Japanese companies in the UK who have moved their product distribution hub to the EU in anticipation of what is now happening. One in a long thread, just to make a point that *some* companies have been preparing for worst case Brexit for years 1/13

Allegro MicroSystems Europe, semiconductors and ICs, owned by Sanken Denki, now importing into EU via Netherlands rather than UK. Amano Enzyme Europe transferred EU stock to warehouse in EU 2/13
Anritsu EMEA (sales and service of testing and measuring solutions to communications industry) all EU deliveries now go to second transport hub in Netherlands. Audio Technica established European Distribution Centre in Netherlands for Brexit (bit of a 🇳🇱theme here) 3/13
Eisai Europe (manufactures pharmaceuticals in Hatfield) transferred centralised marketing authorizations to Frankfurt, established testing and storage facilities in Antwerp. Electric Glass Fiber holding stock in EU for Brexit 4/13
Enplas Europe (semiconductors) acquired warehousing in NL for Brexit. Fujichem Sonneborn opened warehouse in Spain for Brexit. Furukawa Electric Europe shifted warehouse and distribution to Germany. 5/13
Furuno (marine electronics) has bonded warehouse in Rotterdam, stockbuilding, obtained Ireland export license to prepare for Brexit. KIP UK (wide format printing) transferred stock to warehouse in Germany for Brexit. 6/13
Kubota transferred sales & distribution for Nordics & Baltics to Germany in 2018. Lighthouse (signing + labelling machines) set up subsidiary in NL. Margaret Howell clothing (owned by Anglobal) set up additional warehousing + accounting functions on continent for Brexit 7/13
Pentax (endoscopic products) moved Ireland distributorship moved away from UK to European HQ in Germany as Brexit contingency. Sodick Europe (electrical discharge machining) bonded warehouse in NL 8/13
One of the most well known moves - Sony Europe - turned itself into a branch of Sony Europe BV in Netherlands. Already had a warehouse there. Also built state of the art warehouse in Czech Rep in 2017 in 8 months 9/13 https://t.co/afuB19gnOE
Similarly Panasonic Europe in UK became branch of Panasonic Europe in Germany, where European distribution centre was already. This was upgraded in 2018. 10/13 https://t.co/tWTWv3uSpB
Srixon Sports Europe opened a new distribution centre in NL for Brexit. Sumi Agro Europe will use its branch in Germany for post Brexit trading. Ishida Europe (food/beverageprocessing/packaging machines) opened distribution centre in NL in 2018 11/13
Sometimes the preparations are in the UK - Tomy, Japanese toy company already had a warehouse in Belgium, so took on temporary warehousing in UK for Brexit. 12/13
None of these companies are leaving the UK entirely as yet, but note many of them have "Europe" in their company name, and most are not manufacturing in UK. UK staff will have to fight hard to keep regional HQ status in years to come. 13/13
PS: Has this meant a decline in the numbers employed? Well, the results for 2019/20 not in for all I've covered above, but for those where there are figures, seems to have been an 8% drop on average from 2015/6. Turnover grew to 2018/9 but down 2% 2019/20 on the previous year.

More from Brexit

Two excellent questions at the end of a very sensible thread summarising the post-Brexit UK FP debate. My own take at attempting to offer an answer - ahead of the IR is as follow:


1. The two versions have a converging point: a tilt to the Indo-pacific doesn’t preclude a role as a convening power on global issues;
2. On the contrary, it underwrites the credibility for leadership on global issues, by seeking to strike two points:

A. Engaging with a part of the world in which world order and global issues are central to security, prosperity, and - not least - values;
B. Propelling the UK towards a more diversified set of economic, political, and security ties;

3. The tilt towards the Indo-Pacific whilst structurally based on a realist perception of the world, it is also deeply multilateral. Central to it is the notion of a Britain that is a convening power.
4. It is as a result a notion that stands on the ability to renew diplomacy;

5. It puts in relation to this a premium on under-utilised formats such as FPDA, 5Eyes, and indeed the Commonwealth - especially South Pacific islands;
6. It equally puts a premium on exploring new bilateral and multilateral formats. On former, Japan, Australia. On latter, Quad;
A not-so-little thread on how post-Brexit work permit regulations will apply in Scottish football and why it’s, broadly, not a good thing...

1) Work permit calculations are based on the points formula from this site -
https://t.co/sjqx8Df7Zg

As things stand, while this article deals with England, the system applies to Scotland also.

The goal is 15 points and the article shows various ways to get there. Essentially, play regularly internationally or in a top 5 league and you’re in. But read the article because it’s a bit trickier than that.

2) There are elements of this I’d dispute. For example, here’s the banding of leagues and, lower down, it’s an absolute mess - Denmark (ranked 14 in coefficient table) and Serbia (16) banded lower than Croatia (20), Greece (18) and Czechs (19)? It’s wholly random.


I get the point that leagues should be banded, but there doesn’t seem to have been loads of sense applied to how these things are actually banded, rather they’ve just shoved a bunch of leagues together and hoped for the best.

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Great article from @AsheSchow. I lived thru the 'Satanic Panic' of the 1980's/early 1990's asking myself "Has eveyrbody lost their GODDAMN MINDS?!"


The 3 big things that made the 1980's/early 1990's surreal for me.

1) Satanic Panic - satanism in the day cares ahhhh!

2) "Repressed memory" syndrome

3) Facilitated Communication [FC]

All 3 led to massive abuse.

"Therapists" -and I use the term to describe these quacks loosely - would hypnotize people & convince they they were 'reliving' past memories of Mom & Dad killing babies in Satanic rituals in the basement while they were growing up.

Other 'therapists' would badger kids until they invented stories about watching alligators eat babies dropped into a lake from a hot air balloon. Kids would deny anything happened for hours until the therapist 'broke through' and 'found' the 'truth'.

FC was a movement that started with the claim severely handicapped individuals were able to 'type' legible sentences & communicate if a 'helper' guided their hands over a keyboard.