//Did you vote?//
Since I’d been waiting for the opportunity to do so since 1992, nothing other than my death would have prevented me from doing so.
//Royal Mail and the Post Office should be ashamed of themselves. Not being able or willing to help people prepare for the new rules is shocking.//
There’s plenty of information on the Royal Mail website that does just that. I posted one document above.
//Scotland had a thriving seed potato market, one of the biggest in the world, worth I believe, about £122 million a year. Brexit has been a disaster for those farmers who worked and invested for years to build their businesses.//
It’s very apposite that you should mention the Scottish seed potato business. It is a perfect example of the EU Commission’s intransigence (not my word, as you will see below). It seems the ban on exports from the UK is hitting EU farmers just as much, if not more than their Scottish counterparts:
https://www.fwi.co.uk/arable/potatoes/eu-commission-plays-hardball-over-scottish-seed-potatoes
“The Republic of Ireland used to take more than 5,000t a year of Scotland’s 25-30,000t annual seed potato exports – product that is valued because of its freedom from diseases found elsewhere in Europe. Europatat therefore called on MEPs and the EU Commission to “break the deadlock” and resume the two-way trade in seed potatoes.”
“But the Commission was adamant that the ban should stay in place, to keep potential disease out of the EU.”
“A [Scottish] spokesman said the UK and EU continued to operate to the same standards as each other, so the impasse was purely political.”
“Although no vote was taken at the meeting [stand by for the reason why], it was clear from the floor that MEPs are keen for the two sides to find a solution.”
“A number of MEPs, including from Ireland, Belgium and Germany, accused the commission of being “over-zealous”…”
“NFU Scotland crops policy manager David Michie said the Commission’s intransigence [there’s the word] was frustrating. “We were pleased to see the broad support for a solution from both MEPs and the European NFU. …The Commission’s intransigence was frustrating.”
“We were pleased to see the broad support for a solution from both MEPs and the European potato industry, but the sticking point is the Commission,” he said.
There is no earthly reason why Scottish seed potatoes should not be exported to the EU. They are disease free (more so than some from elsewhere in Europe, it seems) and everybody (bar the EU Commission) seems to want the trade resumed. It is purely a political move to reinforce the EU Commission’s mantra “You do it our way, or you don’t do it at all - even if everybody else (including your elected representatives in the EU "Parliament") wants it.” And you wonder why people voted to leave.