Unintended Consequences

[ZigZagJigsaw]

A colleague who voted for Brexit has just been informed she has no right to emigrate to the Netherlands with her family. The reason she wants to move there is because she says NL have a better healthcare system than the U.K. Her youngest child (teenager) is highly dependent on the NHS and apparently that would disqualify them, unless they agreed to not use the public health care system.

The above would apply even if the NL classed my colleague and her husband as highly skilled, which they don’t. British nationals are now classed as third country nationals so they have to relocate as highly skilled immigrants. No more free movement after Brexit.

She’s trying to be exactly the same kind of economic migrant to the NL that she voted to keep out of the U.K. And for some reason doesn’t seem to see the link.

I’m just nodding politely at work but I had to come and vent somewhere.

AIBU to think “you brought this on yourself”?

YANBU. I’ve had many arguments with my father who lives in the EU but would have voted for Brexit if he could 🤦‍♀️ he doesn’t seem to realise the only reason he was able to move there, and claim his UK state pension, was thanks to the EU!

My so called highly educated in-laws voted for brexit. Now they said if they had known what was going to happen they would not. it was purely to keep the immigrants out!!!!

many times I have been temped to to ask for the amount our bills and outgoings have gone up thanks to brexit from their triple locked pensions as it is thanks to idiots like them we are in this mess.

Yes, it was in the tabloids at the time. The people concerned were/are avid DM and occasional Sun readers so I imagine it was from one of those🤦

Those things are happening worldwide though. I temember my OH blaming Brexit for food banks in New Zealand And TBH no . Most doctors I've ever seen are Asian and nurses from phillipines and African nations

The restaurants that don't have staff is because they won't bloody pay for them not that they can't get them . Same in retail There's loads of people saying their youngsters can't get jobs . So the people are available to work in UK. Minimum wage rises don't help ( DD is high level management in hospitality)

Not a clue on the language teachers tbh. Never had issues getting petrol for car (- in fact only ever heard of issues when half a dozen petrol stations ran out and the media hyped it up so much that people panic bought like sheep and caused a bloody shortage. Nor have I noticed empty shelves in any supermarket apart from asda

So not really affected EVERYONE. And as I said many of these issues are in many countries. Including ones in the EU I suspect

Dont think there's any health requirements to move to the UK.

Don’t people have to pay an nhs surcharge?

vote in stupidity, repent at leisure

My so called highly educated in-laws voted for brexit. Now they said if they had known what was going to happen they would not.

Just proof that education and intelligence aren't really comparable. But we all knew that anyway, didn't we ? I hope we did. I've spent my working life being wary of qualifications.

I see Donald Trump and his advisers are seeing their own “unexpected consequences” in relation to tariffs.
He’s beginning to row back.
It’s not a look he’ll like 😀

I think the website must have been taken down but I remember quoting this from the site in a previous post;

Is Brussels really meddling in what our beloved bananas should look like?
Answer - Yes & No.
The regulation states that bananas must be "free from malformation or abnormal curvature."

uhm. No. It is quite expensive to move to the UK now due to the health insurance. There has been a lot of articles about it.

Not everybody who voted against Brexit is against the whole concept of immigration.

Many just do not support free movement of people. You can be against that but pro controlled immigration.

Of course free movement would have made her life easier now….

It is not happening worldwide. It hasn't happened in other countries in Europe, it hasn't happened in Asia. I haven't heard about any issues in Canada or South America either but I only rarely read news from those areas.

So every other country is himky dory? If you say so lol

But if you go to a hospital without insurance they will still treat you

Some interesting articles from the Guardian (2008) although not specifically bananas:

"This marks a new dawn for the curvy cucumber and the knobbly carrot," said the European agriculture commissioner today, referring to the imminent decision to scrap EU laws banning imperfect-looking fruit and vegetables.

Marketing standards for 26 fruit and vegetables, which led to a lot of less-than-perfect items being thrown away, are to be repealed.

However, the change in thinking in Europe was prompted not by an acknowledgment that the rules should never have been introduced but by a belated decision that they were inappropriate during a food crisis. Those who point the finger at alleged EU bureaucracy note that the ban will remain in place until July next year.

