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AIBU?

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Original poster

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

323 replies

Saddlesore · 17/05/2021 19:17

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

OP posts:
Blacktothepink · 17/05/2021 21:10

Yanbu!

Pumperthepumper · 17/05/2021 21:12

I proudly voted Brexit and I’m very happy about it.

Which bit makes you proudest? @emilyfrost

donquixotedelamancha · 17/05/2021 21:12

While we are at it: can I ask that anyone who voted for Scottish independence buy my daughter a new gymnastics leotard? She's size 7-8.

No particular reason, it would just be nice.

donquixotedelamancha · 17/05/2021 21:13

Are people in the UK always this nice to each other

Search the word vegan in AIBU then come back to us when you've seen a proper argument.

Pumperthepumper · 17/05/2021 21:14

@donquixotedelamancha

While we are at it: can I ask that anyone who voted for Scottish independence buy my daughter a new gymnastics leotard? She's size 7-8.

No particular reason, it would just be nice.

Scotland isn’t independent though (and I didn’t vote for it).
Miljea · 17/05/2021 21:17

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.

Sittingonabench · 17/05/2021 21:17

I disagree on almost every level.

  1. You should know where your products come for or accept the risks.
  2. Import duty on whatever you bought is a small price to pay for democracy regardless on whether you agree with the outcome (I didn’t vote Brexit but that was the way it went down)
  3. I actually do believe Brexit was a key contributor to being ahead of the game in terms of vaccines - we could have had all the freedoms and our government would have been slow and followed what everyone else was doing.

Perhaps instead of blaming people who voted Brexit you could blame the people who didn’t vote at all. That’s who I will be silently judging when the real issues start.

BagORats · 17/05/2021 21:18

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.

If you believe this you're a fool

Sillawithans · 17/05/2021 21:19

@donquixotedelamancha been there already Grin

donquixotedelamancha · 17/05/2021 21:19

Blame the EU. They didn't want to give us a decent trade deal as punishment for daring to leave

How could they agree a tariff-less trade deal with us when we don't want to be in the EU or EFTA or agree to harmonise standards like you would for a bilateral deal?

We haven't even managed to negotiate one with Australia yet- we have created much greater points of difference with the EU.

Original poster
Saddlesore · 17/05/2021 21:26

BagORats - maybe you could tell the Institute for Government that they’re the fools? You have heard of that eminent think-tank, haven’t you?

OP posts:
ChardonnaysPetDragon · 17/05/2021 21:29

Art is expensive, even coming from Bulgaria.

Miljea · 17/05/2021 21:31

saddlesore.

I think it it time to 'get over it', and 'move on'.

You couldn't get more ' Remain' than me!

But, the last 4-5 years have, if you like, re-educated me. I admit that I have spent about half my adult life abroad, but have been back in the UK for the last 20 (I'm late 50s); but there was a whole pile of stuff I didn't understand, but now I do.

Think about what Remainers feel they've lost. Then ask yourself if that stuff even touched the lives, or experience, of many Leavers?

The ability to move freely around the EU? What if that experience was 10 days in Spain, every other year. Do you care about that? No.

The ability to trade without tariff with the EU? If you have no understanding of where your food and goods come from, then- no.

Your belief that your country should 'make its own laws' when you have no grasp of your country's ability to make and enforce its own laws, and has done throughout its EU membership? No.

Your anger at Eastern Europeans' -taking all the jobs (on less than NMW)/ being on benefits with having no understanding that your own government could have curtailed all these practices but chose not to? No.

OwlIceCrem · 17/05/2021 21:31

This isn’t ‘tongue in cheek’, it’s virtue-signalling: “I voted Remain because I’m not a racist cross-eyed backwards Tory voter who believes all the lies pedalled by Boris and his ridiculous bus.”

Yet you are the one who couldn’t read the import fees...

Sick of being patronised by people who don’t understand that the point of a democracy.

Miljea · 17/05/2021 21:32

The Indian variant is with us because of Brexit.

borderforce · 17/05/2021 21:34

“Are you the poster who bought that painting from Italy for €800 or something?”

No she is not - because that was me Wink

Good luck Brexiteers. Everything the same, just less choice, more cost and extra hassle!

iklboo · 17/05/2021 21:35

The Indian variant is with us because of Brexit.

WTF?

NotImpossible · 17/05/2021 21:36

Brexit and the associated import fees from Europe have affected me too so I'm not pleased about them but ffs! You didn't check where your order was coming from at all? If it had been outside the EU there would have been extra to pay even before Brexit.

If you ever shop online then checking the location of your order is pretty basic stuff - apart from fees there might be different delivery times / consumer protection laws etc.

Miljea · 17/05/2021 21:43

@iklboo

The Indian variant is with us because of Brexit.

WTF?

Boris held off red listing India because he really needs Modi on-side. We really, really need a trade deal with India. Many South Asians voted Leave in the shrewd knowledge that trade-deals come with visa relaxations. Modi is in complete denial re: Covid in India.

It really, really isn't 'wtf' hard to grasp.

Tommika · 17/05/2021 21:46

Note that prior to Brexit you would have paid local VAT to the appropriate EU country then have the item pass freely over the border

Some have higher VAT than us, others have less.
Germany’s VAT is 19% so you will have paid 1% more, import duty only on certain categories and a carrier handling fee if you pay on arrival

A non Brexit change which just coincides on timing is that items sold for up to £135 can have the overseas retailer registering with HMRC and charging UK VAT at the point of sale, therefore there would be no carrier fees.

AgathaAllAlong · 17/05/2021 21:46

Do you want anyone who voted green to pay towards your electric meter too, given that it now costs more as a result of using unreliable sources of energy? Anyone who voted Tory last time should also pay towards your 5G network, pretty sure May could have gotten a better deal on it. While you're at it, have anyone descendent from the folk who broke up the British Empire pay for your goods, imports from India would be cheaper if India were part of Britain eh?

Next time just check where you're buying from.

Original poster
Saddlesore · 17/05/2021 21:46

@NotImpossible

Brexit and the associated import fees from Europe have affected me too so I'm not pleased about them but ffs! You didn't check where your order was coming from at all? If it had been outside the EU there would have been extra to pay even before Brexit.

If you ever shop online then checking the location of your order is pretty basic stuff - apart from fees there might be different delivery times / consumer protection laws etc.

Thanks - I have learned my lesson! I thought that as the website was co.uk that it was UK-based. Wrong! I will certainly check out all delivery info the next time I buy a €8000 painting from Bulgaria!
OP posts:
Miljea · 17/05/2021 21:47

@NotImpossible

Brexit and the associated import fees from Europe have affected me too so I'm not pleased about them but ffs! You didn't check where your order was coming from at all? If it had been outside the EU there would have been extra to pay even before Brexit.

If you ever shop online then checking the location of your order is pretty basic stuff - apart from fees there might be different delivery times / consumer protection laws etc.

You're not wrong, but there are three things at play here:
  • you need to check the new fees before ordering something that was much, much cheaper to buy from a huge range of EU retailers, pre Brexit.
  • you do have a right to feel aggrieved that so much stuff was quick, easy and cheap to source from the EU, pre Brexit, but which is now USA expensive thus no longer viable.
  • turnip is nice.
Daphnise · 17/05/2021 21:47

I hope the duty was high enough to silence you.
Do stop moaning.

Miljea · 17/05/2021 21:48

@Daphnise

I hope the duty was high enough to silence you. Do stop moaning.
OP. Stop with your international outlook right now. Be silenced!

Turnip is nice. That's what we now aspire to.