Brexit Finally Hits UK Food Imports

"Brexit" border controls on food imports to the UK are now being applied, reports CNN, a consequence of it leaving the European Union. Expect food prices to rise further, Britons!

 

According to the UK government's own estimates, the checks – including physical inspections from April – will cost their businesses about £330 million ($419 million) annually and increase food inflation by about 0.2 percentage points over three years. Some industry experts are warning of a greater impact on inflation. 

 

The new controls mark the first time EU food producers must face the hassle of post-Brexit border bureaucracy since Britain exited the bloc's vast internal market and customs union in January 2021. The country quit the EU a year earlier, in January 2020, following a divisive referendum in 2016. 

 

And the UK government delayed the imposition of these controls for five years to postpone the pain. Europe accounts for a quarter of the food eaten in the country. 

 

The good Brexit news is that Britain is now fully self-sufficient in turnips! 😀😁😂

 

Malaysia’s Pardons Board, headed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on Friday halved the 12-year prison sentence of former Prime Minister Najib Razak who is incarcerated for corruption. 

 

Najib (left), whose sentence would end August 23, 2028, under the decision, also saw the board drastically reduce the fine the court imposed on him after he was found guilty in July 2020 of illegally receiving RM42 million ($9.4 million) in a 1MDB-linked case. The Pardons Board lowered his fine to RM50 million ($10.5 million) from RM210 million ($44 million). 

 

The board’s statement did not explain the rationale behind granting what amounts to a partial royal pardon, but noted that the former prime minister would be required to serve another year in prison if he fails to pay the fine. 

 

The Pardons Board had decided on Najib’s pardon application on Monday during King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah’s last days on the throne. The king has the discretion to allow or disallow a pardon application.

 

Najib remains on trial in separate cases directly linked to 1MDB, a state fund he set up to spur the economy, including one connected with RM2.3 billion ($487 million) that allegedly went missing from 1MDB and into the ex-PM’s accounts. 

 

Investigators estimate that more than $4.5 billion was plundered from 1MDB, or 1 Malaysia Development Berhad, through fraudulent shell companies to corrupt government and bank officials and their associates.

 

Reactions, at best, have been mixed.

But for Syaza Shukri (right), an associate professor of political science at the International Islamic University Malaysia, the Pardons Board’s decision took her by surprise. 

 

“I really thought Najib’s court case was and the people had spoken [to punish those guilty of corruption], so to allow any kind of pardon doesn’t really make sense”, she told BenarNews. 

 

She said Malaysians will point to Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is also from UMNO, and who walked free from a corruption case in September 2023. The Kuala Lumpur High Court had granted Zahid a discharge not amounting to an acquittal on 47 graft charges in connection with the alleged misuse of funds linked to his charitable organization. 

 

“This will appear as a compromise to keep the unity government together and that this government (are) not serious on fighting corruption as (they) claim”, Syaza said.