Best Of

Are we seriously back talking about what “A” customs union, rather than “THE” customs union, looks like in practice?

Ask the Turks what “A” CU looks like, it’s terribly one-sided.

Vox populi, vox dei.

We hold all the cards, it'll be the easiest deal in history, plus German car manufacturers as the EU needs us more than we need them.

That's easy for you to say in foresight.

German car manufacturers are currently dooming themselves by blocking tariffs on Chinese vehicles due to their 15% or so share of the Chinese market.

The 3rd generaation EVs from Mercedes and BMW look pretty good value and have decent performance.

In any case surely according to PB Free Traders competition spurs progress and is an advantage to customers.

There is also these innovations from BYD:

https://insideevs.com/features/782245/byd-breathrough-2026-megawatt-charging/

https://carnewschina.com/2025/12/21/byd-launched-home-charging-station-sharing-service-among-vehicle-owners-on-its-app/

The problem is that the BYD is half the price of the Mercedes or BMW, and not a lot different in performance or specification.

The battery side, range and charge time, is actually going to be better on the Chinese than the German vehicles.

Yes. BYD has the competitive advantage, but the Germans are belatedly catching up.

Good for consumers.

Its the Japanese and particularly the US manufacturers that are stuck making Model T Fords.

Are we seriously back talking about what “A” customs union, rather than “THE” customs union, looks like in practice?

Ask the Turks what “A” CU looks like, it’s terribly one-sided.

Good morning, everyone.

Mr. Sandpit, easier (and less honest) to try and get us closer and closer to the EU then say "We may as well join seeing as we're already bound by their decisions but currently have no say" than it is to actually make a case for rejoining.

That approach has consistently failed to win over public opinion in Norway, however. But Norway was never foolish enough to volunteer for a damaging separation, and we would have been less foolish to have copied the Norwegian approach from the beginning.

Certainly. But then wankers like Ed Davey and Keir Starmer refused to map anything like that through Parliament when May would have agreed to it and now they are desperately trying to magic up what they could have had if they hadnt been prats.

What makes you think May would have agreed it, since it clearly breached her red lines?

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-governments-negotiating-objectives-for-exiting-the-eu-pm-speech

If she was prepared to agree to a Norwegian approach why the feck didn't she herself propose it? She was after all the Prime Minister.

The only two logical positions in the long term are full fat Rejoin and and full Juche Brexit.

The salami treatment on Brexit of Customs Union, then Single Market are just steps on the way.

All sorts of things are medium-term inevitable. Starmer leaving before the next election is one, full-fat Rejoin looks like another. Boris becoming PM was another one, as was collapsing due to his failures of temperament.

In many cases, the question is "how" and "when", not "what". The good news is that that's fun to speculate about. The bad news is that many of these processes take far longer than one might expect, and are bloody boring to live through.

Are we seriously back talking about what “A” customs union, rather than “THE” customs union, looks like in practice?

Ask the Turks what “A” CU looks like, it’s terribly one-sided.

Vox populi, vox dei.

We hold all the cards, it'll be the easiest deal in history, plus German car manufacturers as the EU needs us more than we need them.

That's easy for you to say in foresight.

German car manufacturers are currently dooming themselves by blocking tariffs on Chinese vehicles due to their 15% or so share of the Chinese market.

The 3rd generaation EVs from Mercedes and BMW look pretty good value and have decent performance.

In any case surely according to PB Free Traders competition spurs progress and is an advantage to customers.

There is also these innovations from BYD:

https://insideevs.com/features/782245/byd-breathrough-2026-megawatt-charging/

https://carnewschina.com/2025/12/21/byd-launched-home-charging-station-sharing-service-among-vehicle-owners-on-its-app/

The problem is that the BYD is half the price of the Mercedes or BMW, and not a lot different in performance or specification.

The battery side, range and charge time, is actually going to be better on the Chinese than the German vehicles.

The are nowhere near the half the price. I recently rented a BYD Sealion and Audi Q4 e-tron in quick succession so I looked up the UK prices. I could probably get the BYD for about 45 grand and the Audi for about 47 with some Dura negotiating techniques. The BYD's rear suspension was shit garbage and looked suspiciously like a CTRL-C/CTRL-V of a Qashqai (the AWD one, not the cheapo torsion bar 2WD) but the interior fit and finish was better than the Audi. I'd have the Audi out of the two mainly because it'll have better residuals.

In other BEV news, Mrs DA's new lease i5 M60 arrived at sparrowfart on Friday. I got it mainly because that c--t Harry Metcalfe didn't like it. It definitely has some BMW M DNA in it and is pretty fast (0-125mph in 13.0s on the Dragy) but not proper fast (Tributo when it works: 7.7s!) There is no credible Chinese competition yet for a product like that.

1. That's twice in as many days 'sparrowfart' has appeared on PB - a word unknown to me three days ago.

2. I need to replace our two cars next year and for the first time in my life I find the car market a complete mystery - due to baffling new brands and new technologies, I haven't got an effin' clue. I must be getting old. (I'll have to seek advice from PBcars.com.)

Just Don't Get a Tesla.

Are you sure? It's very fast. 0-1933 in 0 seconds.

Male lead (well, after Christ) gets £14,000 more than the female lead – sounds about right.

Perhaps the great problem that Christianity has is that Christ is always played by a plastic doll.

A remarkably tasteless nativity scene came up on my Facebook page, depicting Baby Hitler, in place of Baby Jesus. The wise men and shepherds had swastika armbands, and there was a Nazi flag on the stable wall.

You need to stop following the Republican Party on Facebook.

Honestly, I’m getting bombarded with Holocaust denial, Russian trolls, rants by Lozza Fox, and Rupert Lowe, and assorted idiocies, despite blocking these sites.

I blocked Fox a decade ago, I block lots. Never read a shithead twice is the rule. And they still feed me his hate.

Social media is vile.

We're too polite to block.
But if we do, tbe algo immediately thinks 'oh, he must want the OPPOSITE lot of shitheads'.

As I said yesterday, Wes needs something popular with Labour members that doesn’t involve him backing the left. There aren’t many candidates

His problem is that it won't be a coronation and his rival(s) are likely to take the same approch to slow Rejoin.

No, Wes's problem is that his party might take the view that now is the time for a woman to lead Labour.

His advantage is that many Labour backbenchers, worried about retaining seats they unexpectedly won in the 2024 landslide, might be wary of Ed Miliband who has already lost a general election. It is even likely that Miliband himself realises this and is aiming instead at Number 11. I gather some PB shrewdies have taken 33/1 against such a contingency.

Streeting and Reeves are very close, however, and if he gets the top job while she's still in post, I doubt he would shift her.