Page 9 | please can you tell me any benefits of brexit

battenburg100 · 2024-04-04T17:04:15+00:00

Hi everyone I am desperate to find any advantages to brexit as I can't find any. I am willing to hear of any success stories. Travel abroad has become much harder - the issue with any extra months on a 10 year passport and the right number of months left on the passport - think 3 or 6 months. Hiring a car abroad is harder - so much more extra paper work. Much harder to live abroad due to the demand of certain amount in a bank account. My sister who lives in Spain has had alot of barriers due to Brexit, in relation to coming back to living in the Uk and even her driving licence, in Spain now is not transferable - which wasnt the case before brexit. I also find that travel abroad is even harder than ever - especially with this upcoming October when we have the implementation of the new ETIAS and the visa issue for whatever country we want to visit. Has anything good from Brexit? Am I missing something?

belge2 · 05/04/2024 13:30

No benefits whatsoever. However I got Belgian nationality as a result so that's a benefit for me personally. But otherwise it's a shit show - I live in the centre of Europe and no one here thinks it was a good idea

Kendodd · 05/04/2024 13:37

theresnolimits · 05/04/2024 13:18

I do agree with this - let's not forget that Jeremy Corbyn was a closet Brexiter whilst a number of the union leaders were also supporting Brexit. They argued that being in the EU left us at the mercy of the capitalist multinationals and that cheap foreign labour suppressed wages in the UK. They wanted labour shortages so that more jobs would be available to their members at higher pay. Support for Brexit came from both sides of the political spectrum.

If only the Brexit opposition could have been more coherent and worked together but there was huge complacency and a lack of understanding of vast swathes of the electorate and how disenfranchised they felt. It's the 'Westminster bubble' where people fail to understand real life when you couldn't get your child into a school, you couldn't rent or you couldn't get a doctor's appointment because your area had a huge influx of EU migrants. And if people weren't directly affected, they feared they could be.

I didn't vote for Brexit but it's annoying when people ignore why people did vote for Brexit. It's the same disaffected electorate that voted for Boris in the GE - but no one wants to listen to them.

Back to the Brexit benefits - well of course there aren't any really and I see a slow and steady drift back to a more sensible trading relationship with the EU in the long term. But perhaps one benefit was that it made certain sectors of society feel 'heard' and it made politicians a bit more wary of dismissing their concerns (again, see Boris at the last election).

I really hope when this toxic government has moved on, we can find a more consensus way of governing when people's real concerns are addressed, solutions found and that the politicians will actually listen and make decisions that will benefit more of us. Or has that moment passed for ever?

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I'm sorry I have to disagree with you on the disenfranchised bit. I don't see how they can be described as disenfranchised. They have got every single thing they wanted and pushed it all through via the ballot box at enormous cost to the rest of us. This is despite being a minority of the total electorate in both the referendum and 2019 GE. They are the most enfranchised people in the country.

Doodlexi · 05/04/2024 14:09

NHS now awash in cash AND we get to pay roaming charges when travelling to Europe And FUCKING FREEDOM. If you can't see the benefits I think you're being deliberately obtuse. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

CanalduMidi · 05/04/2024 14:14

Sallysappho · 05/04/2024 12:57

That's because we had a shit negotiating team who never believed we should leave. Any negotiator who thought the EEC were our friends and wouldn't try to punish us was living in cloud cuckoo land. It should have been quid pro quo for every deal we struck.
The main benefit though is that in 10 years time when the EU finally bankrupts itself under the weight of massive bureaucracy and financial mismanagement we won't have to chip in to compensate all those accession countries that should never have been allowed to join and whose economies have been ruined

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They didn't try to punish us, they agreed to treat us as a third country as we asked. They were massively compliant and helpful allowing us to delay several times.

The EU will not be bankrupt in 10 years, it's the largest trading block in the world and all countries except us are clambering to do business with them. Remember, the rules that we wrote and they followed when we left were put in place to allow them to remove problem countries if they can't live up to their financial obligations. We wre the poor man of Europe until we joined and are on our way back there due to this debacle. You're the one in cloud cuckoo land.

Jovacknockowitch · 05/04/2024 14:14

I haven't had to pay any roaming charges - it's not compulsory.

YaMuvva · 05/04/2024 14:15

NRTFT

but my answer is:

no

randomchap · 05/04/2024 15:05

There is one benefit.

It's been such a spectacular fuck up that it should keep the Tories out of power for a generation.

It's damaged our international standing, our economy, and removed our freedom to work throughout the EU.

It's a catastrophic error that has caused massive harm.

Niamhnacinnóir · 05/04/2024 15:19

OchonAgusOchonOh · 05/04/2024 08:53

Except for those of us in Ireland who have watched in horror at how little regard the rest of the UK has for Northern Ireland and how ill-informed they are about the good Friday agreement.

