THANKS A LOT BREXITEERS (and good luck when you order items from abroad)!

[customchaos]

I recently bought some art through an online website (think, a bit like Etsy, but not that one). So the item was £400, plus £140 delivery, which I did think it was a lot, but it was being shipped from Russia. Anyway, two weeks later, I get an email from the website company, to tell me the item is being held at the depot and I am required to contact Parcelforce to pay a customs tax. I phoned up and the tax is to the tune of £140. For an item costing £400! Apparently this is the new post-Brexit norm. Just to get what you have ordered over the border!

I’ve also ordered more art from Bulgaria which is apparently in its way now and I’m really worried as this was more expensive (just under £3000). Does this mean I going to be charged another ridiculous amount as customs tax?

I’ve been on to HMRC today and they are no help, beyond saying “yes this is because of Brexit,” “No we’re not sure if you’ve been charged the right amount or why,” and “You will need to pay first and them make a claim if you think you’ve been overcharged.”

So basically, is this the end of ordering from abroad? What madness is this?

jasjas1973,
Even Gove accepted their "mistake" and moved on, how about you?

Gove is a politician, I'm not.

I'll continue to use it as a stick to beat Remoaners with, until the EU gives me another one and I'm sure that won't be long....

I'll continue to use it as a stick to beat Remoaners with, until the EU gives me another one and I'm sure that won't be long....

Child & you exemplify why the divisions of Brexit will never be healed.

@LostToucan,
I have no reason to doubt what you say.
Britain has announced it would formally apply to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trading bloc of 11 countries including Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
Negotiations will begin later this year.
I also understand that the next Free-trade deal will be with Australia.

AnitaB888
Do I think it is infantile to leave a club and still expect all the benefits - yes
Is this expectation what so many brexiteers seem to have - also yes.
Not least because pre referendum the brexit campaigns were remarkably short on downsides and remarkably strong on saying that all possible issues were project fear

Hence the UK trying to join a Pacific rim trading bloc..... do brexitiers think this a little odd?
No, Brexit was always about free trade rather than protectionism.

@jasjas1973
Child & you exemplify why the divisions of Brexit will never be healed.

No.
That is the fault of 'Remain' voters who continue to dispute the result, argue about it, whine about it, insult 'Leave' voters' intelligence etc etc.

And these are the very people who call Trump out for disputing the US election results !!

Britain has announced it would formally apply to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trading bloc of 11 countries including Japan, Australia and New Zealand

Leaving argument aside, don't you find it a bit odd the UK is trying to join a pacific rim trading bloc?

I mean, Chile is a member, Argentina isn't?

@Dg390
"Is this expectation what so many brexiteers seem to have - also yes"

Not all all. The whole point of Brexit was to be free of the clutches of the corrupt EU and make our own trade deals on our terms..

[quote AnitaB888]@LostToucan,
I have no reason to doubt what you say.
Britain has announced it would formally apply to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trading bloc of 11 countries including Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
Negotiations will begin later this year.
I also understand that the next Free-trade deal will be with Australia.[/quote]
I replied to your link about the current UK trade deals.

As for CPTPP, the UK is obviously hoping that it can be a back door into an agreement with the US, should it choose to join, given that trade with the 11 current CPTPP members accounts for around 8% of UK trade and the UK has trade agreements with the majority of them already.

That is the fault of 'Remain' voters who continue to dispute the result, argue about it, whine about it, insult 'Leave' voters' intelligence etc etc

See? your doing it now! You just can't help yourself.

By leaving the EU, we will be poorer as a country, have less trade with europe and the city of london will be smaller, none of this is really up for debate, 5 years ago the idea Amsterdam would trade more shares than London would have got you locked up for insanity.

Hence the search for new trade deals and leading brexitiers moaning the EU is stealing trade from London........ what a surprise!

make our own trade deals on our terms

We aren't, just rolling over the EU ones.

I do some work with Australia and a lot more with other European countries - because on the whole a 12 hour time difference is quite hard going for services (you remember services - they are key now to UK economy and paying for UK public services and are not covered by new brexit deal at all).
But that is the problem with all us lazy remainers- we just aren’t excited enough by losing all our business with local countries and creating wonderful new business with countries on the other side of the globe and staying up to midnight to work every day for our working lives... we just need more positivity and ambition ...

