to ask how you’re preparing for Brexit?

[CircleSquareCircleSquare]

There is so much uncertainty surrounding what will happen with trade deals and goodness knows what else, that I’m starting to wonder about making some sensible plans.

We have put a stop to some planned works we wanted to do to our house, we have downsized to one car and we grow a small amount of veg. We keep some stocks of food in the house but we have a large family so I never feel like we’d have enough.
We have discussed not taking a holiday this summer and DH is taking every training course possible at work in order to diversify his skills should his industry go tits up.

I’m wondering what decisions you’re making in your homes for what could possibly be a really uncertain time for a few years.

We've bought a brand new house at the very top of our budget and a new car on PHP. All our savings are gone.

I'm probably not doing the best planning!

That being said...we got a good deal on the house and plan to stay in it for 10 years so hopefully will ride out any house price dips.

We've bought the expensive German car we were planning on now, before any tariffs come into play.

We'll start building our savings back up...this is just general planning though, not Brexit specifically.

Conservative estimates I've seen are saying 25% increase in food prices and a third off house prices

Sounds about right

Of course, no one saw the 2008 global recession coming either did they?...

Yes, look at all these bloody experts in their field warning of disastrous delays in the event of a No Deal Brexit and pointing out the fragility of our system. Bloody remoaning bastards. They all just want to put the prices up. Don't they know I used to buy bread before we joined the EU and it was absolutely no trouble at all?

www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/brexit-food-crisis-uk-shortages-eu-trade-deal-sainsburys-mike-coupe-a8236296.html

www.ft.com/content/2ec71ab4-688a-11e7-8526-7b38dcaef614

www.theguardian.com/business/2017/may/21/brexit-coming-food-crisis-seasonal-migrant-labour-eu

uk.businessinsider.com/brexit-uk-food-supply-eu-report-sleepwalking-crisis-2017-7

Don't worry though guys, we can just get the farmers to grow more food instantly and we can all grow things in our gardens. Yay!

mrsreynolds
Do you have a link to those estimates? That sounds an interesting read.

The majority of people I know couldn’t take a 10% rise in food costs let alone 25%. I know people will come on and say “well we’ve been paying a low price for food for years” well yes, exactly - people adapt their budgets around what becomes the norm.

If any Irish people would like to adopt me as a child so that I can get an Irish passport though I'd be much obliged

Here here Icedgem so many posters on here with their head up their arses.

So many on here mass panicking when NOBODY knows what is going to happen, it could be a negative thing, it could be a good thing.
No point whatsoever doom and scare mongering, starting threads which fill up with mass anxiety and doom predictions, which basically spreads panic when there really is no need.
How about just getting on with it,making the most of the situation and seeing what happens instead of assuming it's the end of the world?

...i think I have the article saved somewhere...ill try and find it

I'm not panicking. I'm calmly planning for every eventuality. There is no panic at all. Because I have planned. I do not lose anything by planning for the worst outcome. It does seem to upset a lot of Brexiters though.

Heron..

When you have kids to feed and house it's perfectly sensible to be worried at a time of such global uncertainty and political unrest

All the leavers braying about "remoaners talking down britain" should read fewer daily heil articles and start listening to the dreaded "experts" so hated by gove et al

And I ask - again - which countries WANT brexit (at any cost) and WHY??

Follow the trail

Exactly, mrsreynolds. Couldn't agree more.

cady I don't think I have seen any projections including the government's own that suggest things are going to get better.
It would be really irresponsible of any business to look at a lot of forecasts all saying the same thing and say, "oh well I'm sure it will all be fine", and then do nothing.

So many on here mass panicking when NOBODY knows what is going to happen, it could be a negative thing, it could be a good thing.

Tell that to the people of NI who have seen Brexiter after Brexiter attack the GFA because it stands in the way of their beloved Brexit. You know, the GFA that was voted for by referendum. Brexiters aren't such fans of democracy when it acts an obstacle to beloved Brexit, are they?

I'm not panicking and I am sorting out my family for the next few years so we can survive whatever happens because we don't know what that will be.

Preparing isn’t panicking though. Am I worried that my business will fail? Yes. Am I worried that my husband will lose his job? Yes? Have we spoken about it at home and decided we need a plan? Yes.

We don’t talk about it every day or week but we have made a deliberate plan to protect our family from something that could be possibly dangerous. That’s not panic.
It’s like saying putting a seat belt on is panicking about having a car crash. It’s just sensible.
We’re not that sad about missing a holiday abroad this year, we’ll probably go an see family in other parts of the country and downsizing to one vehicle is saving us a huge amount with minimum inconvenience. Where’s the panic? It seems the idea of a bit of worry and mild-proactive behaviour has been co-opted by Brexiters as my running around with the smelling salts and digging out my 3rd cellar chamber to store spam.

it could be a good thing

How do you see a hard border being a good thing for NI?

