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2021-01-01 Britain
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It’s official: Brexit to Take Full Effect as UK Leaves EU Single Market
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 [AnNahar] Brexit becomes a reality on Thursday as Britannia leaves Europe's customs union and single market, ending nearly half a century of often turbulent ties with its closest neighbours.
The UK's tortuous departure from the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
takes full effect when Big Ben strikes 11:00 pm (2300 GMT) in central London, just as most of the European mainland ushers in 2021 at midnight.
Continued from Page 3
Brexit has dominated British politics since the country's narrow vote to leave the bloc in June 2016, opening deep political and social wounds that still remain raw.
Legally, Britannia left on January 31 but has been in a standstill transition period during fractious talks to a secure a free-trade agreement with Brussels, which was finally clinched on Christmas Eve.
Once the transition ends, EU rules will no longer apply, with the immediate consequence being an end to the free movement of more than 500 million people between Britannia and 27 EU states.
Customs border checks will be back for the first time in decades, and despite the free-trade deal, queues and disruption from additional paperwork are expected.
- SYMBOLIC DEPARTURE -
Britannia -- a financial and diplomatic big-hitter, and major NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
power -- is the first member state to leave the EU, which was set up to forge unity after the horrors of World War II.
The EU has lost 66 million people and an economy worth $2.85 trillion, but Brexit, with its appeal to nationalist populism, also triggered fears other disgruntled members could follow suit.
Leaders in both London and Brussels signalled their wish to draw a line.
"It's been a long road. It's time now to put Brexit behind us. Our future is made in Europe," European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday, as she signed the trade pact.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson
...pro-Brexit British prime minister, succeeding no-Brexit Theresa May. BoJo is noted as much for his sparkling personality and his hair as for his Conservative policies....
said Brexit was designed to resolve "the old, tired, vexed question of Britannia's political relations with Europe, which has bedevilled our post-war history".
Thursday "marks a new beginning in our country's history and a new relationship with the EU as their biggest ally," he said after British parliament voted to back the trade deal.
"This moment is finally upon us and now is the time to seize it."
- 'NEW BEGINNING' -
Unlike in January, when flag-waving Brexiteers led by populist anti-EU former politician Nigel Farage cheered, and pro-EU "remainers" mourned, no formal events are planned for the end of the transition.
Public gatherings are banned due to the coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague)
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
outbreak, which has claimed more than 72,000 lives and infected more than 2.4 million in Britannia, including Johnson himself.
But Johnson is looking not only to a future free of Covid but also of rules set in Brussels, as Britannia forges its own path for the first time since it joined the old European Economic Community in 1973.
On Wednesday, he hailed regulatory approval of Oxford University and AstraZeneca's Covid vaccine, and a "new beginning" for a prosperous, more globally focused Britannia.
As well as ensuring tariff- and quota-free access to the EU's 450 million consumers, Britannia has recently signed trade deals with countries including Japan, Canada, Singapore and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor...
It is also eyeing another with India, where Johnson plans to make his first major trip as prime minister next month, and with incoming US president Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden
 ...Candidate for president in 2020. We hold these truths to be self-evident. All men and women created ... by the — you know — you know, the thing ...
's administration.
- PRACTICAL APPLICATION -
In the short term, all eyes will be closer to home and focused on how life outside the EU plays out in practical terms.
That includes disruption at the ports, which have stoked fears of food and medicine shortages, as well as delays to holidaymakers and business travellers used to seamless travel in the EU.
British fishermen are disgruntled at a compromise to allow continued access to EU boats in British waters.
The key financial services sector also faces an anxious wait to learn on what basis it can keep dealing with Europe, after being largely omitted from the trade deal.
Northern Ireland's border with EU member state Ireland will be closely watched to ensure movement is unrestricted -- a key plank of a 1998 peace deal that ended 30 years of violence over British rule.
And in Scotland, where most opposed Brexit, Johnson faces a potential constitutional headache from a resurgent independence movement.
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Posted by trailing wife 2021-01-01 00:00||
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