Around this time of year, leaders in western Europe deliver their Christmas messages to their citizens. Here is British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, full of his characteristic optimism: “Today is our chance to put the uncertainty to bed so people can get on with their lives. Just imagine how wonderful it will be to settle down to a turkey dinner this Christmas with Brexit decided.”
But – as usual for Mr Johnson – there is a catch. These words are not from this year's Christmas message. They are from last December. And you will not be shocked to learn that last year's promises still have not been fulfilled, despite Mr Johnson's repeated announcements that he had an "oven-ready deal" to "get Brexit done". This Christmas there is still no sign, beyond the empty promises, of putting the Brexit "uncertainty to bed so people can get on with their lives". Quite the reverse.
I am writing this on the Kent coast, the lovely county called "the Garden of England". But Kent nowadays is "the Lorry Park of England". If you are unwise enough to try to drive to the key port of Dover, as a friend has just done, you will find roads into the town blocked. There are queues of lorries for kilometres up to the Eurostar train terminal at Folkestone, a port town on the English Channel, and then further up the M2 motorway towards London.
Lorries queue to enter the Port of Dover, as the clock ticks down on the chance for the UK to strike a deal before the end of the Brexit transition period on December 31. AP Photo
Previously in this column, I have mentioned expert predictions that if every one of the thousands of lorries entering Dover every day were to be held up by just one minute each due to Brexit bureaucracy and extra paperwork, the queues would stretch for kilometres. It is happening now. Desperate lorry drivers are waiting to cross the vital link between England and France. The Port of Calais on the other side of the channel is also experiencing serious delays – and the real Brexit crunch still has not happened.
At 11pm (UK time) on December 31, Britain’s transitional period of maintaining broadly the rules and regulations of the EU will run out. Without a deal, no one knows what will happen next. But what is already happening is worrying enough.
Lorry drivers have been told – and I am not making this up – that if they try to enter Britain in January with a beef or cheese sandwich or other meat and dairy products, they will be in breach of new regulations. The food will be confiscated. Personal imports of products of plant or animal origin will be banned. Tourists will face similar restrictions. The shopping trips that many English people have become accustomed to – taking the ferry to France, having lunch in Calais or Boulogne, and then filling the car with excellent French cheeses and other foodstuffs – simply will be off the menu.
Imagine, therefore, the plight of lorry drivers. You are stuck in long queues on a cheerless motorway trying to get to Dover, and inevitably you will need to attend to normal bodily functions, including going to toilet. The Johnson government claimed that it would put portable toilets in place. They also claimed that they would complete a massive lorry park near Ashford in Kent. And they further claimed that they would hire and train an extra 50,000 – (50,000!) – customs officers.
An aerial picture shows construction work continuing at the site of a lorry park being built between the villages of Sevington and Mersham in Kent. Questions were asked in the UK's House of Lords this week on the state of preparedness of the lorry park at Sevington. AFP
But four-and-a-half years after the Brexit vote, the claims and promises seldom make it into reality. The lorry park isn’t finished. The 50,000 new customs officers do not exist, and I will not trouble you further with the toilets.
Lorry drivers, not surprisingly, are furious. If you have just driven halfway across Europe and you meet a customs official who tries to take your beef sandwich lunch, citing the new rules, you may not immediately be happy to co-operate. Even the most co-operative lorry driver will be stuck answering questions and filling out forms from over-worked and harassed customs officials. And lorry drivers are just the first wave of Brexit casualties. The same new bureaucracy will affect tourists, travellers, British importers and exporters. We have been instructed by the government “to prepare for Brexit”, but we still do not know what Brexit actually means.
All this confusion comes as Europe is struggling with another coronavirus upsurge. And as if things could not get much worse, they have. France has blocked lorry movements from the UK for 48 hours as a result of the new Covid-19 strain.
The irritable mood this Christmas has, therefore, also brought about a change in tone. For years British newspaper writers have been reluctant to call politicians liars. Instead traditionally they used euphemisms like “telling fibs". Not any more.
In her end-of-year column in The Guardian newspaper, columnist Marina Hyde this week described Mr Johnson as "the nation's leading liar". Such a statement in a heavyweight newspaper about any previous prime minister – Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, David Cameron, Theresa May – would have been unthinkable. Calling any of these leaders a liar would have provoked outrage and perhaps even resulted in a legal challenge as defamation.
At Christmas 2020, however, British people have become so irritated by repeated false promises that when Hyde writes of our Prime Minister’s “full spectrum mendacity", readers just shrug and move on – unlike, of course, British lorry drivers, who appear not to be moving anywhere any time soon.
Gavin Esler is a broadcaster and UK columnist for The National
Juvenile arthritis
Along with doctors, families and teachers can help pick up cases of arthritis in children.
Most types of childhood arthritis are known as juvenile idiopathic arthritis. JIA causes pain and inflammation in one or more joints for at least six weeks.
Dr Betina Rogalski said "The younger the child the more difficult it into pick up the symptoms. If the child is small, it may just be a bit grumpy or pull its leg a way or not feel like walking,” she said.
According to The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases in US, the most common symptoms of juvenile arthritis are joint swelling, pain, and stiffness that doesn’t go away. Usually it affects the knees, hands, and feet, and it’s worse in the morning or after a nap.
Limping in the morning because of a stiff knee, excessive clumsiness, having a high fever and skin rash are other symptoms. Children may also have swelling in lymph nodes in the neck and other parts of the body.
Arthritis in children can cause eye inflammation and growth problems and can cause bones and joints to grow unevenly.
In the UK, about 15,000 children and young people are affected by arthritis.
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India squads
Test squad against Afghanistan: Rahane (c), Dhawan, Vijay, Rahul, Pujara, Karun, Saha, Ashwin, Jadeja, Kuldeep, Umesh, Shami, Pandya, Ishant, Thakur.
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
FIXTURES
All kick-off times UAE ( 4 GMT)
Friday
Sevilla v Levante (midnight)
Saturday
Athletic Bilbao v Real Sociedad (7.15pm)
Eibar v Valencia (9.30pm)
Atletico Madrid v Alaves (11.45pm)
Sunday
Girona v Getafe (3pm)
Celta Vigo v Villarreal (7.15pm)
Las Palmas v Espanyol (9.30pm)
Barcelona v Deportivo la Coruna (11.45pm)
Something of a fashion anomaly, normcore is essentially a celebration of the unremarkable. The term was first popularised by an article in New York magazine in 2014 and has been dubbed “ugly”, “bland’ and "anti-style" by fashion writers. It’s hallmarks are comfort, a lack of pretentiousness and neutrality – it is a trend for those who would rather not stand out from the crowd. For the most part, the style is unisex, favouring loose silhouettes, thrift-shop threads, baseball caps and boyish trainers. It is important to note that normcore is not synonymous with cheapness or low quality; there are high-fashion brands, including Parisian label Vetements, that specialise in this style. Embraced by fashion-forward street-style stars around the globe, it’s uptake in the UAE has been relatively slow.
Chef Nobu's advice for eating sushi
“One mistake people always make is adding extra wasabi. There is no need for this, because it should already be there between the rice and the fish.
“When eating nigiri, you must dip the fish – not the rice – in soy sauce, otherwise the rice will collapse. Also, don’t use too much soy sauce or it will make you thirsty. For sushi rolls, dip a little of the rice-covered roll lightly in soy sauce and eat in one bite.
“Chopsticks are acceptable, but really, I recommend using your fingers for sushi. Do use chopsticks for sashimi, though.
“The ginger should be eaten separately as a palette cleanser and used to clear the mouth when switching between different pieces of fish.”
