gridlock tells us something important. We have looked long & hard at #Brexit & discovered it doesn’t work. In any form. So what we should do now is take more time & focus on finding a different, better way forward.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
4 years
5/6: And this at a time when President #Biden offers a chance of realignment between #Europe and #America on the big challenges ahead on #climate , health, #trade and #China , and the EU is preparing to respond.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
6 years
The @theresa_may argument that if MPs voted for her deal we would be able to move on from #Brexit and get a life is disingenuous. We would have years more of this ahead, with all the hard detail still to come.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
5 years
In March #Brexit ground to a halt. It’s a bad idea that just doesn’t work. We need to move on now to tackle the real problems. That requires another democratic vote, which will be hard. But the real betrayal would be to plough on when we know this would only make things worse.
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@SimonFraser00
Simon Fraser
5 years
2301 hrs. 29 March 2019. UK still in EU. Good.
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