The Brexit Thread

[Slick]

Extra holiday traffic now the schools have broken up? Completely unforeseeable of course that post Brexit border controls would put things under more stress...

We came back through Dover a couple of weeks back and they were already preparing for this by closing the carriageway into Dover for about 20 miles and putting all the traffic onto the other carriageway with the restrictions you would expect. pretty unbelievable that we have to close half the infrastructure leading to the major port because we can't handle it.

[fishfoodie]

.. and this is before the UK actually implements any SPS, or import controls itself, & before the EU implements it's biometric controls on all people entering thru 3rd countries !

[Slick]

.. and this is before the UK actually implements any SPS, or import controls itself, & before the EU implements it's biometric controls on all people entering thru 3rd countries !

Don’t want to spoil your weekend but the French are saying it’s a technical problem their end

[fishfoodie]

.. and this is before the UK actually implements any SPS, or import controls itself, & before the EU implements it's biometric controls on all people entering thru 3rd countries !

Don’t want to spoil your weekend but the French are saying it’s a technical problem their end

No they didn't. Don't make the mistake of believing a single word out of Grant Shapps mouth

It's “absolutely not the case” French border officials were unable to deploy at full capacity in Dover because of an “unforeseeable incident” in the Channel Tunnel this morning, Eurotunnel's Director of Public Affairs John Keefe has told the BBC.

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/uk-62260474

[dpedin]

.. and this is before the UK actually implements any SPS, or import controls itself, & before the EU implements it's biometric controls on all people entering thru 3rd countries !

Don’t want to spoil your weekend but the French are saying it’s a technical problem their end

No they didn't. Don't make the mistake of believing a single word out of Grant Shapps mouth

It's “absolutely not the case” French border officials were unable to deploy at full capacity in Dover because of an “unforeseeable incident” in the Channel Tunnel this morning, Eurotunnel's Director of Public Affairs John Keefe has told the BBC.

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/uk-62260474

Interesting that some folk can't accept that other countries have also taken control of their own borders and their own sovereignty. Like it or not France has the right to feckin do what it wants on its own border and resource it how it wishes. The queues to get past border control and into the UK at some airports during busy times for the last few months have also been awful due to staffing issues. Border Control has had horrendous problems getting staff into place, I am not sure why France should be expected to increase staffing levels because we decided to leave the EU, surely folk knew this when the voted to leave?

However if every passport has to be handed over and stamped into and out of the EU then this takes 3-4 times as long as the previous flash your passports at passport control and get waved through - every one has now to be taken, opened, checked against occupants in the vehicle, stamped and then handed back. This is what happened when I went through the tunnel a month ago. It takes 3-4 times as long as previously so it is feckin obvious that queues will build up at busy times even if the French had promised numbers of staff at passport control.

Sunlit uplands innit!

[Insane_Homer]

Screenshot_20220722-213713.png (830.75 KiB) Viewed 2244 times

[fishfoodie]

Screenshot_20220722-213713.png

Oh there was lots of money allocated, & spent.....



but some Ministers still expressed their concerns that everything wouldn't be ready in time

"I would like assurances that we are able to deliver full control at these ports by July 2021 and that plans are in place from January to mitigate the risk of goods being circumvented from ports implementing full controls.
.....

We need to ensure that the UK border is effective and compliant with international rules, maintaining our credibility with trading partners, the WTO and with business."

But hey, I'm sure the money was all well spent !

The British Ports Association (BPA), a lobby group for the industry, calculates that at least £450m of taxpayers’ money has been spent on these now mostly unwanted new border control facilities. This includes the £200m government fund for buildings at ports, as well as an estimated £250m spent by the government on building 10 inland border facilities, in places such as Dover and Holyhead where there is not space for a checkpoint next to the terminal. These buildings will be difficult to repurpose.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... rts-brexit

[fishfoodie]

I just realized; where is the EU Passports only lane in Dover ?

I saw Croatian, & Belgian travelers vox-popped, & they were stuck in the same queues; but in their cases unnecessarily !, they could have just passed thru the French border controls, with zero checks, & how many other EU Citizens were unnecessarily held up, by he piss poor organization of Dover ?

The EU should complain to the Home Office for the disgraceful organization of border controls in Dover !

[tabascoboy]

[Insane_Homer]

it's all worth it!

[Insane_Homer]

Ohhh......

