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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to ask how you’re preparing for Brexit?

999 replies

CircleSquareCircleSquare · 13/03/2018 15:54

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.

OP posts:
LoveInTokyo · 15/03/2018 08:11

Eek. I’m sorry falcon, that sounds horribly stressful for you.

Rufustherenegadereindeer1 · 15/03/2018 08:20

I had a male friend years ago with joint spanish and British citizenship

When he found out he would have to do national service in spain he dropped it like a shitty stick

Golondrina · 15/03/2018 08:35

If you can find it, I'd be really interested to read it KenDodd as I have Irish nationality and my kids could have it too (although they'd need to register as foreign births) so it would be interesting to read about it. Although I suppose until Spain legislates, it would require a court case to actually get dual nationality?

Golondrina · 15/03/2018 08:39

Rufus there hasn't been military service in Spain for quite a while now. DH did it 20 odd years ago, but it was easy enough to get out of even then. There is no such thing as dual nationality Spain/Britain, although actually I think if you were born in Spain to UK parents and do some legal process before the age of 18 or 21 there is a way to retain both. But for the vast majority of Brits in Spain who came here as adults, there is no dual nationality. Keeping renewing your UK passport on the sly (as it's Spain who won't recognise dual nationality) is another thing all together, but isn't dual nationality in the recognised-by-both-countries-travel-on-whichever-one-you-please sense.

Rufustherenegadereindeer1 · 15/03/2018 08:42

Thats why i said years ago golondrina

Im not even telling you how long ago as it will depress me Grin

I just thought it was funny...he was very proud of it right up until he had to do something

Golondrina · 15/03/2018 08:43

So you can be flippant and dismissive of people’s worries all you like. But refusing to recognise that people have very valid reasons to be afraid of Brexit and that many of them are completely powerless and must simply sit and wait to see what their fate will be makes you look very callous indeed.

Or stupid. I mean really, people who voted leave don't like being called stupid, obviously. But, either you don't understand the magnitude of Brexit or you just don't give a fuck.

Golondrina · 15/03/2018 08:46

DH was one of the very few of his school year who did it. I'm not sure why really, he hated it said it was a total waste of a year of his life. I think his dad probably wouldn't have let him get out of it. Most of his friends just used their studies as a way to avoid it and never did it.

Rufustherenegadereindeer1 · 15/03/2018 08:48

I have a feeling that my friends family said that if he wanted the citizenship then he had to do the service

Im fairly positive that he didnt go to university

I did find it very interesting

Peregrina · 15/03/2018 09:03

I know that Michael Portillo has both UK and Spanish passports, because he once brandished them on one of his Railway journey programmes. I wonder how he managed to do it?

Golondrina · 15/03/2018 09:03

That's a possibility, yes. I wouldn't want to do it either!

LoveInTokyo · 15/03/2018 09:05

Exactly, Golondrina.

If you think about the following people:

  • A British person who lives in Spain and can’t get Spanish nationality
  • A British person who lives in France and works in Germany
  • A British person who lives in another EU country and doesn’t know whether they can continue to work in their profession after Brexit (me)
  • A British person living in another EU country who is trying to buy a flat but doesn’t know whether they will have to pay extortionate foreign property taxes after Brexit, making it unaffordable (also me)
  • A British person running a small business selling imported goods whose sales have plummeted due to the crash in the pound since Brexit who doesn’t know how long they can keep going (my ex, last year, before he wound up his business)
  • The employees of that same small business who live in an area of high unemployment where there are not many job opportunities (my ex’s former employees)
  • The German spouse of a British person who earns less than the required £18,000 pa to sponsor a spousal visa, who doesn’t know whether they will have the right to stay in the UK post Brexit (someone I know)
  • A British researcher who has already found themselves cut out of EU funded research projects because there is no clarity on whether they will still get funding after Brexit (someone else I know)
  • Anybody living in Northern Ireland or in the Republic of Ireland near the border, who lives on one side of the border and works or goes to school on the other side, or has a farm with land on both sides of the border, or who simply remembers the violence of the past
  • Anyone in the UK working for a company which depends on having full access to the single market and is considering leaving
  • Anyone on a low income who is struggling to make ends meet due to Brexit-related inflation

These people (both real and hypothetical) and many more, stand to suffer greatly if our government can’t get a sensible deal done. And for many of those people, the only deal that would really be OK for them would be remaining in the customs union and single market, which the government has vetoed because apparently it would be against the will of the people.

Otherwise known as 37% of the electorate (but only two out of four constituent parts of the UK), not including a large number of people who are greatly affected but did not have the right to vote.

But no, the (largely uniformed) “will” of (a minority of) the people apparently trumps the legitimate concerns of all those people listed above.

Now I would like to hear from leave voters here.

The people I have listed above, do you think they will all be OK and should stop worrying, or do you just not care because they’re not you?

Talkstotrees · 15/03/2018 09:11

Thank you LoveInTokyo

Peregrina · 15/03/2018 09:18

Good post LoveInTokyo

I await the Leavers answers with interest.

Daphnedoo · 15/03/2018 09:34

Loveintokyo
Ultimately they will need to adapt or look elsewhere. We voted leave. END OF
We're out.

kaytee87 · 15/03/2018 09:38

We're carrying on as normal including holidays, renovation etc.

I voted remain but I think some of the panic is extreme. What do you think is likely to happen? We suddenly won't have food? Britain is a rich country, people will continue to trade with us.

SleepFreeZone · 15/03/2018 09:39

A deal will ultimately get done. How good a deal it will be is anyone’s guess and how it will leave all those people affected god only knows. Scary times.

tortelliniforever · 15/03/2018 09:40

Hear, hear LoveinTokyo.

The more I read about Brexit, the angrier I am that our government has given away so much of value for what? We still don't know. All we know is that we will be worse off for decades to come but that for many people "it" is apparently worth it. Whatever it is.

Golondrina · 15/03/2018 09:40

Well said LoveInToko. Why didn't I sort nationality before? Well, it involves sitting a culture exam €85 , a language exam €200 more or less, having my birth certificate translated €50, getting a police report €50, getting that translated €50, getting a Huage apostille on both of those €70 ish and paying €100 in taxes to hand it all in. I think that's everything.
And if I did all that I had to give up my UK nationality. So, considering I didn't actually need to do any of that as an EU citizen, why on earth would I?

LoveInTokyo · 15/03/2018 09:40

Thanks for your (sort of) straight answer, Daphne.

Can I put you in the “I don’t care because they’re not me” list?

Peregrina · 15/03/2018 09:40

A typical Leaver's answer. I must assume not an NI resident, not a person married to an EU spouse and wondering which country will they be able to live in together, not someone who has seen their business go down the pan, as a result of the £ being devalued. The usual Leaver claptrap: I'm all right jack. (Until May fails to deliver the goodies you want, and then you will be whining with the best of them.)

MissionItsPossible · 15/03/2018 09:41

We still don't know. All we know is that we will be worse off for decades to come

Lol.

Peregrina · 15/03/2018 09:42

We suddenly won't have food?

Three days worth of snow the other week, managed to wreck the supermarket supplies of food. No doubt assisted by some panic buying, so we do have a foretaste of what might happen.

Golondrina · 15/03/2018 09:43

We voted leave by a very narrow majority. Given the total shitshow it's turning out to be I think it's worth reconsidering.

Daphnedoo · 15/03/2018 09:44

That would be a total betrayal of the will of the people. To undo brexit would be unforgivable.

Golondrina · 15/03/2018 09:44

We still don't know. All we know is that we will be worse off for decades to come you can lol all you want, even the government's own reports say this.