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

@sophiasnail

Maybe the people who are alive because we weren't tied in to the blundering EU vaccination program could chip if for your bill?

Scientists are saying there's 12,000 people alive now that wouldn't have been if it wasn't for our vaccination efforts. I feel that's kind of more important than £10 on an oil lamp. And, before anyone spouts out the usual drivel (as already contained in the op), yes we could have gone it alone, but we all know there's not a chance in hell that we would have if we were in the eu.

“I voted remain - but you are being bloody ridiculous. Europe is a small part of the world, and if you didn't check where your items are coming from, then it could have been India, China, or the USA too. People have always had to check where an item is coming from. That hasn't changed. The only thing that has changed is the number of places we now have to pay import taxes etc from.”

Again - wrong. I am the poster who ordered the painting from Russia some months back. The painting was not £8000 or whatever people are saying. It was £400, if I remember. I paid something like £50 delivery to the seller too. It was not a large or heavy parcel. The next thing I hear, is it’s being held at U.K. customs pending a charge of something like £190. What was that charge? You phone up customs and they don’t know - “something to do with Brexit” apparently. Total shambles. They said they have mountains of goods which U.K. buyers are refusing to accept because they can’t afford to pay these unexpected, unexplained charges which are way more than VAT and frequently 50% or more. The overseas sellers are equally confused as to why their dispatched items are suddenly having these charges added on top. The sellers are saying Brexit was not their responsibility (obviously) so accepting no liability for the return postage or if the items - so it’s a stalemate quite often.

You get told all sorts of explanations from HMRC. One response was that one in three parcels get stopped only, while another official told me it was everything over £130 something pounds. Another official told me - I am not joking - that if I buy anything in future from overseas, I should ask the seller to lie (!) and write a lower value on the package! He said this is what people in the U.K. will have to do now if they want to buy from the EU AND ALSO any other country that the EU used to have a trade agreement with because the U.K. is no longer covered by EU agreements and is, in effect, charging “emergency rates.” I was told there was no way of querying anything. All I could do is pay the charges; get the label off the parcel which would have a particular code on it; send this in with a BO/something form you can find through some searching on the HMRC website and the hope for the best. This was months ago and still nothing.

All you get in here is “What’s wrong with our very own English paintings then?” and a few asked “Why are you sending our English money to Putin?” Also, the fact I was buying a painting clearly identified me as “the liberal elite.” Whatever. 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.

And these dicks can also pay for the ridiculous wraparound childcare I will have to find to continue my job as a single mother when my au pair has to leave. My life is utterly fucked thanks to Brexit.

I'm a remainer but many au pairs are exploited imo.

@sophiasnail

Maybe the people who are alive because we weren't tied in to the blundering EU vaccination program could chip if for your bill?

There's no "EU vaccination program"...never has been.

There was an EU arrangement to procure the vaccines, and feel free to give that a kicking, but the vaccination programmes themselves were a national responsibility, organised by the politicians in the individual sovereign states....

Funnily enough though the UK MSM now seem remarkably quiet on this subject..maybe now that we're up to 600k plus a day being vaccinated in a day in at least one EU country the press in the UK don't find the topic so attractive to their readers anymore?

If and when people go on their package holidays this summer, or next summer, or whenever it is, just watch the monumental stink that’s going to be kicked up at U.K. customs on their return. That Portuguese pottery you bought for Aunty Mabel when you were out on the town after a few drinks - sorry, that’ll be 40% of the price on top please.

People don’t realise yet, but once they start travelling again, cue endless headlines of hot and bothered Brits held up at customs on their way home. Still, black passports and “sovereignty” now - so very worth it. And no doubt they’ll find a way to blame to EU anyway.

@gottakeeponmovin

If you have that much trouble reading I'm surprised you can stretch to designer items from Germany

Stretch? Hmm.

My heart bleeds for your lack of detailed information about the designer items forgot. Germany.

But also, at the time of posting, the poll is 52% yabu and 48% against, which seems apt.

*from Germany.

@Unhomme

My heart bleeds for your lack of detailed information about the designer items forgot. Germany.

But also, at the time of posting, the poll is 52% yabu and 48% against, which seems apt.

My heart bleeds for your lack of ability to check what you’ve written before posting

The OP has said nothing about purchasing “luxury” or “designer” items. Interesting that her OP has been twisted into this.

OP, how dare you buy from overseas. Outrageous! Buy things in England with our own English money and stop all this behaving like the “liberal elite.” This is why we voted Brexit, people like you and their “luxury, designer” items from Germany.

Sorry? Eton? Boris? Oxbridge? Nooo! Boris and cronies are not the liberal elite. They are “the voice of the people” silly.

It’s an absolute fuck up, but no one who voted for it will acknowledge it. In a nutshell. Once the smokescreen of Covid clears (if it ever does) this will only become more apparent. Personally I think Johnson's f* up and delay over quarantining arrivals from India was probably a deliberate tactic. He wants to drag it out as long as possible all the while getting people to cheer him along because of his vaccination roll out which has no more to do with being outside the EU than his being responsible for some of the worst Covid stats in Europe (if not the world). That way he can lay Britain's downturn firmly at the doors of the pandemic and brush off any responsibility himself.

When did mumsnet become so jingoistic.

Yanbu OP.