[Insane_Homer]

Oh no!



...anyway

[tabascoboy]

Oh no!



...anyway

Good to see the "Brexit Opportunities Minister" choosing to enrich his own community by using locally sourced, British food and drink - oh, wait...

[fishfoodie]

Oh no!



...anyway

Good to see the "Brexit Opportunities Minister" choosing to enrich his own community by using locally sourced, British food and drink - oh, wait...

Well he doesn't want to give his guests food poisoning; so he wouldn't want to give them English Oysters, that have been swimming in excrement thanks to his Government !

I am a bit surprised he isn't getting pints of Champagne, or demanding it comes in plastic bottles ?

[tabascoboy]

Oh no!


...anyway

Good to see the "Brexit Opportunities Minister" choosing to enrich his own community by using locally sourced, British food and drink - oh, wait...

Well he doesn't want to give his guests food poisoning; so he wouldn't want to give them English Oysters, that have been swimming in excrement thanks to his Government !

I am a bit surprised he isn't getting pints of Champagne, or demanding it comes in plastic bottles ?

I'm more surprised he didn't charter a private flight to bring it across the Channel in the first place - and charge it as expenses from the treasury ( well maybe the original cost is for all we would know)

[petej]

Oh no!



...anyway

Good to see the "Brexit Opportunities Minister" choosing to enrich his own community by using locally sourced, British food and drink - oh, wait...

Well he doesn't want to give his guests food poisoning; so he wouldn't want to give them English Oysters, that have been swimming in excrement thanks to his Government !

I am a bit surprised he isn't getting pints of Champagne, or demanding it comes in plastic bottles ?

England produces very good sparkling white these days so he really should support British businesses.

[SaintK]

Oh no!



...anyway

Good to see the "Brexit Opportunities Minister" choosing to enrich his own community by using locally sourced, British food and drink - oh, wait...

Let them eat cake!!!!

[Mahoney]

I stuck that tweet on a WhatsApp group where it was pointed out to me that it's a fake account. Should have known, any story that good is almost guaranteed to be false.

[tabascoboy]

I stuck that tweet on a WhatsApp group where it was pointed out to me that it's a fake account. Should have known, any story that good is almost guaranteed to be false.

Hmm it's been deleted now, just shows how much we want it to be true I guess

[GogLais]

I stuck that tweet on a WhatsApp group where it was pointed out to me that it's a fake account. Should have known, any story that good is almost guaranteed to be false.

But like any good parody it had to be credible to work.

[SaintK]

No sireee, nothing to do with Brexit

Criticising the French, as [Liz Truss, the foreign secretary] did, was to deny the consequences of the hard Brexit the UK Conservative government fought for and won.

The port handled almost 142,000 passengers over the weekend and each of those passports had to be manually stamped because of Brexit, taking the average time each passenger had to spend at passport control from 48 seconds to 90 seconds.

Writing in the French English language newspaper, the Local, veteran commentator John Lichfield said “strictly-speaking” the gridlock was not the “fault” of Brexit but “the fault of successive British governments who have failed to prepare for Brexit and failed to educate the British public on what Brexit means”.

[fishfoodie]

No sireee, nothing to do with Brexit

Criticising the French, as [Liz Truss, the foreign secretary] did, was to deny the consequences of the hard Brexit the UK Conservative government fought for and won.

The port handled almost 142,000 passengers over the weekend and each of those passports had to be manually stamped because of Brexit, taking the average time each passenger had to spend at passport control from 48 seconds to 90 seconds.

Writing in the French English language newspaper, the Local, veteran commentator John Lichfield said “strictly-speaking” the gridlock was not the “fault” of Brexit but “the fault of successive British governments who have failed to prepare for Brexit and failed to educate the British public on what Brexit means”.

That's it, & why I keep harping on about the biometric checks to come, is that the current checks involve a car arriving at the booth, all the occupants presenting their passports, checked, stamped etc, & then being passed on; a relatively quick, parallel, process.

By comparison; the biometrics will require each passenger to get out of the vehicle, go into a booth, put in their passport, get scanned, wait till the computer compares the data, & gives the green light; then wash, rinse, & repeat for all the other passengers ! ..... and then they still have to go thru the booth & present their passports !!

140k people, each now taking several minutes to process, that's a recipe for chaos.

