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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Brexit: how scared should we be?

316 replies

staydazzling · 09/09/2019 10:36

Theres been worries about a lot, all valid reasons medical suppliers, food unrest. People stockpiling, and now that photo on twitter about the back pack with supplies & paperwork. do we need to be prepared for the real threat of some impending civil war? how scared do we need to be?

OP posts:
Alsohuman · 10/09/2019 18:52

Just think about the effects of austerity over the last nine years @Shmithecat2. This PM is far harder right than Cameron or May.

AnneWeber · 10/09/2019 19:20
Brexit: how scared should we be?
onalongsabbatical · 10/09/2019 20:21

@AnneWeber that tweet from Oliver Murphy seems to have been taken down?

smilethoyourheartisbreaking · 10/09/2019 20:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

staydazzling · 10/09/2019 20:35

oh god i feel less comforted, oh dear migt start stockpiling

OP posts:
Sunshine93 · 10/09/2019 20:46

@tabbymumz

You do not know that there are more body bags....that's just ridiculous

The increased body bag stock pile was widely reported on the news about a week ago. Do you not watch/listen/read the news much? You can Google the body bag information easily.

Please do some research on this. They really are stockpiling body bags and they really do think we will run out of medications. This isn't scaremongering it's real.

AnneWeber · 10/09/2019 21:12

onalongsabbatical it said twitter had deleted it. I'm guessing a load of brexiters reported it. He said it was genuine on another tweet

HelenaDove · 10/09/2019 21:12

I dread to think what could end up in food and other goods if workfare gets to be seen as a solution.

HelenaDove · 10/09/2019 21:19

@Mia1415

What are the wages and the contracts like. If its things like fruit picking for instance, someone who lives in social housing would not be able to live away from home because their flat would be classed as abandoned and they would lose the tenancy.

I voted Remain (you are welcome to check my posting history) but i think the reason some people voted Leave was due to division and disillusionment

HoneysuckIejasmine · 10/09/2019 21:43

Oh good lord, the naïvety of some people. Trust this government at your peril.

My medication is on the list. I am very much looking forward to trying to look after two toddlers whilst unable to move without severe pain. Yay, sovereignty.

Mia1415 · 10/09/2019 22:39

@HelenaDove

We have full time and part time contracts. Most staff start at minimum wage (no skills required) but can quickly increase their rate through training. All of our skilled staff have been promoted from within and all of our team leaders, supervisors and managers (except for a couple) have been internally promoted.
The trouble is that it is manual work. There isn’t any getting away from it. Food production isn’t glamorous unfortunately.
We are based in an industrial area in a city with excellent transport links.

I have friends/ contacts in similar businesses and we are all facing the same challenges.

HelenaDove · 10/09/2019 22:53

Im well aware it isnt glamourous DM did it for 50 years and is now paying the price for it health wise. Thats just one reason why i got shirty on another thread when i saw a comment how the shortage of meds and vaccines wont help the pensions crisis.

With full time contracts i would have thought you would have loads of applicants.

Frequency · 10/09/2019 23:00

Most staff start at minimum wage

Therein lies your problem. The average wage is rising, albeit slowly. You're now competing with the likes of Aldi/Lidl etc who pay well above the NMW for unskilled work. Honestly, would you do manual factory work if you could chuck things past a bar code scanner at Aldi for £1.50 more per hour?

Do you have a 24 hour production? That's what attracted me to care work rather than Aldi/Lidl etc. Although I can get more per hour elsewhere I can get more hours and more money overall in care as it's 24/7 with as much overtime as you can physically manage for the most part.

HelenaDove · 10/09/2019 23:12

Yy Frequency And even housing association rent can be expensive now.

Minimum wage wouldnt touch the sides.

speyejoe2.wordpress.com/2019/08/09/affordable-social-at-497-83-pw-for-a-3-bed-25976-pa-rent-is-it-unlawful/

Mia1415 · 10/09/2019 23:15

@frequency I don’t disagree. But our pricing / wage costs it set by what the supermarkets will pay for our product.

We are 24/7.

I’m not saying it’s right or wrong but the reality is we rely on EU labour (as do many other companies).

Graphista · 11/09/2019 00:13

"Not all medicines are manufactured in Europe, not all food comes from Europe. We do have things from other parts of the world"

HOW MANY TIMES! Myself and others have explained REPEATEDLY on numerous threads on brexit and brexit prep that

1 we don't make NEARLY enough of whatever in this country to fully meet the needs of our population - actually NOWHERE NEAR

2 that even food/drinks/meds made in this country are dependent on ingredients and items necessary for that production which mostly DO come from the eu and the stuff that doesn't comes VIA the eu or we get them BECAUSE we have trade deals AS MEMBERS OF THE EU

3 that even products/items that are from outside the eu come to us via eu distribution centres/trade routes or will be significantly more expensive because we have ZERO leverage and the transport costs alone are prohibitive BECAUSE (shocker!) eu countries are nearest to us geographically and the further an item has to come the more expensive the transport AND fresh items aren't best coming from so far away.

WHY are people struggling with the basic facts of the situation?!

Things with short shelf lives (which INCLUDES life saving medications) CANNOT be stockpiled. Tinned/frozen/dried food are "ok" but for s healthy diet a healthy populace able to work we NEED fresh food too we NEED adequate amounts of food and a variety.

