To ask anyone who voted for Brexit to pay my import duty

[Saddlesore]

I ordered a household item online and paid no attention as to where it was coming from (because I never did before). It turned out it was being shipped from Germany and I have to pay import duty and fees to receive it. WTAF!
I’m just having a rant because I fail to see how our lives have improved after Brexit - and don’t get me started on what my relatives in NI are having to endure. And no, Brexit did not deliver a triumph to the UK on vaccines because we would have been just as free to negotiate their delivery to us within the EU.

So, for anyone who voted for Brexit, have your lives really improved and are you happy that UK consumers now have fewer choices and more expensive ones at that?

So, while this is rather tongue in cheek, here goes:

Yes - YABU to want Brexit voters to pay your import fees
No - YANBU to want Brexit voters to pay your import fees

It sucks but I also think this issue brings out the nationalists and the inverse snobs. It's a globalised world. I spent my childhood/teen/young adult years in 4 different countries, and have developed a certain fondness for designers/items that you can't easily find here, and certainly with substantially less variety when you do find them. To have to restrict yourself to only 'buying British' is a colossal shame and a massive step backwards.

Again though why are you blaming people who voted for something they thought (whether or not true) would be good for them and their country - why are you not angry at all the people who didn’t bother voting at all?!
Also - why not look at the positives as well as the negatives? I certainly believe Brexit gave us a head start in the vaccine roll out and saved lives. I also believe it will have a detrimental impact on businesses operating in the same way and intercontinental trade. There can be benefits and disadvantages at the same time.

And for those that live in Europe and have the opposite problem. U.K. suppliers have lost out on a large number of orders from us, we have had to source from ROI and other European countries. 👏 good job, brexit

@wonkylegs Genuinely don’t mind paying taxes. The rich hate it but I see it as a way of helping to contribute towards a fairer society. The lack of fair society is what got us into this situation in the first place but people are too stupid and selfish to see that.

Janebjrjr but how does Brexit make society fairer.

I get that calling people stupid for the way in which they voted is not the way forward, neither is calling people racist. This is why labour is losing votes.

But voting leave hasn't improved the lot of the poorest in society has it?

It’s interesting to see people express their sense entitlement without shame or even awareness. And that’s partly WHY people voted for Brexit - yet people still don’t get it! I’m not saying Brexit was actually any type of solution, it was more like pure revenge. It’s just weird that people like the OP can’t hear how they come across. And honestly I do get how the fees are annoying. But it sounds like parody and I don’t think it is!

Haven't rtft but YABU. I'm absolutely a remainer, but this is silly. People vote (on referendums, for governments etc) and everyone has to abide by the result. If some people voted for a party who levied higher taxes than the party you voted for, and their party got in, would you be demanding those voters pay your tax for you as well?

@MiljeaMiljea
I bought a bit of a niche item from Germany a couple of weeks ago. You can't source it in GB. Thus is the second one I've bought from the same company.

It was a glass chimney for an oil lamp,
It cost £11; 3 years ago, it cost £10 with £4.50 'postage'. This time, It cost £22 to ship. So £33 all up.

I'd like a Brexiter to direct me to a British site that sells them, please.

John Moncrieff Ltd - Perthshire, Scotland;

jmoncrieff.co.uk/chimney-and-funnel&filter=82

Old Flames Ltd, Oil Lamps & Parts - Ash Vale, Surrey;

www.oldflames-lamparts.co.uk/product-category/oil-lamp-chimneys/

@borderforce
The point is, the whole system is a shambles and if / when you order something from the EU or worldwide generally, you will find this out.

I have no idea what you are bleating about. I have been ordering things from "abroad" - worldwide and European for bloody decades. I have seen NO difference except for the fact that some orders from European countries now attract import duties. Perhaps you have had a bad experience, but nothing I have ever been charged has been inexplicable. I was, and still am, opposed to Brexit, but its impact on a few Italian paintings or my import duties are really not anywhere on the list of reasons why I think it was, and continues to be, a bad idea.

That said - get over it. It has happened. Whinging doesn't change that.

@Miljea - typo

Well, OP, if you will spend EUR 97,350 on a HAT from LITHUANIA.

Or was it EUR 82,990 on a DESIGNER CAPE from SPAIN?

I forget. Anyway you must be punished for your decadence, OK?

