to ask has your life changed since brexit ?

[mrsfuzzy]

seems months ago since it all kicked off but only a few weeks in reality, wider society aside, has brexit changed your life a/ perhaps you've moved/in process of, changed work etc. for us nothing has changed but i'm interested in other mners [don't want to cause a punch up over the remains and leaves - that's been, gone and tired].

I see UKIP as being EIP, possible E&WIP. Not only is there little support in Scotland, I don't think there is any in N Ireland either.

I can't help thinking that if Scotland wants Independence, the Referendum should be put to all four countries, because it affects us all. This will never happen.
Personally, I would quite happily see a Federal UK as a good compromise.

I think a proper federal system could have been an option - as late as last year when the Smith Commission reported. But when it chickened out of Full Fiscal Autonomy for Scotland and EVEL was voted through (effective making it well nigh impossible difficult for a non-English constituency MP to be Prime Minister) as a cheap way of setting up an English Parliament (or demonstrating that Westminster really is just an English Parliament depending on your viewpoint ), the moment was lost.

I was due to retire in 3 months time. Since I won't have a full state pension I had made other provision so I could defer claiming it for a couple of years & get the full amount. After the referendum annuity rates fell which along with low interest rates will affect my retirement income. I work freelance & could continue to work to make up the difference.

Problem is many of my clients in the UK have Brexit contingency plans. Some can't wait two years to find out where they stand & they have already applied for grants to relocate & research in the EU. Almost 40% of my clients are already based in the EU. Uncertainties about rights to work in the EU, being able to keep up with technology & physically with the travel long term are all a bit of a headache.

It's affecting a lot of us at my work - a university. I don't currently have any EU grants but worked on EU funded projects for many years and hoped to do again - but now we can't join the applications. Yes it's possible that post-Brexit there will be a way for British academics to participate on EU projects but we won't know for several years. Also, I work in social science/social policy and that has tended to be much better funded by the EU than by the UK government and research councils, so even if money is diverted by the government to British science it's unlikely to fund my field.

So that's having a big impact.

Plus long term colleagues from EU countries are looking for jobs elsewhere, even though they could probably get residency that is tricky for some of them in various ways. And everyone wants to be able to participate in EU grants and networks so the temptation to move to EU countries is strong.

I had been planning to move to Spain or France in a few years, and work there, but this plan is now much more complicated. Again, it may be possible but it's impossible to plan without knowing the terms of Brexit and how it will affect movement and jobs.

Plus we run postgrad courses with many international students and I think now the EU ones are likely to pull out as they can't be sure about funding and visas. But we won't know the details of that til September.

So I'm in a depressed limbo, but on the plus side (here is a positive for Bertrand Russell), everyone at work in my university is pretty depressed and anxious so there is a solidarity to the sense of horror/anxiety/uncertainty. I've never actually seen the university sector united on anything before - from vice-chancellors to staff to unions - this is unusual.

DP's company has stopped hiring due to Brexit, so he's worrying about future work possibilities (lots of redundancy and contract work in his sector - IT).

DD was thinking of applying to university in the Netherlands, she'd been working towards this and this is now on hold.

So a lot of change and uncertainty, and some of it is anxiety about things that MAY be OK in the long run but it is so very hard to plan and you need to plan a few years ahead for grants/student numbers/moving abroad/university places.