First Brexit employment casualties

[Stopyourhavering]

dd graduated this week, happy times.....phoned this morning to say that 2 of her friends, who had also graduated ( business/law degrees) and been offered jobs had been telephoned by their prospective employers to say that because of Brxit, they were now basing their headquarters in Berlin rather than UK and would no longer be employing them......I fear this is just the start....I am so angry and upset for our youth. My ds and dd2 are so angry and feel betrayed....I wish 16 &17 year olds had been given a vote as I feel they had a better handle on the repercussions of Brexit

"How are they going to react when they grasp that an EEA trade model is basically just EU lite?"

Well, if the Mail and the Murdoch papers paint it as a great victory for the British people, we might get away with it? I assume the Mail has got cold feet over the WTO only model, as it's backing May over Gove. Currently.

I suspect New Zealand is thinking about what they can send us. Their farming crashed overnight when they lost their main market overnight when we joined the EU. I worked there 20 years later & the description from the farmer of the impact the UK joining the EU had on NZ farmers has stayed with me.

They had no choice - we have effectively done the same to ourselves on purpose.

So we can look forward to lots of NZ lamb and apples? I can see our farmers being delighted with that.

Don't forget the Sauvignon Blanc!

Well if we can negotiate a no tariff deal on Cloudy Bay, that at least would be a glimmer of hope.

Sadly, goudy, since the price of alcohol in the UK is very largely influenced by duties on alcohol and VAT, you may find that your gain on tariff-free cloudy bay is wiped out by higher VAT ;)

Did anyone see the Independent article about the owner of Wetherspoon's? Apparently he campaigned for Leave and lost 18 million when the market tumbled.

VAT of course being an EU tax, so that can be modified.

VAT of course being an EU tax, so that can be modified.

Huh? Who do you think sets VAT rates in the UK?

What is subject to VAT is decided by the EU, and member states can only alter rates within the EU rules.

So outside EU, we could abolish VAT entirely. Or at least exempt Kiwi

Auntie while it was introduced as part of joining the EEC I doubt it will be scrapped or dropped any time soon as it is the third largest revenue stream for the government. If anything, I'd expect an increase if there's a slow down in government revenue. It's the easiest tax to raise without people kicking off.

87 billion pounds is the contribution of VAT to the British economy (or just under 15% of all total revenue). Where are you planning to get 87 billion pounds from without VAT AuntieStella?

I think the Hargreaves Landsdowne guy lost over £400M Cosmic. There are quite a few self made multi-millionaires in England who supported Leave who have now lost quite a bit of money. I doubt they are upset. They are probably in it for the long run, and I don't think they were motivated by money.

Margrethe True. They were probably after more flexible/fewer employment laws so that they could more easily exploit the low paid.

Nigel Farage's son Sam had quite a large bet on Remain, too.

I doubt that, Cosmic. We are all so used to thinking of "elites" as being greedy (just thinking of BHS, etc.) that it is hard to imagine that anything else drives them. It really looks like they were motivated by ideas about what they think makes a good society etc. Of course, it is possible for them to not be motivated by greed, and for other people to still validly disagree with them.

Farage courted lots of city hedge funds to get cash for UKIP. Political and economic uncertainty means megabucks for them.

Peter Hargreaves is retired, although he still owns 30% of HL shares.

Well, if the Mail and the Murdoch papers paint it as a great victory for the British people, we might get away with it?

I think it will happen. I also wouldn't be surprised to see a softening tone on immigrants over the next couple of months. THAT will be interesting to see.

Friend who works for the sun and friend of friend who works for dm both say offices were in utter shock last Friday - a narrow remain victory had been expected (and hoped for?)

I also wouldn't be surprised to see a softening tone on immigrants over the next couple of months.

Two predictions for you:

1. Net immigration may well be set to fall naturally in the coming months, because (a) the Home Secretary - May - has presided over some very harsh new conditionality for non-EU immigrants and this is likely to have an impact in due course and (b) the referendum has changed the climate for EU immigrants - fewer jobs and a less welcoming environment.

1. The establishment are going to make Farage their scapegoat. He has been tolerated by the Tories as a useful idiot, whipping up anti-immigrant sentiment while they keep their hands (mostly) clean, and nicking Labour votes in their heartland. The anti-immigrant stuff has just become a liability, and they no longer need anyone to destroy the Labour Party, which has generously decided to do it on its own. So Farage may well go under the bus now he's outlived his usefulness.

Misti That sounds about right. I think we'll also see a lot of labour and soft conservative votes move to the Lib Dems. In some cases they will be people like me who voted for them pre-coalition.

Also, I wouldn't be so trusting as to why some company bosses were so keen for Brexit. Time will tell as to whether or not they care about the nation or just their profit margins.

To be honest cosmic I don't think any company bosses backed Brexit because they cared about the UK.

Waitrose I would agree. I was responding to Margrethe. I really do think it is naive to think company bosses give a damn about the average working man. That is why employment law is so complex- to protect workers. They're not made to be pointlessly complicated.