To think Brexit has robbed us of so much?

[elzober]

A friend of mine from America recently obtained citizenship of an EU country due to family links. She's now ready to look for a job and open to anything as she doesn't have a degree but worked in the family agricultural business back home. She's fluent in English.

A few years ago I would have been able to invite her to stay with me here in the UK, help her get established and set her up to apply for one of the many jobs over here. But now I can't do any of that.

The ridiculous part is I know local businesses that are really struggling to recruit, can't find people locally and have struggled with the lack of EU workers since Brexit. Particularly in hospitality, agriculture and travel.

Why did we close the door to people who filled these vacancies and contributed to society and paid taxes?

She would have been a decent tax payer, nice member of the community but she's not allowed in.

She's probably going to Ireland now as apparently there's lots more opportunities there since we became an isolated island.

I will never forgive the Conservatives for this shambles. Don't get me started on the fact that a British passport is now worthless and we've lost our right to live in 27 countries. Madness.

I was on the fence about Brexit at the time. Being an EU member and a net contributor had its downsides, however: Brexit has proven to be a mistake. It's a mess. We've gone backwards. Talent pools have lessened, trade has slowed. The taxes and paperwork now for import / export of goods is causing havoc. Delays and admin costs have laid a poor foundation that Covid and the war have come along and finished off.

Massive shame and so much of it was simply an unknown. Maybe 300 years from now, people will say it was the right move... but for now...

Things have gone to shit in the U.K., it’s a mess, for many reasons. Why shouldn’t people moan, just because you’re alright, Jack?

You've ignored this OP but it's the striking reality people are facing now. The EU really fucked our wage structure and now wages are so stagnant from years of cheap EU workers, people are seriously struggling. Never mind Brexit, this complete exploitation of hiring cheap labour from abroad should never have been allowed to begin with! Now people cannot afford to live and/or are stuck in employment paying shitty wages.

I’m not “alright”. I’ve been seriously affected too.

I might be more won over to the “have a good moan” school of thought if it’s proponents on this thread didn’t keep inventing things.

Don't open threads about Brexit 🙄

its ^

Any political decision that takes 300 years to have an upside surely can’t be a good one by definition.

The countries that make up Europe change every couple of decades. 300 years is a meaningless amount of time over which to judge a single policy.

I wondered what new negative effect the thread title referred to. Genuinely new information is worth hearing. But it was “my mate can’t come here” (so what in the scheme of things?) and “British passports are worthless” (ridiculous exaggeration).

I’m still waiting for someone (it’s Rees Mogg’s job isn’t it) to tell me of a single real benefit, just one, a real one, and not frigging blue passports (which we could have had but didn’t choose to) or different signs in the Dartford tunnel. Rees Mogg can go to fuck. The wanker.

Rosewaterblossom
This!

I was and am still on the fence about Brexit as a whole but this element is absolutely true

It's much more complex than just the EU workforce affecting our wages. Our own domestic policies contributed to this problem too. The EU was always a convenient scapegoat for all this country's issues. Maybe one advantage of Brexit is now they can't point the figure at the EU

People keep talking about it because it's an ongoing nightmare. It isn't done. There is more damage and expense to come.😱

No it was a shit decision with mostly bad effects and a couple of better ones.

Why does everyone (IRL too so I’m asking here because I can’t express my full exasperation IRL) have to constantly just repeat “its shit. It’s shit. It’s so so shit”? I’m genuinely asking. How does it help?

#bittriggered

Well good for you! You are alright Jack! Others are not.

My DD is trying to complete a modern languages university degree and sorting out the visas that are now necessary for her obligatory year abroad (to study and to work) is a nightmare because freedom of movement has gone since Brexshit happened.

My DD now has to apply for visas, which are by no means guaranteed for her and which place her at the mercy of the embassies of individual countries in Europe. It could endanger her final degree result.

She doesn't even have financial support via the Erasmus system anymore because Brexshit means we are no longer entitled to that.

The selfish, ridiculous and utterly shortsighted vote to leave the EU has cost her dearly in terms of lost opportunities and also finances for her time abroad.

It isn't the only loss to our family either, but I don't expect leave voters will want to know. They just want to bury their heads in the sand and pretend that all is fine and dandy as we enter the non-existent sunlit uplands promised by that buffoon Boris Johnson.

Yeah, and now UK water companies can ignore the EU restrictions on pumping raw sewage into the sea so many beaches are too disgusting for children to play or people to swim. Great removing all that "red tape" eh? Shitty seas rather than sunlit uplands.

No negative thing ever has been helped by wallowing in it.

I will still sign things or join things. It’s just the endless pointless negative hyperbole that sets me.

I honestly think a better use of our time would be working out why so many people wanted out and trying to heal the social division.

That was the plan all along. Deregulation so they can forego some of these basic safeguards around food, water supply, chemicals etc and make more money or pimp us out to US corporations.

Nope. Many people can't. The company employing you would have to prove that they can't recruit anyone from any of the 27 EU nations before they can get a work visa for you. Not very likely unless you have a very niche skillset. And why would theygo to all of that hassle and expense?

The EU offered "Lord" Frost a visa waiver scheme to avoid this for us all during the Brexit negotiations. Which he declined on our behalf with no mandate from the public to do so.

No, our wages started stagnating as soon as employers realised EU workers would work for much less pay. There was no "scapegoat" or "convenience" it is what actually happened. Hence why in 2002 I could earn £5 per hour in a chip shop as a teen out of school and in 2022 I could only earn £10 an hour as a qualified, experienced 30 something person.

All Brexit has done is highlighted this fact!

How is it working, with crops rotting because there are no EU workers to pick them and British people refuse to?

The Tories would love nothing more than for everyone to adopt a “chin up chaps, let’s make the best of it!” attitude, but fuck that and fuck them.

Why don’t you tell the swindled fishermen to stop wallowing over the total collapse of their markets? See how that goes down.

Yeah you’re right.

I’ll collapse in a soggy puddle to spite the Tories. 🙄

Cheap European labour was a massive issue in the 'race to the bottom' culture prevelant in Britain.

It will take some time and ballache but we will come out the other side stronger with proper wages paid for proper jobs.

Sorry but it's ridiculous to suggest that the EU is the main reason you earn minimum wage now in your 30s as a qualified, experienced person. Could it be your industry? A company that pays poorly?

The crops are rotting because those farmers can no longer exploit workers to pick the fruit. Too right British people should refuse to.. if they're paid poorly with poor working conditions. We aren't supposed to be a backwards nation but some would have it that way it seems.