I've actually started buying extras of foods i use a lot of like Olive oil, before tariffs are slapped on them.
Meanwhile my brother (who is in the building trade) is building his extension now, before building materials go through the roof (no pun intended)
I also work in the retail industry, takings are already suffering believe me, as people are nervous about spending money for non essentials. So looking to drop my hours and find other work fast.

Every single projection by the DexEU had stated that leaving the EU will damage the UK

Every. Single. One.

Reports by the dept in charge of brexit.

Maybe if leavers wont listen to those arrogant experts they will listen to David Davis, and former disgraced defence secretary and werrity-sniffer liam fox and their dept?

Once we are out of the EU we will be able to abolish tariffs with the WTO and the price of food and drink will fall.

The agreements you are speaking of take years to arrange

What do we do til then?

Exactly?

I'm not really in a position to wish I could. I have just over £7 left at the end of the month. So even a small rise in prices will affect me.

Bff has got her DC Irish passports, as have several other friends/relatives. Unfortunately having great-grandparents who were Irish doesn't qualify me.

Friends and family who are expats in Europe have been checking they have correct documentation so they can stay post-brexit - has resulted in a couple of weddings.

A good few are saving if they can in prep for prices going up (if only temp hopefully)

The recent snow issues have made people here even more cautious. We've only just started seeing our local supermarket get properly restocked after THAT, post only starting to come through in last couple days. There was no bread or milk to be found even in corner shops for at least 3 days there.

I think it makes sense that there's likely to be difficulties at least initially - the ref result alone affected financial market etc

I think a lot of people are unaware that their employer, bank, building society, pension scheme etc is under an EU country and could be affected.

I think chances are most consequences will settle within a year but a lot can happen in a year in a family's life.

"But for someone who looses their job in that year, their personal finances could take such a battering they never fully recover."

"No, but none of those countries are ripping up all their trading contacts and peace treaties (GFA) with nothing in place to replace them." Exactly! It'll take time for new trading contacts and logistics to run smoothly.

"Ah you mean the bit where programmers worked their arses off for three years beforehand" definitely! I worked in telecoms overseas at the time and our IT people were working stupid hours to prevent problems, it didn't just "not happen"

"Loads of people didn't have internet back then" but businesses DID and various pieces of equipment were electronically operated eg in power stations, water treatment plants, hospitals...

I think it's perfectly sensible to prepare for the worst, hope for the best.

"So it's going to be fine? Great!! How?" Seen this question repeatedly being asked of politicians of all colours - not heard one remotely reassuring answer! Usually a political non answer in fact.

Talking of economic downturn;

To date, industries either moving, considering moving, reducing capacity, or shutting up shop due to Brexit uncertainty and rising costs due to the weak £, now stands at;

• Airlines.
• Car factories. At risk 2.7 million workers
• Financial services. 2.19 million workers
• Component factories in aerospace and car tech.
• Games tech companies, 40% of which are considering moving to the EU.
• Restaurants & hotels - Jamie’s, Prezzo, Strada, Chimichanga, as people start to tighten their belts, middle range eateries suffer. 4.49 million workers in hospitality.
• Retailers ( ToysRus, Maplin - gone already; New Look, House of Fraser, Debenhams, Homebase, Marks & Spencer - restructuring, Next and JLP issuing profit warnings) with many others showing significant drops in profit or issuing profit warnings, not to mention struggling independents, all struggling to cope with the falling pound. 2.6 million workers in retail.
• 46% of EU companies with a UK base will be reducing UK capacity. 15% will remove all operations to the EU, 28% will move a “significant” proportion, & 29% will move smaller parts of their operation.

That’s a total of over 12 millions workers in these industries.