This made me laugh

I can't carve a turnip to replace the missing chimneys. Sorry

From the poster who has been castigated for 1. buying specialist glass lamp chimneys from Germany, not on a commercial basis and 2. expressing not unreasonable disappointment at the greatly increased cost of doing so.

Which shows some resilience on her part, since she has been accused of thinking that lamp chimneys are more important than COVID deaths!!

But voting leave hasn't improved the lot of the poorest in society has it?

I strongly suspect that for quite considerable number of people it was more about "my life is shot why shouldn't yours be too" than improvment

If you are lucky, OP, someone will be along soon to tell you to check the cost of shipping and customs duties. For the 56th time.

Things I have learned since starting this thread, Part 2:

1. Some people are angry that UK consumers now face increased bureaucracy and charges if they wish to buy something from the EU.

1. Some people are just angry.

1. There has not been a sufficient feasibility study by the UK construction industry to look in to substituting essential components in the supply chain with British turnips.

@SchrodingersImmigrant

But voting leave hasn't improved the lot of the poorest in society has it?

I strongly suspect that for quite considerable number of people it was more about "my life is shot why shouldn't yours be too" than improvment

Gosh really? I didn't think that the motivation would be that cynical.

Its been well publicised that import duty may be payable. Good reason not to buy from them. I voted out but expected the vote to be remain. It wasn't. Yay!

@Sittingonabench

Again though why are you blaming people who voted for something they thought (whether or not true) would be good for them and their country - why are you not angry at all the people who didn’t bother voting at all?! Also - why not look at the positives as well as the negatives? I certainly believe Brexit gave us a head start in the vaccine roll out and saved lives. I also believe it will have a detrimental impact on businesses operating in the same way and intercontinental trade. There can be benefits and disadvantages at the same time.

You make a very good point @Sittingonabench! Why does nobody ever blame the apathetic people who didn't bother to vote at all?

“To be honest, shopping for things remotely from a foreign country is pretty decadent.”

Er, ever heard of the internet?

Yes people. Henceforth, shopping shall only be permitted on the clone high streets of Britain. Fill your homes with tat and only such items stocked in the likes of John Lewis, M&S and TKMaxx and other trusty high street brands. Then we can all look the same and our homes can too! On no account may you venture into the realms of Internet Shopping and show an interest in anything beyond your clone high streets or ye yokel local traders. Certainly sites such as Etsy, Vestiare or Notonthehighstreet should be avoided at your peril as they may entice thee with miraculous rarities from faraway “decadent “lands such as France or even Germany Do not yearn for the wider choice and free delivery of the days of yore. Now we have “sovereignty” and more crap, expensive stuff!

@lifeturnsonadime The truth is we don’t know if things will improve or not in the long term. I do know however this was a massive protest vote/vote for change by people who have the rough end of things in the UK while others prosper.

@lifeturnsonadime I think it’s really unfair to say people want others lives to be as shit as theirs. Totally false actually. My experience is they want the nice life for their kids that other peoples kids have.

The demonisation of the working-classes has already kicked off on here and it pisses me off.

Some of us voted Brexit because we didn't want to be yoked to an increasingly federal Europe that can only go one way - more integration. That means budgets and taxes, and everybody eventually having to be in the Euro, or the project can't work.

But the EU also wants to grow. So they're accepting in countries that unbalance the economy of the EU as a whole. Just ask Greece and Germany how that goes.

And as we have seen with their vaccine fiasco, there is even less accountability and governance in the EU than there is in countries with elected governments. Don't like Boris and the Tories? Kick them out. Don't like how the EU is governed or the direction it's going in? Good luck with that.

You make a good point. There were perfectly rational reasons why people voted for Brexit but the only thing we ever hear is how thick Brexiteers are.

@Jahebejrjr I'm not talking about taxes it's about the increase in costs in general purchasing which will push up the cost of living generally and that will effect the poorer greater increasing inequality

Scenario- storm damages a roof
The cost of fixing it at the moment is rising steeply due to supply chain issues in the roofing sector .
Can't just leave it as rain is pointing in damaging my home. I'm well enough off to be pissed off, grit my teeth and just pay the increased costs and get it fixed but so so many people aren't in that position and they will either have to make essential sacrifices to fix that roof or not fix it and cause more damage which will in the long term cost more. This is a direct issue caused by supply chains hit by Brexit.
It's got bugger all to do with paying fair shares of taxes, luxuries or frivolity it's to do with everyday stuff that will hit the poorest hardest.