I work in construction and the current massive shortages of products and materials are partly due to this.
It shows the utter lack of joined up thinking in politics at the moment.
I was speaking to a supplier yesterday and he was despairing because they can't even get haulage firms to bring in orders as basically it's not worth the hassle and risk , and that's even if you can pay the massive fees currently being asked for.
It's all very well saying buy British but lots and lots of raw materials and products aren't from here. In particular the current push for more sustainable low carbon construction is being thwarted because the vast majority of green products are developed and produced elsewhere, we are currently a decade behind on development of a lot of the products and technology but we have an immediate demand for the outcome and have frustrated our main delivery route. It's not logical and at the moment it's just not workable. Apparently government help is a shambles.
It's going to be a mad year in construction, there are shortages in most sectors worldwide and the U.K. is currently at the back of the queue as we've made the supply chain so difficult- massive demand that we generally cannot fulfil and prices are already skyrocketing 🤦‍♀️ fun times!
Import duties on personal packages are a very small tip of a huge iceberg.

I voted remain but I think people are being jingoistic due to the goady demand that Brexiteers pay OP’s import fees. Dressing up goadiness as tongue in cheek doesn’t wash.

OP, you need to write to David Cameron who instigated the referendum not people who did their civic duty by voting.

@wonkylegs

I work in construction and the current massive shortages of products and materials are partly due to this. It shows the utter lack of joined up thinking in politics at the moment. I was speaking to a supplier yesterday and he was despairing because they can't even get haulage firms to bring in orders as basically it's not worth the hassle and risk , and that's even if you can pay the massive fees currently being asked for. It's all very well saying buy British but lots and lots of raw materials and products aren't from here. In particular the current push for more sustainable low carbon construction is being thwarted because the vast majority of green products are developed and produced elsewhere, we are currently a decade behind on development of a lot of the products and technology but we have an immediate demand for the outcome and have frustrated our main delivery route. It's not logical and at the moment it's just not workable. Apparently government help is a shambles. It's going to be a mad year in construction, there are shortages in most sectors worldwide and the U.K. is currently at the back of the queue as we've made the supply chain so difficult- massive demand that we generally cannot fulfil and prices are already skyrocketing 🤦‍♀️ fun times! Import duties on personal packages are a very small tip of a huge iceberg.

I was going to mention building supply shortages too. Sunlit uplands my arse.

While you are asking.... One benefit of brexit is that we did our own covid vaccine procurement.

Brexit has made buying from the UK more expensive and difficult for us in Ireland.

It's the way the world works things don't remain the same forever. Time for you to move forward too. If you don't wanna pay duty then don't be stupid an check where your buying from first.

@Rhayader
That's not entirely true although it's bandied about a lot - it's more complex (things usually are)
Approval was not made quicker by brexit despite government ministers claims as emergency legislation allowed states to act independently (a quick google gives you several sources for this but here's the bbc one www.bbc.co.uk/news/55163730)
Procurement is far more complex however there is a good unpick here
blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2021/03/25/has-the-uk-really-outperformed-the-eu-on-covid-19-vaccinations/

Vaccine uptake in some European states is also affected by a tendency for vaccine hesitancy that has historic links whereas the British population has generally had good uptake.

It's far far more complex than Brexit made it possible.

@wonkylegs

I work in construction and the current massive shortages of products and materials are partly due to this. It shows the utter lack of joined up thinking in politics at the moment. I was speaking to a supplier yesterday and he was despairing because they can't even get haulage firms to bring in orders as basically it's not worth the hassle and risk , and that's even if you can pay the massive fees currently being asked for. It's all very well saying buy British but lots and lots of raw materials and products aren't from here. In particular the current push for more sustainable low carbon construction is being thwarted because the vast majority of green products are developed and produced elsewhere, we are currently a decade behind on development of a lot of the products and technology but we have an immediate demand for the outcome and have frustrated our main delivery route. It's not logical and at the moment it's just not workable. Apparently government help is a shambles. It's going to be a mad year in construction, there are shortages in most sectors worldwide and the U.K. is currently at the back of the queue as we've made the supply chain so difficult- massive demand that we generally cannot fulfil and prices are already skyrocketing 🤦‍♀️ fun times! Import duties on personal packages are a very small tip of a huge iceberg.

Do you think this will increase prices for homeowners building extensions, conservatories etc? Are we already seeing the effect?

@wonkylegs

I actually work for the department of health. We set up the partnership between Oxford and AstraZeneca, the jab probably would never have happened if it wasn’t for us doing our own thing and funding loads of programmes. The U.K. bought as much of every vaccine as possible without worrying about costs (which was a huge concern for the EU).

All those going on about buy British, I’d love to buy a Brooks saddle for my bike, they made in the uk, but I can’t get one because if Brexit. (They send their saddles to a logistics centre to then ship around the world due to Brexit they have suspended any orders to the uk)

And why should we have to buy British only. Ffs

@Rhayader

While you are asking.... One benefit of brexit is that we did our own covid vaccine procurement.

Just as well (but not sure if it made any difference tbh) as Brexit meant delaying adding India to the red list (couldn't upset Modi when negotiating a trade deal could we?). Apparently we are now flying in Indian fruit and veg pickers to make up for he shortfall in EU labour.

@flashbac

That’s a political decision not a civil service one. It’s not up to me to criticise the govt. The people elect a government based on a manifesto and I do what they say!

Oh giveover op! You have had a solid six months to work out the duties. I have no sympathy whatsoever.