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The Brexit Thread

Craig said:
Ahh was wondering when the “If you don’t like it then leave” argument would crop up :wink:. It’s possible to criticise and disagree with Brexit and still love many elements about where I live and the wider country I was born in. I have my roots here - my friends, my family, my job and the places I love to visit. Why should I leave when there’s still plenty about the UK that I appreciate and enjoy? I can still dread some of the things the future holds thanks to this government, I can still fundamentally disagree with where things are heading, but in no way does that mean I should up sticks and leave.
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I mean, good luck running an Alton Towers fan group from overseas and having to fly back in for every meet!
 
Wouldn't mind leaving at some stage. I speak fluent French and decent German. Sadly, the 90 day rule now we're out and Brexit itself actually makes the very idea of leaving rather more difficult. One can't just up sticks, move to Europe, find a job and crack on. You could before.

I mean, the British Passport is less powerful now than it was before Brexit. That's one of the benefits, though - right?

I still struggle with Brexit every day.
 
Craig said:
Ahh was wondering when the “If you don’t like it then leave” argument would crop up :wink:. It’s possible to criticise and disagree with Brexit and still love many elements about where I live and the wider country I was born in. I have my roots here - my friends, my family, my job and the places I love to visit. Why should I leave when there’s still plenty about the UK that I appreciate and enjoy? I can still dread some of the things the future holds thanks to this government, I can still fundamentally disagree with where things are heading, but in no way does that mean I should up sticks and leave.
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Fair , honest comment from family experience.
Brother hopped off to Africa because he had enough of Britain, sister is having a great time in Canada.
I'm well aware I'm on a hiding to nothing, but it is a joy to be able to speak my mind on a long running topic.
 
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I'll admit I find it quite ironic how my most popular topic on a theme park forum is one I posted that wasn't about theme parks... in many ways, I can't believe that Brexit is still generating such heated discussion nearly 2 years after we left the EU!

I wonder when we'll stop talking about Brexit, and the things it bought with it will just become a part of everyday life?
 
Matt N said:
I'll admit I find it quite ironic how my most popular topic on a theme park forum is one I posted that wasn't about theme parks... in many ways, I can't believe that Brexit is still generating such heated discussion nearly 2 years after we left the EU!

I wonder when we'll stop talking about Brexit, and the things it bought with it will just become a part of everyday life?
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When there is something bigger than Brexit, through lockdown we stopped talking about Brexit then it happened and now Covid isn't the centre of our lives anymore we are talking about Brexit again. So either Brexit will become less significant or something else will become more significant, not sure which yet.
 
Some people think Brexit is an event, and even the government would like to say it's all done and we can move on now... but it's not. It's a continuous process. It's pervasive and will impact on our lives for a long time. I don't see this thread going anywhere.
 
I find it curious that the go to debating point of those who supported Brexit is that "things are just as bad everywhere else" yet the natural defence would be "we've used all our new found control to make things better than they could have been here because of Brexit".

The government tried that with vaccine procurement, were found to be incorrect, admitted as such and then went back to three word catchphrases as stock responses to fair and reasonable questions.
 
Matt N said:
I wonder when we'll stop talking about Brexit, and the things it bought with it will just become a part of everyday life?
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The problem is membership to the EU brought so many intangible benefits (and economic benefits that are difficult to disentangle from the mass) that our country is inevitably going to be a lot poorer as a result of leaving for many years to come. It is also not, as some may believe, "a short term pain" thing either - every day our economy is far worse off than it was prior to leaving, and there is no real fix to it, despite what some people including our own Prime Minister may say.

The big issue I have with people saying "I knew before I voted things would get worse before they got better" is that while that may be okay for someone with a half decent job to have a bit less disposable income for a bit, for those at the very bottom it is the tipping point between having somewhere to live and not, or having food for dinner and not. And it is all so pointless, because all Brexit gives us is a perceived "freedom" or "gaining sovereignty" or whatever else they call it which we had all along anyway, so many people bought into the BS spouted by Nigel Farage and co - being a member of the EU gave us so many benefits and unfortunately, even if after 10 years we realise it was a mistake to leave, if we re-join it will be on far worse terms than those we used to enjoy.
 
I just can't believe how 5 years on it's still such a binary subject. I hate the EU and the alternative. Thing is, I have little faith in the UK. It's a country that has been grappling with decline ever since the 1940's, some would say it goes back to the beginning of the last century.