"What even does this comment mean. Surely they do have a stockpile?" Exactly where do you think the stockpile will be? What about meds that have to be kept in certain conditions (temp, humidity, radioactive aspects, sterility...) who is paying for the space? The electricity? The fridges/freezers/air conditioning/specialised containers? Clueless utterly clueless!!

"What list are you even referring to?" Wow! So you genuinely are ignorant!

It's a list of meds that pharmacists (and they would know!) are saying are highly likely to face shortage issues due to brexit.

TabbyMumz no bluntness doesn't know for sure - but she's sensible enough to understand the VERY LIKELY potential issues - Which the govt/leavers are refusing to reassure anyone on! Do you REALLY think they wouldn't be if they could?! It would be VERY MUCH in their interests to do so! Common bloody sense tells you there isn't enough space/facilities to stockpile anywhere near enough, that you can't just miraculously speed up manufacture OR even the growth/production of raw ingredients! Many meds have as their basic ingredients plant extracts or parts of animals - you cannot make plants or animals grow meaningfully faster than they naturally do!

"Because Joe public doesn't need to know." Why the HELL not?! It's OUR lives and health that will be affected! We have a right to know what OUR govt (they're SUPPOSED to work FOR us!!) are doing to mitigate the risks to the population!

"The Government will have deals and plans in place as backup"
You have WAY too much faith in govt - do you SERIOUSLY NEVER question anything they do?!

"I'm pretty sure the people who arrange this sort of thing wont have had their head in the sand and done nothing." Pharmacists and Drs and other Nhs staff have NOT stuck their heads in the sand - they HAVE Been fobbed off with basically "don't worry your stupid little heads" type attitude from govt! I have friends and family who are pharmacists and nurses and they have said there is fuck all planning in place, the govt IS NOT listening to the experts and there's sod all communication happening!

"Teresa May is a diabetic, she said she wasn't the least bit concerned about medication."
She and her husband are VERY wealthy! They can easily hop on a private jet and zip over to eu if there IS a problem, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a sudden exodus of wealthy in latter part of October if we're driven towards a no deal on Halloween. She has ABSOLUTELY NO NEED to worry!

"In short, it's going to be shit but you probably won't die of malnutrition or lack of medication (unless you're very old)." Already happening thanks to austerity I don't have your optimism

"Would you rather we weren't?" Good grief! IT IS NOT people like bluntness who will leave us unprepared or who want us to be unprepared - we are unprepared because the govt has done precious little to prepare us! They're not listening to the actual experts, they're not following their advice, they're not even really accepting it's necessary!

"There will be quicker ways of doing all these so called checks, I'm sure."

Ffs - head hits brick wall!!!!

Even IF there were quicker ways of doing these things (there aren't) what you're basically meaning is cutting corners! That's cutting corners that are ESSENTIAL to health & safety - or do you not care if there's glass in your food or poisons in your baby's formula?!

Frequency · 11/09/2019 00:26

Oh, I know it's not that simple. I'm sure you would already have tried that if it was. Supermarkets need to be forced to pay their suppliers a fair price and take the hit in profit rather than pass it on to the consumer who can't afford it. Farmers, face a similar problem as I'm sure you're aware.

Tesco had a net profit of 1.32 billion last year but can't afford to pay their suppliers a fair rate Hmm

It's criminal and part of the reason the country is in such a state. The wealthy will do all they can to preserve their wealth, even if it means screwing the people lower down the chain.

HollowTalk · 11/09/2019 00:27

A lot of the MPs will be scared they aren't going to get their lucrative European allowance.

Are you talking about MEPs here? An MP doesn't get a European allowance.

Nat6999 · 11/09/2019 00:44

I'm not stockpiling, just being sensible, making sure the freezer is stocked up, have gone through my kitchen cupboards & filled up any missing items, made sure that the car is full of fuel, bought some long life milk & frozen a couple of cartons of normal milk, have ordered some prescriptions & am trying to make sure we always order before we run out & have got some cash in my purse, just a bit more than normal. Just the normal things that I would do every year as winter approaches.

Seahorseshoe · 11/09/2019 00:49

I'd be far more worried about a Corbyn government. Heaven help us all. We'd be begging for the woes

HerSymphonyAndSong · 11/09/2019 04:33

I don’t understand why so many people say that. I am not a corbyn fan but how anyone can say the tories have done a good job is beyond me. They have always marketed themselves as a “safe pair of hands” for the economy and we have international companies leaving in droves and the pound tanking every time we get closer to brexit. Corbyn would be unlikely to have a big majority and can be voted out. No deal Brexit (which no one voted for, whatever they say) would be around for decades

Septembersunrays · 11/09/2019 07:12

The economy keeps surprising the doomsters actually! We are doing far better than other eu countries. Indeed other countries in the world.

We wouldn't be in this position if it was still Labour government.

I dread corbyn too. I don't trust them at all.

Septembersunrays · 11/09/2019 07:14

Nat how do you make sure car has fuel.
Are we allowed to store petrol?

falcon5 · 11/09/2019 07:18

Don't store petrol

HerSymphonyAndSong · 11/09/2019 07:23

I don’t trust labour either, but neither am I daft enough to place my trust in a proven liar surrounded by disaster capitalists and hard right-wingers who have been progressively dismantling any kind of support for the vulnerable. There are discussions about whether our own prime minister will even obey the law - that is what happens in failed states. People go on about corbyn being authoritarian etc but we have a proven attitude and trajectory towards authoritarianism from our own current government, and the very people they don’t give a shit about are cheering them on