I do some work with Australia and a lot more with other European countries - because on the whole a 12 hour time difference is quite hard going for services

Try getting a conference call together between the UK, Australia, Chile and the US .

To be honest, I think the reality of Brexit will only hit home with Brexiteers once it actually hits them. Like when they book their week in the Med and are stuck for hours in airport queues like divs, with their shiny new blue passports.

So my DH came here as a child with asylum-seeker parents. You know, the ones who “take our jobs.” He was a founder of a company that was a household name snd employed hundreds before it was bought by an overseas company. Through another company, he has also created hundreds more real jobs for people here over the last ten years, including others in Poland. Italy, France, India and the US. Brexit finished this company and all those jobs. Real people paying real taxes in to U.K. economy - but no more. So no, immigrants are not “taking your jobs.” Mostly, as far as I can see, immigrants are the ones creating your jobs. And I’m not only talking about DH! Fortunately, he has been able to adapt because he’s involved in various ventures and non-exec directorships. But that is not the case for the hundreds who have lost their jobs as a direct result of Brexit and the financial uncertainty that has plagued so many contracts. For so many, it’s not about “if”. The damage is done. And it’s about to get worse.

@jasjas1973

Of course we could be worse off long term. People who start their own businesses are gambling on independence versus safety which is why it's a useful analogy. Some do badly and some do well

Its a rubbish one, because we are gambling with, not only 66m lives, we are putting at risk all the lives of our children etc... brexit isn't a investment where you can go back to your original position or find a new option, its irreversible.

A one off, high risk roll of the dice.

Everyone who leaves a safe job to start their own business risks their families future. Also coming off benefits is like that too. There you are getting a regular allowance, but if you come off it and take a job you may not be able to get them back later.

And the alternative was letting someone else make the decisions for us and hoping they would always be in our interest. A naive hope at best.

And let's not forget that we have gone it alone before. That was our default position before the EU. Look into UK history. You'll be amazed what we achieved before we surrendered our independence.

And can we take a moment to think about the 'advantages' of a trading bloc? You understand that it's about the power to screw over other countries right? You can say "you meet our price/conditions or none of us will trade with you". It's good for keeping third world countries in their place for example.

Maybe that's a good thing as long as you come out on top. It's just worth remembering when people speak as though there was something immoral about not wanting to be in one.

When COVID lockdowns end, Brits will start to realise that the teething problems of Brexit are the new normal
and that the UK's supply chain has been very badly damaged.
But its what people voted for in 2019
so they will be happy

won't they.

Until last week my niece was working full time for a business in London that marketed high end British fashion to buyers in the EU. Her hours have just been slashed cause, strangely, a lot of buyers are bailing at paying import duties, so the business has shrunk by a third in two months. Yay Brexit!

LostToucan I don’t envy you
And everyone night night - work tomorrow! And as other posters have said no-one is going to see the reality of brexit for a bit

Problems ordering art? Classic Remainer problem!

And let's not forget that we have gone it alone before. That was our default position before the EU. Look into UK history. You'll be amazed what we achieved before we surrendered our independence

Oh really? British Leyland, the destruction of the motorcycle industry, shipbuilding, steel, bicycle manufacture, 3 day week under Heath..... energy crisis.

We wanted IN the EEC because we didn't succeed outside.

The UK's fortune was build on empire/exploitation and being one of the first industrialised countries, in world with little or no competition.

Sure we've had our moments, not least in hi tech and medicine but these aren't industries most can succeed in, hence the number of foreign workers in these sectors.

We have no more surrendered our independence to the EU than we have to NATO or the UN.

@Literallynoidea

Problems ordering art? Classic Remainer problem!

So no one who voted leave has bought art

Weird 🤔

Good news folks - Cadbury are moving their production back from Poland to UK

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-55938419

I'd rather Cadbury's reverted to their original recipe...

[quote AnitaB888]Good news folks - Cadbury are moving their production back from Poland to UK

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-55938419[/quote]
No extra jobs.

Some production will remain overseas, Mondelez said, and the firm also confirmed the investment would not lead to the creation of any new jobs

So an irrelevance.

Better go back to the old recipe as well