[redderneck]

So. Easily solvable. Bar code tat? QR code tat? RFID implant? What's it to be then Sir? And for the family? All done on the good old NHS, part of the service innit. That'll be a tenner for the appointment booking. Twenty for the admin fee, that's each by the by, and eh, 85 quid for the carparking. Did Sir want the barrier to be raised automatically on exit? That'll be a 15 quid supplement Sir.

Master or Visa?

[I like neeps]

The solution the petty whinebags in govt will chose is a tit for tat with the Schengen members and make them get a passport stamp at our borders. But heaven forbid they then hire the customs agents needed to deal with that.

Basically, I hope everyone with a UK passport enjoys holidays in the UK.

[tabascoboy]

Yes! Brexit was a win! N.B. old article from November last, resurfaced as a counter to false claims by Liz Truss and her campaign sycophants

UK’s Brexit losses more than 178 times bigger than trade deal gains

Exclusive: All trade deals combined worth less than 50p per person a year, analysis of government figures shows

All of Boris Johnson’s new post-Brexit trade deals put together will have an economic benefit of just £3 to £7 per person over the next 15 years, according to the government’s own figures.

The tiny economic boost – amounting to just 0.01 to 0.02 per cent of GDP, and less than 50p per person a year – is dwarfed by the economic hit from leaving the EU, which the government estimates at 4 per cent of GDP over the same period.

According to analysis commissioned by The Independent from top academics at the University of Sussex UK Trade Policy Observatory, the much-trumpeted free trade agreements (FTAs) “barely scratch the surface of the UK’s challenge to make up the GDP lost by leaving the EU”.

Mr Johnson has boasted of the deals creating a “new dawn” and representing “global Britain at its best” – but just two of the dozens announced since the UK left the EU are expected to have any measurable economic impact at all.

Official estimates from the Office for Budget Responsibility point to a Brexit loss of more than £1,250 per person over the coming years – more than 178 times the most optimistic prediction for the benefits from the trade deals.

The analysis notes that the vast majority of FTAs announced by the government – such as those with South Korea, Singapore, or Vietnam – are simply attempts to replace treaties that those countries have with the EU, which Britain previously enjoyed as a member.

“They add nothing to UK trade, and, because they are not perfect replicas, actually harm it very slightly,” wrote top trade economist Professor L Alan Winters, who conducted the analysis with Guillermo Larbalestier, the centre’s research officer.

Labour seized on the findings and said the government had “gambled” on Britain’s prosperity and lost. The opposition called for Mr Johnson’s barebones Brexit trade deal with the EU to be improved so that the UK would “stop the haemorrhaging of our trade with Europe”.

A source at the Department for International Trade claimed the analysis was based on “old, static” figures – though most of the data was released just last summer as part of the government’s strategic case for the agreements.

“Our Global Trade Outlook – published in September – shows the centre of gravity on global trade is moving away from Europe and towards fast-growing markets in Asia-Pacific,” a spokesperson for the Department for International Trade said of the findings.

“Our strategy is latching the UK economy to these markets of tomorrow, and seizing the huge economic opportunities as an agile, independent trading nation.”

But according to the analysis prepared for The Independent, even a new agreement with Japan, which the UK government has presented as a significant win that goes beyond what was agreed with the EU, is “modelled extremely closely on the EU-Japan agreement, with a few small differences”.

In that case, the benefits of a minor extension on digital trade are expected to be overshadowed by a technical change to customs rules, which will put some UK exporters at a disadvantage compared to their EU counterparts.

Taking the EU’s own deal with Japan into account, the academics wrote: “Relative to having no agreement, the government estimated that [the Japan agreement] would raise UK GDP by £1.5bn (0.07 per cent, or £22 per head), but relative to what the UK would have had without Brexit the gains will be negligible or negative.”

Only in the case of the deals in principle with Australia and New Zealand is there expected to be any new economic benefit – but these countries represent such a small part of UK trade that they have little effect. The analysis also notes that the agreements have not yet been signed or ratified and are so far just “agreements in principle”.

The DIT source added that the government wanted another “wave of ambitious trade deals with major economies like India, Canada, Mexico and the Gulf” – though these are yet to materialise. The government has in recent months stopped claiming it is close to a trade deal with the US – previously the biggest prize – after Donald Trump’s election defeat dashed any hope of it happening soon.

But the UK Trade Policy Observatory academics dismissed the idea that trade agreements could ever conceivably counteract the economic damage of Brexit.

