The country is a shit show - why is there so little mention of Brexit's role?

[Neonskytonight]

That's it really.

Surely all our woes can't be placed at the door of covid and war - it is a good political narrative, but is it really true?

I'm amazed how little questioning by the media and public there is about the role of Brexit.

I heard this on PM last night...riased my eyebrows when the line went dead when he said that Brexit was having and impact and partly to blame for the current airport chaos...surely just a coincidence but still...

But neonskytonight that's six months ago. People get bored hearing about something repeatedly.
They will only sit up and take notice when their personal situation is noticeably worse than people in France or Germany..
Today we have the same issues with oil prices, had the same lack of lorry drivers.
When we have double digit unemployment and an inflation rate twice that of France, then they will pay attention.

Why is it a good thing for people to come here and work in very low paid jobs so we can have cheap foods and services. How does that benefit their country, if they lose young workers, how does it benefit us if we are obtaining this cheap Labour at the bottom end of the market (other than cheaper coffee or lunch)

I always felt very uncomfortable buying produces where I knew the staff had come here to earn and were paid a bloody pittance.

whatever job someone does, we have to pay them a decent and fair wage. Including baggage handlers in airports. If that means there is a resetting for a few years then so be it!

I guess those obsessed with Brexit and want to blame everything on it will always look for facts to suit their narrative. Personally I am very pleased still about Brexit, I don't agree with the decisions the government has made since like the Hong Kong visas and increasing immigration from outside the EU. But that is a decision our government has made freely. The good thing is now the shit sticks to the governments door.

Op I don’t think it’s being hidden, any discussion with economists (which I always try to listen to as interesting) talks about huge impacts of pandemic and war, especially the latter right now

But also if you Google a bit there are many articles for worker shortage - France, US, the Netherlands, Spain and Australia

The reason given is similar - people left the role over the pandemic and now there is a shortage. Plus mentions of low pay and conditions being a barrier

I have a colleague like this. She is a senior academic and for some reason we discussed Brexit last year and she told me that she voted for it and that now she really wishes that she hadn't. Sje feels that she was lied to. I am sure that she isn't alone.

The only two people I know who voted for Brexit both really regret it.

So where were the vets coming from for companies to "train up"? There is a limited supply of vet science graduates from a limited number of university vet schools. Increasing the domestic supply would require a government initiative and then you need the lecturers to be found and significant facilities to be built. The number of schools has increased but only in the last couple of years.

Agree Marsha. Plus in Ireland (EU country) they have flight delays due to staff shortages in Dublin. Took ages to get my flight last week and not Brexit related.

Boris should have gone because of the Brexit lying. That fucking bus. If he does go because of partygate the so be it. He's a good damn liar. And I know they all lie. But this is lying in plain sight. He's an absolute shit show

Try listening to James O brien on LBC There’s a man who can and will shoehorn brexit in at every chance he gets 👍👍

Covid has caused most of the problems, and now the war - the issues we are facing are problems across the world, not just here. In some places things are even worse. It is the myopic view that it is only the UK that are suffering leads to the limited and narrow view that some pp have.

They want to blame brexit for absolutely everything, but in fact brexit is not the cause for most things that are happening now. The media have a moral and ethical duty to report the facts, and that is what they are doing. Reporting the truth.
Just because it doesn't fit in with your narrative, it does not change the facts though.

Brexit is a factor especially in sectors where we've spent years propping ourselves up on cheap, mobile labour or internationally trained graduates.

Our problems run deeper than that. Education is not aligned to future employment needs, e.g. NHS medical staff, paying bursaries to encourage people through long courses with anti-social hours. Gove set the education system on a narrow cheap academic pathway and dropped the vocational courses that fed into the trades.

Many shortage/ retention issues are about excessive paperwork that clog up productivity. It can take months to replace staff leaving gaps where a backlog builds up that never shifts. People are driven out of jobs that have become about accountability and demonstrating political targets, not delivering the core service.

The roots of a lot of this go back into the New Labour days, but grossly exagerated since 2010. Also since 2010 austerity has reduced public funding to a skeleton service with no flexibility to accomodate disruption.

