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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To not understand Brexit?

225 replies

HakunaMatataa · 02/09/2019 18:34

Please don't come for me, I am very out of the loop r.e: Brexit. I have no idea what is happening and what the implications of this could be on our everyday lives.

I keep seeing threads about stock piling ect and now I'm left wondering if I should be preparing?!

So basically I suppose I'd like some views on Brexit, some pro's and cons in layman's terms, so I can try and get my head around it please.

Is this just alot of scare mongering going on or shall I be concerned?

I've obviously googled this but politics isnt my strong point and I just don't get it.

OP posts:
WhoLetTheFrogsOut · 02/09/2019 19:45

Many on here seem to believe we're in the throes of an apocalyptic event.

ThePallidBustOfPallas · 02/09/2019 19:45

Perhaps it might have been wiser to talk to people and LEARN about this important issue before making the unintelligent decision to abstain from voting and being proud of that fact?

colourlessgreenidea · 02/09/2019 19:49

Or you could educate yourself? Do some reading? Talk to other people? There's not much worse than stupid and proud of it.

Amen to that.

PettyContractor · 02/09/2019 19:50

There are people who think we are going to be eating each other who will give you a kicking for not knowing you should have stocked up weapons and baked beans. They don't know more than you, they just think they do.

Give me a person with very detailed ideas of what is going to happen and one who says they don't know, and I'd say it's the second who has the better-functioning brain.

duffeldaisy · 02/09/2019 19:50

I was just saying to my OH today that I really, really wished I was in a position like yours. I have been increasingly worried sick for almost 3 years now, and wish I hadn't been so aware of the news!

Saying that, I showed my 10yo a really great, simple guide on it on BBC Newsround. Not suggesting you need a kids' version, but I was impressed by quite how they condensed the main points and covered all the vocab. So that might be a good place to start, and then read out from there.

Brace yourself though. It's not a happy bit of politics.

Trimummy3 · 02/09/2019 19:50

My personal opinion. Boris is doing a grand job. Better than tm. He’s stronger and better than I expected by far. He wants to deliver what the majority voted for. As promised.

If there was a GE I would vote conservatives 100percent. Partly because I want this shit situation to go away where we are all arguing. Let’s get a move on with fixing more important issues. And partly because I don’t think anyone else can do a better job at running this country... I mean honestly who else is there?!

HakunaMatataa · 02/09/2019 19:51

Thank you @Deelish75

@ChardonnaysPrettySister no one said anyone was proud of not knowing. I just asked for some clarity.

Seems no one knows as the outcome is still uncertain. I read a thread that panicked me and wanted some thoughts. I was worrying about not being able to feed my children.

Name calling is unhelpful and quite frankly childish. I'd be more ashamed of speaking to people like shit than asking for some clarification. We could all do better in life by helping people, not belittling them. I've had some fantastic answers that have cleared it up for me and I now have an understanding.

OP posts:
ChardonnaysPrettySister · 02/09/2019 19:53

I had a chat with someone today who said they weren't worried about a Brexit at all. Not a bit. They did feel a bit sad that Aldi might be going bust though.

Why? I ask.

Because it's a German chain, so everything there is imported.

How about the other supermarkets then, I ask, what's going to happen there?

No problem, they are British, so they will keep selling everything, I'm told.

This thread reminds me of it. It's painful.

colourlessgreenidea · 02/09/2019 19:54

how does leaving the eu affect our ability to buy isotopes?

Where do you usually buy your isotopes from? Confused

Trimummy3 · 02/09/2019 19:55

People make me laugh sometimes! Especially us brits... we love the thought of a disaster... it kind of unites people and gives us something new to moan about. It’s funny! I think people are secretly hoping it’s like an episode of walking dead... so they can say “told you so”

The amount of people I know that don’t really know why brexit is bad but actually it’s not cool to admit you voted leave or voted Tory. So they just go along with the trendy opinion based in a few Twitter threads they have seen.

Who are these people that voted leave?! It can’t be only me?

Ohflippineck · 02/09/2019 19:55

Good grief 🤯

Trimummy3 · 02/09/2019 19:56

Assume we will continue buying isotopes from our usual sources?

JazzyGG · 02/09/2019 19:58

OP I think you are just being honest and getting a hard time here. A lot of people think they know it all when they don't, no one knows what is going to happen. Just like we didn't vote for deal or
No deal we voted to leave or stay. The rate ministers change their mind on what they say of course the public are confused.

duffeldaisy · 02/09/2019 20:03

*Hang on... how does leaving the eu affect our ability to buy isotopes? Will we be banned from buying it? Don’t the eu countries but anything from us?

I just don’t believe it... I mean in the uk we buy tonnes of stuff... cars, even bloody electricity from France! Why would they stop selling to us? It’s a crazy idea.*

By the government's own estimates (from just a few weeks ago that were leaked "Yellowhammer"), a No Deal Brexit will lead to ongoing traffic delays of up to a couple of hours. And they could last for weeks or even months.

