To think most Brexiteers must now regret their vote?

[hoovermanouvre]

If you voted Brexit, do you feel like you have been able to "Take Back Control?" If so, where? Can anyone state one positive change since Brexit - I would genuinely like to hear at least something. Anything?

YANBU - I voted Brexit but now regret it
YABU - I voted Brexit and can see a benefit

That was poorly written but hope it still makes sense! We can impose sanctions on a handful of people the EU cannot.

@Rinatinabina again, what the US has done, isn't what the UK will do, we are extremely short term in our out look & wont make a loss for a longer term gain.

Looking at the data, UK productivity did not change with expansion of the EU, in fact if anything, it improved very slightly, it dropped off after the GFC.

tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/productivity

My own view is that the average UK worker feels under paid, ignored by bosses and exploited, have done for decades & this is (another reason) why our productivity is poor.

The average UK worker is underpaid.
www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4639881-britain-and-the-us-are-poor-societies-with-some-very-rich-people-average-polish-family-to-be-better-off-than-the-average-uk-family-by-2024-a-far-cry-from-the-time-when-the-uk-was-the-biggest-economy-in-the-world-when-queen-elizabeth-was-crowned

Sorry to burst your bubble but dual nationality does not protect an EU citizen from being sanctioned.

EU sanctions create legal obligations for all EU operators, and in respect of any business conducted within the EU. Article 13 of the Regulation defines the scope of jurisdiction. Dual nationality does not release a person from EU sanctions
Last updated

11/08/2022

Like most things people blame on or say the EU does, 99.9% turn out to be incorrect.
Like the one of "ever closer union" the text is *ever closer union of the peoples of europe" ... or "We can support Ukraine more" Rubbish - down to member states to decide.
Same with EU army, no such thing, EU is 100% committed to NATO, but should Trump get in, we might all need a European Military.

Very interesting- I do wonder if in time the GFC will be seen as the cause of the UK's woes rather than Brexit (which I daresay hasn't helped.)

Although as an occasional visitor to the UK I did notice prices shot up after Brexit but not the GFC.

@Alexandra2001 That's talking about business, not individuals, I believe we seized assets of these oligarchs and the EU cannot do that to their citizens.

The problem is, the EU was used as an excuse for British failings for decades, and people believed the excuses. Imvho, the only advantage of Brexit is to lay bare the reality that the failings are largely British ones, it wasn’t the EU causing them or holding the country back, it was the EU propping the country up and helping it look more successful and worthy of listening to on a world stage. Brexit has simply made our lives harder by harming trade and relationships, weakening our own continent as a result, and harming our international reputation for stability - all at the most idiotic time in history to choose to do so. Still, Trump and Putin thought Brexit was an excellent idea, so that’s alright then (and even this fact didn’t spook the majority!).

@Alexandra2001 It appears it is hard, but not impossible. '...especially in the wake of Russia’s war in Ukraine, many states are struggling to freeze assets of people sanctioned by the EU for their ties to the Kremlin, or lack legal powers to confiscate frozen assets.' They are planning to make it easier, so it's a very small bonus at best! A bonus that is about to disappear! If it hasn't already! Back to the drawing board then!

www.euractiv.com/section/europe-s-east/news/eu-to-unveil-plans-for-seizing-russian-assets-frozen-by-sanctions/

@orbitalcrisis - it was a massive UK failing in the first place that so many Russian oligarchs have so many UK assets to seize. Too many blind eyes turned to the origins of money coming into the UK for far too many years.

Not this again 😣

The reuters article I posted indicated an uptick in automation investment in the UK - the information was collected by the BOE.

UK productivity as compared to other major economies has lagged consistently except in areas like like FS and I think engineering and arts. I’ll try to find the report.

www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/regions-in-focus/solving-the-united-kingdoms-productivity-puzzle-in-a-digital-age

thats not the report, still looking for it but an interesting read too. Says the same thing, instead of investing, companies just hired more people. I agree people must feel underpaid, housing is extortionate and we definitely don’t invest enough in things like technical skills, we have a terrible obsessIon with going to uni vs the respect given to technical expertise in places like Germany.

