Brexit!! Yeah, it's a thing now..

Karlos said:
The fisheries are the most visible victim
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Yeah, it's been in the news a fair bit, especially up here in the frozen North, where it's been the main story every night for weeks.
My favourite was Rees-Mogg's hilarious "so-what" to the industry about the fish 'They’re now British fish and they’re better and happier fish for it' A display of "who gives a f*ck about your stupid jobs?" so blatant, Maggie might've blushed at it.
Ironically, he's right in a way. They'll be happier fish for a period because no one will be catching them during that time. Perhaps they'll form shoals in Union Jack shapes to show their gratitude.
Karlos said:
but reality is starting to hit evertone. Even with the "deal", it's turning out to be a munted sh*tshow. For many smaller businesses, dealing with customs red tape has proven to be too much.
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It's not like they weren't warned.
I know schadenfreude isn't very becoming but it's especially difficult to resist a giggle at the tub-thumping xenophobes who voted their own jobs away.
 
The problem is, while it's amusing to consider those who voted their own jobs away, for every one there is someone else who had their livelihood voted away from them. Or their kids future prospects restricted. I never studied elsewhere in Europe but it was easy to take for granted my kids would be able to. And now they may not get the opportunity here either, depending on how the next decade pans out.
 
Karlos said:
The problem is, while it's amusing to consider those who voted their own jobs away, for every one there is someone else who had their livelihood voted away from them. Or their kids future prospects restricted.
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Absolutely. My prospects have been curtailed too. I'm in employment but who knows for how long?
I never voted for it and would much prefer it had never happened but there's bugger all I can do about it now so I might as well have a chuckle.
Karlos said:
I never studied elsewhere in Europe but it was easy to take for granted my kids would be able to. And now they may not get the opportunity here either, depending on how the next decade pans out.
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I was lucky enough to spend some time studying and working in Germany way back in '93, as part of the Erasmus programme, which Boris killed the other week.*
Almost every year since the mid-90s I've spent at least 3 weeks in various parts of the EU, enjoying road and rail trips across borders with no care for passport control.

All gone now, thanks mainly to lies, xenophobia and misdirected racism.

*Edit: he had no need to kill it either. The EU were quite happy for it to be included in his pathetic deal and he refused. All while his father was securing a French passport.
 
Yeah, it's a shit situation. I can imagine the government is happy to have the pandemic as a distraction.
 
Is that Boris saying "So long, and thanks for all the fish!" ?
 

Move to EU to avoid Brexit costs, firms told​

Exporters advised by Department for International Trade officials to form EU-based companies to circumvent border issues

In an extraordinary twist to the Brexit saga, UK small businesses are being told by advisers working for the Department for International Trade (DIT) that the best way to circumvent border issues and VAT problems that have been piling up since 1 January is to register new firms within the EU single market, from where they can distribute their goods far more freely.
 

The bill for Brexit is coming in and it’s punishingly steep​

You would have to possess a heart of stone not to weep with laughter at some of those who are now suddenly complaining about Brexit. It is a bit late for Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist party, those lusty sponsors of the great experiment with the UK’s prosperity, to be wailing that they have been betrayed.
I smiled to see that Roger Daltrey, the Leave-supporting lead singer of the Who, has joined the chorus of rock stars furious that the post-Brexit visa rules will ruin their prospects of touring across the Channel. Mr Daltrey will have to sing Won’t Get Fooled Again to himself before moving on to Boris the Spider and I Can’t Explain.
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Daltrey, one of my musical heroes, is coming across increasingly stupid these days. He now says he wanted reform rather than Brexit but voted for Brexit(?) and is glad to be rid of Brussels but not the EU(?) and restricting free movement of performing artists isn't what he voted for(?).

"Switzerland has borders with five EU countries, and trade is electronically frictionless. Why not us?"

Switzerland has freedom of movement with the EU which is what he voted to get rid of.

I have an order of magnitude less sympathy for him than I do for fishermen who voted their own jobs away.
 
Robert said:
"Switzerland has borders with five EU countries, and trade is electronically frictionless. Why not us?"

Switzerland has freedom of movement with the EU which is what he voted to get rid of.
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The Brexit vote was not about getting rid of freedom of movement through Europe. It was about leaving the EU. The UK is now out of the EU, and Switzerland was never in the EU.
In principle there is nothing stopping free movement. The difference is that the UK left and so it must be punished. It was a predictable, but not a natural consequence.

This is a second order effect. It reminds me of those who argue that pot is bad for you because you could go to jail and get a criminal record that will dog you for the rest of your life. That is not a natural consequence, but one imposed by a power structure.
 
FluffyMcDeath said:
The Brexit vote was not about getting rid of freedom of movement through Europe.
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Yes it was. Perhaps not legally but politically.
Much of the propaganda of those promoting Brexit and the motives of many of those voting for it were absolutely about restricting freedom of movement.
To pretend otherwise is disingenuous to the point of idiocy.

-edit-
Theoretically, May or Johnson could have tried for a deal to keep some freedom of movement and various other "soft-brexit" options but it was never on the table because of the above and to do so would have been political suicide. May had to go because her proposals weren't "hard-brexit" enough. All of this is quite distinct and independent from any perceived "punishment" of the UK for leaving.
 
