that it has just hit me that this time next year I wont be an EU citizen

[garethsouthgatesmrs]

I know it's yet another brexit thread but it genuinely just hit me that it's actually happening THIS YEAR! I am truly gutted. Would love someone with political knowledge to come on and reassure me that it actually won't be that bad. I have 3 children who have to live with the repercussions.

buble is on jules holland-this has to be a good sign

scary
Americans I know won't shop in local supermarkets in Belgium, but will drive to the nearest US base/PX to buy their meat etc, as they don't trust EU meat standards!
Sorry, I call bullshit
as US stuff that does not comply with EU rules is not allowed into the EU

and all the Yanks I know which as I'm sure you are aware is quite a few know that EU standards are far higher than US

Leaving the EU will not save the lives of those calves. UK farmers will still sell them far away for the best price. try again

You have no way of knowing that - unless you have some sort of crystal ball at your disposal. For now the fact we will have the means to end this cruel practice is a benefit. Nobody knows what will happen after that - whether we will secure a deal with the US and what the terms will be.

Remainers ask for reasons. I didn’t vote to Leave, but one of the reasons I’ve been given - which I can understand- is that Britain is a post industrial society. Being part of a German bloc designed to prevent the import of cheaper physical goods from outside the EU is not something that directly benefits us. We don’t make stuff any more - why would we want to put tariffs on goods that don’t compete with anything that we make? Lower tariffs on clothing and shoes and food is a good thing.

That's probably because when you're in a strange country you trust what's familiar to you! That's not a proof of superior US standards!

And if the withdrawal agreement, how is that better than the deal we have now as members of the EU? It looks to me like giving up sovereignty during the transition, taxation without representation, and a weaker position to negotiate from.

Dongding
And if Brexit does not save the cute little calves
what other outcomes will you settle for?

But - yes, we're a services economy, MrsAriadneOliver - we're leaving the single market which enables a lot of our services trade, which will be consequently hammered, so how is that good for us?

A leaver asked about the U.K. contributions saying no one mentions it and then loads of remainers come on explaining, posting graphs, discussing the issue. Remainers are happy to debate leavers disappear.

There’s a poster on this thread who labeled leavers as “thick as pig shit” a few pages back. No wonder they don’t want to engage.

To be fair we're not being given much to engage with.

MrsAriadne
Lower tariffs on clothing and shoes and food is a good thing.
Which tariff rates do you consider too high?
How low do you think they should be?
What about non tariff barriers (like safety / environmental / slave labour)

I think people understandably get heated about this - they have real anxieties about the future. This country is in enough of a mess as it is; arguably the reason we've got Brexit is because we are in a mess. I just don't see how Brexit fixes any of it. Apart from possibly the Common Agricultural Policy.

There are no advantages to leaving the EU. There is no way we would get a better trade deal from any country than we would as part of the EU, the largest and wealthiest trading block in the world. These sort of claims are silly and show a total lack of knowledge.

The EU is far from perfect. I hope we remain but we must, and our government must help us, engage with and understand what the EU does and hold our meps to account. We have more than 70 UK meps. Apart from farage, how many of the mumsnetters reading my post can name one of them??

All these folk who can’t wait (insert passive aggressive smiley face —> ) - What can you say to people in Northern Ireland who are feeling more than a bit terrified about brexit? What can they all look forward to?

No wonder they don’t want to engage.
Oh come on, they're not snowflakes, are they?

@wherearemychickens
How do you know it will be hammered? We just don’t know - we can’t predict the future.

Look, I’m just trying to see it from both sides here.

What cheaper physical goods are barred to us at the moment? Isn't it a general observation that most stuff is made in China?

Are we talking about trade or environmental issues here?

I'll translate that as meaning "I don't have an answer to that".

You know, or you should do, that you can dissociate trade deals and other factors such as animal welfare and environmental issues.

Tell me: why do you think David Davis went on a jaunt to the US funded by US agricultural interests?

US agriculture includes GM as standard.

I still think my point about lower tariffs is a valid one. It would benefit the poorest in society too, who spend a large portion of their income on food and clothing.

But having lost traditional industries, the North has struggled to put in their place well paid jobs to the degree perhaps that the South has. Perhaps retraining our focus on the US (and beyond) could be a boon to Atlantic-facing areas such as Glasgow, Liverpool and Cardiff, some of the most impoverished areas?

@MrsAriadneOliver, through reading articles like this:

www.cer.eu/in-the-press/brexits-impact-services

One of the quotes in the linked policy briefing bullet points is:

"A large shift in the composition of UK services exports would have consequences for the UK’s trade balance. If the composition of UK services supplied to the EU matched those to the rest of the world, we estimate that financial services exports to the EU (minus insurance and pensions) would be around 60 per cent lower. The export of insurance and pension services would be 19 per cent lower. Business services (including law, accountancy and professional services) exports would be ten per cent lower."

In short, you can't leave one of the world's most liberalised services markets, and expect no change. And as we won't have negotiated other arrangements, the change won't be positive.

Revitalising the regions is the only good argument Brexit has offered. Unfortunately I just don't see how that will happen when so many industries are going to up sticks and relocate into Europe. Why exactly wouldn't they? Whole sectors could go - I'm worried about engineering around Derby. And with that goes pretty much all British engineering, for a bloody long time.

MrsAriadne
I still think my point about lower tariffs is a valid one. It would benefit the poorest in society too, who spend a large portion of their income on food and clothing.
Half of the UKs food comes from the EU = no tariffs
A lot of the rest is grown in the UK = no tariffs
Clothes come in from the Far East - tariffs of under 10%

after Brexit, there will be tariffs on EU food and WTO rates are higher than most of our current rates
MORE COSTS for the poor

Ta1k The US bases afaik are sovereign, so not subject to EU rules. (Why else would the UK SBAs in Cyprus be targeted under the terms of the WA, when they are not now?) Same goes for the PX.

You should meet some of the Americans I have here - the PX is their go to for all sorts of shopping, and yes, many have told me that they don't trust the food standards here (mind you, looking at some of the offerings in the local Carrefour this week, I'm not sure I do either at times!)