The other (global) issue that's not been mentioned is the supply chain disruption from continued lockdowns in China. This year I've been talking to the guy in the furniture shop and independent shoe shop and both have the same issue of irregular supplies of basic components being made in China, springs, buckles and this messes up all the rest of the production chain and puts up costs.

While the Ukraine/ Russia situation is affecting grain prices, again China has disrupted its agricultural production by people not being allowed out to farm the land and missing production stages, plus distribution areas as truck drivers can end up either not being allowed in to lockdown areas and having to dump and waste produce, or being allowed in but then being detained/ locked down. This increases demand on grain supplies. Added to that again there have also been poor harvests in other grain producing areas.

Brexit is a complication and it will take time (years) for economic forces to balance out, and awkwardly it's hard to assess the actual impact at a time following 2 years of pandemic response disruption and war. The UK is not unique in having a rough phase though.

I am also completely sure that if the BBC and Sky news that are open rabid remainers had any reason whatsoever to pin anything on brexit, no matter how loose the connection, they would absolutely be doing so!

The fact they haven't, and accept along with more reasoned commentators that the pandemic and war are mostly the reasons why we are, globally, struggling they have to report the facts.

Just thinking on this a bit more there are three main causes

Two of which a major global economic shocks and as such countries around the world are feeling similar

When someone on the radio is asked what is causing this shortage there is no barrier to them saying - it’s the shutdown which caused employees to leave and not something including Brexit

But just after I posted someone did mention Brexit in terms of paperwork for SME and impact from that

So if I had to sort the major issues I put

cost of living / fuel crisis - Ukraine war globally felt

worker shortages, due to shutdowns and loss of employees - pandemic

extra cost to SME or other slowing trade - Brexit

I would have preferred not to have last two, ie been more aware of impact of long closures, and Brexit was a vote which was close but didn’t go my way, but the Ukraine war is down to Putin

Nursing and midwifery bursaries wouldneed tobe a government initiative again. So if a lack of these is the problem whose fault is it?

I’ve read quite a lot about brexit in The Times.

We can argue about the proportionate impact of Brexit (there is one). What the main legacy is of it is that we now have Mr Johnson as Prime Minister, and the most incapable government in UK history.

Overly- simplistic. Meat packing plants could pay their workers 40k a year - and then people wouldn't buy the meat because it would cost too much. They'd buy imports or go without. And the packing plants would close.

Higher wages have a role to play but they are not some sort of universal panacea because our economy is not sealed from outside influences. Can't afford a hotel in the UK- stay home or go abroad.

The proverbial race to the bottom, started with the coalition thugs and will not abate for some time: cut, destroy, rinse and repeat. Brexit is the icing on a rancid cake.

Is anyone even celebrating Brexit wins?
All I hear, even from politicians who championed it, is that it's not that bad or this and that isn't because of Brexit. No 'isn't this fabulous, look how much better off we are'. All the while absolutely still welded to Brexit. I don't think any prominent Brexit supporter has come out and said that actually it was a massive mistake, not even the DUP.
Actually, I suppose theres the imperial measurements thing, that couldn't have been done inside the EU (unlike blue passports) .

We have paid higher wages in the care industry and guess what we still can't find enough staff. £10.50 starting pay as a care worker.
However Brexit hasn't shut the door on non Eu workers so we have sponsored a load of staff from South Africa and Philippines. These workers can only do the higher paid roles though so we still have no kitchen staff or housekeeping.
Lots of local hospitality has closed or only opens a few days a week as they have no staff.
Yes care roles should have been paid more but it still won't entice people to do the role if they don't want to.
We have had to stop admissions on many occasions due to lack of staff as have many Dom Care agencies. Then people wonder why all the beds are full in hospitals. This has never happened previously in my 30 years in the industry.

That argument falls apart when you realise 62% of Scottish voters voted to remain.

Plenty fat bald headed yobs here and yet we voted to remain

Maybe we aren't so easily taken in?

ukandeu.ac.uk/why-did-scotland-vote-to-remain/

This democracy thing is a real bugger !.

There are staff shortages across all of Europe. Germany had the biggest issues of all countries in terms of lorry drivers.

I am sorry it has been so disappointing that brexit has indeed not made much of a difference and you were expecting the world to implode upending on its axis. It didn't happen, it was never going to happen.