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It was an eye opener indeed. I'm Irish, living in the UK, during the negotiations between the EU and Ireland re the GFA, colleagues asked me the significance of the GFA. One memorable colleague suggested, Ireland rejoin the UK to circumvent the difficulties of the GFA. According to this colleague, the UK "owns Ireland in all but name" and my particular favourite "we saved you during the potato famine"🤬
The sheer ignorance of Anglo-Irish geopolitics is staggering .
The only benefit I can see is it brought the xenophobics and racists to the fore making it easier for me to avoid them.

ntmdino · 05/04/2024 15:44

randomchap · 05/04/2024 15:05

There is one benefit.

It's been such a spectacular fuck up that it should keep the Tories out of power for a generation.

It's damaged our international standing, our economy, and removed our freedom to work throughout the EU.

It's a catastrophic error that has caused massive harm.

And yet, somehow, the Tories actually won the last two elections off the back of it.

Never underestimate the stupidity of the population. That's how we got here in the first place.

AuxArmesCitoyens · 05/04/2024 15:47

@ButWhatAboutTheBees I (dual UK / EU citizen living in mainland Europe[ got the Covid jab before any of my family in the UK other than my elderly mother. It started rolling out slightly earlier but the rest of Europe soon caught up and overtook.

unsync · 05/04/2024 15:55

The only benefits I have found are duty free and being able to reclaim VAT on purchases.

It is obvious, although apparently not to all, that if the UK wants to trade with the nearest and largest trading bloc, it will still need to abide by the EU's rules and regulations. Although now, no longer tariff free and with added paperwork. Let's just gloss over what has happened in the City too.

It's not like the country was in a strong position beforehand, how anyone thought it was a good idea beggars belief. Still sovereignty and all that. Stiff upper lips, backs to the wall and bulldog spirit to the fore everyone. 🙄

ntmdino · 05/04/2024 16:08

unsync · 05/04/2024 15:55

The only benefits I have found are duty free and being able to reclaim VAT on purchases.

It is obvious, although apparently not to all, that if the UK wants to trade with the nearest and largest trading bloc, it will still need to abide by the EU's rules and regulations. Although now, no longer tariff free and with added paperwork. Let's just gloss over what has happened in the City too.

It's not like the country was in a strong position beforehand, how anyone thought it was a good idea beggars belief. Still sovereignty and all that. Stiff upper lips, backs to the wall and bulldog spirit to the fore everyone. 🙄

The part that truly beggars belief is that anybody really thought that a modern UK government - any modern UK government - could successfully implement Brexit at all.

This is the government that brought us NPfIT (under Labour), HS2, and all of the myriad other utterly failed projects which were orders of magnitude less complex than navigating exit from an international framework designed specifically - at our insistence - to be difficult to leave, particularly when our membership of that framework was on more favourable terms than any of its other members, with all of the exceptions that implies.

Even if we'd gone for the simplest, softest possible Brexit, our government would still have fucked it up. That's not even anything to do with the concept of Brexit itself, but just because we habitually elect inept idiots, from a bigger pool of inept idiots, and somehow think they're going to do what's best for us. Even if they wanted to (which they really don't), and even if they were given a detailed and specific brief on how to do it, they couldn't - because it's not in their nature to be able to do so.

Quite how anybody believed that they'd make a success of it, much less make it the fairy-tale specific to any one voter, is beyond all reason.

sunstreaming · 05/04/2024 16:18

Re 'we got the Covid vacciations earlier' The UK started vaccinating on 12 December 2020 and EU countries on 20 December. All of 8 days. In addition the EU have gven more frequent vaccinations and to a larger cohort of people.

OchonAgusOchonOh · 05/04/2024 16:57

Niamhnacinnóir · 05/04/2024 15:19

It was an eye opener indeed. I'm Irish, living in the UK, during the negotiations between the EU and Ireland re the GFA, colleagues asked me the significance of the GFA. One memorable colleague suggested, Ireland rejoin the UK to circumvent the difficulties of the GFA. According to this colleague, the UK "owns Ireland in all but name" and my particular favourite "we saved you during the potato famine"🤬
The sheer ignorance of Anglo-Irish geopolitics is staggering .
The only benefit I can see is it brought the xenophobics and racists to the fore making it easier for me to avoid them.

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😮

lolacherricoke · 05/04/2024 17:33

We made Britain 'Great' again!!!

Oh no I got that wrong we made Britain a laughing stock throughout the world and we are now looked upon as a country of racist idiots! Laughed at by many and pitied by more!

But those bexiteers will deny this until the bitter end! Or until we rejoin!