Some great things have come out of the UK in that time. If I was being patriotic, I'd say the welfare state, the NHS, freedom of speech, liberating Europe from the Nazi's, Concorde, the HST, workers rights, safer roads than the rest of the world.

But when I think of the UK I can't get rid of this vision of this has been state nipping at the ankles of the bigger boys that everyone laughs at. The dilution of the welfare state, the abuse of the NHS, rediculous foreign wars against easy targets to pretend we're still tough, British Leyland, a railway network that's an ancient embarrassment compared to other developed countries, a too tertiary heavy economy and infrastructure plastered with paper to cover the cracks.

Since when has slagging off the trajectory of the UK become taboo? We used to do it all the time and it was great. If I had some level of education and didn't have my kids, I wouldn't live here, it seems like many foreign nationals who have deserted us haven't chosen to either. "Please come back and drive our lorries, look after us when we're unwell and harvest our food". The EU referendum seemed like choosing between a rock and a hard place.

I would happily have voted for Brexit had there been a ballsy PM ready to jump into the hot seat with a maverick master plan to move into the future. Instead we had Borris Johnson and a nobody called Nigel Farage armed with a bus and a poster bashing immigrants, telling lies about EU funding and banging on about blue passports, red telephone boxes and bendy bananas - VS - Posh boys Cameron and Osborne armed with threats to step up their ongoing campaign of ruining the country further should they not get the result they wanted so that they could keep their gentlemans club in check - and Grandpa Corbyn pretending to back the EU for the first time in his entire career so he could shore up his youth vote to help him and McDonnells campaign to take us back to the 1970's.

What a choice! But no, it seems like the country would far sooner fight with eachother at the dinner table and down the pub rather than deal with the elephant in the room.
 
Coronavirus has been affecting supply chains worldwide so every economy will be affected to some extent. However one might wonder why you'd apply further restrictions and barriers to trade that will hamper recovery at such a time.

The difference between the situation here and on the continent is the single market allows for workers and goods to move unhindered which helps to mitigate some of the problems.

Regarding inflation, the chairman of the Office for Budget Responsibility, Richard Hughes, said leaving the EU would reduce the UK's potential GDP by about 4% in the long term. He said forecasts showed the pandemic would reduce GDP "by a further 2%". "In the long term it is the case that Brexit has a bigger impact than the pandemic", he told the BBC. His comments come after the OBR said the cost of living could rise at its fastest rate for 30 years, with suggestions inflation could hit almost 5%.
 
I'm sure some people finally believe Brexit has been worthwhile.

Looks like red tape on international trade is keeping Smiler closed.

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I'd be interested to know what they apparently need that is so big it couldn't fit in a commissioned lorry, or even van.
 
Tom said:
I'd be interested to know what they apparently need that is so big it couldn't fit in a commissioned lorry, or even van.
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It's not a question of size. Even just a van needs to go through customs checks now.

Had to deliver some stuff for work to France and it took a week to get to site. Most of which was spent at TNT depots doing nothing waiting to be cleared.
 
Tom said:
Such checks don’t add days or weeks to delivery times in a commissioned vehicle, surely to god.
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The large logistics company I now work for, where a small portion of our delivery's are international (less than 5% of our volumes) now require all dairy products to be individually signed off by a vet and issued with a certificate. We have also had to hire 4 people just to deal with the paperwork for shipping said goods abroad. Delivery times are now about a week longer, this includes northern Ireland. Not only does it take us longer to process, vet and sort the paperwork for every order. The order then needs to be checked and signed off by customs on the border, against the already massive delays there, adding further time to the delay. This is for food too, stuff that has an importance to be shipped fast, due to it being needed for public health and being perishable. This is sending stuff outside the UK, but bringing stuff into the UK is very similar if not identical.

The whole thing is a mess. Devolution.

I saw something earlier...

When Boris changes a lightbulb,, he announces to everyone he has changed said lightbulb, his supporters and he then sit around in the dark, clapping ferociously - made me laugh, but it is so, so true.
 
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Also consider how impacted the supply chains are by Coronavirus. There's shortages everywhere and so European haulage companies will prioritise their internal single market traffic over traffic to third countries, notwithstanding the extra bureaucracy and delays involved getting it across the channel that will give them even less incentive to do so.
 
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