But I stand by my view on this, labour market flexibilty (by which I mean access to high numbers of job seekers and light touch employment regulations, a nod to your point about unions, if a business knows they will be held to the fire by unions they will do their best to reduce headcount) reduce likelihood of investment which would increase productivity per capita.

To all "we're full up" bad news for you from La Truss - India is angling on a freedom of movement for their citizens as part of a potential free trade agreement and Truss is minded to accept it in part. 150k Hong Kongers have come already with many more on the way. Where I live Welling it has been an explosion in obviously wealth and educated Chinese HKers, indeed have even seen young ones working in Ikea and B&Q on the tills, probably students who have hit the ground running and take any job as they settle in. On average, a family brings around £ 1 million quid and is keeping the property market humming around here.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/liz-trusss-plan-for-more-migrants-to-boost-growth-j2bl2lsnz

The UK granted 994,951 visas in the 12 months to March 2022, up significantly on pre-Brexit levels.

You were lied to anybody remember this Leave.eu video promising to super boost the NHS off the scale of deception?

Exactly. It was mostly beneficial to Germany and France.
Leaving the EU has personally fucked my life up but I can understand why people voted to leave. As a pp has mentioned, many people did not agree with someone like Von De Leyen being able to influence other countries democratic process.

It is far better now, because we have new Head of State and Head of Government that none of us have voted for, which of course is much more democratic.

Your article is 4 years old, so we should be moving up the productivity list by now but we aren't.
The amount UK business spent on automation imports (we don't make any of this stuff...err why not??? ans = lack of forward thinking) was £80m, up from £40m 10 years earlier, £100m in a 2 trillion economy is peanuts.

Our whole economy profit bonus system is based on a very short term cycle, most UK companies reward the CEO on latest results not on his or rarely hers forward planning and R&D.

Many years ago, i worked for Plessey, we had so many world leading telecoms products, sold worldwide...the Beeston site was a small town! ex employees valued, facilities built for them.... we even had an IP product ready and waiting but then came foreign take overs and sell off's, so it was shelved, Plessey doesn't really exist and UK telecoms products don't either.

Thats not down to EU, Siemens, Ericsson and Alcatel still do well, its all down to corporate greed and lack of industrial strategy and none of that is changing, in fact it will get worse.

Enterprise zones
Roll out of covid vaccine
Able to set our own immigration and tax policies
Unemployment rate half that of EU

Struggling to see many downsides - my employer sells mainly into France and the initial obstacles were soon overcome

I wasn't aware that the EU has ever set our tax policies. Can you expand on that so I can be better informed. For example do all EU countries have the same income tax policies?

We went from the disastrous 70s to be the worlds 5th richest economy despite globalisation and far more competition.

We (UK) did well in the EU, its not down to the EU our Govt decided to keep the profits for themselves and not spend the money on public services infrastructure or industrial R&D.

Of course VDL will comment on Italy, the EU has no mechanism to expel a far right member acting illegally or against human rights & with a veto, Italy or Hungary can cause huge trouble for EU modernisation, whilst taking development money.

I was thinking of EU rules limiting bankers bonuses to 2 x Salary. Not tax policy per se but in the same ball park.

Why would you let facts get in the way of a good argument, @jgw1 ? Surely that's just being pedantic!!

Its not in the same ball park at all & you know it, its zero to do with Tax rules.

Its a policy designed to stop irresponsible decision making, such as helped caused the Global Financial Crash.

Its a good policy too.

I am sure that they will be along soon to tell us that each EU country has the same corporation tax level set by Ursala.

You are correct a rule to limit the greed of some of the richest people who managed to trash the world economy by their gambling is not very much like tax policy, except of course when the current government decided that it was exactly those people who needed to pay less tax on Friday.