Treacletoots · 05/04/2024 17:37

All the closet racists and bigots outed themselves because they now think its OK to call anyone with basic empathy for other "woke, lefty snowflakes etc"

Meanwhile they're foaming at the mouth because someone decided to jazz up a flag on a football shirt. ❄️

Finlesswonder · 05/04/2024 17:44

Treacletoots · 05/04/2024 17:37

All the closet racists and bigots outed themselves because they now think its OK to call anyone with basic empathy for other "woke, lefty snowflakes etc"

Meanwhile they're foaming at the mouth because someone decided to jazz up a flag on a football shirt. ❄️

What do you have to say about the fact that a higher proportion of BAME voters voted for brexit?

Bugsy73 · 05/04/2024 17:51

I will never, ever stop being anything but absolutely and completely furious that Brexit has happened. It's such a massive shit show. How does David Cameron sleep at night?

ggggggooooo · 05/04/2024 17:59

CranfordScones · 04/04/2024 18:47

None of the issues you've outlined are problems of Brexit - they're problems of bureaucracy - and they could be solved at the stroke of a bureaucrat's pen.

To think that the solution to a few passport and car hire difficulties should be the surrender of sovereignty to a supranational parliament so weak that it can't even propose its own legislation is to miss the point by such a huge margin as to make it pointless debating with you.

So again, what have been the benefits?

Pyiu · 05/04/2024 18:12

ButWhatAboutTheBees · 04/04/2024 19:02

We got the Covid vaccine much earlier...

And those issues mentioned are more to do with the EU being pissy we left and making it harder... like its their fault because they didn't want us to leave. Its like leaving someone and them being deliberately obtuse over things to punish you

Getting the Covid vaccine earlier was not due to Brexit. That was a claim made by Brexiteers but the head of the UK medicines licensing authority, the MHRA, publicly stated that wasn’t the case, as a route to approve a licence for the vaccine on a national level already existed regardless of Brexit.

The only positive that I have heard is that pheasant shooting has become more difficult due to it being harder to import pheasant chicks from the EU.

DanielGault · 05/04/2024 18:23

Niamhnacinnóir · 05/04/2024 15:19

It was an eye opener indeed. I'm Irish, living in the UK, during the negotiations between the EU and Ireland re the GFA, colleagues asked me the significance of the GFA. One memorable colleague suggested, Ireland rejoin the UK to circumvent the difficulties of the GFA. According to this colleague, the UK "owns Ireland in all but name" and my particular favourite "we saved you during the potato famine"🤬
The sheer ignorance of Anglo-Irish geopolitics is staggering .
The only benefit I can see is it brought the xenophobics and racists to the fore making it easier for me to avoid them.

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Mother of divine jaysus, wtaf! Get e new job!

Finlesswonder · 05/04/2024 18:28

unsync · 05/04/2024 15:55

The only benefits I have found are duty free and being able to reclaim VAT on purchases.

It is obvious, although apparently not to all, that if the UK wants to trade with the nearest and largest trading bloc, it will still need to abide by the EU's rules and regulations. Although now, no longer tariff free and with added paperwork. Let's just gloss over what has happened in the City too.

It's not like the country was in a strong position beforehand, how anyone thought it was a good idea beggars belief. Still sovereignty and all that. Stiff upper lips, backs to the wall and bulldog spirit to the fore everyone. 🙄

What has happened in the City?

Whenwillitgetwarm · 05/04/2024 19:36

Kendodd · 05/04/2024 13:37

I'm sorry I have to disagree with you on the disenfranchised bit. I don't see how they can be described as disenfranchised. They have got every single thing they wanted and pushed it all through via the ballot box at enormous cost to the rest of us. This is despite being a minority of the total electorate in both the referendum and 2019 GE. They are the most enfranchised people in the country.

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Agreed. The only section of the electorate which seems to matter is the ‘Red Wall’, hence why their representatives like Lee Anderson were given such platforms.

Jumpingthruhoops · 05/04/2024 19:55

blackpear · 05/04/2024 02:52

Oh, come on. It was a slogan clearly designed to make people think the NHS would get more money and it worked in a lot of cases. People would stop being upset about it if there was any evidence of any public services benefitting at all though. But there’s nothing.

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Yes, it was clearly designed to be vote winner. You're right. People voted for money they thought could go into the NHS. Which it could... if those funds were available and not being swallowed up by a 'divorce bill' that people who voted leave were not made aware of. Therein lies the problem.
It's fairly evident now that the politicians didn't know themselves. For that reason alone we should never have had a referendum.

Yolo12345 · 05/04/2024 20:32

Oh just thought of one - it gave Scotland (even) more arguments in favour of independence. Let's not forget that every single constituency voted in majority to remain in the EU. Yes I'm aware that in Moray it was very close but that can be explained by the high proportion of armed forces personnel or ex-armed forces personnel.

This democratic expression was thoroughly ignored by the UK government and has left many many disgruntled citizens...who can blame them?