A lorry coming here from Spain with salad could get stuck in compounded queues, all the time while the salad's getting warm and going off. Then it's not even just that part - lorry drivers obviously don't take back empty lorries, so then they'll be trying to load up here and go back again - and get stuck in traffic on the way back.

The queues will happen because, overnight, we won't have the deals with the EU anymore that allow trucks to go through quickly.
The only other alternative is all checks on lorries are stopped - and then absolutely anything can get in (food will no longer have to be labelled as to where it's come from because that's an EU thing too), drugs, weapons, etc.

Isotopes apparently have an incredibly short shelf life, so can't get caught up in that chaos or they, like salad, 'go off'. I'm sure in that situation they'd prioritise them, perhaps send them by plane or helicopter, but then that'll be incredibly expensive, polluting, and will mean that other food stuff can't come in by plane.

So it's not that the EU will stop selling or transporting (although I read that because of the delays/rotten food problems, companies might well not bother sending lorries, as it'd be easier to send them elsewhere in the EU.

No Deal doesn't bring an end to any of the chaos, it means we have years and years of chaos until deals are actually made.

BrexitBingoGenerator · 02/09/2019 20:05

It’s v confusing @hakuna, you’re not wrong!! I think there is just too much information, most of it crap, and it’s so hard to trust anything you read anymore!

doadeer · 02/09/2019 20:05

There's also potential risk of people losing their jobs.

Eg Nissan in North east - they employ 7000+ and are subsidised by EU importing 85% of the parts they need to build the cars from the EU. Nissan HQ in Japan might decide it's too expensive to build cars in Sunderland and move the entire site to a mainland Europe country instead. The north east would be in a terrible state of unemployment if this happened.

Or another example... In the tech industry they reply on lots of EU workers in London... If they don't want to come, again these companies will move their offices to Dublin or Amsterdam for example.

There are tons of examples of industries that could be affected.

Dontgiveamonkeys1350 · 02/09/2019 20:06

I knew nothing about politics before all this started. And to be honest I ignored most of it all till this time last year.
I have read and read. I follow lots of political people on twitter Beth Rigby ( politics reporter ) is one of my favs as she explains a lot of things. I know people on here may not like her but she explains a lot of things.

I have just educated myself but to be honest lots of what has happened in the last few days and will happen this week has flown over my head and I have had to do a lot of reading to catch up on how things work.
So more looking things up and re reading and learning. But it is all so messed up and hard to keep track off

Trimummy3 · 02/09/2019 20:10

Can’t the government bloody stop arguing and trying to stop the inevitable... and get a move on with sorting out a deal so we can get the isotopes with no delay?

That makes more sense than trying to find some odd legal loophole to bring down Boris etc etc etc.

duffeldaisy · 02/09/2019 20:13

we love the thought of a disaster... it kind of unites people and gives us something new to moan about. It’s funny!

It's anything but funny for anyone who needs to take medication, or who needs to keep their job, or who doesn't have much money to see them through.

TheresWaldo · 02/09/2019 20:15

I am agog that people don't understand that its not that the EU won't sell us stuff after a no deal Brexit. Of course they will. It's just that the new required paperwork will cause delays and the delays will be cumulative and the infrastructure is not set up to cope with the paperwork and the delays etc etc. Port traffic has increased exponentially since 1992. On the first day of the school summer holidays this year Dover was gridlocked! That's not even Brexit, it's just poor planning. People can't get to work, kids can't get to school. It is going to be chaos I fear. Customs infrastructure is not prepared. There is no where for the lorries to go. As pp said, a European haulier might prefer to send his lorries elsewhere than risk it.

RosesAndRaindrops · 02/09/2019 20:15

@PettyContractor There are people who think we are going to be eating each other who will give you a kicking for not knowing you should have stocked up weapons and baked beans. They don't know more than you, they just think they do

Yep, that's about it!
Think they know it all but in reality know about as much as everyone else.
There's some snotty know it alls on this thread.
I mean, someone comes on wanting to learn more and you get "what, you mean you don't know, where have you been?" blah blah.
Can't win on here, good on you OP for wanting to learn more about it.

Trimummy3 · 02/09/2019 20:15

Perhaps if Boris and tm before him could just concentrate on the job of getting us out of the eu properly without having to deal with all the bitching, back stabbing, legal threats, threats of no confidence etc. Then they could have been busy sorting out how we are going to get isotopes, car parts and epilepsy meds.

How do other non eu countries get isotopes etc?

doadeer · 02/09/2019 20:17

How do other non eu countries get isotopes etc?

They have trade deals!

RosesAndRaindrops · 02/09/2019 20:18

@Trimummy3
My personal opinion. Boris is doing a grand job. Better than tm. He’s stronger and better than I expected by far. He wants to deliver what the majority voted for. As promised.

You know what? I agree with you.Probably not a popular opinion on here, but meh.
I voted Remain, but seeing as the result was to Leave, they should get on with doing it.
All this trying to stop is absolutely ridiculous, I think at least he's trying to deliver it which others haven't.

Lex234 · 02/09/2019 20:19

I think the problem is that there are 2 very clear extreme views on what a No Deal Brexit will mean OP: the answer is probably somewhere in the middle.