To be furious at Brexit checks 'price you pay to be sovereign again'

[NoCloudsAllowed]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/jan/31/uk-minister-andrea-leadsom-brexit-checks-price-you-pay-sovereign-state-again

Andrea Leadsom saying barrier checks are the price of sovereignty.

This is not what they promised, is it? The bare faced lies of it all. They've delayed introducing checks because they knew they couldn't square it with Leave campaign promises. In the end, the issue of NI was only solvable by these checks.

This is supposed to cost £330m a year. It will make food more expensive and supply less reliable. There is zero, absolutely zero, benefit to the country. It's just a direct detriment imposed because they can't accept the whole thing is a fuck up.

They never actually express what this sovereignty is supposed to do for us, or what was problematic about the EU rules. It's all on 'the principle of the thing'. Sovereignty won't feed hungry children, will it?

I think I'm just as piping mad about this as I was in 2016 - they're taking the whole country for fools.

This is not what they promised, is it? The bare faced lies of it all

This is all the stuff that was dismissed as 'Project Fear' at the time

Promised? No
Predicted? Yes.

If your point is "this isn't the Brexit I voted for", then YABU. It was completely predictable and was labelled 'project fear'

It is exactly the Brexit I voted against.

'This is exactly the Brexit I voted against.'

Same here. It's just shameful and appalling. I'm with you OP on being every bit as hopping mad about this as I was during the campaign. And I'm afraid I don't have a shred of sympathy for anyone who voted Leave and now regrets it - it was so blindingly obvious that we were being lied to and sold a fairytale. Yes the Remain campaign was utter shit, but FFS, if Boris Johnson told you the sky was blue, you would be right to be cynical!

I didn't vote for it.

I just can't bear it that they've basically buggered around for many years to avoid having to admit that this was the consequence of Brexit. It's like they'll hope no one is watching any more.

I guess my point is that I think everyone should be furious about this - Brexit voters as much as anyone. They were specifically assured this wouldn't happen.

They're basically saying 'oh yes, remainers were right all along but let's not make a fuss, it's all sorted now, nothing to see here'

Is there more to come? More regulations to be imposed on imports?

I feel so sorry for the families and hungry children already struggling to pay for food etc. costs going up and up.

Brexit was, is and always will be a shit idea.

I don't understand why people are bemused or annoyed by the fact that severing all our mutual agreements on borders, trade, working rights, yada yada turns out to affect those things.

This is exactly what Bexiteers voted for. The rest of us knew it. Now they whine because they fell for the Farage/Boris NHS bus obvious bullshit.

Yawn.

Yes @Elephantsareace 'you should have known they were lying' doesn't seem good enough - I want the liars to be held to account. I want the Brexiteers to have to explain how this development connects to what they claimed would happen.

Yes, yawn - it's all fucking tedious. They've been waiting for a set point in the tedium to admit we need checks despite all the promises to the contrary, and hoping people are too jaded by it all to be angry with them for the bare-faced lies.

Border checks are a natural occurrence in international trade.

It no longer matters what was promised or predicted back then.

What matters is how we deal with the here and now, and how we go forwards.

Well I didn't vote for this shit fest. It was the white working class uneducated that mostly fell for the lies. They loved Boris because he was "a good laugh" and Farage because he was photographed holding a pint of beer. Makes me fucking sick.

@NoCloudsAllowed

This is very, very unlikely.

The people that voted as a block in high numbers to leave the EU were the over 60s.

And those folks are largely disconnected from the real economy, as they are heavily subsidised via their triple lock pensions, healthcare, free transport etc.

They will keep saying "its all worth it" until the pass on to the great beyond because they will largely be insulated from the negative economic effects.

Its hypocrisy of the highest order of course but that is the reality in the UK.

The people that will really get economicalmy hammered are the lower earners and JAMS (middle class) who will get much poorer in real terms as their standard of living will get worse as prices rise due to Brexit effects.

I personally do not see a way out for the country given the politics and FPTP electoral structure so the optimal choice for someone who is not old is to emigrate abroad. I know this might not be an easy option for some (only UK passport), but you should definitely explore it to see if you can go to commonwealth countries (a bit easier for UK folks).

@RoseAndRose

This is such an innocent view of the situation.

Let me explain this to you:

They never had a plan, which is why they are trying to do things on the fly and its all cascading into a massive chaotic mess.

There is nothing you can do but vote them out.

The country will continue sinking no matter what decisions are made today. Assuming Starmer is competent and makes the right ones, you may be able to stabilise the UK economy in 5 years time

Why do you think Starmer has been laying the plan for two terms? (10Y)

He knows full well he won't be able to do anything to stop the drastic loss in living standards. Thats baked in now.

The problem with a 'what's done is done' view is that this isn't done. They're about to impose checks.

The harm hasn't been done yet, but they're about to do it, there's no rational justification of why it benefits the country, but we're supposed to just shrug about it.

Brexiters mostly want to look the other way, remainers are dismissed as not being over it - who is holding them to account for planning to do actual, unnecessary harm to the country?

If they came out and announced 'we have a new policy that will make trade harder and food more expensive' they'd get flak - but this is supposed to just be waved through?

Starmer is not for rejoining.

Not when one of the flagship policies (top 5 area and one of the most clearly articulated at this point) depends entirely on being outside EU. VAT cannot be placed on school fees in any EU country.

Only an innocent would not see that Starmer's Labour is moving away from EU norms, further and faster than any other party

I don’t understand how politicians like Andrea Leadsom (not unintelligent) can look at themselves really. What is it? Denial, embarrassment, fear of being found out?

In no other job could you lie like this or be this delusional and get away with it for so long.

Why should goods flow unchecked across borders?

Have you been following the news from France in the past week? That's the benefit of not being controlled by the EU.

@RoseAndRose You’re worried about school fees when the country is falling apart?!? I can’t believe anyone would ever vote Tory again.

@Sourisblanche

Andrea Leadsom (like most if the MPs) failed to make a career in the private sector for a very good reason.

These people are not competent. People incorrectly assume that their politicians "know what they are talking about".

Thats nonsense in the UK with its merry-go-around of ministers who have no idea of their brief and only do the politics.

So they keep sprouting nonsense to the media (the only thing they care about) while reality and their media driven reality distortion field becomes increasingly misaligned.

And thats when things go pear-shaped. Like now.

I’m afraid I know quite a lot of privileged educated white middle class folk living in places like Shaftesbury, Cornwall, and Horsham and Harrogate who voted for Brexit too and they have no excuses whatsoever.

Indeed. Delusion doesn’t tend to work in the real world of business.

It’s always been hard to understand how supposedly intelligent people like Michael Gove could spout forth “the EU needs us more than we need them, we hold all the cards etc etc”.

Then miraculously remain completely silent as the unfolding drama doesn’t play out as the delusional fans thought.

It's good news for us to take a more global outlook on trade. Trade with the EU built up to be a significant choke point, especially around Dover, where industrial action always leads to massive queues (I'm hazarding a guess that when the half term skiing comes around the French farmers will probably take it on themselves to blockade again and no doubt it will "all be the fault of Brexit").

As we rebalance the trade with the ROW, Dover becomes less of a choke point and we should get better pricing. Food pricing is already cheaper in the UK than Europe in general.

I think there is going to be some pain in the short term. It's not all benefits. But in the long term it will be much better for us to be more independent and have multiple sources for products rather than be overly reliant on just one partner. That's what opening up competition does.