“Non-EU partners account for about half of UK total trade and so, to counteract the OBR’s 4 per cent loss from Brexit, would require agreements with each and every one of them to induce trade changes that create a 4 per cent increment to UK GDP. That is nowhere in sight in the numbers in the table,” they wrote.

“The sad answer is that the government is happy to accept, on our behalf, the economic losses from Brexit in return for political benefits (sovereignty), and trade agreements with other countries are merely making the best of a bad job from an economic perspective.”

Emily Thornberry, the shadow international trade secretary, told The Independent: “The government’s great economic gamble has been that we could make up for the losses created by their botched Brexit deal by increasing our trade with the rest of the world.

Source: (paywalled) https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/p ... 59478.html

[Paddington Bear]

As an aside on border/airport issues - Copenhagen was an absolute disaster zone. Passport control to an extent but baggage issues for everyone, security queue almost out the terminal etc. If work hadn’t signed off paying for the fast lane I would have missed the flight. Heathrow going out felt entirely normal and on the way back everything was sorted within 20 minutes of landing.
So issues everywhere but was pretty astounded how efficient LHR was given the stories going around

[ia801310]

Agree with Paul Embery 100%

[Biffer]

There is the question of which of these two things you think are worse.

[JM2K6]

Agree with Paul Embery 100%

Yeah, well. Leave voters voted for a stinking pile of shit, refused to believe it was a stinking pile of shit after being repeatedly warned it was a stinking pile of shit, and are now smearing the shit all over themselves while claiming it's fucking chocolate.

[petej]

Agree with Paul Embery 100%

Interesting performance below in the video. How did these people all have the same talking points about NATO. Fooled by russian propaganda? Amazing considering the threat Finland created by joining nato was so severe that Russia withdrew its troops when it did which isn't what you do when the threat level increases. Maybe he just doesn't understand NATO is Defensive Pact. I wonder what else he is clueless about?

To be clear I don't think he doesn't understand or is clueless or was fooled. To me Embery is a useful stooge, an excellent investment/lapdog. Divide and conquer. I wonder what his price was.

[Tichtheid]

"arrogant, anti-British, middle-class metropolitan liberal, "

if you break that down,

Arrogant - this is down to Remainers saying that Brexit would hurt Britain and the the motivation for Brexit was being puppeteered by people who had nefarious interests. People were conned. UKIP and others used misinformation about how the EU works to stoke resentment of the EU (over 40+ years, I can provide proof if asked, or just look up Euromyths).
The "arrogance" jibe is down to these people not liking being called out on being wrong.

Anti-British - see above, All of the reasons for Remain were because it is in Britain's best interest and this smacks of what the Right do in US, if you don't support the Trumps you are anti-American. Well this notion can fuck the fuck off, there is far more to the UK than Nigel Farage and his stinking of stale cigar smoke and beer farts.

Middle class - the Tories have spent so long trying to claim that everyone is middle class now that is almost funny that they use this as an insult.

Metropolitan - is living in a city a bad thing now? Or is it being a Metropolitan liberal that is a bad thing? I think if you looked through the Tory front bench, including Johnson, they would all fit the Metropolitan liberal descriptor.

There were legitimate grievances against the EU, mainly those came from the Left, but leaving was the work of fuckwits, and I include the so-called LEXIT people in that

[fishfoodie]

"arrogant, anti-British, middle-class metropolitan liberal, "

if you break that down,

Arrogant - this is down to Remainers saying that Brexit would hurt Britain and the the motivation for Brexit was being puppeteered by people who had nefarious interests. People were conned. UKIP and others used misinformation about how the EU works to stoke resentment of the EU (over 40+ years, I can provide proof if asked, or just look up Euromyths).
The "arrogance" jibe is down to these people not liking being called out on being wrong.

Anti-British - see above, All of the reasons for Remain were because it is in Britain's best interest and this smacks of what the Right do in US, if you don't support the Trumps you are anti-American. Well this notion can fuck the fuck off, there is far more to the UK than Nigel Farage and his stinking of stale cigar smoke and beer farts.

Middle class - the Tories have spent so long trying to claim that everyone is middle class now that is almost funny that they use this as an insult.

Metropolitan - is living in a city a bad thing now? Or is it being a Metropolitan liberal that is a bad thing? I think if you looked through the Tory front bench, including Johnson, they would all fit the Metropolitan liberal descriptor.