The rules have, of course, supplied Eurosceptics with valuable ammunition in their campaign to highlight the perceived excessive interference of the EU. Regulations that say cucumbers "must be reasonably well shaped and practically straight (maximum height of the arc:10mm per 10cm of the length of cucumber)" do not exactly tally with most people's everyday concerns.

And stories such as Sainsbury's decision last month to drop plans for a healthy-eating Halloween campaign featuring "zombie brain" cauliflowers, "witch's fingers" carrots and "ogre's toenail" cucumbers, for fear staff might be prosecuted, did not exactly help.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2008/nov/12/eu-food-veg-cucumber

A leading supermarket has been forced to ditch a healthy eating campaign at the eleventh hour after discovering its staff could be individually prosecuted under EU regulations.

The retailer has written to the EU Agriculture Commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel, and Environment Secretary Hilary Benn expressing its concerns over 'bonkers' regulations and has launched an online poll for customers to join the fight for 'wonky' fruit and veg.

'We're not allowed to use up to 20 per cent of what's produced in this country and in the current crunch climate, we cannot continue to waste this much food before it even leaves the farms.'

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/nov/02/sainsbury-supermarkets-eu-regulation-halloween

Migrants - can get nhs care free
If you reside in UK legally, you are able to use NHS free
Also, there are reciprocal agreements with some countries …. Australians can use NHS free if in UK.
please explain what u mean by insurance. Think you talking something different.

My sister in law never has. She's had 2 children here.

An article here from France;

January 2025
Paradoxical: as unemployment soars, the hotel and catering industry cries famine.
We lost a lot of employees as a result of the pandemic, and we wouldn't want to lose any more, with employees moving on to other sectors.
At the end of 2023, hotels and restaurants had an average of between 250,000 and 300,000 unfilled positions per year.
But between the staggered working hours, the physical work and the pressure of the sector, the unattractiveness of these professions is one of the main causes of the shortage of employees.

https://fr.gaultmillau.com/en/news/chomage-record-penurie-emplois-hotellerie-restauration

It is happening worldwide.

That’s the same most places. If it is an emergency. When I lived in Oz and worked with the hospital and health services a number of hospitals have patients with debt, visiting foreign nationals who had some kind of medical emergency (serious like car accidenta, heart attacks etc). If you show up to A&E in a state like that you won’t be turned away obviously. You will be issued with a bill if you don’t have insurance. And it’s almost never paid.

I was in Prague last week and flicking through the tv channels in my hotel room and found one called DW in English (a German news channel). There was several discussions I watched and I could've been in Britain. They moan about the same stuff as us!

The dire economy, their politicians, healthcare issues - yes they was moaning!!, immigration (Merkel's 2015 unfettered policy got a scathing mention) and there was grumbling about Finland, Poland and another country which escapes my memory, who have been allowed to deport immigrants and Germany can't.

Opened my eyes as you don't get to hear of their woes in the UK and because most of us can't speak the language we don't bother to learn.

they are supposed to claim it back from you or your health insurance/insurance though. I think they are a bit half-hearted and my impression is that they don't have time/resources to really chase up those who don't immediately pay up?

So pre-Brexit, you went to hospital, used your E111 card (most European countries have a health insurance card with the E111 printed on the back) and the NHS billed your national health insurance scheme. Post Brexit? everyone should have some kind of health insurance when going to UK. How it works in practice? not sure, but they certainly don't chase you down the corridor with a card machine.

the hotel/gastronomic industry is in a crisis partly of it's own making. I know this because my DH is a chef. They can't recruit staff. The reason? plenty including:

-don't want to work evenings
-don't want to work weekends
-don't want to get up early
-it's hard work
-it pays shit wages

one DC works for a company who supply people to cover all sorts of jobs, mainly for gigs and trade fairs (wardrobe people, stage builders, kitchen helpers, etc etc) They are always busy, but the wages are shit and it is zero hours and can be precarious if things just get cancelled.

The situation in France is more complex.
Its not just the shit wage, working late etc… its the whole set up.

Eg waiter is working 4 hours from 11.00am till 3.00pm and is then expected to wait until 7.00pm somewhere (NOT in the restaurant prémices) to do the second half of his shift. The result is extremely long days, time in between usually unusable due to travelling time (can’t go back home) etc….