Then there’s the other crap that comes with leaving the EU:

• Good Friday agreement in danger
• Reintroduction of roaming charges
• Geoblocking - we won’t get it!
• More expensive food, due to weak £ and import costs.
• Increased cost of fuels, gas, electric & petrol plus possible supply issues.
• Less money for services for example; NHS, local councils, schools etc.
• Leaving Euratom
• Loss of Euroclear
• Brain drain of EU staff from Universities and British staff seeking better opportunities elsewhere.
• Loss of EU staff in NHS leaving some areas critically understaffed
• Loss of EU staff from hospitality industry, hotels & restaurants all struggling to recruit.
• Food rotting in fields due to lack of migrant workers.
• Stagnating economy, with prolonged recession looming.
• Fisheries losing their biggest market (EU) which may cause the collapse of the industry in some areas, (Grimsby being one), due to being uncompetitive if there is no free trade agreement. Loss of EMFF.
• Reduced opportunities for our school and uni leavers.
• Removal of farming subsidies.
• Loss of regeneration cash to ex heavy industry or poor communities ( for example, North East, Wales, Cornwall).
• Gibraltar- that’s got to pop over the parapet soon!
• Food shortages, 1/3 of U.K. food is imported.
• End of Erasmus scheme. *Loss of “Open Skies” agreement. *Relaxation of workers’ rights, regarding hours, pregnancy, minimum wage, and so on. Making it easier to fire people.
• Loss of trading opportunity ( has anyone actually checked out the WTO rules )!
• Becoming “little Britain”, we are a service nation, not a manufacturing one, Shipping, steel and mining are never coming back.
• Potential break up of Great Britain, Starting with Scotland.
• EHIC card and the right to reciprocal healthcare in the union.
• Relaxation of health and safety rules following exit to the detriment of workers and the general public.
• Exit from the ECtHR. European Courts of Human Rights
• Exit from CFREU & ECFR - Charter of Fundamental Rights of European Union & European Charter of Fundamental rights. Which protects our rights to equality, non discrimination and human rights under EU law. This also covers the Amber Alert System.
• European Medical Agency moved to Amsterdam (underway already)
• European Banking Authority (move to Paris, underway already)
• Loss of funding for cancer research and other critical medical research projects: Joint Research Centre.
• Loss of reciprocal cross country research into illnesses, and treatment.
• Loss of research grants across all areas, resulting in further brain drain.
• Loss of access for critical cancer drugs
• Lack of clarity as to rights of EU nationals domiciled in the UK.
• 2.2 million UK expats living in the union (either full or part time) may lose rights to UK pensions & reciprocal healthcare, resulting in them having to return to the UK adding additional strain on the NHS and council services.
• UK border controls revert to Dover from Calais.
• Leaving the ECJ which poses significant risks to our security.
• Loss of freedom of movement within the EU, possible reintroduction of costly visas.
• Impact on Sports, Art & Culture, due to freedom of movement restraints, costs of importing / exporting equipment and livestock, loss of the CEMCP.
• UK driving licence no longer valid in EU & loss of green card insurance scheme and loss of Euro NCAP support.
• Leaving the Single Market.
• Leaving the Customs Union.
• Leaving Joint Action on Climate Change.
• Animal welfare and sentience laws: Natura 2000 programme.
• Wildlife Safeguards & Habitat Protection.
• Harmonisation in industrial standards & CE standards.
• Food safety and consumer protection (chlorinated chicken anyone?) EFSA.
• Risk of NHS being “sold off” in a US trade deal.
• Exit from Horizon 2020 science programme.
• Compensation for lost luggage and cancelled flights.
• Loss of European Maritime safety agency along with the Ports of Refuge for ships in distress, plus the Ship Recycling directive.
• 700+ trade deals to be negotiated in case of no deal, trade deals taking on average between 7-20 years, to thrash out and we don’t have enough competent trade specialists to handle even 5 of them at a time. The Swiss / EU deal still hasn’t been ratified and they started that in 1972!!

Do feel free to add anything I may have missed off!

When will someone in power; frankly anyone, have the balls to stand up and say; this is all crap! It’s going to hurt us immeasurably, it will take us generations to recover, probably only by reentering the EU, but with no power of veto as we now have.

And we are doing this why? To regain a sovereignty we never actually lost, and to control our borders, that we already had control of, (just didn’t make use of the laws open to us)! The country really has gone totally insane!

Quick thanks to the others that commented on the original post and added to the list, you know who you are!

#brexshit! #FBPE

necessity is the mother of invention... the sooner we get them done the better, we have around 3 years left, plenty of time.

So you think the suppliers and countries governments who export said foods want it to take years?

Countries from the EU will still want to do business with us, you think BMW wouldn't want to sell us cars still?

Not an exhaustive list by any means but you get the gist......

Is preparing for Brexit like the USA 'preppers'? But reversed because we won't be dealing with an 'invasion'/'nuclear holocaust' but how we could get by when 'everyone we need' leaves?

I just try and keep a 'buffer' between me and the 'wolves' - Brexit Wolves or any other ones - tiz normal.

Not really sure that Brexit makes any difference to the Wolves at my Door - I'm sure the Brexit Wolves will be replaced by some other breed of Wolf, that I will continue to beat away from my door.

Or are the Wolves leaving too?