There were legitimate grievances against the EU, mainly those came from the Left, but leaving was the work of fuckwits, and I include the so-called LEXIT people in that

...in the last year the like of the RMT & other Unions Leadership have been shown for the complete cabbages they were, by putting their members job security, pay, rights, & safety, into the sole control of a FPTP Elected Parliament !

Well done you fuckwits !!

[Tichtheid]

Jacob Rees-Mogg has admitted he was wrong to say there would be no delays at the port of Dover caused by the UK leaving the EU.

But the Brexit opportunities minister maintained the government line that the French, not Brexit, had caused the recent delays, in a radio interview on Tuesday.

LBC radio replayed a claim from 2018 when he insisted “there will be no need for checks at Dover” and he was clear that “the delays will not be at Dover, they will be at Calais”.

Rees-Mogg blamed Paris for the “French-created delays” witnessed recently before he was asked if he would apologise for getting it wrong.

“Yes, of course I got it wrong, but I got it wrong for the right reason, if I may put it that way,” he said.

“The point I was making was that the only delays would be caused by the French if they decided not to allow British people to pass through freely. They have decided to do that.”

Rees-Mogg went on to suggest that Britons might believe “going to Portugal is more fun because the Portuguese want us to go and the French are being difficult”.

“Why should we go and spend our hard-earned money in France if the French don’t want us?” he asked, before insisting he was not calling for a boycott.

“The point I was making was that the only delays would be caused by the French if they decided not to allow British people to pass through freely. They have decided to do that.”


This is exactly what he was all for, a hard border with no freedom of movement.

Is he now saying that anyone coming through to the UK from Europe should not go through passport controls?

[GogLais]

Both countries being in the EU meant had the French had to act reasonably at the border. Our decision to leave meant that they didn’t have to be reasonable any more, they are free to act entirely in their own interests. C’est la vie. I’ve no idea whether or not they are being unreasonable but having been slagged off by Brexiteers for decades, well who could blame them?

[dpedin]

Jacob Rees-Mogg has admitted he was wrong to say there would be no delays at the port of Dover caused by the UK leaving the EU.

But the Brexit opportunities minister maintained the government line that the French, not Brexit, had caused the recent delays, in a radio interview on Tuesday.

LBC radio replayed a claim from 2018 when he insisted “there will be no need for checks at Dover” and he was clear that “the delays will not be at Dover, they will be at Calais”.

Rees-Mogg blamed Paris for the “French-created delays” witnessed recently before he was asked if he would apologise for getting it wrong.

“Yes, of course I got it wrong, but I got it wrong for the right reason, if I may put it that way,” he said.

“The point I was making was that the only delays would be caused by the French if they decided not to allow British people to pass through freely. They have decided to do that.”

Rees-Mogg went on to suggest that Britons might believe “going to Portugal is more fun because the Portuguese want us to go and the French are being difficult”.

“Why should we go and spend our hard-earned money in France if the French don’t want us?” he asked, before insisting he was not calling for a boycott.

“The point I was making was that the only delays would be caused by the French if they decided not to allow British people to pass through freely. They have decided to do that.”


This is exactly what he was all for, a hard border with no freedom of movement.

Is he now saying that anyone coming through to the UK from Europe should not go through passport controls?

If I can politely point out, you're forgetting the inherent racist and xenophobic basis of howJRM thinks - the UK is entitled to stop Johnny foreigners coming here unless we let them because we wanted a hard border but we Brits are entitled to go anywhere we want without checks because we are British, are better than Johnny foreigners and the French shouldn't be allowed to impose a hard border. We can obviously leave the EU club if we want but according to JRM we should be able to maintain the benefits of the EU club that we choose.

The hilarious thing is the UK border grinding to a halt, half of Kent congested and families pissing and shitting on the hard shoulder because 6 Frenchmen turn up late for work one morning. Taking back control innit?

[GogLais]

Jacob Rees-Mogg has admitted he was wrong to say there would be no delays at the port of Dover caused by the UK leaving the EU.

But the Brexit opportunities minister maintained the government line that the French, not Brexit, had caused the recent delays, in a radio interview on Tuesday.

LBC radio replayed a claim from 2018 when he insisted “there will be no need for checks at Dover” and he was clear that “the delays will not be at Dover, they will be at Calais”.

