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.

sunnypatio of course that makes sense. Thank you for responding.

@LoveinTokyo
"I’m not taking the risk of leaving my money in the UK and having it become worthless just when I need it"

May I ask, is that in context of comparison to the Euro or do you mean you think there will be a very big rise in inflation?

The hysteria refers to some of the things people are doing. Which does seem like hysteria.

Why would you not go on holiday?

I haven't stockpiled dry goods or olive oil. Or any other foodstuff. There has been plenty in the shops. Irrespective of snow. Or Brexit. Or any other reason suggested.

Oblomov it's also relatively easy to get an Irish passport, compared to other passorts; you only need a parent or grandparent born on the island of Ireland, there are no residency requirements. Ireland and Britian also recognise dual nationality so you can keep your UK passport. Where I am in the EU, Spain, to take Spanish nationality I have to renounce British nationality, so for some people that's a big step they're not suer they want to take. You also need to have been here (Spain) for 10 years or married to a Spaniard for a year. And it takes a loooooooooong time to come through, like about 3 years.

I love that I’m seen as hysterical for growing some good. Oh alright.

*food

Tie up your camel - then trust in Allah

Oooh i like!!

We are moving to New Zealand

I must admit due to a rat issue and cat issue I have not tried to grow any veggies for a while. And that was more tentative, a few tomatoes etc.

But I'm excited at the thought of seriously growing some proper food, potatoes, salad stuff etc. Who knows if my garden is conducive to veg maybe I could sell some on our road and. Make bread and sell it? I'd love to have some chickens too.

Who know where this sort of thing could lead to. I do prefer flowers, masses of flowers but even then.. Flowers are cheap to grow and cheer people up. In any down turn people like being cheered up.

Absolutely nothing, I’ve barely given it a moments thought because quite frankly I’ll take it as it comes. I can’t see the shelves being empty, the pound being worthless and house prices sinking. It’s just not going to happen

Riverside2 I mean in terms of the exchange rate. If I have big purchases coming up in euro and I need a certain amount, and my savings are sitting in a sterling bank account in the UK, I’m very vulnerable to any fluctuations in the exchange rate. It doesn’t look like the pound is going to get stronger against the euro any time soon, and there is a very real risk of it plummeting even further if it looks like no deal will be done.

It’s too risky to keep my money in the UK.

@LoveinTokyo

Thanks for answering that.

I think you should get a red bus and drive around the country with this written on the side.

"If we leave the EU you will have to churn your own butter"
Or "If we leave the EU you will have to lay your own eggs"

@Riverside2 no worries!

@Walkingdeadfangirl

“If we leave the EU you will have to lay your own eggs"

Incidentally, here in France, the phrase “laying an egg” can also be used as a euphemism for “doing a poo”.

You are welcome.

Applying for Irish citizenship

If all the people applying for Irish passports actual move to Ireland they'll be plenty of food to go around! 😉

Don't worry - I'll stick it out for now until the dcs finish school. I'm sure my Irish relatives can send over food parcels.

I'm in NI, so I'm alternating between burying my head in the sand and shitting myself, tbh.

I have no intention of ever living in Ireland, but with one Irish born parent I'm already an Irish citizen, so I might as well use that to make sure I can stay in Spain once my UK passpot is no longer a European passport.

Fatty most of those applying for Irish passports already don't live in uk but are expats living in EU outside of Ireland.

Liv I dread to think what will happen in NI as a result of all this you must all be so worried and I don't blame you.

Nothing op. Too busy raising a family on my own on a low income with £8000 in debt and helping care for a terminally ill parent. No holiday for 7 years. Rarely eat out don't smoke or drink, drive an old banger of a car. Quite frankly it couldn't get a great deal worse for me.

I thought I'd try trading globally as that is what we are supposed to do post Brexit, so out of curiosity I looked for work from a US company. Frankly, it was easy. Speaking the same language really helped and it's actually an advantage to have a British accent. Ok, it's easier for me running my own IT company but I may have to take on 2 or 3 more people if business continues like this. I might have just got lucky but it was 10 times less effort to win the business than tendering in Europe (which to be honest I gave up doing because it was too hard - single market doesn't help in my line of work). So from my POV Brexit has led me to a new market I probably wouldn't have explored otherwise. Each sector will of course be different but I hear trade delegations from farming and fisheries were very encouraged by visits to China. There is a massive global glut in refrigerated shipping, so a good time to be exporting. It is crazy we do more business with Belgium than China. Dairy farmers have been moaning for years about being screwed by the supermarkets over Milk pricing and it turns out the Chinese will buy all we can sell. But what I can't understand is why we needed Brexit to be forced to raise our horizons? There was nothing stopping us before.

Britain runs a dairy deficit and is break even at best.

A huge milk deal with China means a few already wealthy owners of large industrial dairies will certainly become a lot richer but everyone else will be contending with higher prices and shortfalls,

Thousands of dairy farmers have gone out of business in recent years. I can’t remember the exact figure, but it is genuinely astonishing. It’s down to a combination of the consumer having a totally unrealistic expectation of how much a pint of milk should cost, and supermarkets and the big milk processors in cahoots to keep prices as low as possible. The result being that many farmers are forced to sell their milk at a loss and eventually they go out of business. Even if nothing changes, before long we will not be producing enough milk to meet domestic demand.

And people think we’re going to export it to China? That’s barking.

I think one of my earlier links had the stat only 1/3 of British milk used to make our cheese and butter