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Arlene Foster, leader of a Brexit-promoting party that peddled the lie that there would be no changes for Northern Ireland's relationship with the rest of the UK.
https://twitter.com/x/status/1379885970103877634
As did buffoon in chief Johnson:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1379740662623506432
How much blame can you attribute to the ignorant masses who vote for these people?
Seems some of them aren't taking being lied to so well.
The disorder seen this week has been linked to the loyalist anger over the Northern Ireland protocol, with checks on goods being shipped from Great Britain reinforcing fears over the region’s place in the union... ...the police had not seen “sectarian violence” like it, with large groups involved on both sides, for some time. "The crowds grew in numbers and attacked each other with multiple petrol bombs and multiple missiles, including masonry and fireworks and attacked police."
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Of course, no one could possibly have foreseen any of this.
 
Robert said:
Arlene Foster, leader of a Brexit-promoting party that peddled the lie that there would be no changes for Northern Ireland's relationship with the rest of the UK.
https://twitter.com/x/status/1379885970103877634
As did buffoon in chief Johnson:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1379740662623506432
How much blame can you attribute to the ignorant masses who vote for these people?
Seems some of them aren't taking being lied to so well.


Of course, no one could possibly have foreseen any of this.
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Starting to get some minor attention beyond these increasingly insular shores.
https://twitter.com/x/status/1380664460906532864
 
Getting all misty-eyed reminiscing about the cod wars....

UK sends navy vessels to Jersey amid post-Brexit fishing row with France​

Boris Johnson dispatches two patrol vessels to protect island from feared blockade
HMS Severn, one of the two vessels sent to Jersey.


Boris Johnson has dispatched two Royal Navy patrol boats to protect Jersey from a feared blockade by French fishing vessels, in an escalation of a dispute over post-Brexit access to waters around the Channel island.
The move followed talks on Wednesday evening between the prime minister and the chief minister of the British crown dependency, John Le Fondré, who had warned Downing Street of imminent movements by French fishing boats to cut off the island’s main port. Jersey’s government had already been reeling from comments on Tuesday from France’s minister for maritime affairs, Annick Girardin, who had warned that the island’s electricity supply could be turned off in retaliation over a lack of access for the French fishing fleet to its waters.
 
This Brexit malarkey just got real:

McDonald's runs out of milkshakes in England, Scotland and Wales​

:banana:
More seriously, a lot of the supermarkets have recently had supply issues too. Lots of empty shelves in the ones I've been in. Reminiscent of the old propaganda shots of empty Russian shelves we got as kids to scare us off becoming commies. :D
 
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Robert said:
One exacerbated by the other.

Indeed.
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Many US supply chains seem to be in turmoil too with prices spiking and things running out - and they didn't Brexit. A lot of the disruptions I've had have been because of reduced staff density in warehouses and plants.
 
FluffyMcDeath said:
Sounds more like covid malarky. Sounds like a good time to be a lorry driver.
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(I "Night Trunk" food)
We are absolutely overwhelmed with work.
We are having to do double night trunks - but Highways close the roads at night !!
Apart from the hospitality sector fully re-opening and Joe Public obviously gorging on "freedom" the backlog of driver tests and the government changes to IR35 tax meaning the Eastern Europeans can now earn more "back home" we have had drivers left to chase the Golden Unicorn of VASTLY increased wages.
It's a snowball effect. The more drivers leave for pastures greener the more work gets put on the rest of us to cover - for the same wage - the more drivers bugger off to chase the aforementioned Unicorn !
I am on £36k pa for 9 hour night trunk shifts (and they generally ARE 9 hours) but hauliers are now offering £42k + locally.
The problem with that is they really will want their ounce of flesh for that kind of brass
You are talking 15 hour shifts
Well I'm 60 years old now, the mortgage is paid off etc. Be buggered if I'm going back to working the moronic hours I used to work when I first started trucking !
 
ScapeGoat said:
(I "Night Trunk" food)
We are absolutely overwhelmed with work.
We are having to do double night trunks - but Highways close the roads at night !!
Apart from the hospitality sector fully re-opening and Joe Public obviously gorging on "freedom" the backlog of driver tests and the government changes to IR35 tax meaning the Eastern Europeans can now earn more "back home" we have had drivers left to chase the Golden Unicorn of VASTLY increased wages.
It's a snowball effect. The more drivers leave for pastures greener the more work gets put on the rest of us to cover - for the same wage - the more drivers bugger off to chase the aforementioned Unicorn !
I am on £36k pa for 9 hour night trunk shifts (and they generally ARE 9 hours) but hauliers are now offering £42k + locally.
The problem with that is they really will want their ounce of flesh for that kind of brass
You are talking 15 hour shifts
Well I'm 60 years old now, the mortgage is paid off etc. Be buggered if I'm going back to working the moronic hours I used to work when I first started trucking !
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It's that "same wage" bit that's going to have to give. It's starting where I am. Looks like I'm going to have to part with a few more shekles per hour to get more people to work in my business.

That "backlog of driver tests" sounds like something a government could work to address. I'd imagine the food industry as a whole will be giving some MPs an earful if they have any sense of self preservation.

I don't see these issues as insurmountable - but then again governments do tend to be monumentally stupid since, while the party in power wants things to go smoothly, the opposition party's job is to make sure it doesn't and then to blame the party in power. It's always all about the next election.
 
Paypal, Visa & Mastercard blame Brexit for fee increases.

PayPal raises fees between UK and Europe​

PayPal said it was now incurring extra costs, such as the rise in interchange fees between the UK and EEA.
European rules capping credit and debit card interchange fees at 0.2% and 0.3% no longer apply to UK businesses.

Mastercard to push up fees for UK purchases from EU​

Transactions with airlines, hotels, car rentals and holiday firms based in the EU could all be affected.
Mastercard attributed the move to the UK's decision to leave the EU.
 
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