Rees-Mogg blamed Paris for the “French-created delays” witnessed recently before he was asked if he would apologise for getting it wrong.

“Yes, of course I got it wrong, but I got it wrong for the right reason, if I may put it that way,” he said.

“The point I was making was that the only delays would be caused by the French if they decided not to allow British people to pass through freely. They have decided to do that.”

Rees-Mogg went on to suggest that Britons might believe “going to Portugal is more fun because the Portuguese want us to go and the French are being difficult”.

“Why should we go and spend our hard-earned money in France if the French don’t want us?” he asked, before insisting he was not calling for a boycott.

“The point I was making was that the only delays would be caused by the French if they decided not to allow British people to pass through freely. They have decided to do that.”


This is exactly what he was all for, a hard border with no freedom of movement.

Is he now saying that anyone coming through to the UK from Europe should not go through passport controls?

We can obviously leave the EU club if we want but according to JRM we should be able to maintain the benefits of the EU club that we choose.

One reason why I despise the lying shits. People were told and enough believed that we would get a deal that suited us because BMW would be desperate to carry on trading with us and the EU desperately wanted our budget contribution, ignoring the fact it was only about £15 per capita of the EU’s population.

[Uncle fester]

Jacob Rees-Mogg has admitted he was wrong to say there would be no delays at the port of Dover caused by the UK leaving the EU.

But the Brexit opportunities minister maintained the government line that the French, not Brexit, had caused the recent delays, in a radio interview on Tuesday.

LBC radio replayed a claim from 2018 when he insisted “there will be no need for checks at Dover” and he was clear that “the delays will not be at Dover, they will be at Calais”.

Rees-Mogg blamed Paris for the “French-created delays” witnessed recently before he was asked if he would apologise for getting it wrong.

“Yes, of course I got it wrong, but I got it wrong for the right reason, if I may put it that way,” he said.

“The point I was making was that the only delays would be caused by the French if they decided not to allow British people to pass through freely. They have decided to do that.”

Rees-Mogg went on to suggest that Britons might believe “going to Portugal is more fun because the Portuguese want us to go and the French are being difficult”.

“Why should we go and spend our hard-earned money in France if the French don’t want us?” he asked, before insisting he was not calling for a boycott.

“The point I was making was that the only delays would be caused by the French if they decided not to allow British people to pass through freely. They have decided to do that.”


This is exactly what he was all for, a hard border with no freedom of movement.

Is he now saying that anyone coming through to the UK from Europe should not go through passport controls?

It was pretty much one of the central pillars of the Brexit campaign, the lie that Britain could leave the EU, end free movement inwards but still keep free movement to EU countries, I.e. a better deal than EU members themselves had.

[fishfoodie]

Fucking Brexit, destroying iconic British brands

https://www.bikeradar.com/news/bike-sup ... to-normal/

I almost sold a kidney, to buy a Claud Butler Frame, made with Reynolds 753 steel, back when I was in college; until I found crinkles in the top tube, & realized the seller was lying when he said he had never been crashed

The only possible outcomes for the company, are to relocate to the EU, or go bust.

[Dinsdale Piranha]

Fucking Brexit, destroying iconic British brands

https://www.bikeradar.com/news/bike-sup ... to-normal/

I almost sold a kidney, to buy a Claud Butler Frame, made with Reynolds 753 steel, back when I was in college; until I found crinkles in the top tube, & realized the seller was lying when he said he had never been crashed

The only possible outcomes for the company, are to relocate to the EU, or go bust.

Groupsets are still a big problem. I ordered a new bike a while back and was quoted 1 year delivery if I wanted top end Shimano Di2. Campagnolo was somewhat better. All the components were on several month lead times.

[fishfoodie]

Fucking Brexit, destroying iconic British brands

https://www.bikeradar.com/news/bike-sup ... to-normal/

I almost sold a kidney, to buy a Claud Butler Frame, made with Reynolds 753 steel, back when I was in college; until I found crinkles in the top tube, & realized the seller was lying when he said he had never been crashed

The only possible outcomes for the company, are to relocate to the EU, or go bust.

Groupsets are still a big problem. I ordered a new bike a while back and was quoted 1 year delivery if I wanted top end Shimano Di2. Campagnolo was somewhat better. All the components were on several month lead times.

which is completely nuts, because you're supposed to have a trade deal with Japan.